Glove Box

So I left the glove box open and my battery died.

OK. No biggie. But then a jump start did not do the trick. Since my battery was already weak, the glove box episode was apparently its last hurrah.

So what did I do? I got some tools and took the battery out. Easy. Actually, it wasn't easy at all and I was really worried that I was gonna screw something up. The battery was also heavy for its size. What do they put in those things?!

Took the old battery to Dodge and bought a big fat expensive new one. The parts guy at Dodge was like, "Wow, did you take this out by yourself?" I got really proud and told him that yes, I did. He was also like, "Wow, this is the deadest battery I've ever seen." He said "wow" a lot.

Then I brought the new battery home and put it back in all by myself.

I'm growing up so fast, I tell ya.

Shower

Yesterday morning... OK, so I slept in. It was really yesterday afternoon.

Anyways. I was minding my own business, taking a shower. Then the shower head popped right off and hit me in the face. Ouch.

But that wasn't the worst part. My shower has amazing water pressure, which I love. But without the showerhead, the stream of water comes through a tiny hole, a bit smaller than a newborn's pinkie finger.

I was basically being cleaned with a high pressure washer. It was painful. But funny. But mostly painful. So that was the end of my shower.

Jetlag?

So, the day Sam got back from Japan I drove down to her neighborhood. We ate some pizza, drank some coffee, I grumbled about The Gap, we watched some hockey, and then watched the end of the game in bed at Sam's house. (We had a sleepover.)

Now, Sam had been awake for 28 hours or something crazy like that, so she started snoozing during the second period of the hockey game. But it wasn't until about an hour after the game was over and the TV and lights were off that she started talking nonsense. Sam is not one to talk in her sleep, but apparently she is.

First she mumbled something about hockey sticks. I was still awake at this point, so I turned over and said, "huh?" Then she groaned, sounding frustrated, and said, "oh, nevermind." A couple of minutes later she said, "sleepy sleepy time!" and started snoozing again. Weird.

Maybe an hour later Sam turned to me and said, "I gotta go potty." Fine with me. So she got up and started to walk around the bed and towards the door. But then she appeared to get lost halfway. So she whispered to me, "hey, where's the bathroom?" I just stared at her. It's Sam's house, after all. And her bedroom only has one exit. And the bathroom is only like 8 steps outside of that exit. I think she may have been frustrated by my lack of an answer, but she still found her way to the door OK.

Before Sam exited the room she tried me again, "hey, where's the bathroom?" Again, I stared. She waited. I didn't answer. We were both just staring at each other, waiting. I was waiting for her to figure out where she was, she was waiting for an answer to her question. No luck for either of us. So she left. Sounded like she made it alright. Weird.

Earth Day

You get a free coffee if you use your travel mug at Starbucks today. If you live in Calgary, the same is true of Good Earth (Good Earth is better).

Grrr...

I thought I could be all unique and stuff by making my own t-shirts... then The Gap ripped me off! Now I look like a Gap Kid. I haven't seen any yet, but if they start making t-shirts like mine, I'm suing! (I'm American.)

The snow did not go away...

... so it seems that I am stuck in Calgary for the week.

I don't mean it to sound so awful. Calgary is great. The timing of this snowstorm is not.

Snow, snow, go away
Come again another day
Ashley wants to drive on the Trans-Canada Highway
Snow, snow, go away

When a chair was dragged noisily across the floor...

... Madeline (the 4-year-old) said, "Whelp, sounds like a buffalo's a-movin' through."

Maybe they've been watching too much Diego?

Of all the exciting things

So I'm getting to see most of my favorite people, all in the next two weeks! Between Abbotsford, Seattle, and Calgary I am just gonna pee my pants with excitement!

First and foremost, SAM is on her way home from JAPAN right now! And she will be here in ZERO sleeps! I'm smiling RIGHT NOW because I think this is a very GOOD thing.

Then I get to drive to Abbotsford on Saturday and see Cassy and maybe a few more BC people.

Then I drive to Seattle on Sunday to see a million jillion people.

Then I drive to Calgary on Friday (not tomorrow) to see SUNSHINE JENNY when she comes back from Mexico as well as WHOEVER else is around my fine city!

And then some undecided day Adam and Celia and Adlai will come here and play with me.

Very good, very good.

My Gulch Hoard An

Thursday we got 23 cm of snow.
Today the high is 23 degrees.

(Bonus points if you can figure out the title and its relation to this post. Because I'm just that lame.)

This probably doesn't help my lameness score...

...but take a look at what I did all evening!

I call it extreme laundry. Here's what happened...

A month or two ago I washed my chapstick. It got beeswax stains on a bunch of my clothes, so I put them in a pile in a corner of my room thinking I'd maybe deal with that one day. I got new chapstick and got over it.

THEN. I did it again on Wednesday. Between those two loads I basically had no clothes left that didn't have grease stains. DANGIT.

I had no idea how to get beeswax out of my clothes. Sam said something about ironing it out but that really wasn't working for me. So I devised a method using the kitchen sink, a cooling rack, boiling water, dish soap, and a dish towel.

I actually have no idea if it worked because it's hard to see the stains when the clothes are wet (they are currently being rinsed). But I spent like 3 hours doing this so hopefully it was effective.

That was basically the most exciting part of my day. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

On the 12th Day of... Christmas?

Man it snowed a lot yesterday.

It has now been 12 days since I last saw Sammy. She's in Japan right now visiting her cousin Kaila and (hopefully) Ichiro's mom. It's the longest I haven't seen her since June! Anyways, I just want to let you know that it has been discovered that I am "lame" when Sam is gone. Here are some of the reasons cited:

1. I had a sleepover with Nan (Sam's grandma). Now, I think Nan is cool, probably one of the coolest grandma's in Canada, but Sam says I'm lame for it so there you go. We may have another sleepover tonight or tomorrow. Just so you know.

2. Sam called last Wednesday morning before she flew away. Since then, I have had only 5 incoming calls, 2 of which were wrong numbers. One was my mom, one was someone who needed a ride, and the other was someone who wanted to watch hockey.

3. It's 3pm on my day off and I haven't left the house yet.

OK so I guess I can only think of those three right now. The good news is that Sam has committed to de-lame-ifying me when she gets back. I don't really know what that means. The point? I miss her and am glad she'll be back in 6 sleeps.

NHL Playoffs 2008

My team will be there. How 'bout yours?

Bzzzzz

I typically put my phone on vibrate when I don't want to draw attention to myself if it happens to ring. But this is really not the best plan for me.

For example: tonight I put it on vibrate when I got to our young adults Bible study, but before the actual study started otherwise it would have been turned off. Anyways, it started ringing, and by ringing I mean vibrating. It startled me so badly that I jumped and flailed my arms, spilling a girl's tea and causing general confusion to everyone around me. That sure didn't draw any attention to myself. Riiiiight...

It was Sam. I think she's accustomed to the way I answer the phone with a hint of hyperventilation in my voice. (I breathe really fast when something scares or surprises me.)

Speaking of Sam, I am not going to see her in FOREVER! OK it is really just maybe 4 weeks or something while she is in Japan and I am in the Olympic rainforest, but I still think I will need to take up a temporary hobby to get me through such a lengthy separation. Any ideas?