If I Know I'm an Idiot, Does it Make Me Less of an Idiot?

Okay. I have a pattern: there's something I don't really want to do. Usually something administrative, like filling in my student loan forms, or a funding application, or other paperwork for school. Or my thesis prospectus, or maybe my course description. And I know that really, it isn't that bad, but I don't want to do it. So I put it off. As long as I can. And I start getting anxious. As the deadline approaches, I start finding new and creative reasons not to do it--like absolutely needing to clean out my cupboards. Or weeding the garden. Or reorganizing the shed. You get the picture. Very necessary things that totally trump this looming administrative task. And I start to get worried. It keeps me up at night. I get stomach aches. But I still don't just sit my ass down and do this stupid thing that has me all stressed out until I absolutely have to.
And you know what? It's never, ever as bad as I think it will be. Ever. Take, say, my prospectus. Now, I have a SSHRC. My SSHRC proposal is essentially a draft of my prospectus. But I can't even convince myself to open the damn file for weeks! And then I do, work on it for an hour and a half, and email it off to my supervisor as a first draft. No problem. Suddenly all my stress problems are gone.
Or my course description--I know most of the students won't even read the damn thing anyway, but I wai until the firggin thing is two weeks overdue before I even start work on it! And you know what? It takes me, like an hour. A day later, a few good friends have looked at it, given me their feedback, and the thing is submitted. So easy. Why did I put it off?
Only, the worst thing is, I know I'll just do it again. Anf again, and again, and again, and...

Noah's Ark: Bursting at the Seams

Okay, I've finally figured out how many pets is too many pets. Four. Four is the breaking number. Mom is in the process of moving to Nova Scotia, and becuase it was really stressing Tilou out to see the house slowly emptied, Mom brought him to Halifax during her house-hunting trip and left him here. We figured, no problem--Tilou is a really good dog, right?
In theory, yes. Except that Ozzy can't pass him without hissing. And Tilou thinks that's awesome, so he gets all excited and starts barking and dancing and shit. And then Ozzy, who really just wanted to show his displeasure in a sort of desultory manner, gets really freaked out and upset and puffs out, swipes with his claw and runs away. Also, the dogs get jealous of each other. If you pet one, the other runs up to you. In fairness, Marlowe started it. But then Tilou thought, hey, that's a prety good idea. And then when one gets jealous, they both start barking and trying to edge the other out. And then when it's time to go outside, both dogs want to go first. And last. And each cries at the door when the other is outside.
Oh, and don't even get me started on the two-leashes-for-a-walk thing!

Home for a Rest

Wow. Talk about your whirlwind trips! We are now back in Hali after the world's most fabulous... and exhausting trip to Edmonton! By my count, we managed to fit in:

• 4 business meetings
• at least 9 lunches and dinners out-an afternoon at Fort Edmonton
• visits with over 50 friends, family members, former coworkers and miscellaneous Edmontonians that we miss a lot--including several other out-of-towners, Mom & Dad Soholt, Michelle, Hardeep & Simrin, Aunt Maureen & Uncle Terry, Uncle Tim & Aunt Linda, Paulie and Heidi
• trips to virtually every part of the city (South side, West end, North side, Mill Woods, Riverbend, St Albert, downtown, Old Stratchcona, and University)
• 2 missed flights (oops!)
• 4 different airports
• one illegal driving incident (driving a rental very, very carefully without insurance!)
• 2 floor hockey ejections for high-sticking (guess who did that.)
• househunting with Phil & Nancy
• container gardening
• 2 nights on the town
• come-ons from several Edmontonians, including a shiny new Business graduate ("English? You know that's like totally worthless, right? You'll have to go back and take Education or something." What a turn-on.), a high school student, and a fireman (yup--those 3, all me!)
• a new tattoo (not me!)
• impromptu dance lessons for the rhythmically challenged at the Attic
• the discovery that Corey's girlfriend is the infamous Pixie
• stays at 3 different houses
• petsitting
• slight intoxication
• baking
• bowling
• shopping
• a wardrobe malfunction
• and very, very little sleep.

