Getting there...

Well I solved ONE problem... (thanks Gwhiz2k!) but I have a slightly bigger problem on my hands. I have a Trojan Horse. Well I think I do. I had one, then I did the things you're supposed to do to fix it, but I'm not too sure that it went away. A while ago, my mum's computer had one, (which she blamed on ME since I had just linked her printer to my computer), but I fixed hers no problem. But when I "fixed" mine, it didn't do the same things that it did when I fixed my mums...I don't know. I'm confused.

Anyways, I'm hoping my computer doesn't suddenly crash on me in the middle of an important paper. It can't crash until Friday the 16th... after that, I won't mind as much. I guess my lesson is back everything up in the next 2 weeks.

Wish me luck!

Photos

So I've been dinking around with photos on my blog. I'd like to be able to have a photo to go along with my username like some other's have. I can't seem to get it done. Hello doesn't work for me. I've done everything right and it doesn't work. So I've signed up with flickr. I've done quite a bit. But I still can't set my own photo to my blogger blog. I know that I add it through dashboard and then scroll down to photo and I'm supposed to put in the URL, but I can't seem to do it. Blogger keeps telling me that I have an "bad URL". Any suggestions?

Staff Party?

It was tonight. Or at least I think that's what that was.

4 people. Bowling. Already, doesn't sound great.

It started at 6:00. I was home by 7:30. (And the bowling alley was 20 minutes from my house.) It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. The bowling alley was very.... ummmm, simple? It had a christmas tree in the centre of the room with a little fence around it preventing kids from touching it. A picket fence... weird.

Everyone but me initially went to the wrong bowling alley. I'm not really sure how that happened.

We played one game of bowling. That's all the owner said we paid for. I came in second last.

We got the "nacho platter", which consisted of a bag of Tostitos, a cut up tomato, and a butt load of green onions. On a plate. I asked the 12 year old boy behind the counter where the cheese was. He said it was coming. A minute later, he brought us a bowl of cheese. The liquid kind that you get with nachos at the movies. Wow. We got 2 pitchers of pop. One came in a silver jug, which looked stolen from the antique store next door.

We chatted a bit, the 4 of us. Then, we went home. Have you ever heard of a staff party that lasted one hour? I'm still confused. Oh well, at least I got to watch Grey's Anatomy.

All in all, it was the weirdest staff party I've ever been to.

Welcome to my Webpage!

You'd think I could come up with a better greeting than that for my website that I created for Computer Science 203... but I couldn't.

I had fun doing it, though it's a pretty boring page. I tried to make it kind of interesting, but I was sort of at a loss for exiting things to say. It's being graded, so I couldn't make it too juicy! Anyways, you can have a giggle at my super fantastic picture on the homepage. I'm not sure why I put that one since I look like I've been crying for about 10 days in it! (I don' think I was, but maybe...) And if you're in a picture on that website, sorry for not asking your permission... You look nice so it shouldn't matter!

That's my major accomplishment for the day.

Mice?

I can't remember where or how I found this website, but I thought I would share it with you. I think they're pretty funny. If only I could read the accompanying text...

This one's for the bad girl/boy...

Do you think this one would make you smarter? (it's supposed to be a brain, though it doesn't look tons like it here.)

Yikes!!! That's all I can really say... (and why aren't there any nipples?)

I think this one's my favourite! Cute!

Procrastinating...

I got 'tagged' by gwhiz2k... and since I don't feel like doing homework right now, I decided to go along with it! The rules are as follows: Remove the blog at No. 1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot;

1. Blog By Force
2. Kick in the Pants
3. A Goofy Ass Emotional Chick & Her Prerogative
4. Therapeutic Rants
5. Heather's Randomness

The next step is naming five friends at random to "play" and fill it out, but I don't really want to since I don't want people to feel obliged to do it... If anyone feels like filling it out, then go right ahead!

What were you doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago I was in grade 6... I did ballet and jazz dancing, I played the flute (I was probably getting ready for my christmas concert!), and I was friends with some people I haven't seen in ages, and some people who I still hang out with!

What were you doing one year ago?

One year ago, I was in my third year of my degree and my first year at U of C. I was probably taking about how all my profs wanted me to fail, and I was freaking out about some paper. I had just moved in to my apartment with my sister, and I was probably thinking about how I was going to be with my then boyfriend forever. I rarely hung out with my friends, and I didn't do much besides homework and sitting around. Funny how things change...

What were you doing yesterday?

