Random Musings

For Posterity: 37:10.2

2005-09-25T15:37:03Z

Today I completed my first 5k race - the Scotia Toronto Waterfront. I had a stretch goal of doing it in 35 minutes but that would be *wicked* fast. I was hoping to come in under 40 mins and did that with time to spare. It was awesome. I can't believe that in July I said, "I'm going to do that race" and today I did it. I'm so proud of myself. I think I've been bitten by the run bug ;)

The "Amy is' list

2005-08-06T19:33:36Z

I'm a bit slow on the uptake of this one but I've got some interesting hits so I thought I'd post.

Amy is currently fighting the leukemia with a new form of chemotherapy
Amy is the third film in Smith's so-called "New Jersey Trilogy"
Amy is able to be "selfless, boundless, without ego"
Amy is todays Mediapickle babe of the New Year :)
"Amy" is comfort food for tired, hungry professionals who feel adrift in the
career world.
Amy is one of the main characters in Sonic X, a new anime. ... But
Amy is too distracted with the free couples day at Twinkle Park.
Amy is a brilliant scholar with a demonstrated commitment
Amy is known for her love of bunnies
Amy is a true Jazz brit
AMY IS BACK!
Amy is an 8 year old Yorkie who was rescued by Elaine
Amy is going to sleep for a long time
Amy is painfully honest in her songwriting while dancing poetically
Amy is filled with enthusiasm for the bounty that messengering life has to offer.
Amy Is Awesome
Amy is the daughter of Leo and Inez Wong, one of the richest families on Mars.
Amy is consistently excellent

the list goes on, and on, and on....

NY:CSI

2004-09-23T19:37:34Z

I've been waiting for NY:CSI for a couple of months now and I had to fight off this week's bout of narcolepsy to stay up and watch. I have to be honest...I found it lacking. It's better than Miami, I'll give it that but it was very dark (colouring not content) and had a very stylized set and lacked the same energy that drew me into the first CSI series. The judge will remain out until I see one or two more episodes but I don't see me staying up to watch this if there's something else available. Did anyone else watch? Am I completely off the mark or what?

Also, this may get me in the bad books of our neighbours to the south, but having Gary Sinse talke to a comatose victim about his wife who died in 9-11 and then ending the show with him visiting "ground zero" a)wasn't great and 2)came outta left field.

At long last..

2004-09-14T20:00:47Z

It's been looming over my head for almost a year now...I'm the MC at a wedding this weekend. I don't normally have problems speaking in front of groups but it has been a long time since I wrote a formal speechy type thing. After some vino and martinis on Sunday to get the ball rolling, and a good home cooked meal last night, I put the finishing touches on the first draft last night/ this morning at 1:05. Twelve pages, handwritten and most of it is good. I typed it up and had a read through this afternoon and to my delight it actually sounds like I know what I'm doing.

It was rough at the beginning...there were so many stories to choose from and so many different ways to attack the problem...thanks to cwf we got the approach sorted out and it all kinda fell into place after that. My focus now will be rehearsal so I won't need the cards.

I can't fully describe the difference between my attitude last week and this week. I think having my 3 big items - bridesmaid dress, wedding present and speech - sorted out have given me the opportunity start to enjoy and look forward to Friday. I can focus, now, on things like...ok at 11am they're just going to be the same couple they always were and at 6 they are going to be husband and wife...that's huge!

Reasons I love my friends

2004-08-26T18:22:24Z

Every once in a while we have strange conversations - just out of nowhere, prompted by nothing, that give us a chance to be silly in the middle of the day. I love my friends for making it happen.

Start of Email Thread:
Hey Girls,
A has a squash game tonight. I think it is at 6pm.
Plan A (If all goes according to plan):
1) Christie and Seth will break into the Toronto Hydro Power station. At exactly 6:32pm, they will cut power to the entire city of Toronto.
2) Amy will tell me what time she wants to come by my house. I will be there and give 'the package' to her.
3) Christie, Amy and Seth will rendezvous back at Casa Del Fab for evening cocktails, late dinner and a debriefing.

