Square peg, round hole

I've been cooking dinner for my parents quite often since I've been home. Since I do the cooking, they wash the dishes afterwards. This is a quick recap of last night's conversation/events in the kitchen.

> Mau pulls out the ingredients for dinner.
> Mau fetches her favourite sharp knife that comes with its own sharpening sheath.
> Mau looks at the knife and does a double-take.
> Mau yells at her mother, "You IDIOT! You put the knife in the sharpener UPSIDE DOWN!"
> Mau's mother starts laughing and comments, "I was wondering why it was so difficult to put in the sheath!"
> Mau's father covers his face with shame.

The whole situation was hilarious because I didn't even think before I bellowed out at my mom. I thought most people realized that if something wasn't moving easily, you shouldn't force it! LOL. I was completely dumbfounded that she managed to shove the knife into the plastic sheath. Unfortunately it seems like the sharpener is broken - I need to get a screw driver to pry it out this evening.

Car Karma

Oh Cathy, you and your car amuse me to no end.

This afternoon I arranged to meet Cathy for a lunch date. She ended up driving us to this little bagel restaurant near Bank and Holmwood. When we arrived, I hopped out of the car, locked my door, and started toward the restaurant door. That's when I heard, "Uh oh," behind me.

I turn around and see Cathy looking wide-eyed, trying my door handle. All she says is, "Maureen, I think I just locked my keys in my car!" Sure enough, she has done just that. And to top it all off, somehow she exited her vehicle while it was still running. She surmises that she must have opened her car door to see how close to the parking lines she was, and then instead of pulling out her keys, she just stepped out of the vehicle and locked it with the button like normal.

Luckily, or I guess I should say unluckily, she had had car problems earlier in the week and ended up signing up for a CAA membership. She was able to pull out her brand new membership card and call for some help.

It was interesting to watch her reactions to the whole situation though. Most people would have started panicking or gotten all irritated and angry at themselves. Except for her shock of doing something as silly as locking her keys in her car, Cathy was cool about the whole situation. She just pulled out her membership and made the call. Yes, she's quite the person to have by your side in an emergency.

Also, another bonus to the afternoon is that while we were waiting for CAA to appear, we stood outside by her car chatting. After about 20 minutes, one of the employees from Kettleman's restaurant came outside and gave us two free bagels, fresh from the oven for free! That was so kind of them! And I'll have you know that when CAA finally arrived and we were able to go in and enjoy our lunch, the bagel sandwiches from Kettleman's were delicious.

Spam

It amuses me that I get email spam in both Chinese and English.

Prison break

Ugh. I can't wait to escape my roommate

Strange habits

Everyone has little habits or ways of doing things that really make no sense but they believe that their actions make a difference. I know myself that I have certain foibles and ways of doing things that probably don't have any scientific backing to them (not that I can think of any examples right now).

I must share with you one of my roommate's actions today that actually made me laugh out loud.

This afternoon when I exited my bedroom I saw that my roomie was cooking her lunch. The strange thing though was that she had a tea towel draped over her head. It wasn't wrapped around, it wasn't tucked in or anything. It was like she had laid a newspaper on her head. I paused and stared at her and she saw that I was looking, but I just shook my head and said, "I'm not going to ask."

She then proceeded to explain to me that the tea towel was to protect her hair from absorbing the smell of her food. She had had a shower in the morning and didn't want the smell to permeate her hair.

I'd like to remind you that this woman has a degree in Biology and is getting a second degree in Environmental Engineering. On what planet could you believe that laying a tea towel on your head while standing over your pot would stop the smell from getting into your hair? Nevermind the hair, she was wearing her clothes for the day, her skin was exposed, etc. But this single thin piece of fabric, which covered maybe a quart of her hair (which is long and hangs to the top of her shoulders) was supposed to stop the smell?

I should probably mention that the towel had been nicely folded earlier, and thus the creases in the fabric created a little peak that seemed to act more like a chimney, drawing the steam into it rather than blocking it.

