Oh Hollywood, How You Thwart Us!

So a few months ago, Jody and I splurged on the complete set of Blu-Ray discs of Harry Potter, years 1-5. Year 6 comes out in a few weeks (that's Half Blood Prince) and part one of Year 7 hits theatres in November.

You see, we thought we were so smart. We bought this boxed set:

It has squishy foam at one end, with enough space to fit two DVD cases, see? And soon we can add #6. And in a year or so we can add... part one? Then what? Does the box magically grow to fit part two??

Edit :
After I posted this I checked to make sure it published correctly... and then, and only then, did I count the DVDs in the photo. There were six. I accused Jody of the setup, because he's the one who told me HBP was about to come out. He just laughed. I decided against deleting this post even if it makes me look like a dork.

Chinese Fire Drill!

Everybody out! Run around the car! Quick quick quick... get back in your seat before the light changes!

Or, in the case of three young Chinese women I saw this morning on my way to work - if you see a fire truck, pull over! Fling open the doors, run around, and giggle as you try to simultaneously watch the firemen in the truck AND get back into the car.

It totally made my morning. A Chinese Fire Drill!

Charlie's Angels

I just called the library to make sure they actually had a book on the shelf - the web catalogue says yes, but you never know. I wanted to save myself a walk in case it wasn't there, especially since it's book two of a series and that will drive me crazy.

The elderly-sounding woman who answered the phone said she couldn't hear me very well, so she asked me to spell the last name of the author. No problem, it's only four letters.
"Cast," I said. "C - A - S - T."

"P?"
"No. C for Charlie, A for....... Apple, S for Sam, T for Tango."

A is Alpha but I forgot, and it was so natural to say Angel after Charlie... but I resisted.

Metaphor Soup

Comic by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics.

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are some previous 'winners'.

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while .

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

I think number 17 is my favourite, with number 8 a close second. What's yours?

Just for fun

This ad makes me smile.

Random Memes - thanks Courtney!

I’m supposed to take the fourth picture from the fourth album in my pictures folder and post it - random, just the way I like it!

Ooooh, it's a good one, too. I don't have four albums up on Flickr yet (just got it recently) so I went to Facebook.


Mmmm cake! This photo was taken by my husband of only a few hours. We were waiting in the airport for our flight to San Francisco to begin our honeymoon! I barely got to eat at our reception so I had the catering staff pack me a little box of sandwiches and a little box of cake. And I was still wearing the dress I'd changed into mid-reception, with my tiara but no veil, which caused people to ask what I was all dressed up for. Ohhh my goodness, the cake was tasty. A friend made it for us; raspberry with vanilla cake was the layer you can see, and chocolate with hazelnut was the other. It was gorgeous, too.

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Then, according to Courtney and Toni, I should grab the book nearest to me (which unfortunately I haven't started yet; I grabbed it from the lending library) and go to page 56. Then type the fifth line and the next two to five lines that follow.

OK, so this one is called A Perfect Match by Patricia Veryan - it's a Regency romance - because I need something light to take to the beach. Yes, beach. I know it's February  but I'm in Australia. Hmm. Well, this could present a problem. This particular copy seems to have its pages out of order. So I will choose a page at random, since I can't find 56 in its rightful place. Here we go, page 46.
"She kept her eyes downcast, her heart thumping so violently it was all she could do not to betray herself. How smug he sounded, doubtless gloating over how he had, as Lady Branden said, 'gulled' his trusting nephew!"

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And in case you haven't seen it yet, here is a reposting of the 25 Random Things meme that's been flooding Facebook. Just to keep things interesting, I'll change a couple things...

1. I make really awesome banana walnut chocolate chip loaf.
2. Our grandparents let Pam and I drink coffee when we were young. I still don't know if it was decaf or not.
3. I am a game snob - but really good games like LocoRoco, Ico, and LittleBigPlanet have managed to hold my attention.
4. I always wanted to be a figure skater, so I started ballroom dance in university and hoped I would love it - I do, but I need more time and money to practice.
5. I've never tried Red Bull or any other energy drink.
6. I kept rose petals from my first boyfriend until I got married.
7. It's been my dream to be a writer since I was very small, but I'm not sure I have the drive to do it right now.
8. I was accused of plaigirism at age 10.
9. I have seven email accounts.
10. Except for one haircolour-in-a-box no one noticed, I didn't dye my hair until I was 26.
11. I read The Hobbit for the first time in grade 7 - it was supposed to be something I read aloud with my dad, but he couldn't keep up with the weird names and all the characters, so I finished it on my own.
12. My Gramma used to knit sweaters when I was small, often matching ones for me & Pam - my favourite was either a turquoise one with a fuzzy angora panda, or one with a dinosaur that had stegosaurus spikes that stuck out.
13. Sometimes I get the urge to straighten racks or t-shirt piles in a store - and I haven't worked in clothing retail since 2003.
14. I always thought I'd be better at being on time when I was older. Sigh...I've improved (!) but I'm forever keeping people waiting.
15. I used to hoard my Halloween candy for months.
16. My favourite thing to eat is breakfast, particularly Eggs Benedict - but I rarely get up early enough to eat breakfast, so I am constantly at odds with my favourite meal of the day.
17. You can barely tell I've read a new book because I don't crack the binding or fold the pages or leave it open upside-down.
18. Laughing at peoples' mullets is one of the great, small joys of my life.
19. The Crazy Kitchen at the museum in Ottawa is stuck in my childhood memories as one of the best things ever.
20. I've traveled by plane on three holidays in my life: New Years Eve, Canada Day, and Christmas Eve.
21. I love my MacBook, possibly even more now that it's been through a tea-spillage disaster and survived - I've had its thermal paste replaced so the fan would run properly.
22. I couldn't begin to guess how many times I've seen The Princess Bride.
23. I was on the JV soccer team for one year in high school.
24. It scares me a little that I usually know what Jody means, even when he says something that doesn't come out right.
25. Three months is the longest I've ever been apart from my sister, until now.