Yesterday I procrastinated and didn't do much homework, went to my aunts house for my cousin's birthday and had escargots and salmon, went home and had an uncomfortable exchange, and then went to bed.

Five snacks you enjoy:

Popcorn Squares
Rice Cakes and Cheese (melted)
Reese's Peanut Buttercups Blizzards
Cucumbers
Potato Skins

Five songs to which you know all the words:

Any song from The Sound of Music
Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind
With You- Avril Lavigne
Doesn't Remind Me - Audioslave (I actually don't know ALL the words, but I pretend to, and I belt it out like no tomorrow in the car)
Mr. Brightside - The Killers

Things you would do if you were a millionaire:

Buy Clothes and Shoes
Travel. A lot!
Buy my family houses (and me too!)
Get a more decent car...
Pay off debts (this SHOULD be number one, but I know that the first thing I'd do would be buy clothes and shoes... so this one gets demoted.)

Five bad habits:

Procrastination
Not being super great with money
Eating when I'm bored
Not drinking enough water
Forgetting people's birthdays

Five things you like doing:

Going out with my friends
Buying presents for other people
Buying presents for myself
Working out
Cooking

Five things you would never wear again: (never?)

This one is REALLY hard....
Tapered Pants
More than 3 pairs of barrettes in my hair
"Mood" shirts
A one piece snowsuit (memories of peeing my pants at the ski hill when I was young are rushing back to me!)
An ill-fitting bra

Five favorite toys:

My cell phone (some kind of LG something... it flips and has purdy colours on the screen..)
My Nikon Digital Camera
My computer, even though its kind of dying
I don't really know what else... I'm not much of a toy person.

Memories...

Because of the events of late, I've been thinking about my summer "abroad" a lot today. (To fill people in, the summer of 2004 I spent 4 months as a live-in nanny in the francophone town of St. Isidore in the north of Alberta) A few days ago, I got a package from Monique (the mum) and inside??? My Carnaval hoodie, some art work from the boys, and the POPCORN PEANUT CANDY MARSHMALLOW SQUARES!!!! (This delictable desert is the reason for my *weight gain* while I was there... I can't stop eating them!)

The very night before, I had a dream about Monique, so it was kind of a strange coincidence! (And it was her birthday, though I forgot...)

So I've been thinking lots about my summer there and the relationships I made... I can honestly say that I've never met anyone who I related to more in my life... Monique is such an amazing person... If I can be half the mum that she is when I'm older, I know I'm doing a great job. On the flip side, she's still such a fun person to be around... we could sit around, drink beers and talk all night. She isn't JUST an amazing mother to her sons, but a cool fun friend and I am just so lucky to have met her. Her sons are so great too... I learned so much about being a parent and I really learned to appreciate kids. Her husband, Marc, was a really cool guy too... I totally lucked out since I spent pretty much 24/7 with them, we all got along really well! I also met some great friends there. One of them was another person that I instantly "connected" with... (cheesy word, oh well). It's so weird to go somewhere totally unknown and make these "friends for life" and then have to be 8 hours away from them.

So last February, I decided to go to Carnaval, which is a winter festival that is held in St. Isidore with 2 of my friends. We drove up, and were met with this HUGE festival with everything from "claquette" (tap dancing) from all the "yummy mummies" (as their husbands call them) of the town (plus some yummy not-so-mummies) to sleigh rides to cow poop bingo... And the partying... oh the partying. One thing a small town can do is party!!! The first night, after 8 hours of driving, we went to the barn dance... with a live fiddling group playing, an ice bar (the bar was made of ice!) put on my the hockey team, which Marc is a part of so he hooked us up with free drinks, and a whole lot of dancing! I was bombarded with hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses, and my friends were instantly treated as if they were family. The best part? My "boys" remembered me... even the little one who was not yet two when I left! I never thought I could care about kids that weren't my own so much, but my heart MELT when he ran up to me and grinned!

So the weekend festivities were great... I got to catch up with everyone and I got to get some goodies to take home!

(Katie, Me, and Mo in the picture)

We all ordered hoodies that said "Carnaval de St. Isidore". We had to wait cause they were getting ordered, but not to worry because Marc and Monique were coming to Calgary the next week to catch their flight to Cancun! So we ordered them, and eagerly awaited their arrival!

A week later, at 3 in the morning, a buzz at my appartment door, and there they are, hoodies and popcorn squares in hand! BUT, mine wasn't there because the colour was discontinued, so Mo would e-mail with the other lists of colours. No big deal!

