ganga-lion, rawr!

um, so the ganglion in my wrist might have just gone away. i have no idea if i've written about this before, but i have a ganglion in my wrist from when i fell on my ass on my way from the mall to work after lunch one day. and it took forever for the docs to figure out what it was (ganglion? no! bursitis? no! aah, yes, ganglion) and i have an appointment for next week to have the sucker removed which i was all stoked for (except for the shaved arm part).

then i fell on my way back from the mall two days ago (yes on the way back to work after lunch - different place) and suddenly there isn't really a bump or at least a big bump. but my wrist is still sore and i feel like there's a little something there. anyhoo - now i'm going to see my doc on monday and keep my appointment on tues just in case there is something still there. drama!

so i went on the internet to see if they had any pictures and this was the best excerpt from an article that i could find:

Media file 4: A ganglion cyst that has been operated on in the past. This ganglion returned because this person plays the cymbals in her school band.


oh, how i wish i had my ganglion because i PLAY CYMBALS IN MY SCHOOL BAND!!!!!

i am still giggling 10 minutes later.
how i love the internets.

p.s. they used to call them bible cysts since you used to smash them with a big book or bible. *shiver*
p.p.s. mine is / was not as big as cymbal girl's.

the great sea of blue jello

here she is in all of her glory. note the treasure chest. it has an x marking the spot on the other side.

and here is the shark attack victim.

priceless.

wow, what the eff happened to craig david?

being sick gives you all of this time to search around and find QUALITY stuff like this on the internet. i think he hired the back up dancers from c+c music factory.

what happened to seven days, craig? *sob* and okay, a *giggle*

justice

today is a big day for justice. the pickton trial yesterday, michael vick and conrad black today... but the one that means the most to me is the pickton trial. yesterday, i had my coat on and everything and was just about to go grocery shopping when the cbc cut out of regular programming to declare the verdict. and i plunked down and cried.

there is triumph there and this horrific trial has finally and in the most horrible way lent a voice to the women who have been literally missing from the streets and figuratively missing from society's dialogue for so long. it is tiring and so oppressive and just so wrong that this happened. these women were someone's daughter, someone's mother, someone's sister, someone's baby.

it's weird too - i think of bernardo which encompassed most of my teenage years, and now pickton which has encompassed most of my twenties. i remember leslie mahaffy's face on the cover of the toronto star and all of the warnings at school about guys in camaros, and i remember too just 6 years ago when one of my friends from work had a friend who was working on the pig farm in the first dig-through. these stories and these atrocities change you and all you can do is hope that these beautiful women didn't die in vain. (*sigh* - and people wonder why i'm a feminist...)

grab your families, your friends and your babies: hold them close and keep them safe and loved.

jean valjean

this is very unlike me - but really jean chretien is the shit.

i was just doing my sunday morning thing and listened to the sunday edition ("i'm michael enright"). chretien is such a jerk and yet, is so honest and hilarious. he fully admitted that he didn't get along with paul martin merely because of power. that's it. just because the guy wanted his job.

i don't care how shady he is at times. he's a hard worker, a tough guy who admitted he just likes being quiet and reading and listening to music with his wife, who by the way, most definitely wears the pants in that relationship.

so in chretien's honour - sponsorship scandal be damned - we should wrap it up with a rousing
VIVE LE CANADA!

*swoon*

teaser

i only have one pic of the pirate team. (my co-worker's computer was giving her attitude and wouldn't let her send more than one at a time.)

it's a group shot and gives you a good idea of our costumes and just a wee glimpse of the glory of the good ship canker sore.

this is what winning looks like...


and as for this weekend, i went over to prem's last night for dinner and it was so good. his friend and his girlfriend came over for dinner. i got to watch grey's that prem had pvr'd for me and then i made the most kickass vegan chocolate pudding cake. really - i astounded even myself. this morning, i'm fighting a tickle in my throat and now have to organize the next 3 weeks of my life (groan) in order to get everything done. oh, xmas!

buuuutttt i think i'm going to go play outside and i'm going to pump some iron and craft away.
i'm also a little behind in posting since i still need some pics from last weekend's snowshoeing and pedicures from this week! my toes are so pretty!

jingle the dinner elf

okay, i want the bipolar shit to stop. and i'm going to blame it on my lightbox. (i get completely amped on it and yet i am so tired and can't come down and this is only after 10 min. a day)

first off - sorry for no pirate pics. they'll be up tomorrow. my co-worker is bringing them in tomorrow.

secondly - i have had a headache for most of the afternoon.

