On Thursday...

I woke up and said to myself, "I am going to win a coffee."

Then I continued to think, "In fact, I am going to win two coffees and then me and Sam can go use them before she goes to Japan."

Since Sam would be in Hanna until Sunday, I knew that I would need something to occupy myself. So, I dedicated my weekend to winning two coffees.

But then I won both coffees on Thursday, thereby foiling my weekend plans. So I gave up on trying to entertain myself in Calgary and drove to Hanna. If you've ever been to Hanna you know that going there for entertainment seems counterintuitive. Oh well, that is what I did. But I will never do it again! Sam lives in Calgary! I am almost as glad as she is about this fact!

Flip Side

Today at Tim's... I order a steeped tea with 2 creams 1 sugar. Same non-native-English-speaker hands me a COFFEE. Seriously? Maybe she has the vocabulary mixed up. I think I may be crossing the line of cultural insensitivity. But REALLY?

Anyways, I drank the thing, and it didn't like me. That was this morning and my tummy is still all riled up over it. And now I can't sleep, yet again.

It probably doesn't help that I read the first chapter of my new book, Coffee: A Dark History. It told me all about how TERRIBLE cheap coffee is for my health, possibly making me feel even worse about the whole situation. I could go off on a rant about that now, but I'll spare you for today.

Again, I say, DRINK TEA!

(P.S. The losing streak hit 30 today... ouch.)

Comprende?

Yesterday morning Steve (the dad) informed me that he and Shana (the mom) would be going out for supper. This is not unusual for a Thursday, but I still spent much of the day thinking of how wiped I already was and how I really wasn't looking forward to having the kids all the way through bed time.

Then, when Shana got home, she asked me if Steve had told me about it.

"Yup."
"So, do you want to come with us?"

Blank stare.

"Do you want to come out for dinner with us?"

Blank stare. Was it a trick? Of course I WANT to. But I have to watch the kids, right?

"We're taking the kids, didn't Steve tell you that?"

OHHHH. I get it! So we went for Mexican food and it was great.

It's a win-win! (And a lose-lose-lose-lose-lose-lose-lose-lose-lose-lose)

The other day, in the Tim's drive through, I ordered a large coffee, 2 cream 1 sugar. When I pulled up to the window, the lady (who didn't speak a ton of English) handed me a steeped tea. I didn't feel like saying anything because I'm not the type of person to say something. So I just took the tea and drank it.

SUCH a good move on my part! It was so wonderful an experience that I have not ordered a coffee since it happened.

Drinking tea has basically solved all of my problems. I don't feel guilty about the ethics of Tim's tea because I have never heard of it being unethical (so, basically, I am ignorant). Tim's coffee has been making me feel kind of icky lately and the tea does not. A medium tea is 5 cents cheaper than a medium coffee. I can drink tea at night and still be able to go to sleep when I want to.

Drink tea!

(p.s. I am on a 10 cup losing streak.)

(p.p.s. Hello to my blog stalkers from youth! Congratulations Liz on your winning cup and perfect Roll Up the Rim score.)

in bullet form

Here is my campaign for the lowering of my own ranking on Cooper's list of blog links:

• All I ever consistently blog about is the weather, my geographic location, or things involving my friend Sam.
• Once I ate a slug just because some kid told me to.
• Robyn has a degree in journalism and should therefore be above me by default.
• I'm American.
  
• My previous post has racked up exacly zero comments thus far.
• I spelled the word 'exactly' wrong in my previous bullet point and Cooper hates poor spelling.
• Look at all those obnoxious links that I included in this post.
  

Pretty persuasive, eh?

________ Montana

I spent another joyous weekend with Sam in Hanna. You may have heard that there isn't much to do in Hanna, but I actually really like being able to flee the city for a few days with Sammy and do... nothing.

This time we brought Nan's Wii and played it a lot. We also watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, made hummus, did a fair amount of sleeping, colored in a coloring book, watched some old Transformers, and took some walks around the booming metropolis of Hanna. (It's like we are old ladies/little boys trapped in 22/23 year old bodies.)

In other news, the mom I live with and work for is in Mexico (meaning a busy week for me), my brother has changed his wardrobe from gangster wear to slacks and polos because it is golf season, and I am in the swing of being a part-time student once again... it's sweet!

Entiendas?

Do you understand my new method of organizing my spare change?

2 for 5!

That's how good I am at Roll Up the Rim so far. Both wins were free coffees... yum!

If you've heard my rant about the evils of Tim Horton's coffee, you might be thinking, "What the heck Ashley?" I know. I just can't resist those rims. It's like I'm giving up my morals for Lent.

Sam's 0 for 7 so far, but I gave her one of my free coffees. We've been trying to determine ways to increase our odds. Like on Saturday night we were planning on getting 2 XL coffees because we were very tired and sleep deprived, but had to go babysit my kids. Instead, we got 4 mediums so as to increase our odds (it worked). In addition, we've been discussing the best store locations as well as which lines to stand in. Anyways.

(Americans: Roll Up the Rim is a weird Canadian game. When you are done drinking your Tim Horton's coffee you use your teeth to roll up the rim of your to-go cup. Under the rim your prize will be written in both English and French. They give away cars and boats and stuff, but mostly free coffee and donuts. Odds of winning are about 1 in 9.)