Rice It Up!

Clothing I No Longer Fit

2010-04-27T15:32:00.002-07:00

So today I finally decided to do laundry. I say finally because well, during the school semester I don't get much time to actually do the many loads and loads of laundry. That's not to say I don't do laundry during the semester at all, rather I do my laundry selectively. For example, If I know I am running low on work shirts or sweaters or work pants, I will go ahead and do one specific load of laundry for those essential items and tell myself that the other clothing can wait (Luckily I have accumulated so many shirts over the years that if I was truly desperate and without time to do a load of selectively chosen "favorite" shirts, I can still wear clean shirts that I maybe do not throw into the rotation as frequently).

I decided that because it has been awhile since I have done a huge day of laundry, that I would also go through my clothing and see which items I no longer fit (Unfortunately as I found out last Friday, I am no longer the size four I used to be... in fact, I seemed to have skipped a size...). The following is a short list of some of the clothing that I have in my closet that I can no longer fit into:

2 Sweaters
2 Pairs of Jeans
2 Pairs of Shorts
4 Pairs of Capris Pants
8 Shirts
1 Pair of Yoga Pants (and they are super stretchy...)
1 Pair of Cargo Pants
over 10 Pairs of Dress Pants ( yes in the last three years of working at the TL I have bought and now can no longer fit into over 10 pairs of Dress Pants)

Looking at this pile on my floor of clothing that I have once loved (it just so happens that the clothing I love the most out of my entire wardrobe happens to be lying pathetically within this pile), I am now feeling quite depressed! What happened to me? I used to be able to dress so cutely and now, well now I don't even want to think about trying to replace these items as I know that once I step foot into the mall my ego and self-confidence will suddenly shrivel away into an abyss. The mall is wear egos and self-confidence go to die. It is the proverbial farm where these dead egos and self-confidence get sent where they can be happier chasing the chickens and swimming in the pond with the ducks.

The most depressing thing about this pile of clothing is the garments that are not there but probably should be. I have cheated myself into thinking that some of these articles I can and will fit into again! Thus, these articles have not been placed in the pile of shame. And what a pile of shame it is... most of these articles I have only bought within the last couple of years. Have I really ballooned up THAT much? Apparently so.

I think I'm going to go for a walk. Wont change much right away, but perhaps I can convince myself that I am one step closer to fitting back into these outfits... right.

It's Official... I've lost again.

2010-03-18T04:54:00.003-07:00

Ever get the feeling you're not who you used to be, or that someone else is not who they used to be? It's like a bowling ball to the gut when you realize there's no going back. We get so used to the idea that everything will stay the same. So when things do change it's sometimes a major blow to the heart.
Too many changes all at once. I have always said I was never any good with change. Now change is stompin' at my doorstep, barging in, and dragin' me out kicking and screaming. I'm sure it'll have some sort of positive outcome in the end... eventually.
Yes, I'd like to just drop everything and move to St John's. Start over, if you will. Seems there wouldn't be much to miss, save for a few key players.
Yes, a change of scenery would be nice...

Big Truck + Massive Puddle = Big Splash & A New Wheel Rim

2010-01-18T20:08:00.003-08:00

So, if you live in the Lower Mainland, you MUST have noticed the massive amount of depressing rain that continues to fall and wreak havoc with my psychological well-being.
Friday morning was quite possibly one of the worst days for this rain and for this rain to ruin my day.
Let me take you back to Friday morning... It's 7:30am, the sun has not yet come out and the rain is quite literally falling down in buckets. I have just dropped Jacob off at work in Richmond and am driving through New Westminster on Stewardson Way on my way home to Maple Ridge. If you don't have any knowledge of Stewardson way, it is a piece of road that has two lanes for each direction, quite a few winding turns, and is surrounded by those lovely squared curbs (harder, and more dangerous, to drive over... we'll come back to that). This road is also very narrow which means that any mistake in the placement of your car on this road could result in a major catastrophy depending on the busy-ness of traffic.
So I am driving in the right hand lane on Stewardson way going about 50 km/hr (the speed limit is 60... but remember the massive amount of rain) and up ahead I notice a fairly massive puddle of standing water in the left hand lane. I think to myself, good thing I'm not driving in that lane! Hydroplaning is not very fun.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a massive comercial truck comes barreling down the road in the left hand lane and cannonball's itself into this massive puddle, sending a gargantuous tidal wave my way. In the split second that I was blinded by what seemed like a ton of water covering my windshield, I failed to correct for one of the slight turns in the road. My passenger side tire first grates hard against the sharp edges of the squared curb, then the tire decides to attempt a daredevil jump onto the curb at a slight angle. As my front passenger tire hits the square curb at 50 km/hr, my car tries to pretend that it is a monster truck attempting to make a jump but manages to only hit the jump with it's passenger side wheels. On the dismount, my tiny little car and it's tiny little driver (me) is thrown off the curb and into the left hand lane.
Luckily, because it was only 7:30-ish in the AM hours and I was driving AGAINST the flow of morning rush hour, there just happened to be no other cars in the left hand lane. This would have been a completely different story had there been.
At the end of the day, the only damage to my poor daredevil car was to the front passenger side wheel rim.

What a way to start my day!

Give the gift of Divorce this Christmas season!

2009-12-18T07:58:00.002-08:00

I was reading The Province this morning when I came across a very odd article titled "Perfect gift for unhappy couples". Apparently a british law firm has come up with the "must have" present, having sold 54 of these presents in only three weeks. What is this "perfect gift"?... Divorce gift vouchers!

Yes that's right, for $216 you can give the gift of a broken family! These vouchers offer couples half hour or one hour long advice sessions with a lawyer.

Now, I'm not against divorce by any means. If people are truely not happy with each other or the relationship is a violent and unsafe environment, then there is no reason (no, not even children) to stay together. Staying together in a marriage that is just not meant to be, can make life worse for everybody involved. However, having said that, this doesn't mean that I would encourage couples to rush right out to the lawyer's office at the first sign of tension.

As most of you know, I come from a psychology background in my schooling and thus my approach to life. As a result, I believe that some relationships can be mendable through couselling and very aggressive self introspection. The offering of divorce "gift" vouchers seems like another way for divorce lawyers to aggressively market their proffession and encourage a rushed decision into divorce.

Can we talk about the name of these things too? Divorce "gift" vouchers. Since when has a divorce ever been a "gift" for anybody involved? I don't care how violent, oppressive, or turbulent a relationship is, the process of divorce is NEVER a "gift"! While it may be neccessary and may provide the parties involved a better, safer, and more worthwhile life after the fact, it is still a very hard and extremely emotional and wearing process. While it is technically their job (and thus the nature of being a divorce lawyer), these lawyers seem to be capitalizing on the strain that the christmas season sometimes brings to couples in slightly rocky situations.

It just makes me sad that you can actually add a divorce gift voucher onto your list of things to give to that special someone.

Radio Surfing

2009-11-28T13:40:00.002-08:00

Prelude:
So the other day in class I was explaining to one of my class mates about how I used to be addicted to blogging before Facebook came out with it's stupidly addicting games (Farmville, Roller Coaster Kingdom, and Cafe World are my current vices). It reminded me about how much I missed blogging and made me question why I ever took a hiatus from blogging. Then I remembered: I'm extremely lazy! Anywho, I'm back now (until I get lazy again that is). Enjoy!

Blog Entry:
I was driving to school early last week and decided to search for something new in the way of radio stations because I was in a bit of a musical funk, that is I didn't particularly want to listen to whatever music I had on my Zune and I started to get bored of listening to The Peak or any other "normal" radio stations for that matter. In my radio surfing (made all the better by the fact that my stereo has a remote control) I stumbled on what I thought was an all Carribbean all the time station at 96.1 FM (Vancouver) called "Carribbean Express". This was AMAZING! They even played a Carribbean Christmas song while I was on my way to school. Anyways, so I thought "hey, I have extra presets that I'm not using, I'll lock in this station because it's super cool". But I kind of forgot how to set my presets and ended up messing up ALL of my presets.

So presets messed up, I decided that I would just listen to this station for awhile. After my class that day I was very excited to listen to some more Carribbean music but became slightly dissapointed and confused when I turned on my car and started hearing east indian music instead. It turns out my "Carribbean Express" is actually just a radio show (weekdays from 9am until 11am I think) and after "Carribbean Express" is "Strictly Punjabi" (from 11am until 3pm I think). Either way, it was still pretty cool. That is until 3pm when the cantonese talk show comes on... I can't even pretend to understand what they are saying!

The next day I decided to broaden my horizons on the other random radio stations that are offered in the lower mainland area. Basically, this last week I have listened to everything from Fun FM (can't remember the frequency that is on, but my mom knew and blared out all the words to those songs) to CBC's French radio station which plays everything from Jazz to Classical and even some french pop.

I really wish I could remember how to set my presets though! I'm getting Carple Tunnel Syndrome or something in my thumb from changing the radio stations constantly with my remote control.

Happy Listening.

The Trouble with Blogging

2009-07-12T11:09:00.002-07:00

I cannot tell you the number of times that I have logged in to Blogger within the last two weeks, with the thought that I would finally write another post for my blog. So many things have happened that I wanted to blog about: I finally got my Research Project Proposal done and handed in and am now waiting patiently for it to go through ethics so that I can actually conduct my study; I celebrated my 22nd birthday with a fantabulous two day celebration which included Parasailing, Conquering the Grouse Grind and of course our wreaking havoc at another poor unfortunate restaurant for the Rice Family Dinner- Kari's Birthday Edition-Volume 22. I also wanted to write a sentimental peice about friends and how special friendships are, but alas to no avail.

So here I am at work (where I very well could have written every single one of these blogs that I wanted to write) blogging about how I wanted to blog about certain things but haven't yet because I'm too busy or I'm too tired, or I just don't feel like it at the time.

Well that is going to change my friends! In the next 2 and a half hours I am hoping to get at least the post about my birthday done and published! I think I have basically uploaded all of the pictures (finally) to blogger so I think it's just a case of writing... I hope you enjoy!

P.S. Yes I do realize how extremely useless this post was... but it doesn't seem to matter to me.

Kari's Two Day Birthday Extravaganza!

2009-07-02T15:44:00.021-07:00

Alright folks, I have finally added all of the pictures that I am going to use in this blog post! Do you know how long it takes to upload pictures to blogger? It's ridiculous! Anywho, without further ado I present to thee:

KARI'S TWO DAY BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

June 30, 2009: Day 1

Richard and I hop into my little blue car with "Big Red" (my zune) full of a fantasmigorical mix of musical happiness! This time we are off to Kelowna!

There is a lot of money being spent in Kelowna. I have decided that when I become rich I too will play in Kelowna!

So apparently they are too lazy to sail their boats back to the marina if they become slightly hungry. NO no, no need to go to the food... wait ten minutes and the food will sail to you!

Bret and the other Kiwi getting the parachute ready! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Woohoo! Look at me go!

We apparently got up to about 250 feet above the water!

It was so relaxing and peaceful up there.

Yeah, taking pictures of myself in the air! Skills, I tell you, skills!

Going down?

Getting closer to the water...

Getting even closer...

And down I go. Because of the way I had put my legs when I was going in, my legs were being pushed back and I was starting to be quite literally dragged through the water!

And back up we go to get dried up!

Richard's Turn...

And away he goes!

These shots of his legs are awesome!

Coming down

Getting closer....

SPLOOSH! As you can see he is trying to take a picture of his legs going into the water...

This is what came out!

Ok, so funny story... For some reason, the way that Richard held his legs as he was going back up made him twist around. Just as he was twisting around, the captain turned his head to look back at him and I guess because of the force of the water, Richard's shorts and boxers were being pulled down revealing a generous view of his rear end. The captain's head shot back forward in suprise, as the three of us on the boat burst out laughing! I only wish I had had the camera ready for that shot! Unfortunately I did not.
Coming in for landing...
Once we were done flying above Okanagan Lake, Richard and I decided to spend the rest of the day hanging out and relaxing at the beach.

After a lovely sushi dinner, around 6pm Richard and I decided it was time to head home, back to reality.

An Awesome day was had by all! In fact this last picture basically sums up the entire day!

July 1, 2009: Day 2 - MY BIRTHDAY!!!

To start the day mom, dad, and I headed down to the Pitt Meadows Canada Day celebrations for our annual Canada Day Pancake Breakfast! Dad normally works on Canada day but this year (the first in about 20 years) he decided to take it off and enjoy the celebrations.

Mom and I at the Pitt Meadows Spirit Square!

Dad and I at the Pitt Meadows Spirit Square

They had a bicycle parade for the children to dress up their bikes.

My favorite was the one in the top hat. There was also a little kid in an Ireland jersey wearing all green... he was also my favorite!

Jacob is super excited to go hiking the Grouse Grind yo!

Proof

We're only just starting and both Robin and Jacob look very impressed!

Getting tired?

Half way mark!!! Wooo!!! "The second half is easier right?" "No actually the second half is worse"

The view from the top!

This is what happends when you try to take a picture of yourself with Jacob standing around... (there's a bug on my arm too!)

Happy to be done.

Good picture of Robin... I'm not looking.

Much better.

Aww, aren't we cute! lol.
Now that we are done the Grouse Grind it's off we go to Santorini for a wonderful Greek Feast!

I've never had a long island iced tea with green stuff on the bottom... but it was tasty!

Nate decided to show up!

Mmmm... dessert! Jacob and I ate one side of it each but neither of us wanted to cross the line and tear down the wall.

Nate, threatening to FORK me if I touched his dessert, which I wasn't planning to in the first place but definetly wont now.

Mom enjoying her dessert.

Jacob... looking very happy!

Nate looking very bitter, angry, and full of hate... Tracy's not buying it though!

Here we are. The Rice Family at Kari's Birthday Dinner Extravaganza! (Everything sounds better when you add Extravaganza at the end of it!)

Thank you to everybody who celebrated my 22nd birthday with me. Last year I went to Newfoundland for my birthday. This year I went parasailing and did the Grouse Grind. What is in store for next years birthday??? I have all year to figure it out! (Jacob, Lori-Ann, Richard... you three better be ready for what I might throw out there for next year's celebration!)

Mourning Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

2009-06-27T07:21:00.005-07:00

Thursday June 25, 2009 will mark a very sad day in Entertainment History. A long battle with cancer came to a close; and a life of music, dance, and never-ending controversy suddenly ceased to exist. Of course I am referring to the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

The passing of Farrah Fawcett, while still heartbreaking, was inevitable. Her fight with anal cancer was brave and courageous. I did not know too much about her or her story before, and I cannot say I am all knowing and an expert now, but since having watched "Farrah's Story" on TV last night I have a better understanding and respect for what Farrah and her family endured throughout her fight. I only hope that she is now shining down on us in happiness and at rest.

Unfortunately, on the same day that Farrah succombed to cancer we also lost Michael Jackson, a notorious and larger than life entertainer whose life always seemed raught with controversy. This loss was one that the world was not expecting. This loss was one that the world was not ready for. In fact, as the internet has almost become "the world" to many of us, we could say that this loss practically made the world stop!

Michael's death, due to his age and how sudden it happened (not to mention the simple fact that he was one of the biggest, best and well known entertainers since Elvis and Frank Sinatra), is one of those celebrity deaths where people will ask "where were you" or "what were you doing when you found out that Michael Jackson died?" My answer to those questions still haunts me to this day...

It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon when I got off work. I told my co-worker who was coming on shift after me that I was probably going to nap the rest of the afternoon away. When I got home though, I decided that I needed more Michael Jackson music in my repetoir. As a dancer, I had always been a bit of a Michael Jackson fan but since I got my new computer (and since my cd's got stolen from my car last summer) I hadn't put any Michael Jackson music on my new computer.

So here I was sitting with my computer downloading a couple of Michael Jackson albums. The 25th anniversay edition of Thriller had just finished downloading when I got a text message from my friend Brian "CNN confirmed that Michael Jackson has passed away from cardiac arrest today..." This text message came at 2:59pm of Thursday June 25, 2009. Weird! Creepy!

Of course in all my wittiness I questioned...

Did my music downloading kill Michael Jackson?

While re-reading this post before publishing it, I found it interesting that I wrote that Farrah Fawcett's death was "inevitable". Why did I use the term inevitable? I mean all of our death's are inevitable. We are not immortal, and neither are celebrities.

Being Bored at Work is Dangerous

2009-06-21T11:40:00.003-07:00

Alright, so just a warning to start this whole thingy off with: I'm so ridiculously bored that this may either not make sense or be a complete waste of time.

Wasting Time: It's what I do best, since 1987!

Anywho... so here I sit, absolutely bored out of my skull, while at work. Really wishing that I had turned back and brought my camera with me as was my plan originally! I was late-ish for work though and so I decided not to go back into the house and grab my camera.

Big Mistake!

Not that there is really anything much to take pictures of here at the ol TL. I would have found something at least though. It would have occupied me for at least an hour, maybe two. But alas, I did not bring it, thus I must create something else to occupy my last two hours and 14 minutes here at work.

Hmmm... speaking of my camera... I was looking at a bunch of my pictures from thousands of years ago (ok so maybe only 5 years ago) and I have decided that I do not take enough pictures anymore. Everything that I used to do was always documented. If I went to IKEA it was documented. If I went for a walk it was documented. Hell, even dinner's at Lori-Ann's house were documented!