thirdly - i am so bored. and yet have so much energy. it's so annoying. i worked out really hard on sat, went snowshoeing yesterday and decided not to exercise today, and now am running around in circles in my brain trying to think of things to do other than the boring routine house chores of laundry, cleaning, cooking and washing dishes (i guess that falls under cleaning).

fourthly - december is such a drag (it's only the 3rd and in my bipolar mood, i'll probably post tomorrow about how quickly it's going). i want it to be xmas NOW. i don't want to have to go through the rigamarole of buying presents, cleaning house and having houseguests, flying home and trying to wake up at an okay hour in the morning without using defibrillators and without having every minute of my life scheduled.

fifthly - where is jingle the dinner elf who will take care of all household chores and dinner? i would like some yummy curry that someone else made for me instead of doing the usual crap of looking into my fridge and coming up with some stirring tofu, chard and tomato combination that i've eaten variations of for the past 2 days. (i know jenn is looking for her house-cleaning elves, but really, all i want is a yummy dinner).

sixthly - i have nothing else. i know there is nothing worth complaining about, but i'm just antsy and a little nervous for all things xmas to come and bite me on the ass. i love xmas, but i also love dreading xmas. hence, this entire post.

and now - seventhly - i'm going to go and make myself happy and stop annoying myself and the entire internet.

oh and p.s. eighthly - i went snowshoeing yesterday and it was AMAZING. so so so much fun.
and p.p.s. ninthly - if you were one of santa's reindeers, which one would it be? julia is vixen, i'm donner (cuz the name is pretty funny) and andrew is robbie (rudolf's son). who you? (mom and col, i dare you to leave a post!)

it won't stop!

i wish wish wish that i had a camera so i could take one of those rare pictures of vancouver encased in snow.
it's been snowing for 2 days and shows no sign of stopping.
it's incredible.

in other big news, my brother won his moot court competition on thursday and i am so proud of him. and he did it for my grandad which is also amazing (no wonder he won).

and in less earth-shattering, but equally exciting news, my gingerbread team at work won the gingerbread competition. hands down, greatest gingerbread of all time - the gingerbread pirate ship, the "canker sore".
pics will be posted tomorrow (hopefully of snow as well).

and even more importantly, i'm home! i feel like i've been away for ages, and yesterday, had such a good hang out day at home. i did laundry, ran errands, went to the gym and totally pumped iron in the meat locker area, as opposed to the women's only gym and felt really powerful. then i walked home and tried to catch snowflakes on my tongue.

today - hopefully some snowshoeing and playing around in this white gold.

island adventures, part tres

on saturday, we had a huge bday party for juanita and bryn which was really fun. bestest part was playing "run around the house" which involves... well, running around the (outside of the) house. soooo goooooood. i am trying to think of ways to convert this to an urban apartment setting to not much avail.

anyhoo - that day, we made some apple cake with liberated apples and then headed over to decorate. but i stupidly didn't take any pictures. i was too focussed on enjoying the company and rocking out to timbaland and one republic's ultimate slow jam.

here are some pretty fleurs growing in a tub and niki borrowing some apples for our apple cake to make up for it.



thanks to everyone for such a great weekend!
xs and os,
jess

p.s. and now that the adventure is over, i'm at home and have my period and am generally feeling a little bloated. nothing a few days and a solid dose of vitamin i won't cure.

island adventures, part deux

then on friday night we went to the bar and it was fun. it was jam-packed with people, including 8 of our own, and there was good people-watching.

really good people-watching. case in point, monsieur daffy duck. turns out that some of us at the table knew him from high school, so after waiting to strategically take his pic, kim just called him over. and here are the pics to prove it:



turns out that even though we had been berating his fashion choice most of the evening, that he was wearing it for a good reason. his girlfriend had been pissing him off earlier in the day, so he decided to piss her off by wearing this sweater. solid gold!

and here's the birthday boy, bryn, and his lady, tacy:

island adventures, part 1

alas, this posting is not about some fabulous trip to maui, but instead is about a very fun trip to vancouver island. hot hot temperate rainforest island.

i had a roundtable in ladysmith and then toodled down to duncan, where i drove onto niki's farm and surprised her with coffee and chocolate. then she showed me around the place and we went for a nice walk to see if the surveyors had cleaned up the gate properly. it was full moon night, see?

here's niki in the field:

good things (my version of american thanksgiving)

here is a list of good things before i go away:

* i joined the YWCA and pumped iron. my biceps were looking gooooooood.
* smoked tofu sandwich from capers. so yum.
* i get to travel and do my last roundtable before the spring. i am going to ladysmith, nanaimo and then duncan.
* my intuition is telling me that it will snow soon.
* my friends call me and chat with me. (really, this is more important than it initially seems - julia called me from bangladesh, and lisa chatted with me on gmail last night from slovenia). oh and my cousins / friends write me (jules sent me a very nice note earlier this week).
* egyptian licorice tea (finally, i bought some)
* helping friends who almost get schmucked by cars. luckily she is alive and well and able to share delicious smoked tofu sandwiches with me.
* seeing the sun. although this impacts how much snow is on the mountains, i was definitely craving some vitamin d.

there - off to lay-dee-smith.
xo jess

blue randomness

blue is not just my fave colour (okay, it's turquoise) but it's also how i'm feeling.

this weekend was good - busy - with lots of present buying and making and lots of bodywork which is probably contributing to my pleasant pleasant mood (detoxifying, anyone?). and i'm not sure why i always forget that the november blues always sneak up and bite me on the ass right about now, and then there they are and i'm scrambling for my lightbox in the hopes of any mood other than total sluggishness.

so here are some reasons for being blue:
*i think it's cuz it's birthday season and i want to go to my brother's and niece's birthday party and would have done anything to have been walking around the detroit zoo instead of being at a yoga workshop all day yesterday.
*there is no daylight. the sun gets up around 8 am and sets around 4 pm. it is 11:30 pm around 6 pm, if you get my drift, and i miss the sun.
*it's raining, but not cold enough to be snow on the mountains, or it's not raining and melting all of the snow that's on the mountains.
*i've had so much bodywork and have been working on myself (counselling, yoga) for the past 3 weeks and i am frankly a little tired of myself.
* lisa just left for slovenia and although i have many many close and wonderful friends, i will miss her. (although, i did make her the cutest mittens out of my old sweater. my craftiness reigns supreme.)

arrgh.

how to solve having the blues:
* eat cupcakes and by cupcakes i mean really good vegetarian food
* work out intensely and distract myself from depression by staring at my sweet sweet pipes
* turn up the old lightbox
* start dating someone fabulous and get distracted by their issues and / or dreamy eyes and / or scads of cash that they want to spend on me.
* stop watching bridget jones for the 300 billionth time.
* go shopping and make myself look and feel fabulous

there. i almost feel better already. almost. now where are those damn cupcakes?

cinnamon angst

so here's the deal - now that i'm older, i am beginning to feel older, and quite possibly look older.

sure, i've got my woman body and i'm very comfortable with that, and yes, i have earned every laugh line i have (i think i had laugh lines at age 10 but seriously, isn't it better to have them than not?), but i have an aging thing that is quite unique, i think, to the strawberry contingent on the planet.

i think my hair is getting lighter and a little bit less red which is TERRIFYING. here's the history - i once met a friend of my grandma's who had pink hair. as in "i used to have red hair and now i don't because i'm old and it's pink". no shit. and she was really lovely and i really liked her, but she also served as the totem of the horrors of crimson fire aging.

so, with that image burned in my mind - it didn't help that she was in florida and wore outrageous sweatsuits all the time - we come to this fall where i am posting all of my pics of my travels and i notice in the self-portrait of me in front of a mountain in the kootenays that my hair looks a little less red. maybe it's the light, i think.

but then i hang out with my friend adam who is also a redhead, who now is strawberry blond since he's just past the big 4- 0. this is a man who had deep red hair, who is now strawberry (he likes to call it cinnamon sugar instead of strawberry). and then i go back to the picture, and think, "those ain't my highlights talking".

and then to top it all off, nicole kidman has to go and get a lot of press and ends up looking like this. look at it closely - she is GREY. with strawberry at the bottom.

is THIS what's waiting for me (without the botox freeze face and an effed up marriage to xenu himself and then another weird marriage to a fellow aussie who always has his shirt open and has more highlights than me)????

anyhoo - take note. get pics of the red because it's going down soon.

overdue

so, i've been 29 for 10 days now, and i have to say that i like it. funny how a number increasing by one can make you suddenly get your mojo back, and make you feel like you have your shit somewhat more together.

here are some pics of my illustrious birthday gathering, which ROCKED by the way.




i have amazing friends and i am one lucky lucky 29 year old girl.