Whew! I'm tired just cataloguing it all! (And I'm sure there's a lot I've missed in there...). Anyway, it was so, so fantastic to see everyone--I miss you all already! And for those of you we missed, the good news is, we will probably be back in July and August.
Love and big, big thanks especially to Greg & Nadine, Julie, Bob & Emmet and Toni & Brad for letting us freeload with them.

Fort Edmonton

We're already running out of time to visit with everyone, but we would still love to see as many of you as possible. We're planning to go to Fort Edmonton Park. We'll meet at 10:30 tomorrow (Thursday) morning, just outside the main entrance at Fort Edmonton? This will be a kid-friendly activity--yay! Also, we have 6:00p.m. resos at Japanese Village--let me know if you want to join us. Here's my cell, just in case: 902-488-2458. If you can't make it at 10:30 but want to meet us there later, just give me a call on my cell.

Coming Up Next...

Okay. We've been having a fabulous time in Edmonton so far--it's so good to spend time with everybody! We thought maybe we'd have a mini-person-friendly day at Fort Edmonton on Thursday, and then, in the evening, dinner at Japanese Village. Let me know if you're up for one or both!

One More Sleep, and then Edmonton!

I could not be more excited! I thought maybe we could go for drinks on Whyte on Saturday. Assuming Sapphire still exists, I thought that would be a good place to start. Say... 8:30ish? I'll have my cell with me, if case anyone want to catch up with us later: 902-488-2458. We'll be petsitting at Greg and Nadine's until Wedneday, then we'll be at Bob & Julie's, then Toni & Brad's. We're planning some dinners out at our favourite places: Japanese Village, Earl's, Olive Garden, plus, I want to spend a half a day or so at Fort Edmonton. (Weird, the places you miss...).
We've got Japanese Village resos for Thursday. Let us know by Wednesday if you want to join us. And we thought we'd kick off the week with takeout and movies, either at Greg & Nadine's, or at a movie theatre on Friday (No, Brad, I'm not going to see a zombie movie. Ask, oh say, Toni or Trent or Tania or Roz or just about anyone how I feel about zombies. Would I take you to see a mouldy bees movie? Hmmm?)

My Imaginary Boyfriend...

Trent and I did another movie extra gig this week. (By the way, Diamond Grill is the perfect reading for that kind of day--the text is fragmented, your reading experience will be fragmented. Ideal!) It was actually kind of awful and boring and they wouldn't let us take breaks to eat, and they really, really rationed our pee breaks, and the movie (made-for-TV), Sticks and Stones, is probably going to be terrible. We spent the whole day booing an imaginay American national anthem at an imaginary Canadiens-Islanders hocke game (you guys remember the one). Mostly dreadful. Only, as we were filming the last scene, I look over to where the cameras and director are and someone looks familiar. Hot and familiar.

"Hey Trent, isn't that Christopher from Gilmore Girls?"
"I don't know. Looks like him."

Just then, Meagan the AD comes over. She's the same AD Trent worked with on Outlander. She goes straight to Trent. "I was looking for you!" she says. "Want to be in the shot?"

Of course he does. So he ends up right behind "Christopher" (whose name is actually David). Can you believe it? So much hotness in such a small space?

And, after the shoot, as we were waiting to sign out, I got my own close-up of Hot Christopher (sorry, I don't want to think of him as a real person) as he squeezes past me to get outside. And then, of course, I constructed an imaginary narrative in which he is now my boyfriend, and Trent is still my huz-bind, and everybody is totally, totally okay with that.

100 Posts!

Now please send me money.

Seriously--you didn't expect this level of quality entertainment for free, did you?

Growing Up Is NOT a Good Thing!