Maybe that's the problem... Maybe I just don't do enough anymore. I'm always too busy! You can only take pictures of the same hotel front lobby so many times before it becomes redundant. Additionally I don't think my proffs would appreciate me blinding them with my flash every five minutes while they're trying to explain to me what a Factorial Anova is.

Here's the solution: do stuff... take pictures of it.

Simple, right?

Anyways, today is father's day and we will be having our normal Sunday Family Dinner... perhaps we'll play dice or Apples... perhaps I'll document it.

Happy Father's Day everybody!

So This is What It's Like...

2009-06-17T01:19:00.002-07:00

This last week or so has been rather tough on me... I was super stressed with school, then my dad was in the hospital for four-ish days, I had had a couple of random breakdowns while thinking about next semester, and my "main squeeze" was gone for a week and a half on a work trip and was unable to be there to console me.

Last Thursday though, Richard and I took a bit of a stroll to the Lower Falls at Golden Ears Park. We went around the fence when we got to the falls and sat on the smooth rocks for awhile just listening to the sound of the rushing water. As we sat there in silence I could feel the slight mist from the waterfall on my skin and was reminded of the feeling of the ocean spray when I went to Hawaii a few years back.

There's something about being in the middle of nature and away from people in general (except that Richard was there) that really has a calming effect on me. (Note: I failed to mention that during work that day I had had 6 cups of coffee... I rarely ever drink coffee... so I was wired!)
While we were sitting on those rocks I couldn't help but reminisce about the last year or so and everything I had gone through. I thought about the people I connected with, the people I lost; my accomplishments and breakdowns in school; the stresses of getting a new property management system for work and the hostile work environment certain employees created; the day said employee left us and the new employees who made our team work more like a family; and ultimately I thought about the people who really helped me get through and overcome all the changes that have occured within the past year or so.

Then I took a deep breath and I closed my eyes. Feeling the sun on my eyelids, I started to smile. I'm good. Everything has fallen into place.... I opened my eyes again, glanced down at Richard, who was basking in the sun completely unaware of the epic life changing moment I was having. Then I looked back at the waterfall and noticed the very faint rainbow in the mist from the waterfall...

So this is what it's like... to be truly happy again.

UP! and Other Musings

2009-06-10T00:52:00.002-07:00

Another sleepless night gives birth to another random blog post about nothing in particular.

Well alright, that's not too entirely true...

Saturday night my sqeeze and I went to see Pixar's new movie UP! It has now become my favorite Pixar movie! Of course if you go to see it in theaters you must see it in Disney 3D! With the 3D it makes everything so vibrant and real. I must echo John Lasseter in saying that UP! is quite possibly the funniest movie that Pixar has made to date. In fact I think I may have enjoyed it a little more than I should have (people started to stare... haha). For those of you who truely know me, when you watch UP! you will most likely instantly relate the character Dug, to me! I know I did! Anyways, I cannot continue writing about this awesome movie without giving any of it away so I think I will stop... Go see it NOW!!!

Other musings...

I have a Joel Plaskett song stuck in my head. Actually I have two Joel Plaskett songs stuck in my head, but I only know bits of each song so I am constantly mixing the two up. Thus the song in my head goes a little bit like this...

"It’s taking too long to get there
It’s taking too long to get there
It’s taking too long to come
He can’t remember where he started from"
"Oh, love, you’ve got sailors eyes
Sailors eyes, sailors eyes
Gone before the next sunrise
Goddamn your sailors eyes"

The funny thing is, these two songs are completely different in speed and tone, thus making it very awkward to transition from one song to another!

Other musings...

I got nothing... Sorry for wasting your time! haha.

Gong Show Friday!!!

2009-06-01T18:25:00.010-07:00

As I sit and think of all the things I should be doing or could be doing but am not doing, I noticed that I have not blogged in awhile. I've been busy. I've been lazy. I've been all of the above.
Today, I am feeling very lazy and very procrastinating-y. I have a bunch load of Statistics homework that I could do but have absolutely no will or want to do. Thus I blog, which to tell you the truth I'm a little apprehensive about as well... only because then I feel I should come up with something worth reading. haha. Oh well!

Let's take a quick gander at the options for what I can blog about shall we: My Edmonton Trip which was now almost a month ago. My loathing for Statistics and school. Friday, in general.

Let's go with Friday in general!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This past Friday was a complete gong show! Earlier in the week, I had had a plan for friday. That plan included Alana, Chevy, and Myself (possibly another person or two but not definite), either Alana's pool or some other body of water, and the possibility of going to see UP! with Jacob later in the evening.

Here's what really happened:
After my doctor's appointment in the morning I called Alana to see what time she wanted to get together. At this point our plan was to have the three of us girls hang out at her place and go swimming in her pool. But now she was telling me that Chevy would probably not be joining us. Thus I decide, ok that's fine. We'll do a random Kari outing that may or may not include going to Harrison Hot Springs.

Note: a random Kari outing usually consists of driving to god knows where, doing god knows what, for only god knows how long. My outings are usually never planned at all. As Richard once said to me "When you hang out with Kari, it's like who knows? We may end up joining the French Army Reserve for all I know!" (Alright, so those aren't exactly his words... I just don't remember what group/cult/organization he mentioned that we could potentially end up joining.)

Anyways... so I hopped in my car and started driving to her place (which I feel the need to tell everyone that it is way out in sticksville). While on my way she texts me saying that maybe Chevy would come and would we be able to pick her up (she lives in a different kind of sticksville) on our random journey. Sure why not.

So our plan at this point now has changed from Alana's pool to random drive, picking up chevy along the way, and ending up at Harrison Hot Springs!

I get to Alana's house. Chevy's not coming. Ok, fine. Let's go to Abbotsford to grab gas and then we'll be on our way to Harrison Hot Springs! (The whole "random drive" thing flew out the window, as whether or not we would be joined by our third party became random enough for us).

In Abbotsford! Woohoo! Gas has been grabbed! Woohoo! Chevy has finalized her position that she is not coming but that maybe we could stop by for a bbq later :P

I'm hungry, so I decide to take a side trip to Birchwood Dairies, the best place in the world to get ice cream! Once ice cream is finished, we hop onto the Trans Canada Highway #1 and WE'RE OFF!

We've got good, loud music, two hot chickas racing down Hwy 1, each armed with photographic devices. The sun is shining. There are no clouds in the sky. The cars are moving out of my way! AND THEN...

Complete Stop!

I think "ah yes, highway 1. Road trip season = Road work season. Sit tight, we'll be back to 100kms soon enough..."

Half an hour later, 0.3 kms later. WTF??? Get out of the car... talk to good looking man with better looking truck in front of us... Apparently there's been some sort of accident. I turn on our wonderfully boring yet very useful "All Traffic, All the Time" AM station... "There is a Semi-Truck that has rolled over on Highway 1 just past Chilliwack. Traffic is being filtered off the freeway using the Annis Road exit. They have shut down Highway 1 from the Annis Road exit to the ____ exit. If you are currently on the #1 heading towards Chilliwack take the Prest Exit."

Here's where the fun actually starts! We had just gone past the Prest Exit at this point. The only other exit that we can get off at IS the Annis Road Exit! Thus we decide, no worries. We still have good music, good company, and the car is not going to be moving very far anytime soon! So we did what any young 20-somethings would do. Crank up the music, have a dance party outside of the car, and joke with fellow highway sitters about throwing a tailgate party in the middle of the freeway!

Little did we know that this was what had happened not too long before our sudden stop!
After the first hour and a half or so, the sun got hotter, the playlist got smaller, our water bottles were emptier and our bladders were fuller. At the same time though, little by little we eventually made it to the Annis Road Exit (only after about 2 and a half hours).

"Yes!" we thought to ourselves. Just one or two turns down this side road that crews were making us go down and we'll be on the beach in no time!!!

45 minutes later a big-rig trucker was heading down the same side road we had been sitting on this entire time (but going the opposit direction) and advised us that we would probably be there for another 2 hrs or so and that we should probably just make a U-y and head back west. So we said "forget this! lets turn around and take the #7 to harrison".

Let me illuminate the timeline here... I got to Alana's house at 11:45-ish that morning, we finally decided to turn around and go to Harrison via the #7 at 4:45-ish.

While heading west we both realized how tiring sitting in traffic was and how burnt our driver's side and passenger's side arms were getting so we decided to forgo going to Harrison and opted to go to Alana's house and hop in the pool instead. Then we decide, actually let's go to Hayward Lake which is just 15 minutes from Alana's house. The closer we get to Maple Ridge the more we both start to think that maybe we should just call it a day and go home. Then we get to Maple Ridge and decide no, let's go to Hayward Lake and at least put our feet in, that way we can say we went to a lake. After about 20 minutes standing in the water we decide to head off and call it a day.
(Note the awesome watch tan...)
I was just about to pull out of Alana's yard when she introduced me to her dog. I get out of the car, pat the dog, talk for a bit and 20 minutes later we find ourselves in Alana's pool doing exactly what our original plan for the day had been. We are such indecisive women!

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!
I left her house at around 6:30pm. I decided that I would make my way over to Jacob's place for dinner and to hang out before he went on a trip. Of course if you know the Pitt River Bridge at 6:30pm going west on a friday evening, you will know that I sat in MORE traffic for about another 20 minutes.

However, all is well! I can see the bridge! I will be in New West in No time!!!

My phone rings...
"Hey, where are you?"
"Just before the Pitt River Bridge. Whats Up?"
"My tire on my bike blew up..."
SILENCE
"Do you think you can come pick me up?"
SILENCE
"Sure, where abouts are you?"
"On river Road in Richmond"
My head was about to explode! You see, geographically wise going east to west starting in Maple Ridge goes- Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam, New West, ...Richmond. So over the bridge I go on my way to good ol Richmond. I turn once again to our "All Traffic, All the Time" station to see what the Queensborough bridge would be like ... "There is a stall in the right hand lane on the Queensborough bridge. It is blocking the right hand lane and it is backed up to 8th (which is in New West...).

Luckily by the time I got to the bridge whatever happened had been cleared. I picked up Jacob and his bike at a random gas station and drove us home. It was 8:30 pm when we finally got to his apartment. I Looked in the fridge and asked "Do you want a Rickards Red or Honey Brown? I'm having the White!!!"

I needed that beer!

Ultimate One Day Road Trip-Here's to Maija-Liisa

2009-04-17T21:58:00.012-07:00

Wednesday April 15, 2009: A day that will go down in the books as the best, most random, and emotional day that I have had for a long time.

Tuesday night marked my last class of this stressful and emotional semester at school. I was very happy to go to class that night because I knew that the end was here. All there is left are two exams and I'm home free (for a week at least). Before class started Tuesday night, I decided to check my email and facebook.
My giddy-ness was abruptly interrupted as I was reminded via two facebook messages, that it would have been Maija-Liisa's big 20th birthday on Wednesday.

One friend wrote:
"Tommorow would have been Maija-Liisa's 20th birthday. I hope we all take a moment to think about her tommorow, and maybe find a way to celebrate for her. I know her family will be struggling with this and I hope our thoughts can be with them as well."

While Maija-Liisa's sister wrote:
"Try to put things into perspective, and maybe those "big problems" won't seem quite as huge anymore. Try to do at least one thing in her memory. Laugh and smile, because she always did. Make a sarcastic comment, because she was the queen of sarcasm. If you're feeling sad, allow yourself to feel that way, because she never hid how she was feeling. Have a moment or two of immaturity, because although most of the time she was very mature, she certainly had her moments of just being a kid again. Cheer someone up, because she was amazing at that. Basically, just do something in her memory."

Thus, I called my good friend Richard and said "tomorrow, we are going on an adventure. I don't know where we are going or what we are doing, but I have to go on an adventure!"

We agreed to meet up at his place at 9am and that we would drive east and then maybe north until 2pm and see where we end up. At about 2pm we could turn around and go home.

And so began the Ultimate One Day Road Trip!

So for those of you who know me, I have a habit of taking long drives with friends and usually we end up in Hope, BC. This was our first stop on our One Day Road Trip.
P.S. This totem pole is new...They placed it on top of the rotary circle thingy that was on the ground. It's very unfortunate when you know that something small like this has changed in a town that is 119 kilometers away.

I love this spot in Hope! Although the Fraser River is murky brown the view is absolutely amazing. I spent quite a bit of time standing there, reminiscing about the significance of this day for me, before this picture was taken. But Richard soon reminded me that the day was still young, and we had a lot of road to cover before 2pm.
One quick picture together, and off we went!
Before entering the Fraser Canyon, I decided that we would pull over at almost every new town sign that we passed, so long as it was safe to stop of course!

I was very excited to drive the Fraser Canyon! My parents and I always used to take it on our way up to Prince George, but I had never actually driven it by myself or in my car! The Fraser Canyon is a beautiful stretch of highway along the cliffs beside the Fraser River. It winds and twists and turns quite a bit. It's a really fun road to drive!

Next Stop, the historic little town of Yale. We really didn't stop long in Yale at all... mostly just long enough to take some pictures and get back into the car. Yale basically consists of a diner maybe two, some historic churches and museums and has about 200 residents... not much to see!

Nestled in the mountains, the Fraser Canyon also consists of 7 tunnels. This is just one of the tunnels.
I stood there for so long because Richard wanted to take a picture as a vehicle was just coming out of the tunnel (you can't really tell, but he just so happened to catch a police cruiser coming out of the tunnel). It's amazing how loud it is standing beside a tunnel as vehicles are going through it!

I of course preferred not to wait for a car to come out of the tunnel, so I took the picture while a van was going into the tunnel. Richard of course wanted to be standing in the middle of the tunnel, or trying to climb up to the top of it, while I was taking a picture to which I gracefully called him an idiot! Humans don't look to nice when they've been hit by a vehicle (worse if it was by a semi truck) going over 110 kilometers/hour.

Our next stop was Hell! (quite literally!)

Ah yes, the wonderful little tourist trap called Hells Gate! ...and yes, we decided to fall into the trap!

It's really an awesome little place called Hell/Hell's Gate. You first take the airtram down and then there's a little gift shop, restaurant, photographic area, and of course a fudge factory!

"No surprise Hell would have a Fudge Factory!"
-Richard

Going across the Fraser River to get to Hell.

Haha, I saw this and thought it was the cutest thing in the world! The pup pub!

The joys of the 10 second timer on digital cameras! This is Richard and I in the Hell's Gate Air Tram... ok so it's just a cut out but...

...This is an awesomely HUGE wooden chair!

Woot woot! Hell's Gate is sooo cool! I love it there!

After we rode the airtram back up to civilization (if you could call the little towns dotting the road along the Fraser Canyon civilization) it was back into the car in search for our next stop.

Hahaha, I always laugh when I think of these little towns between Hope and Cache Creek, such as Yale and Boston Bar, because I always think of them in terms of where the Greyhound Bus stops. In Boston Bar the Greyhound bus stops at this little shack-like structure that is probably just big enough for five people to stand in with their baggage!

Of course, because of the lack of population, Richard was hailed the coolest man in Boston Bar... the close second was the third longhaired construction flagger.

Lytton is another winner of a small town. Of course they had to have the biggest town sign though... can we say overcompensation??? I think we can!!!

This is Lytton! Haha, ok so really this isn't all of Lytton, but a major part of it!
At this point in the trip I was really starting to think about Maija-Liisa and how much this road trip actually meant to me. It became more apparent that I started to feel as though driving further north and closer to the tops of the mountains would bring me closer to wherever she is. I started to cry a bit while listening to Steve Earle's song "Waiting on You". The following is just a sampling of the song, at which point I was tearing up...

I can't let go, I wait for you
Till hell goes cold, I'll wait for you
You're all I know and I wait for you

Breathing out, breathing in
Holding out, giving in
Doing with or without waiting on you

Don't show it all, walk on, walk tall
Behind this wall I'm still waiting on you

We thought that my car parked like that made it look sort of like an advertisement picture.

Hehe!!! The Long Horned Sheep of Ashcroft!!! I refused to go any closer as I could see that the sheep were starting to stare me down! Of course Richard wanted to run towards the sheep and see if they would bunt him in the head. As entertaining as that sounds, I again called him an idiot and got back into the car!

Once we got to Ashcroft (sorry no town sign picture, I was driving too fast to stop), it was already a little bit after 2pm but I knew that there were scarce choices for food places and gas stations, so I suggested to Richard that we drive the extra 40 or so kilometers to Cache Creek as our final destination. There is this Diner in Cache Creek called Herbies that makes the best burgers around! Thus, that was our final stop!

After a couple of bites Richard agreed that it was the best burger he had had in a long time... It was so worth the 5-ish hour drive!

By the time we got to Cache Creek it was just about 3pm. We were both super exhausted!

Once we finished our food, we set out for the trip back home. In total, the drive up took around 5-ish hours because we made stops in Hope and Hell's Gate that were both at least half hour stops, and our drive home was only about 3 and a half-ish hours long. We did stop again in Hope to take a well needed break.

Looking back on this day and thinking about the two messages I recieved on facebook the night before, I truely feel that I fulfilled the wishes of my friends by commemorating my friend's birthday in the Ultimate One Day Road Trip. I really feel that this road trip can be significant and almost symbollic of the road that each of us has been driving down since the end of August.