I can't wait to move out.

Officially withdrawn

I called the Grad Studies office at Carleton today. It's official - I'm no longer a Carleton U student. Umm, yay?

I have to admit, now that I'm over the shock of deciding to withdraw from grad school, part of me regrets it. I think it's like the trauma of childbirth. At the time it hurts and scares you so much that you never want to have a child again, but then time fades the memories and you're willing to go through it again.

At the time of my original decision to withdraw, I was so stressed out and then so relieved when I "escaped" from grad studies, but now I miss going to classes, reading articles, and so on. I remember being miserable and struggling, but it's like there's a fog between myself and the misery I experienced.

On a more positive note, I have another interview on Monday! Yay me!

Hallucinations

I've been up late several nights in a row. And by late, I mean staying up till 2-4am. One of the reasons is that I found one of my favourite comic strips, "For Better or Worse," posted online, and I've been catching up on the archives from 2003 to present day!

Last night though, I started to wonder if the lack of sleep was catching up with me. Around 2am I blinked and stared at the current comic strip I was looking at more closely. I could have SWORN the speaker in the one panel's eyes moved!

I paused and started staring at the panel, waiting, no, DARING the stationary character to move again. And it did! LOL, for some reason, the comic strips posted online in 2005 started having animated sections. Random people will blink, a person in the background will move, etc. It was rather disconcerting at first, but now I'm just relieved to know that I'm not hallucinating.

Losing my flip flops

I never used to wear flip flops. And I especially never wore footwear in the house. When I first went to university though, I had to buy a pair of shower shoes. My purchase took the form of a pair of $2 flip flops from WalMart.

I got so used to wearing the flip flops that I rarely took them off. I wore them not only to the shower, but also to the cafeteria, around my residence, and pretty much everywhere (except outside).

Surprisingly those flip flops lasted me for 4 years - not bad for only spending a toonie on them! They finally broke when I was in Hong Kong. I had to replace them, and ended up buying a pair of Diesel brand name flip flops while in Thailand. Unfortunately they were terrible fake products. They had had flowers painted on them. I think the flowers rubbed off in two days. Oh well. They're still ridiculously comfortable.

In my current residence, I keep losing a single flip flop (usually the right foot one). How do I do this? It happens when I go to sit at my computer desk. Without thinking, when I first sit down, I usually sit with my right foot curled up beneath me, which means I kick off my right flip flop before sitting down. Later I'll shift positions, and automatically go seek out my flip flop, only to find it's not beneath my desk. It's beside it.

I don't know how I continue to surprise myself by doing this. I've been "losing" my flip flop since I first moved in, but I'm also surprised (and amused) when I have to lean over, grab it, and throw it to my foot.

I think it's even more amusing that I'm actually dedicating an entire post to my flip flops, but hey, they're now a necessity of life for me. Anytime I take a trip anywhere, I always pack my flip flops for wandering around my new accomodations.

Asian geek

I'm totally an Asian geek. Last night I dreamt I met one of my fave HK actors, Nicholas Tse. Later on, I had a different dream where I was getting a mini-Mandarin lesson in a random university class.

Delayed departure

I was supposed to be back in Ottawa tonight, but I didn't make it. I got to the train station and went to pick up my ticket about 15 minutes before departure... Only to be told I was supposed to be there 45 minutes early! Apparently there were no seats left for me. :| Luckily I was able to rebook my ticket for tomorrow and hang with my sister and her boyfriend for another day.

We ended up going hiking in Hamilton. Unfortunately, a lot of the trails were really icy, meaning we had to go very slowly. On the way back, we found a much faster method of getting down the icy sections! See the video!

Stair sledding
Video sent by dendia

Sweet images

I saw this little poem/story on a web comic I like to read. I found it so beautiful (in a sad kinda way) that I wanted to share it with others. The comic is called Friendly Hostility. This excerpt was from a week the artist took off from the comic. It can be found here.