Plan B (In the unlikely event that A does not play squash or comes home early):
1) Christie and Seth will deploy the virus into the head office mainframe computer.
2) Amy (in disguise) will attempt to infiltrate the target household. If signaled (via cell phone), the package will be waiting near R's car (under the front left tire).
3) The code phrase for A's arrival is "The pinecone has fallen, the bird is in the tree"
4) After Amy has retrieved the package she will signal the rest of the team. Code phrase "The chipmunk has arrived and eaten the pinecone"
5) Christie, Amy and Seth will rendezvous back at Casa Del Fab for evening cocktails, late dinner and a debriefing.

Everybody ready set your watches 1:19 - Mark.

response 1: Wow - thanks, Delta 1 - good planning (I actually guffawed, causing my co-workers to stop by & wonder what I was laughing at - read them out the pinecone thing...). If there really are BMO Censors, it makes me sound like a bit of a radical, but hey - I am! I'm a Fun Radical! (A free radical?)

After last night's excellent planning session, though, I'm not sure we still need the game...we may be all set with the ones we currently have.
C
response 2:
2-niner, 4-niner poppa poppa eagle 1 – copy that..pinecone mission aborted, repeat mission aborted. Zulu force revectored to casa delfab for dustbunny search and destroy mission – leave no survivors. Must only communicate via ultra high frequency (Kenneth??) and fly below the radar. Zulu team, once mission completed, will rendezvous at the "red couch" for much needed R&R.

BMO-harlot…calling BMO-harlot, have you successfully completed your recognisance mission in FCP? Please report mission success via secure channel.

Carnivorous-Gnome signing out.
response from initiator:
Ten - Four, BMO-Harlot and Carnivorous-Gnome,

The message has been relayed. The mission is ABORTED. I repeat...THE PINECONE WILL NOT BE DEPLOYED. ABORT THE PINECONE.

Captain Catheter signing out.

Excellent quality silliness!!

STRIPPERS!!! (cry for help)

2004-08-06T01:35:20Z

Calling all ladeez...and guys if you know. A group of us are hosting a bachelorette and we want to go to male strip club (by males not for males). Can't find any in the downtown area...any ideas. We're at a loss...guess we're just too pure and virginal (ha!).

Calling to action the web-fu and madd skillz of all livejournal-ites.

thanks...:)

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE (squared)

2004-07-08T20:27:46Z

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.....

I just got a call from Sam at HOPE Volleyball and the prize I supposedly won the day of the tournament is now a reality.....

I'M GOING TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC FOR A WEEK!! And not just to the DR for a week, it's for a week "all inclusive" and it's at this resort .

I'm positively elated.

ps - the only conceivable downside is that now I can't say I never win anything b/c this is a BIG win :)

So long...farewell...

2004-06-04T15:09:14Z

Today is my LAST DAY working downtown :( *awww* We're moving to the badlands of Markham this weekend and I'm not looking forward to it. *snif*

I just got into the office after doing a bit of "work from home" and, despite our collective sadness about leaving the core, there's almost a festive attitude here. I think it's the stress. I've never seen a more unprofessional looking crowd - almost everyone is in jeans and Ts or sweatshirts; we have music playing in our pod, muffins were brought in for breaky, I believe there's pizza en route for lunch and the place is bare bones clean...except for the ridiculous number of large black packing boxes. The end is near.

I don't want to get all teary but...good-bye CN Tower, see ya later Bay St., so long easily accessible restaurants of every type...I will miss you all.

*weeps*

*sings mournfully* - "So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. CGI is goin' to Markham and so must I. Gooodbyeeee! Gooodbyeeee! Gooodbyeeee!"