At first we had Hope that we would all survive this long journey of healing ahead of us, that is full of twists and turns and tunnels through which we must pass in order to see the light, but every now and then we stop at Hell's Gate and hurt and yearn for everything to have been a dream. When we realize it is not a dream, we pick ourselves up and rise from the depths of Hell, to continue our journey. Once we have reached as close to whatever or wherever heaven may be we can take a break, perhaps a snack, and we are filled with such warmth as though we are actually in her prescence. This warmth fills us up for the rest of the way home. Speeding past Hell, on our way back to Hope! All while the glorious sun is shining!

I hope eveybody was able to enjoy this beautiful day as much as I did!

RIP Maija-Liisa!

Good on you, Britney Spears!

2009-04-10T11:54:00.003-07:00

Alright, so this is probably going to create some tension with my readers and other random people who stumble onto my little corner of the blog-o-sphere but I have to come out and show my support for Britney Spears' latest move!

Let me begin by explaining my relationship (or lack there of) with Britney Spears... I have not listened to any of her music since her debut album. I am not a fan of hers in general. I have sympathy for what she has been through but not for some of the things she has done (this sympathy of course stems from my Psychologist/Human Services Core Value in that I "believe in the dignity and worth of all people"). I tend not to speak of her or follow anything she has done or is doing and I generally roll my eyes to any mention of her name in most conversations.

Having said that, I feel the need to comment on reports all over the media about how she stopped her show in Vancouver for approximately half an hour, after performing only three songs because GM Place had become too smoky.

Now, I'm a proud Vancouverite (alright so I don't actually live in Vancouver but close enough) and I am well aware of the ventilation in GM Place and Vancouver's love affair with cigarettes and pot in general (hell I live in the small town that is apparently known for smoking and growing weed more than anything else). I am also well aware that it is generally customary to "hot box" GM Place during rock concerts, I mean back in grade 10 I went to see Ozzy Osbourne who of course condones the smoking of BC Pot (our greatest export apparently) during his concerts (that turned out to be some night. I didn't even smoke but I can assure you by the end of his concert I was flying high!).

However, the difference between an Ozzy Osbourne concert (or any other heavy metal/rock concert for that matter) and a Britney Spears concert, other than the fact that one plays better music than the other, is the fact that Britney Spears, whether she is lip syncing or actually singing, is taking in a lot more oxygen (or recirculated air) when she is "dancing" (note the quotation marks) than Ozzy is while he is singing/jumping up and down like a frog.
Alright, so that may not be true but COMMON PEOPLE! SMOKING WEED AT A BRITNEY SPEARS CONCERT??? That's like smoking weed at a Kenny G concert or the Opera!!! WHO GETS HIGH WHILE LISTENING TO BRITNEY SPEARS????

Wow! That was an unexpected rant! My point is, as "performers" Britney Spears and her dancers need to have some sort of clean air in order to perform well. You cannot sing (or lip sync) and dance (or whatever it is she calls dancing) while taking in polluted air. I don't care if she smokes while she's off stage. I don't care if she tokes while she's off stage. When you are performing on stage you need to breath in a lot more air than when you are simply walking around or sitting on the couch.

I agree with what she did! I think she has the right and the duty to protect herself, if not her dancers, by stoping what she is doing and waiting for the air to clear. I don't care how much money you paid to see her girate and lip sync! It's a lot better to pay a bunch of money to see her stop the show and wait until the air is clear than it is to pay a lot of money, watch her perform three songs and then see her, or her other crew members, collapse on stage and have the rest of the show cancelled all because some idiots decided to toke up (again, at a Britney Spears concert?!?)

Additionally, I think that GM Place needs to do a better job of enforcing the No-Smoking bylaw! Personally, I don't really care too too much about me and second hand smoke only because I know I have options and I can move if I want, but if we are to have a no-smoking bylaw then shouldn't that bylaw be enforced everywhere. If smokers are allowed to hot box GM Place then why can't they hot box the office that they work in? That doesn't seem fair now does it? Not to mention the fact that they will enforce the no-smoking right outside the building doors but once you get into the arena it's all systems go! That doesn't make sense... "No smoking outside while other people are waiting in line to get in. I know they have the option to move a bit and get some real oxygen but there's no smoking allowed." but once you get inside the building "Haha, non-smokers have no choice but to breath in this smoky air... feel free to light up!".

Let me just make sure one thing is clear, I am not a smoker. I have never tried smoking, and I probably never will. However, if you want to kill your body much faster then by all means go for it. I would prefer that you do not do it while I am around, but I too have the option to step aside and find some fresh air. I shouldn't have to, but (especially considering my size) it's a lot better than getting into a fight with a smoker! Just don't blow your smoke in my face and we'll be fine!

One last thought, on a general note, we really have to stop thinking of only ourselves and maybe start thinking about other people around us. If we can achieve this, perhaps we can acheive world domination!

How to Eat a Burger at 100 Kilometers an Hour

2009-03-30T17:12:00.004-07:00

Normally I don't condone doing anything other than driving when it comes to driving. No talking on cell phones, no texting. I rarely even condone eating anything other than simple finger food such as fries or chips, and drinking (non-alcoholic of course), but today for myself was a bit of an exception.

I was having a very strong craving for a burger while I was on my way to my class this evening. When I crave burgers, it has to be a burger from Triple O's or White Spot. Mmmm... I love the Triple O sauce, which I am convinced is some sort of mixture of mayo, ketchup, and perhaps some sort of cheese sauce... perhaps it's better to not know! Anyways, so I pull into the local Triple O's Drive Thru and put in my order.

The first portion of my meal, that being the fries, went well as I was driving my way to school... but the burger part was quite difficult. Firstly, for those of you who know me will know just how small my hands are. Thus due to my hands being ridiculously small I have a very hard time holding a burger with one hand. Basically, until I had eaten enough of the burger to be able to hold it in one hand, I had to wait until I was stopped at a red light in order to take a bite.

Secondly, unlike snack wraps or donairs where the food is nicely wrapped in an envelope-type tissue paper that you can simply shimmie down in order to keep the food wrapped while not eating the paper, burgers are round and most often not wrapped in a pouch-like wrapper, so you have to fold the paper around and underneath the burger so that you do not end up with a whole load of condiments and lettuce falling in your lap. Again, doing this while driving 100 km/hr with tiny nible hands is very hard to do.

Lastly, you know how at the end of the burger you sometimes end up with a little bit of bun, a larger portion of burger, and more condiments on your plate then burger in your hand? Well put that inside a not-so-well folded pouch-like tissue paper... Imagine me driving on the highway with this little bit of bun, a larger portion of burger, swimming in Triple O Sauce, wrapped in a large amount of tissue paper. I debated eating this last bit of my burger, but when it came down to it I knew that if I were to simply dig in I would have Triple O Sauce all over my face.
All in all, the burger was well worth the trouble.
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Speaking of burgers, I heard about this super large burger that you can get at a West Michigan Whitecaps minor baseball game.It has five beef patties, five pieces of cheese, nearly a cup of chili, lots of salsa and fritos (corn chips) on an 8-inch sesame-seed bun. It's calorie count is 4800 calories. To put that into daily caloric restrictions, my calorie intake per day should be between 1200 and 1250 (in order to maintain my weight). Thats approximately 4 days worth of calories, almost an entire work week's worth (say that aloud five times fast... bet you can't) of calories.

I dunno about the rest of you, but this makes me want to vomit. Who would be able to eat that in an entire sitting? I don't even want to know. Apparently if you can eat this $20 dollar burger in one setting, you can get a free special T-shirt. I'm not sure I can speak for everyone else, but for $20 I can-and would prefer to- buy a new T-shirt (special or not) without having to engage in massive gluttony.

Science World Funtastico!!!

2009-03-28T00:33:00.006-07:00

March 18, 2009 is the day Jackie and I took a trip to Science World!!! The Lego exhibition was on and we were very very excited!
Although because it was in the middle of spring break we had to fight crowds like crazy! It was overwhelmingly busy that we decided to first duck into the small theater to see what was going on there. That's where we found this guy...

Then we decided to get the learning adventure started! Here's Jackie trying to listen in on somebody's personal conversations... actually you could barely hear what you were supposed to hear from those tubes because there were so many people!!!

Ever since I was a child I have had a specific fascination with water, waterfalls, and water toys so naturally I gravitated towards this wonderful contraption!
Although I love water and I love this water thing... My favorite part about the above picture is this guy...

I dunno if you can tell... but if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you will see that my camera apparently did not get rid of the red eye and so this scientist dude looks even more like a MAD SCIENTIST!!!

I constantly had to babysit Jackie as she always wanted to play with the other kids... hehe

So, Jackie and I found this area with these building sticks and whatnot and the plaque on the box of stick things said "can you build a figure taller than yourself?" Naturally Jackie and I stepped up to the challenge, but as you can see above, our first attempt did not go so well...

However we made it happen on our second attempt!!!
Side Note: Notice how the bottom section is fairly uniform and could possibly look structurally sound and the top part is well... not so much. Yeah! Guess who did the top part... That's right, yours truly (i.e. me!). I decided to take on a more creative and unique approach to it!
Further Note: as was reinforced throughout this exercise, neither of us are engineering students! Moreover, this emphasized my role as an arts student!

Well, nothing lasts forever unfortunately!

Tap dancing on a large piano is a lot more fun (and safer) than in your kitchen in your socks!

Notice the number of children around me compared to when Jackie was on this thing... Perhaps I looked too "adult" with my boots and whatnot!

So we finally got to the Lego section, and I realized that it was going to be more of a museum type thing with little sculptures of Lego stuff... it was interesting, but not enough to keep this ADD mind from wandering. Anywho, I did manage to take a photo of this Lego sculpture of the YVR Skytrain station.

Oh, and of course the large Lego Race car! I took it too seriously and put on my racing face...

Meanwhile Jackie just decided to smile away!

Science World from above!

Taking a well needed breather on our way up to the Omnimax.

Waiting for Van Gogh: Brush of Genius (our Omnimax experience for the day) to start.

I hate mind bending puzzles!!!

However Jackie seems to excel in them!

This is my new favorite Lizard!

Jackie trying to be a T-Rex

Jackie and I in the Beaver Dam!

Yes it was a great day of learning and building and playing with other people's little children. We both agreed that building that "thing" to make it as tall as ourselves was easily the highlight of the day! It's too bad somebody rushed to make it look more entertaining rather than focusing on structure! :P

Make Every Road Trip Into a Day at the Amusement Park

2009-03-28T00:07:00.003-07:00

Plinky Asks:

Engineers are getting closer to the dream of the flying car. How would you sell one of these if you were an auto dealer?
Sure, it's only flown for 37 seconds so far, but any day now it'll be ready for consumers. What's your sales pitch?

Answer:

Stuck in Traffic? The car in front of you going too slow? No Worries, why not take a flying leap in this Luxury Leaper!

The Luxury Leaper offers you an astounding 37 seconds of pure high flying in order to jump to the front of the line!

Imagine carpooling to work everyday in a ride like a roller coaster! Make every road trip into a day at the amusement park! Baffle the thugs with your no-hydrolics-needed lift!

Your kids will never want you to drop them off 3 blocks away from the school anymore because your ride is super fly!

The Things You Find On Craigslist!

2009-03-22T12:47:00.003-07:00

And I'm not talking about potential material products either!

I was bored at work (surprise surprise) when I came across a posting on Craigslist called "Best of Craigslist" which is a compilation of ridiculously funny/innapropriate/colourful postings. I read the following posting called Eleven Things I Hate About Working At a Liquor Store (Vancouver) and I just had to share it with you all! I hope you enjoy...
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Eleven Things I Hate About Working at a Liquor Store (Vancouver)

Date: 2009-01-19, 5:38AM PST

1. Anyone under the age of 20 who rolls their eyes when I ask them for ID. I'm sorry -- you still look like a fucking kid, and the government of British Columbia says that fucking kids aren't supposed to be drinking so that's why I've IDed you. What -- do you think that it's OBVIOUS you've just turned 19 and I should just be able to tell? Well, sorry, I can't. So don't roll your eyes at me and sigh heavily when you reach for your cards. My job is on the line.

2. Anyone who can't believe that I want TWO pieces of government ID. Why can't you believe it? That's what my bosses tell me to ask for, so I ask for it. It's plastered everywhere: right when you walk in, on drink displays, and at every cash register. So, yes, I want TWO pieces of ID. No, your gym membership is not government ID! GODDAMMIT DON'T ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME.

3. People who buy one item and want, like, 10 plastic bags to carry their shit. What are you, some kind of serial environmental offender? What really kills me are the assholes who buy a PLASTIC bottle (virtually unbreakable), then want the plastic bottle in a paper bag, then want the plastic bottle in a paper bag in a plastic bag, then want a double plastic bag for their plastic bottle in a paper bag in a plastic bag. The best is when people catch me giving them a sour look and they say, "I'm taking the bus." Really. Does that make it better?

4. People who ask me to smile. Smiling isn't in my job description. The line up is HUGE. I'm just putting my head down and trying to plow down as MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE IN AS LITTLE TIME AS POSSIBLE SO YOU CAN ALL GO HOME AND DRINK FASTER. Speed requires concentration; when I concentrate I don't smile, so don't ask me to fucking smile when I'm already trying to be as fast as possible for you.

5. People who touch my hair. Generally happens about once or twice a busy weekend -- someone hammered (or weird) comes in and really wants to touch my hair. I know my hair tends to look fabulous, but just because I'm within arm's reach doesn't give you the right to maul my locks. Look, compliment, but don't touch!

6. Cell phones. Chewing gum, too. Okay -- I can accept that being irritated by chewing gum is a problem that I ought to keep to myself, but cell phones? Now that I've worked as a cashier I understand how intensely rude it is to be on your cell while going through the checkout. Just get off that damned cancer pod you've got glued to your ear and provide a little respect to the cashier. Once I had a lady refuse to acknowledge me because she was yakking on her cell, but then had the nerve to exclaim, "I just guess they don't do anything around here anymore!" when I pretended not to hear her asking for a bag.

7. People who buy one or two items and then hover at the end of my til while they stare at the receipt like they're trying to decipher the fucking Rosetta Stone. Okay -- so you wanna check your receipt because you seem to believe that I have incorrectly rung up ONE OR TWO ITEMS. But move on -- don't stand in the way of the next customer and, seriously, does it take a full 30 seconds of INTENSE FOCUS to understand your receipt? You're clearly an idiot, so get out already!

8. Gaggles of ten or so barely-post-teenage thugs/sluts/idiots who come into the store and scream and giggle and pose like they're already at the club. Being able to hear your idiot babble all the way from the other side of the store means that you're being too damned loud. I feel sorry for all the people within 30 feet of you, let alone 100. Groups like this generally have me bolting for the warehouse.

9. Restaurant owners who have special discount accounts but don't tell me that they have an account until everything is rung through. Oh, you own a restaurant? It's ever-so-popular, is it? Well, my! I'm sorry I didn't know who you were right away, because clearly you're VERY IMPORTANT because you own a restaurant. Now I have to ring the WHOLE THING through again because you didn't have the foresight to tell me who you were. Sorry for wasting your VERY IMPORTANT time.

10. Sleazy guys who press tips into my hand. Listen, buddy, that 72 cents of change you really wanna hand me while staring deep into my eyes does not impress. I'm not allowed to accept tips anyways. So don't try to tip me -- I don't like it, I have to say no, it's awkward. No, you can not have my number because you gave me 72 cents.

11. Older women who WANT me to ID them. Ugh, yeah, back to the ID thing. Listen -- I'm sorry you're 30-something and you don't look under 19 anymore. Really, I think people are beautiful at all ages. Don't worry about it! Just be gorgeous the way you are. But I still don't need to see your ID, so please stop shoving it at me. It just makes you look really desperate, especially in front of your friends.

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Anyways, don't get me wrong -- there are a great many things I love about my job. It pays well, my coworkers are pretty colourful, and the job tends to protect my safety and human dignity pretty damned well. When it's not sobusyIwanttokillmyself then it's a dream job. There's even a great many kinds of customers that I do love -- I just love bitching about the ones I hate more. :P

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Other Fun Postings Include:
-Executive Life for Sale (OR REPO)
-Carry My Casket-m4w
-Dear Mr. Scammer.. I am sorry - m4w (A Classic!!!)
-Dear Best Buy #305
-WANTED: ROADKILL

Please stop talking and start staring

2009-03-20T17:44:00.002-07:00

Plinky Asks:
Who would you rather be seated next to on a daylong bus trip: a talkative person with a really irritating voice, or a quiet person who keeps staring at you?

My Answer:

I would prefer the quite starer because then I can easily put on my headphones and listen to my music without having to turn up the volume too loud to try and drown out the irritating voice. It is also easier to ignore people who just stare at you because if you try to ignore a talkative person (irritating voice or not) they will simply continue talking to you and even start to ask you why you are ignoring them. Ever spend time with a kid who constantly says "why? why? why?" after everything you say? Exactly!

Procrastination Station

2009-03-20T17:36:00.002-07:00

Ok, so this is blog post numero 2 for the day... Exciting isn't it?!?

Anywho, so I just thought I'd mention that while getting bored with my normal procrastination methods, i.e. Finding about my friends lives through facebook, reading other people's blogs, watching The Daily Show, etc etc, I decided to try "Plinky".