So finally now I get my hoodie, which I'm excited about... I can finally show my St. Isidore pride around Calgary. I grew to really feel like I was a part of the town (which has 300 people, by the way, so not only was I going to a place where I knew no one and they spoke french, I was going to a place where there were only 300 people... fewer than my graduating class!) I have this strange loyalty to St. Isidore, and then my teachers tell me that francophones in Alberta and Manitoba don't care about keeping their french and that they are just assimilating to the anglophone norms, I get all up in their face and tell them "I think not!!!" because I know full well that keeping their french is pretty much their top priority! Imagine a born and raised farm boy voting liberal since they are the only ones who talk about keeping the "frenchness" in the small communities!

I guess I'm just thankful to not have gone to a horribly wretched family to be their slave for 4 months. Everyone I knew that had been a nanny told me horror stories about how they weren't allowed to shower everyday, how they had to stay in their room when the parents were home, and how they were completely miserable for the entire time. (Thanks by the way, for all of those comforting words the day before I left.) I had nannies when I was younger, and I don't THINK they hated it, but I suppose I've never asked them.

This morning I got to talk to Mo on MSN and it was so nice... She's so great to talk to, and she's so caring. She asked me all about how things are since I filled her in on my "life changes" in an e-mail yesterday. When we talk, it doesn't feel like we haven't talked in forever (even though we haven't), and she just knows what I'm talking about... It's great. I guess that's all, it's just great. She's just the best! So Mo, I miss you, and good luck since your baby is DUE TODAY!!!! I hope you don't go into labour in church!

And here's a picture of the hoodie... since I've been looking forward to it forever!

The weather I hate the most...

Wind. I HATE wind. As much as I despise the cold, I would rather have cold than wind. I just can't stand the wind. I don't like it for various reasons, which I have outlined below with the convenience of bullets.

• It blows dust into my eyes. Ouch
• It blows garbage around and onto my legs. This kind of grosses me out.
• It makes my car door slam into me when I'm getting my backpack out of the back seat.
• IT MESSES UP MY HAIR!!! Man do I hate it! I spend good time getting my hair to look the way it does, and then I walk outside and it gets blown around!

Don't get me wrong... I like the weather that comes with chinooks, but could there just be a little less wind? Please?

Just so you all can be impressed, I made this post in HTML... with the bolding, the bullets, and everything! I'm getting HTML clever! (It's really my computer science class that taught me this just 2 days ago... but still!)

Ways to annoy me

Make a PowerPoint presentation SO large that it takes me 15 minutes to open it when I only have half an hour to study and I haven't even looked at that part yet and there's only 15 minutes now and someone walks by and tries to talk to me and ahhhhhh I think I'm going to scream!!!!

Refuse to fit in my backback when I have 3 minutes to run across campus to get to my stupid exam even though you fit before and why aren't you fitting get in you stupid computer!!!!!

Finish the exam in 15 minutes. Come on... can you just pretend that you need to think about things? Just to make me feel slightly better since I'm only on question 19? Please? No? Fine then. Be that way.

Make a bonus question that is actually hard. Where's the bonus in that?

I can't believe I'm sharing this with the internet...

So I'm sitting at my computer, going about my business, and then I suddenly realize what I have in my hair. Of course, I documented it with photographs.

Do you see it???????



I'll give you an other look...



One more try...

It's a scrunchie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A scrunchie! Can you believe it? I thought I was finished with scrunchies after grade 3, when I used to put all my bangs in a scrunchie at the front of my head, and the scrunchie stood about 3 inches above my head and my hair sprouted out of it like a waterfall or a palmtree. But no, at 21 years old, I am wearing a srunchie. What's next? Will I rummage through our old clothes and dig out Kristen's Bow Jeans??? The worst part? I like it! (it doesn't leave bumps in my hair like regular elastics!) Help!

Celebrations!

We decided that since we had a weekend FULL of stupid work to do (we get today and tomorrow off school), we would take an afternoon and relax and have a beverage at the Den. (In case none of you frequent the Den, it's the bar on campus).

I'd like to take a moment to mention that we did NOT successfully get a picture of our hot server, though we did ask him to TAKE one of us. I was quite disappointed.

(This is the one he took of us).

There were lots of people coming and going throughout the day since they had to class etc., but basically we had fun.