I feel bad for the un-funny

2004-06-03T13:16:18Z

Walking through the atrium this morning I see the guy from Booster Juice standing out front with what looks like tasters - very small plastic cups with smoothies to sample *yum*. Since I'll take almost any opportunity to make a joke I jumped at the chance. I walk up with a silly little grin and the following ensues:

Amy: "Hey...are you handing out Booster Shots?" (ba-dump-bump)

Guy: "Ahhumm....these are smoothies and this is a chai latte."

I walked away with a strawberry/banana/passion fruit/guava juice sample and a feeling of sadness for this poor, humourless man.

I ran the one-liner by the work clan and they love it...of course we're all mad from 1) working where we do and 2) ALL the PACKING! I guess I should be satisfied with just making myself laugh.

Best Thing Ever

2004-06-02T17:13:58Z

The best thing *ever* about today was that as I pulled into the parking garage at work (6:53am) I heard a song echoing throughout the garage...very loud. It turned out to be coming from the car beside me - driver still in the car - listening to "ALWAY LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE". I chuckled all the way to my desk.

Resumes 'R' Us

2004-05-31T20:46:28Z

I am dead serious....I'm grabbing Christie away from the bank and we're starting our own business - Resumes R Us (working title). I cannot believe what people think passes for an acceptable resume these days...c'mon people...sell yourselves a little. My personal favourite so far today is the person who has cut and pasted the description from their first item of work experience into the following 2 (TWO!!) work experience blurbs! ARRRRGGGGHHHH!! All I want is a little creativity and self expression people...am I asking too much? Pick up a thesaurus for cripes sake!

After the turmoil the two of us have been through with the resumes and cover letters we're freaking amazing at crafting the darn things...no really....we are. I think I'll add "create business plan" to the list of "to dos" that will already keep me up well into the night tonight. Enough is enough.

ps - on the same resume as above, there's no name on the front page >:(

Bad Thai

2004-05-26T17:02:53Z

After much suspense and looking forwardtoitness I find the new "Spring Rolls" (in the atrium) lacking. I've had 2 meals there now. A sit-down lunch of cashew chicken - okay but nothing to write home about - and Thai Red Beef curry from take-out today. The only redeeming thing about my takeout today was that thankfully I didn't order my usual green chicken curry...otherwise my heated tryst with Thai may have ceased this afternoon. Barely cooked grissly beef and a "too creamy" attempt at red curry has left me wanting. I will, now, stay forever faithful to my triumverate of Thai - Young Thailand, Salad King and The Green Mango (aka: my first, my last, my everything).

ps - now I want a cookie ;)

In a nutshell

2004-05-21T14:30:30Z

I haven't done a "this is my life" kinda update in a while so here goes.....

The Work: I've been all over hell's half acre. I was in my actual office for a total of 9 hours this week. The rest of this ridiculously long week has been spent in the car, in North York and in Mississauga...equal parts. Yesterday's half day in the office enabled a little bit of what I'll call "the cleanout of '04". We (the company, not the casa) are moving to MARKHAM (insert righteous indignation here) on June 6th so I'm trying to clean out the trash before I pack my shit up...a logical plan, yes, but time consuming. And, in the category of small things that amuse me...we have a new remote login procedure that is not only easy to use, but also works! This is an absolute miracle. It means that as I'm traipsing all over the GTA for work I'll be able to log in and access my outlook server....no more webmail. See, not very exciting in the "real world" but makes work a little less cumbersome.

The Life: This has been a packed kinda week. Monday was dinner with family #2 and a trip to the Jays game for Dave's birthday. We left just as the ass kicking was beginning. Tuesday unfortunately didn't have much life...working on presentations from the comfort of the big red couch. Wednesday was getting a head start on Macbeth. We're reading it for book club (aka: excuse to drink wine and gossip) and making an outing of it by including a Sunday matinee at Stratford. Yeah...our book club rocks. Thursday, that was last night, was "the muggy" so it was Coronas on the terrace (sing it with me now people...you put the lime in the Co-ro-na and drink 'em both together, you put the lime in the Co-ro-na and then you feel better). Which ended up in a fab three dash to, of all places, McKenzie's. They were happy to see us and had even found a drinkable (I use the term mildly) substitue for Strongbow. It wasn't great but it clearly did the job. I've decided that I'll not be concerned with the prospect of alcoholism and just drink every night. The pass-out sleep is sooooo good!