"What the hell is a Plinky" one might say... I don't really know the answer to that question. All I know is it's another blog-type thingy but this one gives you prompts or questions to start your blogging post... basically it's for people who want to blog everyday but don't know what to write about. Once you've answered the prompt then it can be posted to Blogger and other fandangled blog related sites. Thus, if all of a sudden you notice some random post here that does not make sense (ok wait, that sounds like every posting of mine... haha), it is safe to assume that I am bored at work, bored at school, or that I have a paper of some sort to write... and don't want to.

Anywho, happy reading!

My Left Arm is Jealous of My Right Arm!

2009-03-20T15:17:00.003-07:00

So, the painful "sprained/maybe fractured wrist" saga continues!

It has now been over a week and a half since "the incident". I have had continuous questions from random people as to what happened to my wrist or what I did to my wrist. I've noticed that if I don't answer fast enough (which is within 0.35 seconds of the last word in their question being audible), people will start guessing as to what happened. The number 1 answer that a lot of people have guessed for some weird reason has been a skiing accident, to which I always reply "I WISH!" A skiing accident would be far less embarrassing and would mean that I had been skiing recently. Of course, the last time I went skiing was back in high school... many many years ago! One of the most interesting guesses had to be that I sprained my wrist while smacking my boyfriend around... For those of you who know me and my boyfriend, well you can attest that I am much smaller than he is and that I would probably fail at smacking him around... not to mention the obvious that I love him and would never smack him around to begin with.

This whole issue with my wrist has definitely rekindled my hatred for clinics though! I called the clinic yesterday because although I'm pretty sure that it is simply a sprain, I wouldn't mind knowing what the results were from the Xray. The receptionist told me that yes, they had gotten the results back (finally) and that I would have to come in to talk to the doctor about them. Initially I think "ok so, if I have to go in and talk to the doctor, that must mean that something is outta wack" but then I think "if something was fractured or broken though, you would think that they would have called me when they got the xrays back rather than wait until I called them."

So I asked the receptionist if they would have called me when the xrays came in if something was wrong and she said "probably". First of all, PROBABLY???? What the hell does that mean, probably??? So then I asked her to specify yes or no as to whether they would have called me and she said yeah. My next issue then is why do I have to come in and talk to the doctor if nothing is broken/fractured? All the doctor is going to tell me is yep, it's a sprain... ice it for comfort... keep it in a splint when using it... try not to use it too much. Why can't the receptionist simply look at the results and say, yes it's broken/fractured, or no it's just a sprain - suck it up!
When I asked the receptionist if it was pretty safe to assume that it was just a sprain and nothing more she answers, "maybe, maybe not."

At this point I am ready to slam the phone down like a tween who just got into an argument with her best friend over wearing the same headband to school the other day!

Clinics are supposed to be helpful and easier/faster/more convenient to get to than your family doctor. I ended up having to ask the clinic to fax my results to my family doctor's office so that I can call them and get that receptionist to tell me (which I of course keep forgetting to do within their hours, thus I still don't know the results). I'm not waisting my time going to the clinic just so that they can tell me what I already know. In fact I think it is a ploy to raise their client/patient count for the day. I assume they must get some sort of funding or something for having a high number of patients going in and out of their office.

Anyways, here's hoping that I wont have to go to the clinic again anytime soon!

Onto less anoying (yet still slightly annoying) things, my left arm has expressed that it is feeling jealous of the lack of work my right arm has had to do lately! It is true that since "the incident" I have been driving (almost strictly) with my left hand, I carry more things and lift more things with my left hand, and I've even started trying to write with my left hand! As a result, my left arm has started to complain by cramping up in the biceps (by the way, it is a very very strange thing when the muscles in your biceps cramp up... I'm so used to cramping in my feet, thighs, toes and even palms of my hands but I have never experienced cramping in my biceps before) and feeling tight in the forearm. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to get a brace for my left hand too. Then what will I do??? Perhaps I should start teaching my feet how to drive...

My Eyes Feel Like Lava Lamps

2009-03-18T02:44:00.003-07:00

You know how lava lamps have the lava that just sort of gloups up and down... my eyes are starting to feel like that on the inside!

I simply wanted to address the fact that I have just posted three (and now four) new blog entries. I decided that I couldn't sleep (maybe too much excitement because Jackie and I are going to Science World tomorrow/today) and so I thought I'd catch up on my blogging of the last couple of weeks.

Now I will post a new blog entry on my Tales From the TL blog (http://frontdesktltales.blogspot.com/) and then I think I will put my lava lamp eyes to sleep!

Anywho, I hope you enjoy!

"I May Owe You a Bag of Frozen Peas!"

2009-03-18T02:04:00.004-07:00

So, Wednesday I was unloading the dishwasher when I suddenly started to tap dance in my kitchen. This is not an unusual sight at my house, as the kitchen used to be where I would practice my dances because well, there's no other place in my house (other than the bathroom) where I could actually hear the sounds from my taps on the floor (the rest of the house is carpeted). However, I was not actually practicing a dance, I am just never able to completely stand still, thus I tap!

This wont mean much for a lot of you out there but I did a flap on my right, followed by a flap on my left, and a brush of the right foot, finishing with a single pullback on my left foot; however, I did not land the pullback successfully... Lost my balance and...TaDaaa! Landed on my wrist while trying to avoid falling and hitting my head on the open dishwasher!
This here is the scene of the accident! Right in the area with the kitchen chair, pantry, sharp wall corner, and of course the open dishwasher door! So many Hazards!
It hurt so very much and was very red but I wasn't too concerned about it until I started to notice a rather large bump starting to form... not to mention the fact that I could not move it at all! So I grabbed a bag of frozen peas and sat down to nurse my hurt while finishing watching The Daily Show (Priorities!). I then called Richard to ask him if he'd like to join me on an adventure to the clinic but of course his liscense had expired and he hadn't gotten around to renewing it so I had to pick him up and drive.

Normally, a visit to the clinic will take anywhere from an hour to three or four... but the wait was so ridiculously fast that I only had time enough to call my mother and tell her that I fell, hurt my wrist, and that I had stolen a bag of frozen peas and will probably have to buy her another bag later because it would no longer be frozen (now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure I STILL have those peas in the backseat of my car... Ooops!)

Once the doc took a quick look, and poked and proded and pulled and pushed on my wrist she sent me to the local hospital to get some Xrays!

Again, normally waiting to get Xrays done is a full day event at best! This time while in the waiting room, I only had enough time to notice that they had John & Kate Plus 8 on the television, when I heard from down the hall "Kari Rice"... Then three quick snapshots and I was on my way home!
For the last week now, I have been learning to do things with my left hand or with both hands. Of course the hardest thing to do while wearing the splint is writing and of course I just happen to be right handed... and I really can't write with my left hand either!

Someone told me that she read once that if you practice writing backwards with your left hand, it can either help you write with your left hand normally or it's almost easier to write backwards with you left hand... I dunno about this claim so today during class I gave it a try...
You probably can't really see it but this is what I wrote...

With my left hand backwards:
"I WAS TOLD THAT IF I PRACTICED WRITING BACKWARDS WITH MY LEFT HAND I MIGHT BE ABLE TO TEACH MYSELF HOW TO WRITE WITH MY LEFT HAND.
I AM FINDING IT HARD TO DO IT. IN FACT IT SEEMS TO BE GETTING WORSE."

Then I wrote backwards with my right hand to compare:
"LETS TRY WITH MY RIGHT HAND. MY RIGHT HAND IS INJURED WHICH IS WHY I THOUGHT I COULD TRY WRITING WITH MY LEFT HAND. MY WRITING IS GENERALLY BAD. MY BACKWARDS WRITING WITH MY RIGHT HAND IS BAD ENOUGH. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT MY LEFT HAND IS MORE WIGGLY."

One final comparison, would be to write normally with my left hand:
"BUT IF YOU LOOK AT MY WRITING FORWARDS WITH MY LEFT HAND YOU CAN SEE THAT IT ISN'T MUCH DIFFERENT FROM MY BACKWARDS."

Yes, I know... it is very sad that I resort to doing something mindless and random like this during class. Don't worry, I am just as dissapointed/sad! Haha!

I never did hear back from the clinic/hospital about my Xray results, however seeing as it has now been one week and I can start to move my wrist a bit more, I'm pretty sure it was just a major sprain!

The Return of LAQ

2009-03-18T01:27:00.004-07:00

Ah yes! The day that I was waiting for, for two weeks finally came! March 13, 2009 saw the return of Lori-Ann Quon back to the wonderful province of B.C., if only for the weekend! Yes, I got my best friend back for an evening, Jackie got her biological sister back for an evening, Jackie and I split up as new best friends for an evening! It was all very exciting!
The Quon family and Dave (I'm included in the family portion... but Dave isn't apparently. Probably because I've been around longer! haha! Even if/when those two get married I will still be more family than he is... at least in my eyes :P But I digress...) all went to White Spot for dinner to catch up and celebrate her return (and a little celebration was had for I had good news about a departure at work)!
I love this picture only because something messed up with the lighting and it looks like Jackie's head is poking through the window and the window blinds.

While Lori-Ann prefers the serious happy pose, Jackie can't seem to make her nostrals any bigger...

Oh, I may have been wrong about that last sentence! Hehe, I only kid because I love!
Finally Jackie gets her act together and I get a really nice shot of the two sisters who could very well be twins... even though they are separated by 5-ish years.
Lori-Ann and Dave looking mighty happy!

We went to momford's office in downtown Maple Ridge to tell one of her co-workers to go home because it was late, and Lori-Ann wanted me to take a picture of one of our main streets in Maple Ridge all dug up so that she can show her people in Fort Mac that our roads are made up of dirt and gravel!

After dinner, Lori-Ann Jackie and I took a quick trip to Castle Fun Park to do some go-karting!
The flash was not on for this picture, which is why everything is slightly blurry. I realized that the flash would be off right before Jackie took the picture so I thought I'd move to change that and thus the super blurry me! On the upside, Jackie thought this looked like a really good picture of the two of them so I thought I'd include it here!
Finally, la piece de resistance! All three best friends together again... if only for one night!

Maija-Liisa Memorial Scholarship FUNdraiser!!

2009-03-17T23:58:00.006-07:00

Yes, I know my title is slightly lame! Yes, that is the best title I could come up with at the time! I am sure it would have sufficed even if I didn't capitalize the F U N in fundraiser, but then my title would seem boring... and we don't want boring! Anyways, this post is not about my ability to come up with lame titles so back off ok?!!

Wow... don't you hate fighting with yourself? I know I do! Anywho, lets get right to it!
On March 7, 2009 a bunch load of people gathered together at The Ranch Pub in Maple Ridge to commemorate the great loss we have all suffered, and to raise money for the Maija-Liisa Memorial Scholarship for SFU! The night was wonderfully organized by probably the most thoughtful group of people (most of which are young adults and students), and included draw prizes, a healthy silent auction, really amazingly good food, and of course alchohol (for those of us over the age of 19).
I spent some good time with my sister and new best friend Jackie, as well as a lot of the wonderful ladies that I used to dance with. (Don't Jackie and I look like identical twins??? I think soo!)
Aparently the Rice family dresses up for pub night! Dad doesn't usually wear a collared shirt unless he is dressing up. Then again, when I joked about the Rice family dressing up for pub night, he defended himself in saying "No! This is the ONLY clean shirt I have left... and if I'm going to wear a collared shirt then I should wear nice pants... and if I am going to wear nice pants I have to wear my good cowboy boots!" Oh, daddy!
Yes, fun was had by all (or at least I think fun was had by all... In my pictures it seems like fun was had by all!) Jacob and I like to pose seriously for couple photos! (HA!)
Haha! Right before taking this picture I yelled "Candid Shot!" and this is what candid shots usually look like! The youngens from the Dance Circle don't mind though (or at least I assume they don't mind... I don't remember anybody complaining at the time but whatever!)
You know, these girls have all grown up SO much and SO quickly! (does that make me sound OLD??? HA!) Molly, Marja-Leena, and Julia looking very adult-like (They still couldn't fool the waitress though (I'm guessing, haha)).
Molly, Marja-Leena, Jackie, and Julia once more! Looking good ladies!!
So, onto the main attraction (actually I thouroughly enjoyed just being able to spend time with and see the girls from the Dance Circle... but prizes are fun too!) Mom won the silent auction for some gardening tools and gloves and I think a gift certificate to the Triple Tree as well! Way to go mom!!
Haha! One of the highlights of the night!!! I (somewhat ruthlessly) won the silent auction for a Starbucks Gift Pack which included two hand painted ceramic mugs, a stainless steel water bottle, four Starbucks chocolatey treats, and a James Brown Cd!

Here's the mini story on how I won the Gift Pack. When I first got up to the table (After Rum and Coke #1) I looked at a few items then decided on three items to put my name down for: the Starbucks Gift Pack, a Disney Print, and a Bath/Candle at home Spa Pack. When I got outbid for the Disney Print and Bath Pack (After Rum and Coke #2) I was reminded that I should not bid again for the Bath Pack due to certain allergies that I have, thus I devoted all my attention to the Starbucks Pack!

I started to get obsessed about winning this thing (After Rum and Coke #3 or was it 4?) and my mom thought it would be funny to outbid me a couple times just to bug me. It then got to a point (After Rum and Coke #... I lost count) where I would be constantly standing near/beside/behind the display table to keep an eye on the sign sheet so that as soon as someone put their name down I would outbid them!

Finally I had the winning bid of $25.50... but when I gave in my money, I had forgotten how much I put down, and thought that I put down $26.50 so I ended up paying an extra dollar! All goes for a good cause though!
So, another funny winning story... Everybody was given 1 draw ticket with dinner and you could buy additional ones for a dollar each or 7 tickets for 5 dollars. So, I decided to buy 7 tickets and dad and Jacob decided to give me their tickets so that I can try to win something.

Initially there were three prizes that I would have liked to win: a set of two Indoor/Outdoor Roman Candles, A tea press with assorted teas, and two tickets to a Canucks game. I put the majority of my tickets in for the candles and the Tea set. Later in the evening, Jacob bought another 7 tickets and had written my name on all of them. So I went again and put more tickets in the tea set and candle holders, a couple more tickets for the Canucks game... then I put one single ticket in the jar for the Sunday Brunch for Two at The Pantry. Of course, what do I win? The sunday brunch!Jacob put up the envelope just as I went to take the picture. He says he likes this picture because I am the one not smiling in it thus I ruined the picture!!! :PYes, it was a really great evening! There were some small speeches from several people thank us all for coming out. A woman from F.A.C.T. (Families Against Crime and Trauma) came out to share her story and support for Maija-Liisa's family while also to tell us about and ask us to sign a petition to recognize Vehicular Homocide as a crime (Please go to : http://www.familiesagainstcrime.org/ to learn more about F.A.C.T and it's mission and to download and sign the petition as well if you like).

Marita also got up at the end to thank us all for coming and to thank and recognize all the wonderful people and friends who put this night together. She talked about how great it was that everybody came out and more importantly she reminded us that Maija-Liisa had so many aspirations that she wanted to achieve in life and that we all now should take on those aspirations and fulfill our own aspirations with her in mind! So touching. I cried... I'm sure I wasn't the only one!

This night was very important for me, but I think it would be safe to say that this night was MORE important for Maija-Liisa's parents, her sister Marja-Leena, as well as her closest friends to bring people together to commemorate and turn this negative event into a positive movement. Additionally, as I told Marita when she came around to say hi, it was very important that we all were there to let her and her family know that they have community support and that we will all be there for each and every one of them if and when they call on us!

Has it Been So Long???

2009-03-01T07:46:00.002-08:00

7 months ago, I was the happiest I remember ever having been.
6 months ago, my world crashed once again.
5 months ago, I started seeking out help and attempting to be as happy as I was 7 months ago.
3 Months ago, I was almost there... but really it was simply relief from finals being done.
2 months ago, I started considering a trip to Alberta, to see a friend who had not even left yet.
One month ago, I saw a rainbow which made me smile... and cry.
10 days ago, I was supposed to go to Hope with a friend, but ended up driving to Harrison Hot Springs by myself.
5 days ago, I found out there would be a gathering to commemorate 6 months ago.
3 days ago I cried for no apparent reason while driving towards one of my major "happy places".
45 minutes ago, I read a wonderful note on facebook that made me smile and cry... longing for supernatural powers that would allow me to undo 6 months ago... and yearning to return to St. John's Newfoundland, 7 months ago!

I know that we can never turn back the hands of time. We can only go forward in time. It does not mean we must move on in life and completely forget about the adversities we all have faced, but it means we CAN move on and remember the great things before the adversities, as well as the positive outcomes of the adversities... People come together in a time of adversity, leaving us all with a sense of community, a larger support system that we did not know existed and even new friends. When we face adversities we become greatful for the people and opportunities that we have in life, as well as the people and opportunities to be with and know the people that we may have lost.
It will never get easier. It will never become second nature. But eventually we will all heal and rather than crying about what we have lost, we will smile and remember the things that make us happy. Has it been so long? Yes, it has... but eventually "this too shall pass" and we will be as happy as I was 7 months ago!

RIP Maija-Liisa. May you continue to watch over us and grace us with your beauty everyday of our lives.

Oh my! Let's Play Catch Up!

2009-02-24T01:03:00.007-08:00

Hello All!