If you notice that there's lotion in this picture, well, it's because there is. It's this amazing lotion that's "vanilla sugar" I think, and it's something that you can apparently only get in the states... Anyways we put it on almost every class that we have with Linda (since it's hers) and when we put on the lotion, we normally try on her engagement ring... Some of us like to take the pretending to a new level, which inspired a series of glamour shots taken with hands strategically places and stupid poses... I didn't partake, since someone kindly pointed out that I was the furthest thing from engaged... (it may have been me, so I'm not blaming anyone.) Some of the pictures are horrific, but I won't post them until I ask if I can...

This is Katie, Pablo and me... Pablo is from Mexico and he's a grad student but in one of our classes... he's pretty much the funniest person ever... He entertained us for quite a while.

I pretty much just wanted to post some picture since I took so many yesterday, and I'm getting a new found interest in taking pictures.

That's all for now... I have a HUGE weekend of homework planned, so I just can't wait to get started! Some might say that I'm a tingle with anticipatory delight!

How to make a bad day end well

Yes, that IS a coke float.

Ways to annoy me in two seconds flat

Ask me to make an exception even though there is a large sign stating that we make no exceptions. Unless you are Brad Pitt or just slipped me a twenty, I will not make an exception.

Make me count out $15.00 in quarters, $10.10 in dimes, $3.40 in nickles, and $0.61 in pennies.

Tell me that I seem down these days. I know you meant it in all sincerity, but my sister moved across the country, I broke up with my boyfriend, and I have to write 6 papers by the end of the semester. Excuse me if I'm not, to quote Rachel, kick-you-in-the-crotch-spit-on-your-neck-fantastic.

Go 30 km/hour in a school zone. It's 5:13 buddy, I have somewhere to be.

Tell me that I have a hole in my jeans. I know.

Give me a 1/4 coffee, 3/4 hot chocolate. I CLEARLY asked for 1/2 coffee, 1/2 hot chocolate.

Dig your claws into my arm so hard that you dangle there without me having to hold on to you.

Tell me that I look tired today. It's nice to know that not only do I feel like shit, I look like it too.

It's FRIIIIIIIIDAAAAYYYYYYY!

Yay! I'm so excited!

Except that I have to do homework all weekend... boo!

My friend Steph who is actually from Vancouver, who lived in Calgary, who now lives in Winnipeg for a bit, who is coming back to Calgary in the winter semester, IS COMING TO CALGARY THIS WEEKEND!!! I'm so excited for that! She is going to be here toDAY, and then we'll hopefully go out tomorrow or something, but yeah, I'm pretty excited.

I met her at the Racquet Centre cause she worked there too, and she's my "jewish" friend, cause she's always talking about all these jewish activities, parties, summer camps, dinners... and I always say "oh steph, can I come?" and she replies "ummm, Heather, you're not a jew!" So unfortunately, I can't go to all the fun things she talks about. It's kind of an ongoing joke with me and her that she has jew only things, and I asked her one day "am I allowed to say jew?" and she said "yes, I don't mind that you say jew, but other people might mind." So for any jewish people reading this, I'm not being anti-jewish, but my jewish friend told me I could say jew, so I'm saying it. (I hope this doesn't make me sound really judgy, cause I'm really not... it's just funny because I never knew about the whole jewish community thing, and really, I kind of wish I COULD go...)

Anyways, that was quite the interlude.

So hopefully I get to go out and hang out with her and we'll have fun and it's all good. I can't wait for her to come back to work, because with the exception of 2 people, the racquet centre staff isn't very friendly. We used to have such a cool group of staff (some even worked there when Jordan worked there!), but now they all left, and there are just a few of us who are still actually FUN people and who have personalities... It's kind of a drag. My boss is asking us about what we want to do for the staff party, and I'm thinking to myself "you mean I have to spend time with these people?" I'm sure they're all very nice around their own friends, but they really don't seem fun at all! For all I know they're writing on THEIR blogs that I'm not nice, but oh well. I've tired to be nothing but nice to these people, so there!

Today I'm going to go to career services at the university to get my resume butchered/looked over. I've really been considering trying to get a job with WestJet (it all came from jokes with my sis) and I know that it's SUPER competitive, so I've decided that if I want to have the slightest of chances, I better have a great resume. Hopefully they give me some good suggestions. Also, I thnk my high school guidance councellor retired and became a flight attendant with WestJet, so I might have to give her a call!

I guess that's it', I better run and get my duff to school, so yeah! Have a great weekend! Maybe I'll have other funny bar stories!