I knew it was the end when I woke to find you sleeping next to me, grave dirt in your hair, under your fingernails, streaked on your pretty face.

You smelled like the hydrangeas you'd been buried with. Your skin, your skin was translucent, thin and delicate like tissue paper.

It bordered on pale blue, bringing a moonbeam into the golden sunlit morning, into the cotton sheets tangled up on my bed.

I pulled the covers over us, pressed close and tucked your head under my chin like we used to before the accident, and went back to sleep.

Pre-pain status

I figured I'd type this quick entry out before the pain of my day truly set in.

I went snowshoeing today.

I haven't been snowshooeing since 2004. Cathy and I went to Gatineau Park and rented some snowshoes... We were walking around from 11am to about 2:45pm. I am so not looking forward to tomorrow when the pain sets in. My legs are already stiff and sore, and this is after a hot shower and an evening of relaxation.

We walked along two trails, the easy "Sugarbush Trail" and the "Blanchet Trail." The woman at the Visitor's Centre told us that the Blanchet trail had a few vertical climbs and whatnot, but that it was a good walk. She failed to mention that "vertical climbs" translates into "scaling a mountain"... That's right, somehow Cathy and I managed to snowshoe our way up the side of a mountain.

We probably got 98% of our way through the trail before finally turning back. We were both ridiculously cold and tired from hiking upwards... I can't decide whether going up or down was harder. Going up was difficult because we were climbing all the way, but going down was also hard on the knees/thighs because you were constantly leaning back to counteract the angle of the hill while wearing snowshoes. At least going down went faster than going up!

Despite my impending pain, I had a great day. It's so nice to do something different from staying inside, or going to a mall or anything else.

Entry denied

At my internship, we're occupying two different offices. We've got our main Peacebuild office, and we're also using a small office within NAPO's (National Anti-Poverty Organization) offices which are right beside our own.

We started locking out own little office within NAPO's offices and we keep the key in our main office. NAPO's main doors are locked with an electronic keypad, so entry is no problem.

However, this morning I happened to be the first person into work. So I went into NAPO's office to see if our office door was unlocked. No luck, so I go to get the key from our main office, only to realize that our main office doors are locked.

I ended up having to set up shop in the main lobby of NAPO and wait for my supervisor to get there so we could unlock everything and get the ball rolling.

The new KKK

I had a surreal moment on the bus this evening. I came out of my commuter daze to take note of my fellow passengers. At the front of the bus were three people wearing white winter jackets with their hoods drawn up. The fluorescent lighting on the bus made them stand out. For some reason, they reminded me of the KKK.

Early vs. late wakeup calls

Normally I'm bitching about the false fire alarms late at night around 1am. But I must recant my rants. I discovered this morning that it's infinitely worse to be woken up at 7am on a Saturday morning. At least with the night alarms it's easier to fall asleep again.

The amusing thing with this morning's alarm, was that once it was done, we were all trudging upstairs back to our rooms, when the alarm started going off again. We all kind of froze and were like, "Well do we go back to our rooms or back outside?!" Cathy and I popped into the lounge to look out the windows and when we saw that the firetrucks were leaving despite the alarms going off again. We figured it was safe to go back to our rooms, and sure enough, by the time we reached the 5th floor, the alarms stopped.

The worse thing about fire alarms these days is that you just can't roll out of bed and go out the door. It's too cold for that! You have to bundle into pants, get winter jackets on, running shoes, hats, and scarves.

After the alarm, I ended up staying up since I was awake from the cold. 2 hours later I was lying in my bed watching a movie on my laptop, when suddenly the alarm started going off AGAIN. I managed to get up (I finished knitting the line of yarn I was working on first), get into my jeans, and just as I was shrugging into my jeans, the alarm stopped again. Yeesh.