A mountain of ricy goodness

Jody and I went out for dinner last night with Mark, before heading to our place to hang out and watch some TV shows.

We went to the oft-mentioned but never photographed (by us) Wok Station, now pictured here:


The food is fantastic, and the menu is even better. In Jody's words, "They've run the menu through Google Translate." It takes twice as long to decide as it usually would, because you're too busy laughing at the menu. The wait staff seem to be able to speak perfectly good English, but the menu is decidedly Engrish.


Observe:












Jody got a chicken curry with a side of rice, similar to the one I ordered the first time we went to the Wok Station. (Mine was full of pumpkin - but the menu didn't tell me whether the dish was made with yellow, red or green curry. When I asked if it was a yellow curry (my fav), the waiter looked puzzled and said, "Yes. It's pumpkin." As though to put pumpkin with any other curry was unthinkable.)



Mark requested something without gluten (he's allergic, which knocks out soy sauce and oyster sauce), so the chef made him a simple stir fry that looked fresh and crisp. The restaurant has a fun way of chopping their carrots, and they look like crispy cut fries.

If you look closely at the menu photo, you'll see #33, Labor Fine Rice or Fine Noodle - and this is what I ordered, because, let's face it... How can you resist something with chili jam, that's good when you're hungry?

Oh. my. goodness.


This mountain of rice (which apparently, I could have ordered as a noodle dish) was superb. And it was only $12.90 AUD, which is $10.75 CDN. I ate all of it, and I was very full. I took the photo after I'd eaten somewhere between 1/4 and a third because I almost forgot. It was flavourful but not too spicy with the chili jam, and I looooooooove kaffir lime leaves and basil, and the beef was thinly sliced and tender.

If there weren't so many other interesting sounding dishes on the menu to try, I'd have that one again in a heartbeat. More next time we visit!

Polish Pancakes

September was basically taken up by a conference Jody was involved in. Hundreds of geeks and their significant others descended on Victoria for a week or so, and some of them ended up at our house. Several of them ended up at our house more than once, and we had a great time entertaining our international guests.
A couple visiting from Poland became obsessed with pancakes and waffles and maple syrup after Jody cooked up a big batch early one morning, complete with Canadian back bacon, coffee and orange juice. Nothing says "code sprint" like a table full of nerds with full tummies!

The constant stream of nerds into our household prompted our roommate Chris to compose a song that went something like this: "Why...do... NERDS suddenly appear, anytime... Jody's near!?"

Anyway, back to the pancakes. Waffles. Pancakes. Whatever. I sent our Polish friends the address to my Victoria bookshop online index, The Well-Read Path, and they came back from downtown with several books, some of them cookbooks. When they returned home they tried out pancake recipes and creatively used what looks like their panini grill to recreate a Canadian breakfast.

Thus, I present to you, Polish Pancakes.

Complete with a tin of maple syrup!

Breasts

Well, I must say that I never thought I would title a blog entry "Breasts." But in the interests of the Blog Off for Breast Cancer, here goes!

I have a friend called Ian. (Cue Evette slapping her hand over her mouth--yes, Evette, *that* Ian.) About five years ago, Ian was invited to dinner at my best friend's parents' house. I wasn't there, but our friend who had a little crush on him was, and by the time the evening was over her crush had waned a bit.

The good dishes were on the table, and a nice meal had been prepared. By the time dessert was ready to be served, Ian was full of good food and feeling very comfortable. He began sharing stories about his recent trip to France with his best friend Dave. One of these stories began, "Dave and I found a great beach, eh?"

Turns out it was a topless beach, and Dave and Ian, who were in their early twenties, really enjoyed their afternoon. Ian, who has never been shy or self-conscious to my recollection, thought nothing of sharing his thoughts on the subject of the topless beach. "Bruce," he said to my friend's dad, "I'm sure you'll agree with me. And Margaret, you're a woman. So I just have to say this:
Breasts are beautiful!"

So, there you have it! Breasts are beautiful.

Take it from Ian.



Click if you can give a donation to help Courtney with her 3-day walk!

If not, please click to fund free mammograms. The breasts will thank you!