Living in a white world...

These are pictures of our house right before we moved in - the guy who lived here before us didn't paint, and neither have we...up until today!!! We're getting the house painted today and I'm pretty excited about it. We (Foxy and I) have painted the master and guest bathrooms ourselves and have decided that we absolutely HATE painting, so we're investing the money and having the biggest part of our house done professionally - the biggest part being the living room, kitchen and dining room. These pictures don't really illustrate how white our house actually is, but let me just say, it's WHITE. As of this evening, it will not be white. I'll take pictures when we've got all of our furniture moved back into place and the dust has settled...

Now that I've regained my composure...

MOM IS COMING TO VISIT! WOO-HOO! Yep, you read that right. The power of blogging prevails yet again - ha ha ha! Somehow, I think that her visit has more to do with the incessant phone calls that began by me saying, "When are you coming?", before I'd even said hi, but I'm going to give some credit to my blog. So yeah, she's coming! Yea!

Just one random thing today. Coffee geography. This is a term that I'm going to use to refer to the variation in coffee preferences in this country. I'm originally from BC, which I'm now going to call "Starbucksland", seeing as how Starbucks are the coffee venue of choice for most of BC's coffee drinkers. Does this mean that BC "caffeine-a-holics" are pretentious? Some would argue yes, but I think it has more to do with the fact that BC was fortunate/unfortunate (depending on how you view it) enough to be living close to Washington State, where Starbucks was founded and other establishments have yet to venture into the dominant territory. In any event, as we move east from "Starbucksland", you'll crash head first into "TimHortonikstan", the vast empire controlled by Tim Hortons. In my city alone, there are 15 Tim Hortons (and our population is approximately 150,000), compared to 3 Starbucks and 1 Second Cup. Explanation? Ontario is too busy and too cheap to wait in line inside a cafe to pay $6.99 for a latte and a cookie, when they can zoom though a drive thru, pay $2.99 for a "cappiccino" (that's in quotes because it's not really cappiccino) and 2 cookies or a donut. Granted, the quality of Tim Hortons and Starbucks cannot really be compared - it'd be like trying to compare Wal-Mart and The Bay (both stores have the things that you want, but you pay more for stuff at The Bay because it's better quality (this too can be argued, I suppose...)) - so maybe that means that the people of "TimHortonikstan" are more concerned with speed rather than taste? I'm one of many people who LOVE Tim Horton's coffee - when it's good... and absolutely HATE it when it's not. The only thing I can say for Starbucks is that I've never had a bad coffee beverage (because I never just order coffee) so that gives it higher marks in my books, however, because I like to get where I'm going without having to leave too early - it's Timmy's for me, and if the coffee sucks, oh well, it only cost me $1.35.

Can you tell I haven't had my coffee yet?

Season opener and randomness...

Well, tomorrow is the start of the season - I'm SO happy it's finally here! Woo! Needless to say, I wasn't able to wait for it to start and went and threw 3 games with my junior partner, Greg aka "Strike Boy", and managed to average 201 for 3 games! Not bad after not picking up a ball since the first weekend in May! I'm hoping it's not the last hurrah of last season, but who knows.

Rockstar: Supernova just made me $5.00! Yep, my brilliant prediction gained me some cool cash from a bet. Not to mention that the naming of Lucas Rossi as the new frontman for the band is also another victory for Canadian musicians, who have now fronted both of the Rockstar bands - way to go Canada!! (Even though I'm a little miffed that Lucas won, seeing as how I find him INCREDIBLY hard to understand...but at least Tommy Lee will have some company being the "odd ball" of the group)

Went to the liquor store the other day to pick up some Strongbow (yeah, summer's almost over but I'm still drinking it...) and was appalled to see wine in tetra packs. Yes, tetra packs. What will they think of next? I'm expecting tin cans in the near future, but I'm hoping to be wrong.

Anyway - I'm still waiting to hear back from Mom as to when she's visiting - it won't be soon enough for me as I'm looking forward to hanging out with her and catching up (it'll have been 2 years in April since I last saw her!!!) MOM: I know you'll read this at some point...BOOK A FLIGHT!!!

On that note, I'm off to bed. Wish for many strikes for me as I head into the 2006-07 season!

Bowling and golf...

Foxy is good at both...and by good, I mean exceptional - it's sick really that he's as good as he is, but it's because he puts 120% into anything he wants to do.

I, on the other hand, despite my 110% efforts, have just started to improve where the bowling is concerned - my average going into this season is 177 (13 pins higher than last season) and I've got a 299 high game and 669 high series to beat. It's not likely to happen - I'm okay with that. I actually consider last season my "dream" season - anything from here on out is frosting. For those of you unfamiliar with the world of bowling - I'm talking about 10-pin, in which a perfect game is 300 and a perfect series is 900. 5-pin bowling is NOT real bowling...

Golf, on the other hand, is NOT one of my strong suits. I like to hit the ball - though it's very rare that I actually manage to accomplish that feat. I enjoy the walk, which is a good thing, since I have to walk twice as far as the average player because I've got to search in the rough for my ball more often than not. All in all, I'm pretty pathetic where golf is concerned - I think being a spectator is more my speed.

That being said - Foxy and I are heading to the Bell Canada Open this week coming up. I'm excited to see some big names - though no Tiger or Phil, but Jim Furyk, Fred Funk, John Daly and others will be there so I'm sure we'll see some "famous" faces. Only downside to our little vacation is that I miss my bowling season opener. It's all good though - it's just a greater anticipation of when I get to start the following week...if I can manage to wait that long...

12:32AM - here's an update...finally!

On a night like tonight – absolutely miserable (rainy and windy) – working from 4PM – 12AM gives you some time to have lots of random thoughts about all sorts of things… Here are just a few:

1) What is up with girls wearing summer clothes during a torrential downpour? I’m not talking about a storm that started late in the day – we’re talking all day rain forecasted for the next 36 hours. Why on earth would you wear a backless halter top and mini-skirt on a night like this? Seriously. I know you’re trying to look good, but you’re just doing a brilliant job of looking like a complete idiot! PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!

2) School starts on Tuesday (for most people) – so as a driver, don’t forget to slow down in school zones – the cops are ravenous this time of year. They can make their entire month’s worth of ticket quotas in a single day. Beware…

3) I miss the simplicity of just getting up in the morning and going to school – no bills, no boss, and no cranky customers. On the other hand, I don’t miss the bullies, the cranky teachers or the smell of the school bus…

4) There isn’t a single person in the world who looks at his/her self and thinks he/she looks amazing. I don’t know how many times tonight I watched these skinny (I’m talking rail thin) girls go into the cosmetics section of the store complaining about how fat and unattractive they are – meanwhile, I’m thinking, “I’d kill to look like you – and if you’re thinking that way about yourself, PLEASE don’t look this way, lest you turn to dust at the sight of big old size 16 me.” We live in a society that is all about vanity, but none of us can ever be satisfied with what we look like – I’d say the media has done a damn good job at pointing out all of our flaws.

5) I love Foxy