The difference between Becca at age 9 and Becca at 29:

You: Don't worry--you'll do fine on your exams. I know it.
Becca, Age 9: Really? Wow, thanks. I feel much better now. Seriously, thanks.
Becca, age 29: What? How can you make a statement like that? Where's your evidence? Are you citing an expert here, or is that your own, unfounded opinion? I don't deal in conjectures bud, I need EVIDENCE! Everyone has an opinion--my dog has an opinion--what you should have learned by now is to support your opinions with facts, quotations, textual support for god's sake. Honestly, an opinion like that, completely unfounded and unsupported is worthless to me. And cite your source. MLA style, please.

Update

Trent and I got home from Sparwood yesterday afternoon. In late March, my stepfather Ron died suddenly. Trent, Philip, Nancy and I all made it out to BC to help Mom out with a bunch of things, including putting her house up for sale. (If you're interested, you can see the house postings here and here.)
Mom, of course, misses Ron very much, but she is doing well and planning for the future.

The First Crocuses Are Up!

I saw them on Bayers Road on Monday.

Now. I shouldn't be looking at crocuses, thinking about crocuses, or Blogging about crocuses, I should be reading and studying and thinking, and when I'm taking a break from reading, studying and thinking, I should be marking and marking and marking.

Yeah, He's Hot!

Apparently, Atlantic Talent Agency lets you vote on how hot their talent is!

Well.

You know who's hot? Trent's hot! Click here and here and tell them so! Just above the pictures are a bunch of little white or yellow oblong dots. Click on them are rate Bear's picture. Maybe he will get more auditions!

And Then There Would Be Little Bits of Can Lit All Over the Walls!

Okay. My candidacy exams are coming up in just over a month. For those of you who are not in the know, this is probably the most intense period of my post-secondary career. Basically, they give us a year to become experts in our field by madly reading everything on an enormous reading list, then we have three days of examinations to complete--two days of written exams, and one four-hour oral exam. If I fail... well, let's say I was a pretty good secretary once upon a time. So I'm afraid I'm not going to be much fun between now and May 3rd, when my exams are finally over. That's assuming that my brains don't become so full that my head just explodes.

Blogging is So Last Week.

My name is Becca and I'm a Facebook addict. At first, I only signed up because all the cool kids were talking about it and I wanted to know what it was like. Only now, I can't stop. I Facebook every day. Sometimes twice a day. I've even added a Facebook badge to the bottom of my Blog.

Since I started Facebooking, I've connected with old Fort Edmonton friends, Walterdale friends, UofA friends, GSA friends, Dal friends, and even two friends from France.

I can't stop. I just can't help myself. I Facebook nearly as much as I Blog...

In 65 days...

We will be in Edmonton! Yay! We arrive May 18th, and we don't go home until the 27th. Thank you SO MUCH for all the place-to-crash invites (and especially to Phidit and Nancy, who were going to let us spend 10 days with them in their one-bedroom apartment!) and the equally awesome car-to-drive offers. It's nice to know we're still welcome in E-Town!
We will be spending part of the visit chez Greg & Nadine in our old Lymburn stomping ground, and the rest of the visit with Julie, Bob, Emmet and tummybaby in St Albert. We've rented a car with our Airmiles, so we're good to go!
I know everyone has a busy scedule, so I thought we could plan a couple of evenings out to make sure that we get a chance to see everyone. Are Japanese Village and Sapphire still where the cool kids go?
We can't wait to see everyone!

... and if they could, can their paws work a mouse to get online?

You know how sometimes, you know what you should do, only it takes someone else to actually say it before you can really resolve on doing it? That's how it was for the Barky Dog situation. I knew that I should just go and talk to my neighbours, and, in fact, Trent and I had already sounded the idea of first asking our other neighbours Danny and Angie what the Barky Dog people are like--but I didn't really have the nerve to do it until you all gave me your brilliant, inspired, mature advice. So. On Thursday, I decided that I would go around and talk to both sets of neighbours on Saturday. Except that, on Friday, the dog didn't start barking until much later in the morning than usual--nearly 8:00 a.m. And on Saturday and Sunday, I didn't hear it at all until the afternoon. And yesterday, not until 7:30 a.m. ... until 8:30 a.m. A little later start than most days, but still, I was all ready to go and talk to neighbours today... except that this morning, the dog didn't bark at all. In fact, I didn't even see it as I left for school. And it wasn't outside when I got home, either. And it's not out now.