So, while I was starting to download my latest pieces of photographic genius, I realized that it had been a long time since I have posted photos here, on my facebook page, or even on my PicasaWeb page. Well, that is now no longer the case!!! I have now uploaded (to PicasaWeb only so far) pictures that go as far back as September with my hiking in Menekada up to as recent as January 31, 2009 when I went Snowshoeing with Jacob and his parents.

Anywho, so I thought this blog post could simply be more of a promotion of my PicasaWeb page and an invitation to view some of my photography! Note: not all photography shown is proffessional!

If you go to www.picasaweb.google.com/karinabear00 you will find pictures such as these...
I love shadows! Especially ones that make me look like I have rediculously long legs!!!The sun attempting to peek through the cloudsOh my Murray! He is the only single (and he's super good looking) man on the Great Big Sea stage!!!
Ah yes! Sean McCann, another very handsome lad from Great Big Sea.

We then of course have the TL Christmas Partay!!!Cadid Shot! That would be Phillip, Ryan, and Alexis hanging out at our super cool Christmas Party!
Ryan and I posing for the camera! Some of the rest of the party goers! Of course the story behind these pictures is that I forgot that I had my camera with me. I remembered my camera just as the party was slowing down so I rushed to get some sort of documentation that we did indeed have a Christmas party.

Speaking of Christmas... We Mustn't forget Christmas Eve at Nate's new dwelling (I really wish I had gotten some pictures of Tracy's family... then again this was the first time we all met... I didn't want to frighten them! haha)So apparently in my family, it is imparative that the Christmas Festivities cannot begin until the first picture of someone's middle finger has been taken! Snap... Nate's middle finger... CHECK... DONE! (At least the bugger is smiling behind that erected finger of his!)Momford and Dad lounging away!
Jacob and I. (I think I caught him off guard in this picture. Not to mention the flash was super bright because the room was a little darker).Momford and I hangin' out!

Once Christmas Eve is over it's on to New Years Eve (I apparently neglected to take pictures on Christmas Day)It always starts with Craig and his Beer!Well, it looks like Amanda is ready to kick some serious gluteus maximus! Meanwhile, I just realized that Byron took no time changing into his Pijama pants. Wow Byron! And yes, we did play the Wii all night long!Amanda is armed and ready... to make us some yummy nutricious food! Mmmm... Brie!And of course the night tends to end when one person has passed out from exhaustion!

Anywho... those are only some of the new photos you can see on my PicasaWeb gallery! Feel free to check it out!

Ciao!

My Blogging Bandwagon Had a Flat

2009-02-08T08:43:00.003-08:00

Hello to all out there in cyberspace,

I should really stop doing this but, yes it has been a LONG time since I have last blogged! November of 2008 to be exact! In fact, it is already the second month in the new year of 2009 and this is the first time I have blogged.

Having said that, I'm changing over a new leaf! Alright, so maybe it'll be the same leaf but I'm going to turn it over... and over, and over, and over once again until I get back into the swing of things. Speaking of swings... alright, you caught me. I've got nothing!

I need new ideas. I need inspiration. I need something to talk about. I need a snack!

Speaking of snacks... (haha and I do have something this time) I am trying to cut down on my snacks. I am trying to cut down on my "muffin top" or "water belly" as I like to call it. Yes, that's right, the once super ridiculously skinny Kari is now facing body image issues.
I never thought I would. I thought I had such a super confident sense of self no matter what came my way. Then again, that was when I was dancing 4 days a week for at least 1 to 2 hours at a time.

I used to be active. I used to be healthy. I used to be skinny. Now, not so much!

I am trying though! I bought a Tony Little Gazelle off of Craigslist for $50. What a bargain!!! It's super fun! Not just super fun... SUPER FUN!!! I try to work out at least 3 days a week on this thing. I find it hard though sometimes because I tend to feel quite bogged down after school or work and then I just don't want to! I enjoy watching the video that came with it though. Tony Little is CRAZY! But I do find him motivating for the most part. During the cool down, Tony talks about working out and how the hardest part is actually getting to and getting motivated to do the work out. He says though, "you always feel better after a workout". This is my cue to yell at Tony Little through my t.v. and say "BULL SH*T! I FEEL LIKE CRAP! I'm so tired, my legs hurt, my arms are throbbing and you KNOW my Rear End will not like me the next morning" To which he just smiles and continues telling me about how he got hit by a lobster truck. WHO GETS HIT BY A LOBSTER TRUCK???

Anyways, I digress... I think one of the hardest parts of losing weight is having stability. Maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise routine all the time. I guess it's more about self-discipline, and the fact that I have none! I need to be more motivated and self-disciplined.

Perhaps I can blog my efforts. Maybe that will keep me motivated. It could be entertaining to you all as well. I don't guarantee it, but I can try!

I'm going to attempt to start making some changes and adding some new stuff on here. If there is anything you wish to see on my blog please let me know. I'd really appreciate the feedback!

Ciao!

Uban Dictionary Survey

2008-11-25T01:42:00.006-08:00

Ok, so I was perusing facebook when I came across the following and thought "Hey, I'm bored and can't sleep... I should fill this out!"

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Go to UrbanDictionary.com and type in the answer to each question. Copy and paste the first answer to pop up.

** 1. First Name:

Kari

The best person in the world

No one is better than a Kari

(Ok, so I'm liking this thing already!!!Hehe!)

** 2. Nickname:
Carebear

1. A player who detests Player versus Player (PvP) gaming and whines about how it ruins their gaming enjoyment.

2. A player who is killed or has a loss through theft and then complains about player harassment.

3. A player who focuses their gameplay strictly on crafting or other non-competitve activity.

(This is actually the second definition but the first one was a little too mean!)

** 3. Favorite Colour:

Yellow

1. The hue of the portion of the visible spectrum lying between orange and green.
2. A racist remark based on the skin color of Asians.
3. That song by Coldplay.

"Yellow" by Coldplay:

~Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah, they were all yellow.~

** 4. What are you supposed to be doing right now:
Homework

Homework: (Noun) a punishment given to students by evil teachers after the students have already put in 7 hours of hard labor.
(See evil, torture, wrong, cruel, unjust, satan, crap)

my satan teacher gave me crap

** 5. Favorite Food:

Curry

greatest food ever

dogg lets go to my crib for some curry

** 6. Hometown:

1.	Maple Ridge
	A meathod of passing a joint between two people. It is performed when the marijuana cigarette is small and thus it must be past by pressing the people's two thumbs together. After the small joint is past, the passee says "Maple Ridge". This is inspired by the Rural Western Canadian town of Maple Ridge where there are massive amounts of grow-ops. You dropped the joint! You should have pulled a Maple Ridge.

(I had no idea that Maple Ridge was THIS famous for weed...)

** 7. Last Name:

1.	rice
	An automobile that has been equipped with gawdy, unnesecary accessories, such as 3' high spoilers, loud and/or repulsive paint job and body work. Owners of such automobiles feel that these accessories make their car the best in the world, when in fact it is not. That Prelude over there is nice, but this here Civic ain't nothin but a rice mobile

** 8. Favorite Ice Cream:

1.	strawberry
	WTF everyone it's a damn fruit. Person: Damnit I love strawberries so frickin' much they're red and have seeds and stuff yum. (To be honest I was actually going to say "Fudge Brownie" but I like to keep my blog relatively clean and the definitions were just absolutely awefull!)

Well That was fun! You have to watch who goes onto this website (urbandictionary) though because I tell ya, a ten year old could easily go onto this site and type something seemingly harmless such as "Finding Nemo" and it will come up with:

A male rite of passage; to locate the clitorus.

"Sally, my boyfriend's terrible in the sack."
"Betty, he's only 11- he's probably needs help finding nemo."

What's New Pussycat?

2008-11-25T00:04:00.002-08:00

Well well, if it isn't little ol' Kari finally coming back to blog once again! Ok, ok I realize it's been awhile, but I've been busy! I should get back on the band wagon pretty soon here though!
Unfortunately for those of you who may be reading this thinking that you may get something out of it, don't hold your breath! It is a little past midnight and I cannot sleep and am bored as hell, thus this is simply me trying to occupy my time while I am awake.

Hmm... What to say, what to say?
Last week I was at L-A's house just hanging around and reading the local paper (alright I'll admit I was actually reading the flyers) and I came across a flyer for Shoppers Drug Mart. Now I have blogged before about Method's holiday line and how I cannot find it here in Canada to save my life, but to my amazement Shoppers had the hand soap in last year's holiday line-up ON SALE!!! I was excited, almost too excited! I made L-A take me to Shopper's immediately so that I could buy one of each.
I did not come out with one of each though... In the store I had smelled the Hollyberry and the Cinnamon Bark but found that the Hollyberry was too sweet smelling and that the Cinnamon Bark was a little too spicey for my liking. But then I smelled the Peppermint Vanilla, and I was hooked!!! I started loading up my arms but then I decided to limit myself to six. Six, a nice even number meaning "a lot" but not quite "buying in bulk". I am now on the prowl and my hunger to hunt down more method products in the holiday line has been rekindled.

What I REALLY want is to find a Frosted Fir candle from this year's line-up. I love the smell of Douglas Fir and so if this candle does smell like it's name suggests then we will have one very happy Kari on our hands! I could easily order it off of Method's home website but the candles are $10 each (which really isn't that bad, I would pay $10 for a candle. I'm sure I have in the past) but the Shipping and Handling (and taxes) would be around $23 alone!!! Now I realize that these things are heavy and so a hefty S&H price is needed but I have a real hard time justifying paying $13 more in S&H than the actual product alone would cost. Not to mention the fact that I then have to consider the exchange rate because of course I am in Canada and it would be shipped from the U.S. Method's website would suggest to add more things to my shopping bag in order to make the shipping seem more worthwhile, however I don't really want to buy anything else at this point (mostly because I am a poor starving college student) and all I really want is the Frosted Fir Candle. I should just drive to Belingham, find a target and load up! Flaw: I'd be paying more in gas money than I would have originally for the S&H!!!

Anyways, that's my little rant for the wee hours of the early morning! Haha. Time to maybe go to bed!
Ciao

We are all Misfits in our own right

2008-10-27T12:08:00.002-07:00

It is interesting the circumstances that occur that easily distinguish the followers from the rest of us. Today for example, in my anthropology class the instructor had to leave class at 12 (our class actually ends at ten to one) but she wanted us all to stay until the end of class watching a video. She asked me specifically if I could return the video to faculty services once the class was over.
There was nothing or nobody to hold the rest of the students to stay. She did not say we would be having a test on this video or even suggest that there would be any sort of punishment if we didn't stay to watch the video. So here I sit in a dark classroom that is usually full of at least 20 or so students, with eight other people. That's right more than half of the class left! It is not surprising really. I mean who really thinks it's fair that our prof should be allowed to leave early but the rest of us have to stay?
One student just before leaving said "whoever stays is not cool!" Wow! This really is a first year course hey! I mean that's so high school! This brings me to my first statement... After one or two people left (and after the one student said those who stay are uncool) everybody, who was cool or who thought they were cool, got up and left! They all followed. Like sheep. Normally you can tell who are the people who are more likely to follow. Those are the ones who are normally popular, or think they are popular. The ones who don't see school as an important thing for their futures.
So I look at the eight people left in the classroom and notice that we are probably not the cool people! We are all misfits! I am surrounded by the two oldest students in our class, the typical guy who talks a lot during class (perhaps a nerd-like creature), a gothic type person, and other misfits including myself.
Why did I stay though? I mean I am quite literally sitting here "listening" to this video but I am actually sitting here blogging instead of watching. Because I care about my schooling. Because I am paying over three hundred dollars to watch this stupid video. Because I have to bring the video to faculty services after the class is over. Because I am a misfit!

Note to Self: Running out of Method

2008-10-16T01:10:00.005-07:00

Well hello to everybody in cyberland! I have to admit it has been awhile since I have blogged. It is a bittersweet realization because my lack of blogging really means that I have been able to sleep which is different from the usual insomnia I typically face every night. Congrats to me for the ability to sleep!

Having said that it is currently 1:30 in the AM hours! Alright, so tonight is the exception to my being able to sleep. I am unsure as to why I can't sleep, I just know that the sheep are too busy grazing in the fields to jump over the fence!
So anywho, I did have a reason to blog tonight/this morning but as usual my A.D.D has taken over my brain and has wiped out all of my events on my mental list of things to do. So I guess I will just have to write about whatever comes to my head until I figure out what it was I was going to write about.

Ummm... So I guess I can write about the environment (always a fun topic). I've been noticing lately that the environment has been steadily taking over my life in terms of helping to save the environment from our dirty little habits. As I had mentioned once in my blog before I have become obsessed with the cleaning product line called Method. Oh how I love the sweet sweet smell of method's sweet water air care products! I have even stumbled across and (now) read religiously a wonderfully entertaining yet always informational blog by graphic artist Nathan Aaron called Method Lust which examines, critiques, lusts and gossips (that's right, it's like the TMZ.com of household cleaners!) about all things Method.

Within the last couple of days Nathan has been sharing the news about Method introducing their holiday line up full of wonderfully christmas smelling scents coming soon to a Target near you! I just LOVE the smell of Christmas (that's right, holidays have smells and Christmas smells like Winter Berry, Gingerbread Spice, Spiced Pear, Toasted Hazelnut, and Frosted Fir).

Here's where my dilemma comes into play... In the United States, from what I know, most Target stores are carrying various Method products with a fairly good selection of scents. Here in Canada, or at least where I am, there obviously aren't any Target stores around but I have found Method products in some Safeway stores, Canadian Superstores, and Shoppers Drugmart however none of these retailers offer very good selection of scents or products for that matter. I could try to convince someone traveling to the states to simply leave their clothing behind when they come home and fill their suitcase with Method stuff, but I'm afraid that may make them a Method Mule and result in some very odd looks (not to mention that the volunteer would probably need to take some of the laundry detergent from me in order to wash their one outfit left). So basically I am calling out to those of you here in Canada to let me know if there is a particular retailer that may carry more than what Safeway has to offer. I don't want to miss out on making my home/office smell like Christmas 24/7/365!!!

By the way friends and family who may be reading this... if you aren't too sure about what to get me for Christmas.... *hint hint, nudge nudge, know what I mean, know what I mean* I could always use some wonderful smelling Method Products (don't worry I wont assume you are giving me cleaning products in order to convey some other meaning)!

Anywho, I have a Psyc Mid-Term exam to write in 6 and a half hours so I should probably study a little while longer then round up all the sheep and let the counting begin!

Ciao for now!

Missing Maija-Liisa: Life Lesson

2008-09-09T19:22:00.006-07:00

It's been forever since I've blogged! I've either been too busy, too lazy, or just not bored enough. Today though, I am not busy, lazy, and I'm definitely not bored. No, today I have an important blog. Something that I should have written about on August 28, 2008 but had not, due to the overwhelming emotions that surround the events of August 28, 2008.

For those of you in cyber space who are local will know the events that I speak of. For those of you in cyber space who don't have a clue what I am talking about, on the evening of August 28, 2008 a pick-up truck smashed through the front of a Sushi restaurant in the city where I live. Two women died and six others where injured, including a nine year-old boy who is now in a coma with possible severe brain damage.

One of the women who past away was 19 year-old Majia-Liisa Corbett. I grew up with Maija-Liisa while the two of us were in dance together since I was about ten. She was one of the most beautiful wonderful people that I have had the priviledge to have known in my life. She was always smiling and she just had a very contagious lust for life!

Although I had lost contact with her after I stopped dancing in order to focus more on my studies, I am having a very hard time coping with the loss of Maija-Liisa. I find myself bursting into tears at the most awkward and inappropriate times. While going through the "Anger" phase of grief I even found myself cleaning my car obsessively inside and out (which if you know me that does not happen very often at all) after which I collapsed into the passenger seat and threw up out the side of the car.

As I think about the various times and places and awkward situations that I have had an emotional breakdown, I can't help but stop myself and think "if this is what I am going through, what must her family or her best friends be going through?" My heart goes out to the Corbett family, especially her little sister. I do not pray much or often and I do not know really how to pray but I promise I will keep the Corbett family in my prayers along with the families of the other woman who past away and of the six other victims who were injured.

Here is where the life lesson comes into play:
I lost a friend of mine last summer to a tragic train accident. As with Maija-Liisa, I had lost contact with her over the years and we eventually hadn't had contact for awile. It was after her funeral that I vowed to keep in contact with all of my friends at least once or twice a month. Now here I sit regreting once again that I had lost contact with my friend and will no longer be able to speak to her again.

I urge you all to learn from my mistakes!!! We all drift apart as we grow older and make new friends while maybe still maintaining some old friends, but please keep in contact with the people you used to know. Call your friends from high school every month or so. Get together for coffee with someone that you haven't talked to in ages just to catch up and say hi. If you keep in contact, call your friends once or twice a month, you will not regret not having that last conversation should something like this happen to you. And PLEASE, if you ended a friendship badly or had an argument with a friend, take some time to cool down but always make sure you call or talk to them as soon as you can to put it behind you because you never want to have that last conversation with a friend before something happens to be a bad one.

I wanted to talk about the bastard that did this but I feel as though today is not the day. The funeral is later this evening and I don't want to have to think about how she died rather I'd like to celebrate how she lived! I shall have to discuss him in another blog.

I love you all.

Maija-Liisa, I know others have said it already but when we all had a gathering at the dance studio in your honour, I knew you and the other woman that died were the two beautiful rainbows in the sky looking down on us! I know you will be there to help guide us through this tough time and I will think of you always during thunder storms as I used to think as a child that thunder occured when the angels were tap dancing!!! So Maija-Liisa... keep tap dancing for me!