The Long Weekend: Instead of following the pack to the campsite the two single girls are heading out on one of our legendary roadtrips. Go ahead, make all the Thelma&Louise cracks you want...we can take it. We have a couple things planned, which isn't our normal roadtrip modus operandi, but we're literally going to see where the road takes us. Passports are packed just in case. Tonight anything goes, no really, we're seeing Anything Goes at Stratford. Then we hit the road heading somewhat in the direction of Niagara-on-the-Lake. We have a winery tasting and spa afternoon on Saturday but that's all that we have on the books. I'm packing the cameras in anticipation of having to document our antics.

Now...back to frittering away Friday morning so I can leave early and get packed. Happy Long Weekend y'all!!

;)

Perks

2004-05-12T19:58:02Z

Question: What is better than sitting at home with your dress pants and flip-flops on, feet up on the desk and working through a mountain of email?

The answer: doing all that (without the email part) outside on the terrace.

Seriously, one of the best parts about my job, and to be truthful, about not having a boss at the moment, is that on days like today I can honestly bugger off from the client's site and go home to work. I haven't yet figured out how to make the power and usb cables reach the patio table but rest assured I will!

Van Helsing

2004-05-12T03:18:15Z

Whoa. I laughed my a** off! Not a good movie but quite entertaining; especially if you have someone with whom you can share witty/catty commentary. It wouldn't be so bad (who am I kidding...of course it would be) if every scene hadn't been stolen from at least one other movie. I neglected to keep an actual list but all the greats (and a lot of the bads were covered). Scenes ranged from LOTR to Indiana Jones to Tarzan. All were completely laughable.

The sleeper hit, however, was Richard Roxborough (Dracula). One of my maddest skillz is the recognizing of actors and being able to list the roles they played - this one COMPLETELY escaped me. We made it out of the theatre before Seth filled me in on the man behind Dracula (no...not that man, the other man behind Dracula). Also, David Wendham has a funny little part - he's no Faramir but still very entertaining.

My take on Van Helsing is, if you're a real fan of the character/comic you will completely hate this movie. If you're like me, however, and are looking for a good night of entertainment...this one's a sure bet. If all else fails, sneak a flask into the theatre and take a swig every time someone says "Van Helsing"; two swigs if the change in weather/lighting dramatically affects the plot. It'll make this the best movie of the year. Trust me.

Unofficial Poll

2004-04-30T15:28:21Z

Happy Friday!

I need the help of the collective. I have to register my team for the Hope Volleyball Tournament today but we haven't yet picked a name. I've given them the following suggestions but thought I'd open it to the masses for opinions. Do you have a fave from the list below?

Scared Hitless, Full of Hits, Block Magic, SWAT team, Spiked Punch, Block Party, Set To Kill,

Court Jesters, Arm And Hammer, Net Assets

Also...if you need a good chuckle you can check out other names at Volleyball Team Names

ps- playing volleyball for 2.5 hours makes the body hurt

The curse of the Ziering

2004-04-23T21:08:55Z

A fun article on television mediocrity...if only for the author's ability to make up words.

The Curse of the Ziering - for every successful television show, there's one doomed acting career

Following Suit

2004-04-23T12:54:11Z

Following the chain from themusesbitch

Tell the listening audience your favorite memory of me. When you first met me, when I did something stupid, something I've said, etc... And then post the query to *your* Journal...

....oh...and another thing

2004-04-22T15:16:27Z

Funniest thing I said this morning was in our weekly Business Development/Delivery team meeting.

Chairperson: "Now...moving on to mobility"
Amy: "Yes..I'm here for Enn and Darrell as well today."
general peanut gallery: "ha ha...you have the split personality thing going."
Amy: "Well...I'm doing WHATEVER IT TAKES."