A story for my readers

Well it seems as though I've been in a non-blogging mood of late. Very well, I shall regale you with an amusing anecdote from my Christmas holidays.

My sister bought a new laptop back in the Fall. Its keyboard has all the special characters, and it also has special French keys on it. My sister didn't know how to use the French keys, so she asked me to play around with her laptop to try to figure it out.

I fought with her laptop for half an hour. I changed language settings, keyboard settings, I tried using the function keys on her laptop and nothing worked! I finally gave up, put all her settings back to normal and returned her laptop to her.

Mel started to check her email and then asked, "Umm, Mau? What's going on?" Whenever she tried to type on the right half of her keyboard, instead of letters appearing, numbers would come up instead.

I reconfiscated her laptop and rechecked that I had returned all her language and keyboard settings back to normal. Then I checked again, and again. I could not for the life of me figure out what her keyboard was still spouting out random signs and numbers instead of the letters. I even called my father in to help.

We were checking online help files trying to figure out what was going on. I finally clued into what was wrong when I came across a web page explaining how to use a laptop keyboard. That's when it hit me.

When I had been originally fiddling around with her laptop, I had turned number lock on! I forgot to turn it off! That's why half her keyboard was punching out numbers instead of letters.

I am so smrt!

Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho, happy holidays!

Winter woes

I decided to be my mother's nurse during her recuperation. However, as of this afternoon I too am an invalid. I was outside shoveling snow and about half way through a swing, I felt a crack in my back followed by a not-so-pleasant stabbing pain.

That's right, I threw out my back. Again. I've been laying around with an ice pack on my back and have been taking pain killers. I also tried some cream for arthritis pain and nothing's helping. :( I tried to have a nap in my bed this afternoon, but trying to emerge from my blankets and get back up was ridiculously painful - my back started spasming and I actually cried - and I never cry with pain.

My parents are taking pity on me and fetching me whatever I need and are helping me to get up and out of various chairs.

I can't wait for this to be over.

My newest sibling

Two weeks ago my mom finally relented and allowed my father to get a new cat. They adopted a long haired grey cat from the animal shelter and brought it home... Where it promptly disappeared. Searches later revealed it to be hiding behind the dryer. Later it was under a couch. Then it was under a bed.

My father would have to lie on his stomach to coax the feline out from its hiding places, and this has been the pattern for two weeks. (The creature had been a stray, and then locked up in a cage for 5 months, so some shyness was expected.) He's been working on essentially "taming" the cat for human company.

The funny thing is though, the cat has decided to like everyone BUT my father (for whom the cat was purchased in the first place). A few days ago, when my parents were lying it bed, apparently the cat jumped up and was sucking up to my mother (who hates cats) and totally ignored my father's overtures.

For my first 24 hours at home, I didn't see the cat either. I heard it eating food and using its litterbox, but never laid eyes on it. Then yesterday, in the middle of the night while my parents were out of the house, I woke up to find a black mass at the bottom of my bed.

It was a bit disturbing to realize there's a creature on my bed that I've never lay eyes on. I managed to coax it within hand reach whereupon I started to pet it. The next thing I know, the cat is with me for 2 hours, cuddling, etc. I finally got up and went downstairs just as my parents came home. The cat disappeared again. The stupid feline hisses and growls when she sees him.

We're trying to think of names for the cat now. The people at the shelter called it "Mumsy" because it recently had a litter of kittens.

Our potential names include:

• Invisi-cat
  
• Phantom
  
• Reaper (because my mom used to tell my dad he could get a cat when she was dead.)
  
• AWOL
  
• Houdini
  

Kids say the darndest things

Bwhahahahahaa. My niece made me laugh tonight. I was talking with her on the phone tonight and then I asked if she had heard the news about her grandmother. (My mom has a kidney stone.)

Cara tells me, "Yeah, mom said something about grandma's kidneys being stoned."

I kinda paused, wondering if she was joking, and then I realized she wasn't. LOL. I laughed and laughed at that.