LOOK!

It's a bird . . . it's a plane . . . it's an albino! No WAIT! It's Andrew Laycock, Communications Superstar!

Shut out on a Halloween Victory

Look at me! I'm adorable! And yet, I am still now a winner. I am the ultimate snow fairy complete with sparkles every where, and the corrupt Halloween judges felt I was not winner material! Of course, a certain someone suggested I looked like a Hutterite with wings (and that is about to become "Reason not to move in with my boyfriend #3), but I love this costume!

I first donned this lovely ensemble last year for the Jingle Bell Run. Yes . . . I ran 10 km in this outfit complete with fairy wings. And it was my best 10 km time ever.

So now to plan for next year. I need a winner damn it!

Christmas will come . . . just give it time

Here's a pet peeve of mine: People that feel the need to put up Christmas decorations before Rememberance Day. What is the bloody hurry? Have some respect for the Canadians that died for our rights (which include the right to celebrate Christmas in the first place).

I understand putting your lights up early so you're not fighting with your significant other in -20 degree weather while you get the snowstorm of a century on December 20th. But that doesn't mean you have to turn them on!

And really, what is the appeal of putting up Christmas decorations? It's just more stuff that you have to dust (if I dusted) and chasing the cat out of the tree become old rather quickly. And let's not even get into what happens when the little darling eats tinsle and it comes out the other end.

I blame Walmart . . . actually, I would like to blame Walmart for all the world's evils. But they're driving this ridiculous buying fever with their longer shopping hours and incredible prices and friendly greeters and offering of fresh produce and all around festive atmosphere.

Halloween Candy

I'm just asking to be egged on Halloween. "Why?" you ask. I am going to do my share in preventing Canada's little butterballs from getting any chubbier and giving Fruit-to-go. Personally, I think the fruit leather bars are tasty little things that are more expensive than heart-clogging, insulin-spiking sugar, but I just know I'm going to get that look from the kids . . . especially the little darlings that come to my door after 9 p.m. I only assume they couldn't hit the street early to trick or treat because they had to shave first or pick up a 6-pack at the liquor store. Really . . . I think some of these kids could be older than me.

But back to the candy, it's time to fess up. I bought the fruit snacks because in all honesty, I would have ten bags of chocolate bars eaten before Tuesday. Why does candy wrapped in little packages taste so much better than the normal sized stuff?

On to another note, I must thank the Running Gods. This morning I dragged my butt out of bed to run with my Track & Trail peeps for the first time in ages. It was a beautiful morning with no wind and reasonable temperatures. There is nothing better that having cool air to run in. I HATE hot weather where you stink and are sticky before you even make it around the block.

New and interesting challenges

Having conquered the marathon (okay . . . I did finish, but not conquered), I am looking for a new challenge. I think we have found our winner!

Joints in Motion is a program that raises money for arthritis research. As a fundraiser, you come up with ridiculous amounts of money and then get to run a marathon somewhere cool. In this case, it's actually trekking the Inca trails in Peru.

My only concern is that my dear cousin Laurel has done this trek, and apparently it's a pack in, pack out situation . . . you guessed it . . . EVERYTHING that you take in with you must come out. EVERYTHING! So that means you-know-what. Of course they don't mention that on the website. You would think the need to raise $6900 would be the most intimidating part, but nope! It is the thought of carrying poop for four days is the biggest concern.

I haven't committed for sure yet, but the information night is November 14th. I think I'll just take the plunge and go for it.

Does the end justify the means?

Micheal J. Fox (Parkinson's victim and former Canadian) has been under fire for making ads encouraging Amercian voters to elect Democratic senators and pass an embryonic stem-cell research bill. It is absolutely heart wrenching to see what this disease has done to him. You can click on the link to see the ad in its entirity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9WB_PXjTBo (Thanks David for sending me this).

To make matters worse, Rush Limbaugh - a well-know, right-wing loudmouth - actually accuses Fox of faking or being off his medication (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102400691_pf.html). I can guarantee Fox is not faking, but so what if he did go off his medication for the sake of hammering home his point for the need for stem-cell research? The end justifies the means . . . for many people including Parkinson's patients, ebryonic stem-cell research is the last hope for a cure.

The benefit to Fox and all people suffering these delibitating illnesses is that he has brought this issue wide-open and will hopefully spur some very good and productive debate in the United States.

And with that said, I also encourage all parents that are expecting to consider donating their umbilical cord stem-cells to a public bank, such as the Alberta Cord Blood Bank (http://www.acbb.ca/) so it can be used to help people that may gave no other hope.

Procrastination

There is so much you can do if you don't want to write an essay. I've been ready to start writing for a good week already, but because I don't have to hand it in until Wednesday, I ain't doing it. Yesterday, I was barfing my brains out so that was a justifiable excuse (even if it was red wine induced), but today I just don't have any reason to not be writing. Here's a compilation of my procrastination:

• Feed the cats
• vaccum up cat hair
• move my plants around
• plan a birthday party for a 91 year old
• talk on msn messanger
• make supper (and you all know how much I love cooking)
• pluck my eyebrows
• do laundry
• read email/write email
• down load music
• research training plans for running and triathlons
• avoid phone calls from my mother
• sort my recycling

My music at work

As the Tragically Hip sing: Everything is bleak. It's the middle of the night. You're all alone and the dummies might be right. You feel like a jerk. My music at work. My music at work.