Really tried to say it without sarcasm but I think a few people may have seen through the thin veil ;)

Patio Season '04

2004-04-22T14:58:05Z

Totally by fluke but we appear to have started Patio Season '04 last night.

You're right...it was 4 degrees and rainy but we somehow managed to have 6 margaritas and nachos on a patio. The rules applied: 3 or more people, drinks consumed and we dined en plain air. I say we roll with this surprising head start and make tracks to a patio at least weekly.

Joiners?

Corporate Propaganda

2004-04-20T14:28:11Z

Wow...and again I say...WOW! I thought Christie's casual use of "...nothing is more exciting than developing our transnational growth strategy" on Saturday night was the ultimate in corporate whorey-ness. I may have found a contender.

Yesterday the company I work for (Carnivorous Gnomes Invade) started a radio campaign with the tag line "whatever it takes". It's supposed to show how we go above and beyond in service. Today...to compliment this bizarre line of advertising ('cause really...we like to over promise and under deliver) EVERYONE in the GTA received a small bag that had "WHATEVER IT TAKES" printed on a label affixed to the outside. Inside the bag is a rubber stamp and a stamp pad. The stamp says, you guessed it, WHATEVER IT TAKES. This ridiculous misuse of corporate funds was accompanied by the following:

Thanks for doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to do your job everyday. Your dedication and hard work put the great in Greater Toronto Area.

Use this stamp to show your commitment to helping [insert company name here] win and grow in the GTA.

Now I ask you....what exactly am I going to stamp that shows my commitment to helping my company grow? I'm not going to stamp my outgoing email, I won't stamp contracts. I think the only thing I could realistically stamp is my expenses - but I doubt that would be appreciated.

Must "BE" Thursdays

2004-04-16T14:00:46Z

What's better than an evening with friends after work? Nothing...nothing is better. The members of the casa had another one of our crazy, random, fabulous evenings last night. That always seems to happen on Thursdays...curious ;)

Seth is tentatively employed at no less than 3 restaurants downtown...Yippee!! So with that good news under our belts we went shopping. This was the plan all along but good news makes shopping even better. We hit Urban Outfitters and Pier 1 to find the fab decor for this Saturday. I'm not gonna lie...our terrace is going to be frickin' amazing! The dynamic duo turned into the tenacious trio when cwf joined in for mall shoppin'. We shopped like no others have shopped before. I will continue to pine for the best hot pink spring jacket in the world. Why? Why, is 'The Banana' so expensive? We cased every possible joint for party outfits...unfortunately didn't find much. Christie finally scored with a fab skirt...but what about the required wax job??...just you wait!! The big hit of the shop-stravaganza was HMV. They had to kick us out at 9:15pm but at least they made a pretty penny on us.

NAZARETH on CD....my life is again good! (sorry...I apologize for the sudden outburst of teenage enthusiasm but unless you've heard...you don't really know)

Feet sore, tummies empty, souls crushed by a masochistic trip to Old Navy...we truck on home. But we don't actually go home. We go to McKenzie's. It's like we live there. This is 3 Thursdays in a row where we've dined at chez Strongbow...and not the first time this week. We have issues.

(on a sad note we found out that cute Ryan has a girlfriend. Christie wants to meet her...and then maybe make her disappear)

3 pitchers of strongbow and a lengthy "relationships" talk later we head to the casa. But we're not tired...nooooo. We run and skip and sing all the way down Parkside - it's after 11...maybe closer to 12. We sit up having the obligatory H2O, chat, listen to all the new CDs. I'll have you know that my roomies are now Nazareth devotees. Remy Shand...great CD...good for, um, you know, errr, doin' stuff to <wink wink>. Then the "Christie, you're not going to wear your skirt without waxing your legs" comment comes from Seth and the evening takes a quick left turn. You really understand the love you have for your roommates when YOU WAX THEIR LEGS. We have both photographic and video proof that Christie is easily suggestible when drunk and I am AN AMAZING ESTHETICIAN. I believe this to be one of my madder skillz. We eventually made it to bed around 2 (jeez...it's Thursday) to crash for 5 hours before work (yah...we're brilliant aren't we??)