(oh, and when i blew out my candles, i had one boyfriend left. sweet. now whether that candle remained lit because i didn't blow on it purposefully is a secret i will never betray. i do like, though, how it's one boyfriend, and not a series of jerkass chumps, cuz that would be depressing.)

be more constructive with your feedback, please!

i have a day off today and i cannot stop watching this. and when i am watching this, i cannot stop laughing at it. i am OBSESSED. enjoy.

ooh! ooh! it's my birfday!

just a quick post since i need to get down to important birfday things like lying on my couch waiting for the phone to ring.
i went on dlisted and here's michael k's list of fellow "birthday sluts":

Dolph Lundgren (50)
Gemma Ward (20)
Jasmine Trias (21)
Dwight Yorke (36)
Hal Hartley (48)
Adam Ant (53)
Dennis Miller (54)
Kate Capshaw (54)
Roseanne (55)
Anna Wintour (58)
Lulu (59)

while most of them are crap, which i already knew, look (especially col) at birthday slut #6. ADAM ANT!!!!! "stand and deliver" was probably a song about him getting his birthday presies. but, holy crap, he's 53!!!

craziness amongst the scorpios. what else is new?

don't eff with my dip

seriously, i don't care what time of year it is - don't try to dress up my vanilla dip doughnut with novelty sprinkles!!!
this is for a variety of reasons:
1) the bat sprinkles actually taste different
2) it ruins the aesthetic pleasure of the doughnut and makes it kind of assymetrical - dark black heavy sprinkles across from the dainty colourful balls?
3) just don't. nuff said.

fort st. james

burns lake

i liked burns lake. i drove down to francois lake and watched the ferry and then i went for a walk around loch lomond (no, not the one in scotland).

there is so much crap in burns lake that most people don't actually swim in it. i found some debris on the shore.

houston

home to the world's largest fly rod....

bulkeley valley

the hazeltons

terrace (which in its bad moments was tear-ass)

loooooooooong trip

i am so happy to be home.
it was an okay trip from terrace to p.g. with lots of driving, meetings and beauty in between. here's the short and sweet blow by blow.

1) AC lost my bags. both of them. with all of my workshop supplies and clothes.
2) the roundtable went well despite wearing the same clothes as the day before and not having any of my supplies. i got my bags after my roundtable was done (of course).
3) it rained 95% of the time i was in terrace which stank.
4) the rain lifted about 45 minutes out of terrace and then it was all beauty.
5) the hazeltons are really pretty.
6) smithers was fun and very swiss-like. i got to go to a community meeting for the morning which was really interesting.
7) burns lake is beautiful too. i liked it there. and it was full moon night too (miakonda night) which made me happy.
8) the rcmp can kiss it. they pulled me over for not having an n on a rental car which still infuriates me so i won't say anything more about it. but because of my travels and going to vanderhoof and then back to fort st. james, i had to go through the road blocks 4 times which made it really funny.
9) fort st. james was great. if not open.
10) it was cold and a real big sky trip. it was nice to see the sun for so long.

some realizations that i came to on this trip:
1) i am a big body of water kind of girl. i.e. i prefer lakes and oceans to rivers.
2) the mountains in the skeena valley were HUGE.
3) i don't know how people up there do it - and by it, i mean drive insane distances just to get to the next town. but i guess you trade off certain things for living on the land surrounded by insane amounts of beauty in nature.
4) if i lived up north, i would officially get nothing done. if i had that much beauty around me at all times, i think i would spend most of the time staring off into the distance and being outside except for maybe when it's absolutely freakin' freezing.

and now for the photo dump.

t minus 14 days and counting

why, oh why, am i blowing candles out?
weeeellllll that's because when i was home with la famille, we had a birthday pie (thanks harrow united church and grandma) and i got to do a little pre-emptive candle-blowing-out.

so in anticipation of my favourite national holiday (unrecognized by the ignorant masses), here's the list.

WARNING: these gifts are not practical, but, hey, it's a wish list!
* le creuset kettle (a half one - the 80 dollar kind)
* a little cast iron skillet
* an ipod shuffle (shockingly, i don't want it in turquoise - green or pretty pink please)
* 1 skein of noro "silver thaw" wool from dyelot 5A only available in the states. pooh.
* the "duh" list - the new nigella cookbook, the new (and hopefully not the last) rebus novel
* meaningful gestures from lovely people

party news will be going out SOON.
yesssssss.

(on a completely random note- look at the pic closely - you can actually see my eyebrows! rare occassion my friends)

and there shall be no more sea

one more...

the purdiest river you ever did see...

finally...

fernie and back

more cranbrook

and trip to kimberley and south to moyle lake