P.S. I borrowed the graduation dress photo of Maija-Liisa from facebook, I hope nobody minds!

A Message from St. John's

2008-07-04T12:42:00.004-07:00

Hello All!

I am currently enjoying day 7 of my trip to St. John's, Newfoundland. I have one more full day and then we fly out to PEI.

I was going to post all of my pictures from Day one up to today on my picasa site however at this point this freaking computer in the business center at the Mariott Hotel is sooo slow that I will post part of the pictures of Day One on my picasa site and one or two pictures from today on here just for a taste and you will all have to wait until I get home to see the rest!

To see part of day 1 of my photos, simply go to this web site... http://picasaweb.google.com/karinabear00

FORGOT!

2008-06-15T13:18:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention that I have been counting red cars that drive on lougheed hwy in front of the hotel... I lost count at 140-something-or-other. Also there has been a major abundance of Kawasaki motorcycles cruising down the lougheed today.

Bored at Work and Counting the Days!

2008-06-15T13:03:00.002-07:00

ALRIGHT! I'm bored! I'm at work and there's literally nothing to do! (except of course that thing that I was supposed to do but don't feel like doing so it wont get done until tomorrow!)

Anywho... just thought I'd let everybody know that I am still alive and kicking... maybe not kicking because I'm too lazy but... WIN!!!! A guest of mine just bought me a slurpee!!! Mmmm... Free Stuff!!! Mmmm... root beer slurpee!!! I love work! I love free stuff!

Where was I??? oh yeah, I'm alive. I've been busy with work and whatnot... I'm in the midst of applying to become a big sister with the big brothers big sisters program. I think it'd bee a lot of fun to have a little sister for three hours a week!

Anywho... this blog is going nowhere, just to let those of you who decided after the first paragraph that you might stick it out because "it's Kari, normally she's quite entertaining with a lot of things to say". Well here's what I'm saying now, if you've got somewhere to be feel free to leave because trust me it wont get any better. I'm just passing the time until the end of work... YES! 47 minutes left! woot woot!

So... counting down the days... yes I am counting down the days until Jacob and I hop onto a huge plane and swan dive all the way to newfoundland!!! WOOT WOOT! ONLY 13 DAYS!!!!!
Now that I have my camera and Jacob has his new digital SLR we are going to come home with LOOOOAAAAAADDDDDSSS of pictures for all to see so keep checking back sometime around July 12-ish... perhaps the 13th or 14th. Anywho, those will be posted on http://picasaweb.google.ca/karinabear00 where you can right now go and look at some of the pictures that I have from my new camera as well as the pictures from Richard's and my trip to Squamish! Keep checking that link for new photos as well... now that the weather is (hopefully) getting nicer I should end up taking more pictures.

Anywho... I should probably start my cash-out and whatnot so I shall let you all go!

13 DAYS!!!!

Ciao

A Dollar to the Olypics?!

2008-06-09T06:18:00.004-07:00

So yesterday I was at Zellers because Jacob was buying some kitchen gadgets and whatnot (you know, the normal things that a 22 year old would buy from Zellers on a sunday afternoon) and when he paid for his items the girl at the cash register asked him if he wanted to donate a dollar to the olympics.
Now I know that the olympics can be a touchy subject, especially for us Canadians and even more expecially for us Vancouverites due to the winter olympics being held here in Vancouver in 2010, but I would like to explore this situation as I am not sure what to think. I encourage any sort of feedback that anybody might have in regards to this subject or in response to what I have to say. Perhaps somebody can elighten me and change my thoughts.
So back to this question of donating a dollar to the olympics... Now I understand that the olympics are a huge undertaking with a massive price tag and that any extra funds that can be collected will be a great help to pay off this price tag; however, as a tax payer I am already funding the olympics whether I like it or not, and if I decided not to donate money to the olympics then I'd still end up paying for it with my tax dollars. I guess what I'm saying is, if I am already giving money to the olympics through my tax dollars then why should I give more through donations?
Secondly, asking me if I want to donate money to the olympics is a very vague question. I mean sure the question is a simple yes or no question and the subject of the question is the olympics, but the olympics is where the vagueness comes in. If I donate money to the olympics, where exactly is that money going? Is it going towards the funds to pay for the building of the venues? Is it going towards paying for the judges or other special people that will be there? Or is my money going towards the athletes who not only have to be able to perform well and train hard, but also have to pay (what I can only imagine) a hefty registration fee not to mention transportation fees, and lodging fees of some sort. You see, I guess it's more the question that bugs me... If it was to donate a dollar to help the athletes in their fees then sure maybe I'd consider it. If it was to help in the special olympics I would also donate. However donating to the olympics in general leaves me feeling less like I am actually helping and more like I just paid an extra dollar in taxes. I have nothing against the olympics. I am not an olympics hater, I just don't have the money to throw around on something that I am already paying for.
I don't have a problem in donating money for the most part. I donate to charities, relief funds, Scouting or Girl Guides programs, Big Brothers Big Siters programs, homeless shelters, Children's programs of any type, etc etc. but I have a problem being asked to donate to something like the olympics.
Along the same lines, I sometimes hate how people ask whether or not you want to donate money, even when you know the money is for something like to find a cure for cancer; because sometimes they ask it in such a way that if you say no for one reason or another it makes you look like the biggest jerk in the world! For example, one night I had just paid over 14 dollars to see a movie (that turned out to be a dud) and the girl at the desk asked me "would you like to donate a dollar to help the poor starving children with autism in Africa who have aids and have been battered by their drunken father with cancer who also beats on his wife who has cystic fibrosis." Ok, so she didn't actually ask me that (in so many words) but had I said no, I would have looked like the biggest ass hole who ever lived.
I guess what it all boils down to is, yes I would love to donate money but I prefer to donate to organizations that are there to help the people who need it the most. Ask me about the special olympics and I'm there, because really these people have had to deal with so much in their lives already and it is so inspiring to see them not feeling sorry for themselves but actually pushing themselves to be the best athletes they can be given their circumstances.

Corn Pops and Pop Corn

2008-05-06T20:56:00.002-07:00

So today was my first day off in a lo-Hoooong time from work and school and life! I woke up at 12:40 in the pm hours as I have been sick and tired and stressed with everything that is going on (mostly at work). When I finally actually got out of bed I decided to plunker down and eat some breakfast. Mmmm corn pops!

At about 1:30pm I decided it was time to watch Across the Universe. I bought it two weeks ago in plans to watch it while my parents were away. It's my little tradition to buy a new dvd and have a full out solo movie night when my parents go on vacation. I bought the movie, bought the pop corn, but I never got around to having my solo movie night. So, alone and cold my new movie sat on our shelf still wrapped in plastic until today. I enjoyed some pop corn with my movie. Hence the corn pops and pop corn title.

But what is this blog really about? Well, today it's about my new camera that I will be getting tomorrow!!!! ***rejoice*** My new camera is a Panasonic, which I wouldn't have normally bought because I am a severe Canon girl myself; however I fell in love with the idea of having a camera with a 10 times optical zoom!!!! Canon has a camera with a ten times optical zoom but the flash on it is a pop up flash that you have to put up yourself. I am very bad at remembering to do things in general and so having to remember to put up a flash before taking a picture is just ridiculous! Thus I will settle for Panasonic!

Anywho... I am very excited about it! I can't wait until I get off work tomorrow! I will of course be heading out to Jacobs tomorrow after my battery charges and we will be taking a walk (so long as the weather is good... so help me if the weather is shitty!) and taking lots o pictures which I will of course post!

I must get going though... I have a very early morning ahead of me so I must head off to bed!

CIAO!

It Isn't All Fun and Games

2008-04-19T00:22:00.002-07:00

Ever have a night all alone? One that, at the beginning, could have gone either way? Could have been either a great night alone with yourself, or it could have been a night of solitude that is not welcome?

I had one of these nights tonight. In fact, I had both nights! My parents were gone so the house was nice and quiet with no distractions. I had plans too! My uncle Miles had brought down a bunch of movies that I hadn't seen yet, and had left them here when he went home. Thus I had an entire evening that I could use to catch up on my movie watching. In fact, I watched an entire season of Bones! Pretty Exciting! I love Bones!

This is where the mood changed. I had been advised earlier this evening that the boyfriend would be out with a friend who was clearly in need of a guy's night out... no problems, I have movies to watch! I started to feel restless by about 8pm, and decided to call my best friend to see if she'd rescue me from the potential loneliness that was inevitable at this point. Of course, as she is in the sciences whereas I am a "lazy arts student" her finals are much more difficult and well... long story short, she had to study.

My nose is constantly running, I think I am also sick. Thus I made no further attempts to connect with the outside world. Inevitable loneliness becomes me. As such, I surround myself with the warm glow of my Method Vanilla-Apple Soy Candle and some slow depressing-ish music and have fallen in love with "Rain" by Patty Griffin. I heard it on an episode of Bones tonight. It's such a good song! In fact I think I have played it about 10 times within the last hour.

Anywho, I decide it's time to blow out my wonderful smelling candle and turn off the music. I am now in such a relaxed solitude that it is time for bed.

Ciao.

People Against Dirty!

2008-04-08T06:11:00.004-07:00

So, I know it has been forever (it seems I say this every time I post now. Bad habit, I should really post more often. Not that I have regular readers or anything... but I digress), but today I have decided to post about something that has recently got me started thinking about the environment!
I know you're all thinking "Oh no, not Kari! Don't fall into the tree hugging, water kissing, earth humping environmental brainwash!!! You'll never get out alive. Soon they'll (I dunno who they is specifically?!?!) have you mumbling environmental mumbo jumbo and yelling the phrase 'SAVE THE EARTH! STOP GLOBAL WARMING'" and perhaps even "I WILL NOT COME DOWN FROM THIS TREE UNTIL YOU PROMISE NOT TO CUT IT DOWN (or until I figure out a way to get down, help me)". But that's just too bad, because I have fallen into their traps, and I will now try to do my part in saving the environment.

So, alright. People who know me best will know that while I say I am going to do my part for the environment, I will never give up my favorite past time, i.e. driving around aimlessly in my car. However, I will otherwise try to come up with new tricks and trades in order to do my part. However, before I tell you about the ways I will "go green" (which is always interesting to me that people say that they are "going green" and we assume that means doing their part for the earth, when really most of the earth is water, which is blue... so why aren't we going blue?) I will explain where my newfound respect and motivation for the "going green" cause.

This will sound weird, but I've always liked the smell of Jacob's house. I thought it was simply his own natural pheromones perhaps mixed in with a light hint of cologne or deodorant, but then when Jacob moved into his new apartment (which I found by the way :P) I noticed that even though he had only been moved in for one day, his apartment smelled exactly the same!!! So I figure, either his pheromones are working really strong, or he's cheating some way.
So we went shopping to buy the cleaning odds and ends that Jacob did not have, and he pointed out this bottle of dish soap from a company called Method. It was really cool looking and not shaped like normal bottles of dish soap but perhaps more like a bulk sized perfume bottle (made of plastic of course).
Later Jacob pointed out this plug in air freshener that is also from Method. That's when I found out that this wonderful smell that I always attributed to Jacob, was actually bottled and can be bought for a mere $12 at Shoppers. I picked one up for myself the very next day!!!

Method is a household cleaning product line with wonderfully delicious scents fueled into the product. It is also biodegradable, the bottles are recyclable and made from recycled plastics, completely non-toxic and overall good for the environment. Additionally, the bottles and containers are different from your ordinary household cleaning products. They are in vibrant colours and in attractive, fun shapes! The scents are just amazing as well!!! The wonderful smell of bleach can now be replaced by the wonderful smell of nectarines, green mint, hollyberry, vanilla apple, as well as many others including my personal favorite... sweet water!

Now you're thinking "Kari, you've gone off the deep end and hit your head on the concrete bottom of the pool! You are talking about CLEANING PRODUCTS!" My response... yup, I sure have!!!! I love method! Now that I know about method and about it's environmental upsides as well as the wonderful scents, I will be a method junkie! There is a blog for people like us you know, it's called method lust. The blogger Nathan, is quite an entertaining writer as he reviews and simply jabs about his favorite method products, new and upcoming products, as well as those unfortunate products that have gone to Method Heaven and have been discontinued.

So while I may not give up my hobby of driving around aimlessly (no matter how expensive fuel gets) I will try and do my part by using and promoting earth friendly products such as those given to the world by Method!

Stand up and Join me in the fight against Global Warming and other environmental issues.
Join the millions who have decided to be People Against Dirty!!!

Groundhog's Day Super Redneck Extravaganza!!!

2008-02-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

So I know it's been forever, but I have finally taken the time to post my pictures and write a little ditty about February 2, 2008! If you are unsure as to what I am talking about it was Lori-Ann's and my "Groundhog's Day Super Redneck Extravaganza". In other words, on Groundhog's Day Lori-Ann and I went to Monster Jam (with my parental units of course!)!!!These little guys are so awesome! The group is from Langley and it's made up of drivers from ages 5 to 17 and they race these little mini cars that do not back up or start on their own, they have to have someone pushing them first!
Before the show: 199 and Bulldozer in their resting spots!
I was having a bad hair day, and face day, basically I was having a bad physical appearance day! But not Lori-Ann... she never has bad physical appearance days!
The stunt bikes... unfortunately I did not get any really good pictures of them doing crazy things though.
Yeah that's right! I support my driver!
Look, it's kinda like Lori-Ann is white!!!
Lori-Ann's Monster Jam T-Shirt. A.K.A. Lori-Ann's Chest
Pictures just don' t do this sport justice... these are the sliders!

Lori-Ann proudly showing her Ticket!
I am so white in these pictures!!!
Awww momford!
Me and Momford (I look slightly possesed)
199 About ready to make his move!
This picture is pretty awesome! Bulldozer in the air!
Hey look! It's Trrrrrropical Thuuuuunnnddderrrrr!!!
The Patriot with his nose in the air while Jurassic Attack relaxes after her jump!
The stars of the show!!! Maximum Destruction coming off of a jump meanwhile my Gravedigger just about bouncing off the jump!
This is quite easily one of my favorite pictures! If not my favorite!
Jurassic Attack! This truck was driven by a woman from Vancouver! Pretty Freaking Awesome!!! "Daddy, I wanna drive a monster truck!"
Taking a break!
Ok so this is supposed to be one of the BMX jumpers but his suit kind of blends in with the crowd. If you can see him, look in the middle-ish of the picture just below the A in "DREAMS" and you should see him!
Jurassic Attack, climbing up that bus!

Tropical Thunder on his hind legs (or tires)
The Patriot!
So this is a pretty awesome picture too! Maximum Destruction just floating in the air!
If you look really close you will notice that he is just barely touching the bus.
This is probably actually my favorite picture. I love it because everything else in the background is still quite blurry but Maximum Destruction is just flying through the air as clear as day!
Lori-Ann on the skytrain home!
Oh momford, you take such great photos!
This is a video of one of the sliders just screeching around the track!

Grave Digger's entrance... because he IS the star of Monster Jam. I wasn't sure which side of the stadium he was coming out from though which is why I kept going side to side. I was going to edit it so that it wasn't so long... but you gotta have the music!!!!

This is Maximum Destruction and 199 During the racing portion. Compare the air that Maximum Destruction gets over 199! It's crazy!!!

This is Gravedigger Racing against Tropical Thunder. Oooh boy it's almost as good as it is in person! There's some pretty big air at the very end by Gravedigger!

Alright! So it's time for the Champs to take center stage together! Maximum Destruction VS Gravedigger! Gravedigger won this race but only by a few inches! Not to mention he almost flipped over but he was able to keep himself on all fours!!! (I know it again takes awhile for them to start up... but just be patient and listen to the music...lol)

Here's just a few jumps by the Motor Cross people.

If there is one video that MUST be seen out of all of these videos, it would have to be this one! This is Gravedigger Vs Maximum Destruction in the Donut Competition! It's starts off with Gravedigger just starting up and he's making some pretty awesome speed! But then... I switch to Maximum Destruction and it is just Freaking Amazing!!! Although Gravedigger went the longest (he struggles a bit at the end) Maximum Destruction clearly wins in this battle and you will see why!!!!

Lastly, Here is Gravedigger's Final moments of glory that night! His entire FreeStyle!

There you have it! It was a super awesome evening of trucks, tires, engine fumes!!!

2008-01-07T23:18:00.001-08:00

Oh New Years eve. What a great night that was! I realize that it's been a week since new years eve but really, I have ADD... what do you expect???
Anywho, Unlike most people my age, I did not get stupidly drunk and party hardy till the cow came home. I was at Jacob's house in Vancouver so it would have been odd if cows showed up at his place.

Jacob and I had a wonderfully quiet evening full of movies, food and fun! Jacob cooked this AMAZING dinner that included asparagus, lemon, mint Risotto as well as this amazing chicken. Now, if you know me well, you will know that I am a meat kinda girl... I like my meat! Jacob knows this, and so the chicken was not only chicken... it was a chicken breast wrapped in Pantietta (which is like an italian bacon). MEAT WRAPPED IN MEAT!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!!

Me not doing a whole heck of a lot

Parmesian for the risotto

Mmmm... Jacob made some really great Margaritas!