One enduring comment from the evening that I believe should be shared with the world.......

"Two dumbs don't make a smart"....write that down

New word...."Distroinkt"

2004-04-02T03:23:47Z

Word: Distroinkt (dis`-troy-n-kt), adjective

Definition: 1) special-l-er 2) doing something not like anyone else (in a positive way)

Use: "I totally kicked ass at Dr.Mario...I'm so distroinkt!"

Feel free to use at your pleasure/convenience.

Murphy, thy name is mud

2004-03-16T18:47:14Z

The eventual downstream impact of my boss resigning is upon me. My weeks have gone from jam packed days at the office to "do all the stuff you did before and now take an increasingly active role in actually generating revenue". Huzzah....this is exactly what I wanted. But isn't it the universal truth that as soon as one part of your life is functioning well something else goes downhill??

I believe the answer to that question to be yes. As part of taking an increasingly active role in account management I need to spend more time at client sites...this means driving. I love driving...if I could I'd do it every day. I got in the car to head to the client's site this AM (very glad the car started today...had difficulty last time primarily due to it's idleness in the cold temps) and upon starting heard a noise that can only be affectionately referred to as whirrrr whirrrrr - ka thunk and now I have no internal heating. Very, very cold drive to work this morning. None of the a/c settings work and when I put the dial to "FAN" setting the whirrrr whirrrrr - ka thunk repeats and is then followed by klunk-klank. I don't know what happens after that...I'm too afraid to find out.

Despite the "Stomp-eque" tones of my vehicle (a 2001 by the way...WTF??) I arrive at the client site in time. Gain access to the building, head towards the designated meeting meeting room and then... .....I make the physical equivalent of a whirrrr whirrrrr - ka thunk, sprain the easy-sprain-ankle and go down. Purse and laptop remain, remarkably, in my clutches.

Those of you who have badly sprained an ankle before know the pain of which I speak - stabbing up the leg, throbbing and swelling (sounds very Harelquin of me) and for those who are extra special (read...me) a slight feeling of nausea. Luckily I didn't pass out or loose muscle control this time...phew!

Those of you who know me and the E-S-A know that despite the pain referred to above I got up, and continued on my way to the meeting. I put the leg up for the morning and am currently (well, not exactly currently but on an ongoing basis) still walking around in my 3" heels. cwf the bionic ankle...she becomes a necessity.

In my take charge kind of way I have worked through the pain of the ankle and scheduled a maintenance appointment for my car tonight at 6:30. All I have to look forward to now is an afternoon of meetings and Visio and then rush hour, on the 427 southbound, driving stick, in 3" heels, with a sprained left ankle.

Murphy...sometimes he's a real comedian....

Camera chicks...we click

2004-02-27T22:14:34Z

I've been waiting for what seemed like forever (but was act only 2 and a bit months) for the people at Blacks to restock the filters for my SLR camera. Finally...today...it happened!!! I'm giddy with delight. Those who know me (and were the ones who generously contributed to the bday gift card) know that I've been talking about buying these filters for about 3 years!! I've made up for wasted time and picked up 3 - a circular polarizing (for all the stunning beach shots I'll take on vacations), a "soft around the edges" filter for fun and corny wedding shots and a graduated orange that will kick my sunset photos up a knotch. I have a feeling that spring is going to be picture crazy (granted spring for me is almost always picture crazy but this time....THIS TIME...I'm going to get all artzy and shit).

The mere fact that I'm so excited by 3 pieces of plastic subtly reminds me that my job doesn't allow for creativity and I should be working harder to pursue my creative side. With my kick-ass SLR, rockin' new filters and super kewl digital at my disposal there truly is a world of creativity at my doorstep. Also, I think I'll draw more.