This really has nothing to do with what I wanted to write, but it never hurts to throw in some quotes from the Hip.

Work is actually going wonderfully, BUT (and this is a big BUT . . . not butt, that's for another posting) I hate working in a cubicle. I had the decked out office at Canadian Blood Services. Corner . . . looking on to the park . . . high school football team running by every afternoon in body amour gear with their tight little butts . . . I digress. I am in an open concept cubicle with very social (and very nice girls) on one side, and a guy that has more vehicle trouble than I could ever imagine on the other. He's calling the mechanic or his wife or Auto Trader about ever five minutes.

Which leads me to my point. Thank GOD for music. I have been introduced to the magic of downloading so I am rocking out to Guns N' Roses, then Frank Sinatra and then Lee Ann Womack. I had the best Monday morning because I started with Welcome to the Jungle. There's nothing like starting the week right.

Reason not to move in with boyfriend #2

Did you realize just how much football there is on TV? And if there's no football, there is sure to be hockey.

If it wasn't for some serious temper tantrums and pouting, I'd never get to see What Not to Wear.

And for some other random thoughts that have been running through my head:

• Why is swimming so popular? Have you seen what is at the bottom of the pool?
• I saw the gorilla guy again. That is just weird.
• I've become known as the child hater at class. I am just not maternal. I don't hate them . . . I just don't one of my own right now.

The romantic history of tin

As you might know, Tyler creates art from old ceiling tin. He (meaning me) actually researches all the old buildings and writes a history to go with the art. You can get a better understanding if you go to his website www.tinhousedesigns.ca. Anyway, I've just finished a story for some rather interesting tin that he just found:

Along the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, there are small communities smattered about 7 miles apart. If one stops to wonder how and where the Prairie settlers decided to put down roots, they need only to think of the Red River Carts. The ox drawn buggies could only travel about that distance during the sunlight hours, and as they stopped each evening, people decided to leave the wagon train for a sick animal, a broken heart or a love for the countryside.

This tin comes from one such community. The High Bluff’s store was the longest running general store in Manitoba when it closed up shop in 2001. Built in the late 1800s, the store likely saw many well known Manitobans come through its doors. Three provincial premiers called High Bluff home: Hon. J. Norquay, Hon. D.L. Campbell and Hon. W.C. Weir.

cold enough for ya?

Nothing can compare to the choas of snowing twirling around between two high rises (well, as high rise as Regina has). Today was a pretty mild snow, but add that to the wild that was howling down Victoria Avenue, it made for a kaledescope that would have sucked me in as it hypnotized me. It was very similar to driving in a snowstorm where the snow is speeding towards you making it impossible to see past the flakes at the actual road. Snow can have so many personalities . . . it can be this harsh, driving force. It can be the crazy, unorganized, artful, abstract snow that we had today. Or it can be my favourite, those large, lazy flakes that float so slowly to the ground and result with an icing-like finish in pristine white on all the houses. Everything is so fresh and clean after a snow like that. It's the snow that gets caught in your eyelashes and cleans the sidewalks so you can make new tracks like you're the first person to ever tread in that very spot.

Okay . . . this is just a lame attempt to mentally prepare myself for winter. Cold sucks ass. Wind sucks ass. Snow sucks ass. Starting my car sucks ass. Shovelling the sidewalk sucks ass. Wet feet as you tromp though the snow banks sucks ass. Cleaning the snow off your car sucks ass. Having flat hair from wearing a touque sucks ass. Running noses suck ass. Chapped lips suck ass. Dry skin sucks ass. Winter driving sucks ass.

Weird things on College Avenue

So every now and then as I am walking home from work, I encounter a man dressed as a gorilla. I try not to act like it's strange so when he waves to me as we pass, I smile and say hello. Why the hell is that guy dressed like a gorilla? And where is he going? And wouldn't a gorilla suit stink if you wore it walking on a regular basis?

Things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving

There are so many things that I have received over the last year that I don't know where to start, but here's a list of things I am thankful for:

• The Rolling Stones have finally left Regina, and while the concert was up there in great shows that I have seen, I am SO SICK of hearing about Mick and the boys. (PS-It is very rare that the drummer is the hot one of the band, but at this point, Charlie Watt is the ONLY one I would do
• I have many great running friends that kept me motivated and cheered me on through my marathon
• I have a new job that will allow me to expand my portfolio (and it pays great so that means more $$$$)
• which leads me to my next point, I am very glad to be in a position where I can treat my parents to items that make their lives easier
• I have a fabulous little house that has not caused me any grief
• I have discovered Limewire so I can down load all the Honeymoon Suite my heart desires
• Thanks to tuition freeze, I still don't have to sell my right arm to continue taking university classes
• I have someone that has infinite patience and will not fall for my tricks to pick fights
• The Saskatchewan Roughriders suck, but I am home again where I no longer am subjected to the cruel taunts of Edmonton Eskimo fans when the Riders loose (which tends to be all the time)
• I have had plenty of opportunities to see the world and Canada (including another trip in three weeks to Vancouver!)