Last time Cujo disappeared was after I had called in a midnight noise complaint about it. So maybe one of my other neighbours got tired of the daily Sunrise Serenade. Or maybe the family got sick of that long, twice-daily walk from back door to the end of the driveway to tie up and bring in the dog.

Or...

Are we really sure dogs can't read? ...

Another DIY Caption!

Maybe I'm Just a Jerk

Okay. I need advice. Lymburnites and former visitors to Lymburn, do you remember Nana the Barking Dog? Owned by Alex, the Russian pickup-truck-opera-singer? Son-in-law to Smirnoff-Limeric-Guy? Well, there's a dog across the street from us that makes Nana seem... well, downright loveable.

For those of you who haven't been out to visit us, we like in a sort of subdivision in the country. All the lots in our neighbourhood are about an acre. But it's not the country, it is defintely a subdivision. Kitty-corner from us are neighbours that we haven't met yet. They have a big, German-Shepherdish dog. The dog gets tied outside to a short rope near their driveway around 6:30 a.m. every day and stays outside until nighttime. And it barks. All. Day.

Now, this is fairly annoying at 2 p.m. when I'm trying to study, or in the summer when I'm gardening and it's barking at me the whole time, but whatever. I can deal with it. What I'm finding increasingly hard to handle is the unremittant (sp?) 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. barking. Should I mention that I don't have to get out of bed until 8, or 7:15 at the very earliest? So I lie there, tired and cranky for up to an hour and a half, listening to this dog's constant barking until my alarm goes off.

Last summer, I was working at the garden centre in Sackville, a half-hour from the house. Back then, I had to be up shortly after 6 to get to work. One night, while Trent was away on a business trip, I went to bed shortly after 10. Immediately, the dog started barking. And didn't stop until after 1 a.m. Finally, shortly after midnight, almost in tears, I called a noise complaint in to the police. Althought it didn't stop the dog barking that night, I didn't hear the damned beast for over a week after that. Now, you should probably know that I felt terrible about calling the police on my neighbours, especially since I've never met them. It's the first time I've ever done that, and so far, the last... now here's where I need your help.

We only know three of our neighbours really well. Two of the three have mentioned Barking Dog to us--it seems to be a neighbourhood annoyance. And there are other barky dogs around (they're dogs--they bark. I know this, and generally, I consider it a minor nuisance) but none that bark early in the morning, all day long, and sometimes late at night. Also, it makes me angry that these people even have a dog--I've never seen them walk it, and it spends literally all day tied to a short leash. Frankly, I feel sorry for the thing. However, I feel even more sorry for me at this point.

Now. I know that I can sometimes be a little... less than reasonable when things annoy me, so I need some advice here. Do I:

• Call in another noise complaint early one morning?
• Send a letter or email to the noise police and maybe the SPCA?
• Go across the street, introduce myself, and ask them not to let their dog bark in the morning?
• Just learn to deal with it?

Or is there another solution I haven't thought of yet?

The Tequila Guy's Name Was Che Che.

We had a fantabulous trip to Mexico... and a rotten flight home. I'll tell more about it later. For now, I'll leave you with a few pics from Mom & Dad's camera... I won't say much about them, except that our Las Caletas trip featured an open bar. See if you can pick out the pics from the boat ride home...

Don't Take This the Wrong Way But...

...I hope it snows on your heads all next week. On account of Trent, Mom & Dad S., Paulie, Phidit and I will be basking in the Mexican sunshine. With cervezas and kaluhas con crema. And somehow, tropical vacations are always better when you know that you've escaped some really crappy weather.

Three more sleeps! (Actually, two-and-a-half more sleeps, since we have to get up crazy early to catch our flight on Saturday.)