It got quite warm in that kitchen

Jacob dancing the time away!

Risotto

Chicken wrapped in Pantietta

After dinner, the two of us unfolded the Futon in the living room, put on our PJ's and settled in for the rest of our relaxing evening. We watched Black Books (a BBC comedy series), played the wii, and then watched a bit of Mystery Men. It was quiet, entertaining and perfect!

Hahaha, I love this picture!

LEGS!

Oh, Bill Bailey! What a funny funny man!

More drinks? But of course!

In Black Books, one of the character's was telling the other one about themselves. He started off by saying where he was born and the other character interupted and said "if you're going that far back we're gonna need popcorn or something." As soon as he said that, I insisted that we get out the White Cheddar Popcorn that I had brought over because I had started to crave popcorn.

Jacob playing the wii

I took this picture right when he blew up a tank

Good Times!

Uhoh, it's empty!!!

This was the last picture taken in 2007!

I wish you all good luck in the new year!

Ciao,
KariRice

So Much to Say, So Little Time!

2007-12-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

Alright, so here's the deal... I have not blogged since Christmas day. I still have so many pictures to post and blogs to write about these last couple of weeks or so. Thus I have decided to choose a few of my favorite pictures from these last couple of weeks and just post them all in this one blog! I have posted more pictures of each event in photo albums on facebook for all to see, this is just a sampler. Additionally, I will post these and more photos on Buzznet as well so one way or another people will be able to find and look at them!

PRINCE GEORGE

mom and hippo while waiting for our flight
Making cupcakes for tanya's birthday
Tanya and I
Tanya blowing out her cupcakes
We went out later that night, I dressed up!

Prince George was a lot of fun! I got too go out with my cousins, run away from work for four days and spend some good quality time with my family. I was also able to meet up with my friend Nick and his girlfriend Bailey for coffee which was super exciting and fun!

VANDUSEN GARDENS
JIMMY PATERSON'S LIGHTS
CHRISTMAS AT THE TL

Christmas was great fun too! My family came to the travelodge so that we could do our Christmas breakfast together.

I realize that I have not written too much about any of these events, but I decided to let the pictures speak for themselves. (Actually I'm just too lazy to write anything special today, hee hee!)

As previously mentioned, there are more pictures of each event on facebook as well as buzznet! Go check them out!

Ciao for now!

Will the Real Yule Log Please Stand Up?

2007-12-25T06:51:00.000-08:00

So here I sit alone at work at 6:30 in the AM on Christmas day flipping the channels in attempts to find my precious "Yule Log". It has been a tradition (at least for my mom and I) to have the t.v. switched to the 24 hour Yule Log on Christmas eve and into Christmas day and simply talk about anything and everything while listening to the crack and pop of the rip roarin' fire they got goin' on on our t.v.

This year however, mom and I were not able to stay up all night watching the Yule Log and talking because I had to work at 6 this morning. So here I sit, watching channel 2 to figure out where my beloved Yule Log is. Apparently there are three different ones this year. On channel 28 you have the original Yule Log... It's grainy, old, and the log never seems to actually burn down or anything. The magical harpsichord music plays softly in the background to create a wonderful feeling of warmth and delight. This is the Yule Log I remember!

The Original Yule Log

On chanel 13 you have the more updated Yule Log. This Yule Log features somewhat more upbeat music with remixes of the old classics. This Yule Log is also a more lively version featuring a more rambunctious fire. Every now and again you see someone off to the side poking at the fire with a stick. I almost prefer this version to the old classic version only because it looks more real as you can watch and hear the log actually break down as the fire rips through it. Additionally this is the version that features that wonderful hand! Sometimes it's a male hand sometimes it's a female hand. I'm excited to watch the female hand with her MASSIVE turquiose ring put another log on the fire. This is the Yule Log I prefer!

Finally there is chanel 12. A chanel, Vancouver Islands own chanel with their own Yule Log! However this log, is a cop out! The fire is great but the fireplace is just hideous! It has those glass doors and is in a funny shape. Definetely NOT the Log I'll be watching today!

For those of you who think that watching a burning fire on tv is sad, turn to chanel 4 for a look at Christmas Tree TV!!! It's LAME! Basically it is a christmas tree that does nothing with wierd but upbeat christmas mixes in the background! Sometimes the Christmas lights with flash on and off to the beat, but nothing too spectacular!

Anywho, my family will be coming to the Travelodge around 9-ish to have our traditional Christmas breakfast. It is very exciting! I'll be taking pictures and if I can remember I'll be blogging and posting later on! I've been so busy and sooo behind on my blogs! I have to remember to blog about Prince George, Jimmy Paterson's lights, Kevin Newman, Vandusen Gardens Christmas lights and of course Christmas at the Travelodge! All in good time!

So have yourself a merry little christmas! Choose your Yule Log watching carefully. I think I'll go with the original until about noon-ish and then switch over to the more upbeat rip roarin' fire to finish off my shift!

Bells and Whistles: Not the Festive Kind!

2007-12-16T15:04:00.000-08:00

If you were staying in a hotel and the fire alarm went off at 6:15 in the wee hours of the morning, would you demand a discount???

I arrived at work at about five minutes to six, and proceeded to chat with the night clerk about anything and everything. We talked until ten after six (as I'm sure you are all aware, I like to talk). He leaves. Two minutes later my ears are in pain as the fire alarm goes off! I didn't even have time to put my purse away.

Not knowing specifically what to do, I grabbed the walk-around phone and the phone numbers list and I high-tailed it out of the building to call anyone and everyone!

Firemen came and went, guests moaned and complained, and I greeted everyone with a bright and happy, yet somewhat hesitant, "good morning!"

What caught me by surprise where the guests that decided that because the fire alarm woke them up at 6:15 in the morning, they deserve no wait, they are entitled to a discount on their rooms! How greedy and money grabbing can we get??? I mean seriously! Even though the building was not actually on fire per say, if it was then this fire alarm just saved your freaking lives!!! I could understand if it was actually our fault that the alarm went off (which it wasn't) but these people had the nerve to say that due to them having to wake up at 6:15 for an event that could have potentially saved their lives, they deserve money! If a fire alarm went off at the local McDonald's, would you demand that you get your money back for your happy meal because your eating was disrupted??? I think NOT!

Now that that ranting is over, let's talk safety kids!
Ever since I was a little girl I was always told that when you hear a fire alarm in the building that you are in, you run your scrawny little ass out of the building to safety! As a result, my first instinct this morning was to get the heck out of the hotel!
Other people's first instincts...?
Hey, thats the fire alarm. I wonder whats going on. Hmmm this must be a false alarm... they happen so often these days! Well, the front desk supervisor is standing outside with a couple of other people. Oh look, firetrucks! Two of them! And with the trucks come firemen! Whats going on? Oh, she's waving me to come downstaires but... gee it's just too cold outside. I'll stay here AND BURN MY A$$ OFF!!!
COME ON PEOPLE! THINK!!!

Either way, it turns out there was somebody playing with matches and lighters and there was black soot all over the desk in one of the rooms. Nothing actually burned in terms of the hotel or hotel accessories but somebody was burning something (although they still deny even being in the room... Stupid Jerk Off!)

So just to recap the main lessons for today, when a fire alarm goes off:
1)Get your sh!t together and get out of the building.

2) Don't expect to get a discount because you were so "rudely interrupted" by a potentially life saving piece of equipment, EVEN if it turns out to be a false alarm.

3) Thank the staff at the place where the alarm is going off for properly maintaining and making sure the fire alarm actually goes off when the building IS onfire!!!

Because I have no Life

2007-12-14T22:30:00.000-08:00

Another forward type thingy from the Facebook "notes". Clearly I have too much time on my hands!
-Kari

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SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(X) Fight Club
(X) Starsky and Hutch
( ) Neverending Story
(?) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
Total: 7 (or 8?)

(X) The Princess Bride
( ) Anchorman
(X) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth (Yeah David Bowie in Grey Tights!!!)
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
(X) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( X) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total: 5

( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(X) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total: 3

( X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
( ) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total: 5

(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
() White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
() 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
Total: 3

() Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
(X ) Meet the Fockers
(X) Eight Crazy Nights
(X) Joe Dirt
( ) KING KONG
Total: 5

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(X) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(X) Flubber
Total: 3

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
(X) I Am Sam
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
(X) The Whole Ten Yards
Total: 4

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
(X) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total: 4

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(X) Lucky Number Slevin
(X) Ocean's Eleven
(X) Ocean's Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
() Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total: 6

( ) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
Total: 3

( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That
(X) Calendar Girls
(X) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
( ) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
Total: 9

(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X-3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
() Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
Total: 9

( ) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
() The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
(X) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(X) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total: 3

(X) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total: 6

( ) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(x ) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
Total: 1

( ) The Jacket
(X) Kung Fu Hustle (I feel so ashamed)
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x)Shaun Of the Dead
(x) Willard
Total: 6

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
( )Hook
(X) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
Total: 1

(X) Kill Bill vol 1
(X) Kill Bill vol 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total: 2

( ) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
() Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
() Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total: 3

(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix Reloaded
(X) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(X) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
( ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Total: 4

FINAL TOTAL: 92

It's funny because honestly, I didn't need to do this little movie quiz thingy for me to tell you I have no life... Ironically, the fact that I had time and took the time to do this movie quiz thingy just confirms that I have no life.

How sad!

Meet my Buddy, Roy!

2007-12-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

So today I was supposed to drive to Jacob's house, pick him up and go to Burnaby Village. Instead the day went a little like this...

It all started with me making a wonderfully delicious Roast Beef sandwich! It starts with the bread, mayo, salt and pepper, roast beef, wonderfully delicious dill pickle, lots of lettuce, another bit of roast beef, mayo and then the bottom piece of bread! mmmm!
I then got into my car and drove over to Jacob's as planned (Don't worry I took the photo while I was in park)
However, I never made it across the bridge without hitting up a Timmy Hoes. So off I went to the Tim Hortons drive thru (which apparently is not spelled thru according to "word" and "blogger") for an Extra Large French Vanilla Double-Double.
When I finally reached Jacob's house I found out we were not going to Burnaby Village because it was raining and because the guy who originally wanted to go with us was sick and couldn't come. So we decided to play the wii which is when he brought out his 3D glasses that he got when he went to see Beowulf (or however you spell it) in 3D. Emily decided he looked like either Roy Orbison or Buddy Holly...
However, Roy Orbison's face is too chubby for Jacob to look like him, but the glasses are spot on!
Buddy Holly on the other hand doesn't have the same tint to his glasses but Jacob's face is long and ovular like Buddy Holly's. Thus I'd say Jacob looks more like him than Roy Orbison!
After going out for Sushi for dinner, we continued to play the Wii and hang out with his cat.

Stay Tuned: Christmas is arriving and I've got my hat ready to go! Also, on the 18th I will be partying up Redneck style as I run away from town towards Prince George to make sure that my family is still alive! Momford and I will be flying in style (and by in style I mean economy) and we will not be returning until the 21st! WOOT!

Take Out the Butcher Knife, We're Cutting the Cake

2007-12-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

So I realize that November 24th, 2007 was ages ago now... but I have just been too busy to post and picture and blog and all that fun stuff! There have been a bunch of events that have occurred throughout the last couple weeks (of course during the most stressful weeks of school) that has added to my eternal stress! However, this blog is not about that, this episode is a tell all of the events of November 24th!

The day started out with Tanya, Auntie Carol, and Momford and I all going shopping. Nothing too exciting or special except we went to IHOP for breakfast! (If you don't know about my incessent obsession with IHOP, then you don't know me!)

I then rushed off to work at 2pm for a wonderfully boring four hour dose of t.v. watching while supposedly training.

But then fun did not start until after work...

Like all November 24th's, my family and I went to the Keg for dinner. It is dad's favorite place and it is dad's favorite day.... thus we sit in a darkened room with the sound of sizzling lobster, the smell of steak, wood, and garlic, while the beer/wine/insert favorite alcoholic drink here slips down your throat.KARATE...

CHOP!!!

Get your hand out of the cake!

Hmmm... I don't think the pieces are quite even, dad.

Think it could have something to do with this???

Little sister (by 45 seconds was it? *shhh* they're twins) to the rescue!!!

Joke: How many Rice's does it take to serve cake?

Dad's masterpiece after Karate-Chopping the cake

I look scarred... and with good reason!

Uncle Emile and Auntie Carol, looking like they know what they're doing.

Look at that poker face! hahaha!

Yes, It was dad and Aunti Carol's birthday that faithful (ok, so not really faithful but whatever) day. We had cake (and yes it was cut with a butcher knife... only because we broke the electrical knife last time) had some drinks... and played poker.
I had never played poker before but Tracy and Nate had left and so Jacob and I took their spots. My philosophy to playing poker was... it is not my money, so sure why not throw in another chip or two. (I actually didn't do too badly for my first time. Totally called dad's bluff at one point in time too!)

Anywho, I have no idea when I will return. Hopefully before the 18th. I leave for PG on December 18th through to the 21st. Don't worry, pictures and posts will ensue!

But What Does it Mean???

2007-11-24T01:26:00.000-08:00

Tanya Chabot

So I was looking at my cousin's facebook profile this evening and read this note that she had written. I guess it is one of those forwards and whatnot but just for fun I decided to read it.
What it is, is you write down your name vertically (like a word poem, for those of you that remember elementary poetry) and then there is a list that states what each letter of the alphabet means and you simply add the meaning of each letter in your name to the "word poem name" and it tells you your "personality".

Now I realize that this is obviously fake, as Freud can attest, because you cannot simply know a person's personality based on the letters in their name. However, I find this eerily accurate! We'll see if you all agree...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DO IT FOR YOURS! : Delete the other person's name and repost this with the title "what does your name mean?"

Kari Rice

K : You're wild and crazy. (Wow! We've only just begun and this thing is totally accurate!)
A : You like to drink. (It's that Irish blood in me, what can I say???)

R : Easy to fall in love with. (I'd like to think so... hehehe)
I : You are great in bed. (Yeah, I can sleep ALL DAY LONG! :P )
R : Easy to fall in love with. (I fall in love with myself everyday!!! lol)
I : You are great in bed. (and on the couch, and on the floor... I can even sleep in the bath tub!)
C : You are really silly. (That goes with the wild and crazy!)
E : Awesome kisser. (Again, I'd like to think so... I haven't had any complaints yet!)

(how can you not fall in love with these eyes?)

So basically this thing has completely encompassed my personality!!! I am a very spontaneous, fun loving person (who I must admit enjoys a drink every now and then) who is also very open and creative. The other factor that this thing taps into is my flirty side. I have a habit of flirting, but it's also a bit of a hobby. It has absolutely nothing to do with acting on the flirtations. It is simply entertaining conversation that lets you walk away feeling hot, sexy, and good about yourself.

However, what this name analyzer thingy fails to pick up is my immensely massive EGO! Hahaha, you all know it to be true. However, rather than calling myself "self-centered" I'd prefer to be referred to as having a "high self-esteem".
Anywho, please do the same with your names as it is quite entertaining and fun! Who knows, you may even learn something about yourself!!! ;)

A : You like to drink.
B : You like people.
C : You are really silly.
D : You like to drink.
E : awesome kisser.
F : You are dead sexy.
G : You never let people tell you what to do.
H : You have a very good personality and good looks.
I : You are great in bed.
J : People Adore You
K : You're wild and crazy.
L : You like to drink
M : best kisser ever.
N: You like to drink.
O: Easy to fall in love with
P : You are popular with all types of people.
Q : You are a hypocrite.
R : Easy to fall in love with.
S : Fuckin crazy.
T : Easy to fall in love with.
U : You really like to chill.
V : You are not judgemental.
W : You are very broad minded.
X : You like to drink
Y : Best g/f b/f anyone could ever ask for.
Z : Always ready

Ciao!

Something to Look Forward to.

2007-11-21T23:56:00.001-08:00

Give me something to look forward to.
As all I see right now is a foggy darkness.
I need to know you are ok, if not for your sake then for hers.
She loves you dearly and needs you to stay strong.
Be Strong! I understand it's hard even though I do not know your story.
Her emotions are all wrapped up and she needs you to get her through this.
Together you can get through this.

I may not like you.
But if she is putting her heart on the line, I need to know I can trust you.
I need to know that you can help her.
Please Help Her.

Blog About the Random Guy You Used to Talk to at Work

2007-11-19T01:57:00.000-08:00

Kari- The Price of Me Just Went Up!!! says:
what are you surfing?
Pain is temporary, Glory is forever says:
uh crackbook lol
Kari- The Price of Me Just Went Up!!! says:
lol hahaha you are more rediculous than me... so addicted
Pain is temporary, Glory is forever says:
lol hence crackbook
Kari- The Price of Me Just Went Up!!! says:
lol I dunno, I'm debating whether or not to blog... but I have no pictures to add to it and I like having pictures included in my blog... makes it more entertaining
Pain is temporary, Glory is forever says:
lol talk about a random u b.s.ed w in maple ridge
Kari- The Price of Me Just Went Up!!! says:
a random what?
Pain is temporary, Glory is forever says:
about a dude u used to chat w at work lol
Kari- The Price of Me Just Went Up!!! says:
oh you mean you?
Pain is temporary, Glory is forever says:
mayybe lol
Kari- The Price of Me Just Went Up!!! says:
hahaha

So kids, it's 2:15 in the AM. I have to work at 6:00 in the AM and yet I have decided not to sleep! I finished my major paper that is due tomorrow (and by tomorrow I really mean later on today). I had my super cool friend Nick give me moral support throughout the writing of my paper. Except sometimes he got a little ancy and wanted me to hurry up. However, excellent pieces of writing are not written in an hour... only in 10 hours!