Just who is Tyler?

This is my dear Tyler. Being as it is Thanksgiving weekend, and seeing as how I'm at his house right now, I think it's a good time to talk about something I am truly thankful for. When I was in Europe, I was desperate to get a big bear hug from him. He is a constant in my life that I continually rely on to bring me back to reality and gives me perspective on my life (which I never listen to and am then treated to a barage of "told you so" after everything comes crashing in around me ears). I think everyone has a person that they can totally loose control and scream at the top of your lungs because you are secure enough in your relationship that you know everything will be forgiven and all will be good once you have both calmed down.

For instance, he made Sissy and I coffee in bed today (his bed), and just as Shannon decides to sit up, I took a big gulp. Needless to say, the coffee spills all over his bed and me (burning a very private place that is still bright pink!). Normally, someone would be a little p-oed. Tyler just looks at us, and begins to strip the bed for washing.

She lost the battle but won the war!

A few of you may remember the gong show of a MS Bike Tour last year . . . Shannon didn't think that you actually needed to train in order to ride 66 kms. Well, as the story goes, she crapped out at kilometre 40 with a few tears. Meanwhile, Leanne cruised the last 22 km in 1 hour and 10 minutes (the first 40 took well over 3 hours).

But she didn't let that get her down! Nope! Sissy took on the challenge again this year . . . AND FINISHED! And it was such big news that she made page 7 of the Macklin Mirror (full colour picture and all!).

From the "Cute but not very smart" File

So today I went ballistic at work because some idiot mixed my office line up with a fax number. THAT DRIVES ME NUTS! It would ring, then I'd pick up and be blasted with that ear-splitting, high-pitched whine that would cause a nun to swear. It did it three bloody times! And just as I went into all-out cussing and screaming fit, I looked down at the pile of paper calling my desk home. I then realized (of course, I had everyone's attention) that I (yes . . . me!) mixed up the number on a form to infact fax myself. Try to recover from that one.

Reason to not move in with boyfriend #1

If I decide to co-habitate with a certain someone of the opposite sex, will my cat mysteriously be released into the wild to live as cats have lived for a million years? Will one final bite mean he will be reunited with hunting on his own and using God's green earth as his never ending litter box?

Not everyone understands that he bites as his way of showing how much he cares. I kinda sound like a battered woman, don't I?

Oh Belinda!

Home wrecker. Turn coat. Spoiled little rich girl. Say what you want about poor Belinda Stronach, but you gotta admit the girl is giving Canadian politics some excitement. Mind you . . . it is for the wrong reasons, but let (s)he who is without sin cast the first stone. Come on, if you had a chance at Tie Domi, wouldn't you knowlingly pursue the option and break up a family? Yes, his wife's name is Leanne so I'm gonna take her side in this one. He does have the sexy unibrow, a TSN contract and the more fame for punching people out then actual on ice talent.

But that's beside the point . . . the girl has more people paying attention to the boring politics of this country. Not since Pierre Trudeau has there been such interest in a MP's private life. Who can forget the heart wrenching pain Peter McKay showed after she crossed the floor to join the Liberals? Give the girl credit for giving the guy the boot in a unique and impressively heart breaking way . . . and she left the Tories at the same time proving her head had to be in the right place.

But here's a list of her career accomplishments (other than sleeping with Bill Clinton):

• the National Post newspaper had already identified Belinda in 2001 as the most powerful businesswoman in Canada.
• the World Economic Forum named her a "Global Leader of Tomorrow"
• In 2002, she was ranked #2 by Fortune Magazine in its list of the world's most powerful women in business
• named one of Canada's "Top 40 under 40"
• In 2004, TIME Magazine ranked Belinda as one of the world's 100 most influential people
• In 2005 the World Economic Forum named her a member of its network of global young leaders.
• Also in 2005, the Women's Executive acclaimed Belinda one of Canada's top 100 most powerful women.
• She is currently the Official Opposition Critic for Competitiveness and the New Economy
• Belinda is the former President and CEO of Magna International Inc., one of the largest global suppliers of automotive systems and components in the world with 82,000 employees in 22 countries

Merde!

For those that ne parle pas Francais, Merde means shit. With a title like that, how could I not buy it? And it did not disappoint! As you likely recall, I don't like France, and this book does a fantastic job explaining just why that was.

Stephen Clarke has wrote an amazing book that I will equate as Chick Lit with a male hero who is clearly as metro-sexual as they come. And he has also wrote the funniest passage I have ever read (but please keep in mind my fondness for bathroom humour):

I realized that I hadn't slept in the same room as another guy, apart from the odd post-drink crash-out on a bedroom floor, since my school's last georgraphy field trip, when we used to have nightly farting competitions in the boys' dorm. Vasco could have farted at international competition level, and I didn't want to give him any complexes, so I always did my best to force out a sympathetic good-night fart before dropping off to sleep. (253-254)