So then once I was done writing my paper I felt like I needed something to do... so as per usual, I grabbed my camera and started taking random pictures of me and the ceiling fan?!?! As you can see, I was asking Nick what I should Blog about and he said himself. So the following is my blog about Nick:

So this random guy came up to me at work one day and started talking to me. Really I was only talking to him to be nice (lol just kidding!!!). No I was talking to him because I was lonely. So we talked and talked and talked somemore... exchanged e-mails and here we are today talking on msn about how if I pull the plug on him if/when he is in the hospital I will get his sled!!! Very Exciting!!! Common Nick, go put yourself in ICU I can't wait any longer!!! (Again, just kidding... I like the sled but I like you more).

So there you have it in a nutshell... My random friend Nick, who lives in Prince George/Vanderhoof/ Ft. St James. (Basically he's like a tumble weed)

P.S. Here are pictures of my new sled! I tried to simply steal them from his website but it wouldn't let me so I had to take a picture of the pictures!Look at me go!!! Well, future me anyhow (except a little bit shorter... and less body hair... and well I'm sure you can figure out the rest!)

Sweet Dreams Kids!

Wii would like to Play

2007-11-14T01:05:00.000-08:00

So, last night Jacob and Craig came over and we played with Jacob's Wii (hahaha I had to say it...lol) It was tonnes of fun. There was some laughing, some hitting, some pushing/shoving and all around lots of fun!
We basically played Wii Play and Wii Sports for most of the time but we also played a bit of Mario Party as well. I of course always equipped with my camera decided to take a few shots of the fun. Be sure to check out their faces...lol the intensity is amazing!!!

I also posted a video of Craig and Myself boxing... it's somewhat embarrasing but funn all at the same time! I accidently dropped the nunchuck and then thrusted the remote towards the t.v. which because the nunchuck and remote are attatched by a string and so when I thrusted the remote towards the t.v. the nunchuck came swooping in and hit the t.v. It's quite halarious! Enjoy!

High School Musical-The Reunion

2007-11-08T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ok so this blog really has nothing to do with the "High School Musical" series or anything. I just thought it'd be a catchy title.

Today seems to be the day of running into people from my past though. More specifically people from high school.
Within a ten minute range I ran into Ross Findlay then Laura and Adam stopped me before my big presentation while I was on my way to the washroom. After the washroom Kyle (who was in choir with me in grade 12) showed up and apparently has a sociology class right beside mine!

Furthermore, while I was at work this evening, Johnathan Patterson who apparently works for Dominoes pizza came in to deliver a pizza for one of our rooms. It was weird because he seemed almost embarrassed by the fact that he works for dominoes while I am sitting here in my pant suit (Blazer and all) typing on my laptop and watching t.v. When I asked him how things were going he simply said "good" but then added "I'm just working my night job right now" which says to me "don't judge me, this isn't what I have become after graduation".
But of course, I don't judge. In fact until he said that, I just assumed that he was perhaps going to school or something and that delivering pizza for dominoes was simply a way to make money. Apparently not! I did not specifically ask him what he was doing nowadays, but I would like to know.

Whoo... I'm going to a random Wedding on Saturday. It's very exciting! I bought a new dress and everything! Again, I shall post pictures once I get them!

Ciao!

Behind the Times

2007-11-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

I was looking in the Provice today at the "Whatzit" puzzle. Today's Whatzit had the words "Thyme" and "Time" written backwords in the box. The Solution to the puzzle was "behind the times."

I was reading further in the Province about a 95 year old grandmother from spain who was the self-proclamed "oldest blogger in the world". It's a cute article about how when Maria Amelia Lopez turned 95 her grandson made her a blog. She writes on her front page "My friends in Internet, today I am 95 years old. My name is Amelia and I was born in Muxía (A Coruña - Spain) on December the 23rd of 1911. Today it's my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog."

Since then, she has continued the blogging with the help of her grandson and has recieved thousands of hits. (I wish my blog would sky-rocket like hers did...hehehe.) Unfortunately, I tried to read her blog but found it quite confusing as most of it is in spanish (which makes sence seeing as she is from spain). The blogs that were not spanish were simply stories about her blogging from newspapers and the like. If you read spanish or are further interested in reading Maria Amelia Lopez's blog, you can find her at http://amis95.blogspot.com.

However, the article touched slightly on the fact that Maria Amelia Lopez was in fact NOT the oldest blogger in the world and that "the oldest blogger in the world" title actually goes to 108 year-old Olive Riley from Australia. I went to her blog and started reading. It is quite interesting and somewhat entertaining too. This witty woman is sure cute!

I am not sure who "Mike" is specifically but Olive (or Ollie as she is named in her blog) has the help of Mike in writing her blog. If you are interested in reading it, you can find her at www.allaboutolive.com.au/.

Clearly these two grandmothers are not "behind the times"!

Maria Amelia Lopez, 95, author of "95 years old blogger".

Olive Riley, 108, author of "The Life of Riley".

Friend or Foe?

2007-10-30T23:55:00.001-07:00

We often hear from people what makes a great friend. Most of the time we hear this in a form such as... "she/he's so thoughtful, like a true friend".

So what makes a friend, all of a sudden not become a friend?
How do you determine who is considered a friend and who is no longer considered a friend?

For example, I have a friend who I have been friends with since the summer of 2003. However in the summer of 2004 he moved away. We remained friends for awhile after his move, emailing each other back and forth every so often. I would also call him every year on or around his birthday to wish him a happy birthday, because that's what friends do.
For the last year or so, I have e-mailed him on occasion, mainly to let him know I was still alive and to see what he was up to. But he has never once e-mailed me back or even acknowledged my e-mails. I am starting to consider this friendship flatlined.

Am I right to be concerned about the lack of communication, or do I come off as being obsessed?
Should I continue to pursue an old friendship or should I just give up and live with the memories?His birthday just recently came and went...... I did not phone him this year.

crash cars and psychedelic movies

2007-10-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

So last night Momford and I went to see "Across the Universe". It's a very psychedelic almost rock opera-type movie. Lots of singing and lots of music, some dancing as well. It was a very good movie that you really wouldn't even need drugs for it to be cool because it was so awesomely weird!!! Any how, if you enjoy the Beatles I would suggest for sure to go see that movie!

On our way home there was this white sunfire driving in front of me that all of a sudden decided to go into the right lane and then continue into a pull out. While it was in the pull out it suddenly started to speed faster until it came out of the pullout cutting off 2 cars in both lanes. It then turned hard right from the left lane into the right lane and then turned hard left right before it went into the ditch. But then when it corrected itself it went into oncoming traffic then finally turned around and stopped on the opposite side of the road. It was a miracle that nobody hit him as he was swerving in and out of traffic.

So halloween is coming up and apparently I already have a costume. I did not find out I had a costume or a place to go until today. Apparently I'll be a pumpkin... along with Lori-Ann and Jackie. If all goes well, she'll have something connecting the three of us together to look like we are on a vine! I'll post pictures!

Crappy Crap Crap

2007-10-25T23:45:00.001-07:00

Ever have one of those day's where you just feel like crap.
Not physically, but emotionally. And don't say it's PMS because I really don't think it is!
I dunno, it's weird. I was in a great mood today, the sun was shining and all was well. Then suddenly halfway through my class I just got this feeling of bleh. I don't know exactly what I mean... But Bleh is not good.
And then I lost my keys today at school. Spent an hour looking for them because of course there's no way I could get home without them. Basically I was stranded.

On a good note: For the last two days, I have been looking and feeling fairly pretty! I bought two new pairs of boots yesterday for 90 bucks! I was super jazzed!

P.S I was going to add a picture to this but this stupid thingy is not working so I give up. No pictures until later I guess!

Oye Vey, World! (Re: Ellen and Iggy Situation)

2007-10-18T01:06:00.000-07:00

Oh boy! That basically sums it up!

I am in shock... and awe as to how our world-our people of the world- how we treat each other with such aggression... such anger... such HATE!

I was watching the Ellen Degeneres show on tuesday, October 16, 2007 and I watched as she poured out her heart and soul on international television about the Iggy situation.

If you do not know the situation I'll explain it in it's simplest form: Ellen adopted a dog, Iggy, from a rescue organization and unfortunately could not provide it with the attention that it needed so she gave the dog to her friend and hairdresser, and her two daughters. The organization has rules about the fact that if the adopter cannot provide a good home that the adopter must bring the dog back and so they took the dog away from the hairdresser's family.

I do not want to talk specifically about that exact situation, as that is not the point of this blog. What I do want to address is the horrible horrible things I am reading on the Ellen Degeneres web site.

There are postings of love and support towards Ellen. There are postings supporting the rescue shelter while stating that Ellen was wrong to do what she did without taking the proper steps.
Those postings are more or less civilized. But then... there are absolutely horrible postings that degrade, insult, and even threaten BOTH Ellen AND the shelter itself.

What has the world come to????

People are MEAN!!! Just to demonstrate the horrible things people are saying I will include them in this blog:

I think Marina Batkis and Vanessa Chekroun deserve medals for upholding their moral compass. Don't just bendover and let Ellen take you from behind like Portia normally lets her.
Fight Ellen! Viva La Revolution!
Posted by GetReal | October 18, 2007 12:47 AM

Hey, I heard that Ellen has her own dog rescue shelter. It's in her head - the down side is that she gets her dogs from other shelters and gives them out.
Posted by Insider | October 18, 2007 12:23 AM

You're so brave for coming out about this Ellen. I hope your celebrity status/attn gets this dog back to the previous owner, your hairdresser. If not we'll riot the shelter...and throw stick bombs in the administration office.
Posted by alex | October 18, 2007 12:45 AM

My oh my, This has gotten crazy!!! There are even postings verbally (verbally or written?!?!) attacking OTHER PEOPLE ie. complete strangers as to this situation... It even gets down to my favorite arguments such as, "your stupid, learn how to spell." (and yes the youR (no 're) is intentional.

The disturbing thing is that these types of postings are not only relegated to the "Iggy" portion of the comments sections. In fact, the comments have even started popping up in the comment section of Ellen's daily lunch blog!!!! The place where she puts up pictures of her lunch for crying out loud!!!!

It amazes me also that I can refresh the comment page on the "Iggy" blog after only a few seconds and there will be at least 3-5 additional postings again both attacking Ellen and Mutts and Moms organization.

It is unfortunate that people feel the need to attack other people so much. I hope this issue gets resolved and I hope it gets out of the public as well. All the media attention is not helping matters.

Anyhow, if you want to read the insane posts (as some of them are somewhat comical) go to http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2007/10/all_iggy.php

Such outcry... such angst... OYE VEY!

Oye Vey!!!

2007-10-16T00:45:00.000-07:00

The words "oye vey" usually translate to "oh pain" or "oh woe" in Yiddish, and trust me, I know oye vey!

Oye vey about my midterm exams... I am cramming more information into my head than a squirrel can cram nuts into his mouth.

Oye vey about my health... I feel hot (and not in sexy terms) Feverish and drowsy!

Oye vey about work... ...who am I kidding? I've got the best job in the world! Minus the constant loneliness late into the night... 7-8 o'clock at night that is.

Oye vey about my allergies and exzema... I now look like I have had somebody sucker punch me in the left eye!

But to all my oye vey's I say "Enjoy it while it lasts, because soon all of you oy veys will get a kick in the kisser!"

Oye, I have no idea what I'm talking about! Thus I should get back to my studying...

OOOHHHH... I bought something totally ridiculous today!!!! A Hair Straightener!!!
Yes that's right folks, the girl who's hair barely reaches her chin has bought a hair straightener!
Stay Tuned... I'll tell you how it works!

Smells like Christmas!

2007-10-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

What does the Best Thanksgiving Day Ever look like?
Perhaps it is one spent with family... or depending on your family, perhaps it's one without your family. Either way, the common denomiator ususally consists of Turkey!

What does MY Best Thanksgiving Day Ever look like??? Simple... The one I had last night!
Of course it consisted of the usual Turkey, Stuffing, Corn, Mashed Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, and a couple of Beers and a glass of Baileys on ice! There was also the usual people who attended: my father, my mother, my brother and his girfriend Tracy, myself and Jacob.

So what's new? What made this year the best year EVER? It wasn't the food, although the food was top notch, and it wasn't so much the people either... It was the activities.

It started out with me working...DULLSVILLE!!! I had just finished all of my checkouts and everything else was done when I realized that there was a NASCAR race that was ready and waiting to start.
They said the most famous words in motor sports history: "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!" The commentators started to commentate... The Flag person was getting ready to raise the green flag in anticipation of waving it around to start the race... The flag goes up... and the flag WAVES... you can here the motors just starting to rev up as the racers just hit the gas... I hear the Commentators "And there they..."
CABLE GOES OUT, T.V. GOES FUZZY.
"NNNOOOOOO!" I yell in agony. The wind must have knocked out the cable.
I sit in Silence.
Half hour later, the phone rings. Finally, something for me to do. The person on the other line is wanting to make a reservation. So I ask for their name... "Silvia Renthurst... that's S I L V I A... R E N..." POWER GOES OUT, PHONE CUTS OUT, T.V. SHUTS OFF ENTIRELY.
Five minutes later the power comes back on but the cable was still out. The phone starts going crazy as it rings continuously and with each ring it changes in volume and stregnth. I wanted to throw it out the window. Thank goodness it was two oclock!

So far, the day was not going too well.

After work I went over to Jacob's house to pick him up for my family's turkey dinner.
As soon as I got home I rushed to the living room where dad was watching the rest of the race. 14 laps to go! Tony Stewart almost won but then he made a stupid mistake by moving up in the corner... Jeff Gordon won.
After the race Jacob and I went downstaires to watch "The Truman Show". Neither him nor I ended up watching the movie in it's entirety as we both fell asleep. Jacob had also brought over his super-nerdy-but-oh-so-fun Starwars Monopoly as well as another board game called Ticket to Ride. As there was still a couple of hours before dinner would be ready we decided we'd play Monopoly. As we were setting up the game, dad walks over and asks us what we were going to play to which we replied "Monopoly, Starwars version" and then Jacob asks the question that I never would have considered "do you want to play too???"

Here's where the most wonderful, oddly confusing, never-expected-it-to-happen-in-a-million-years, absolutely made this the best Thanksgiving Ever, thing came in... "Yeah, sure. I'd love to play monopoly."

***GASP***

Dad has not played a board game with me or the rest of the family in... well, ever since I can remember. I mean I love my dad dearly, but when it comes to turning off the t.v. and doing something as a family it just doesn't happen.
I have always been jealous of Jacob and his family when it comes to the time they spend together, and so I ran downstaires and begged my mom to play with us. She too was happily suprised when I told her that dad was playing but she was busy with work and said "isn't it good enough that your father is playing"... to which I replied "but mom, it's the dream!"

So dad, Jacob and I played while the turkey was turkey-ing. It smelt like christmas minus the pine (which we never really had because we've always had a fake tree) Then Nathan and Tracy came over. The six of us sat in what would never be considered silence, and we ate and drank and were merry.

We then all sat around the living room coffee table and my mother and Nathan and Tracy watched as Jacob, dad, and I battled it out Starwars style.

I won!

Although we did not ALL play, it was the dream. And I am thankful for the family to be able to all get together and do something as a family. Mostly I am thankful for Jacob, for his thinking to bring these board games (which I pessemistically thought would never get touched) and for his asking my dad if he would like to play.

Have a Great Thanksgiving Everybody!
Hopefully it will be as good as mine!

SKATE-TACULAR!

2007-10-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

Jacob pushed Jackie
Then skated away quickly Learning to skate backwards
How can you tell they're sisters???So Sunday, Lori-Ann and Jackie and Jacob and I went ice skating!!! It was quite random but very skate-tacular or skate-tastic if you'd prefer!

Here are just a few of the highlights:
-Lori-Ann and Jackie wore the same thing (grey hoodie and light jeans)
-Jacob and I wore the same thing (Black hoodie and darker jeans)
-Jacob fought with a little kid (don't worry they knew eachother)
-We skated... and skated... and skated some more!
-I tried teaching Lori-Ann how to skate backwards.
-Jacob decided to teach her how to take a body check in preparations for her "hockey lessons".
-Jackie kept kind of falling but never fully did.
-Then we all lived happily ever after with our tummies full of sushi goodness!

Favorite Quote:
Jacob: "Where's Lori-Ann and Kari?"
Jackie: "I dunno... just look for us but shorter."

P.S. all who may or may not be interested... I have started up a blog thingy... you should check it out sometime. It's still a little bare but sooner or later.... WATCH OUT... as the stuff will come pouring in!
http://karinabear00.blogspot.com/

Attempting to "Blog It Up"

2007-09-30T03:23:00.000-07:00

It is currently 3:24 am Kari time.
I have decided to make a feeble attempt to Blog it Up! Not that many people will see it but it will give me something to do while I am not sleeping.

And I am clearly NOT sleeping!
In fact I should be doing my APA Take Home Exam for psyc...

But Clearly I am not doing that either...

So now that I have successfully procrastinated for another good hour or so I think I will attempt to sleep... or not!