Monthly Archives: July 2006

Another Nice Weekend

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Highlights of the past weekend:

=> J. took me out for a nice dinner on Friday night. We attempted to go to the Buttermilk ski hill north of town where they have a fish fry on Friday nights. I still think we crashed a private party. There were many people there, but still several open long banquet tables. J. got the attention of a wait staff member and she left and came back and said they weren’t able to serve us, with no explanation. Fine. Last time I’ll go there. So we went back to town and ate at Amici’s. It’s an odd restaurant that is very noisy, but the food was good and the beer was good too :D

=> We took a nice drive to St. Joseph’s Island and visited some touristy shops and had a nice lunch near the Hilton Beach waterfront

=> Monty got out to the retriever club for some water retrieves. The leeches are out in full force. He didn’t get any on him luckily. Usually I don’t take the dogs there much past August because the water gets skunky. This weekend is our big International Retriever Trial so it’ll be a busy weekend.

=> J. smoked a big pork butt roast that is really yummy and which will feed us for days.

Disney’s Eight Below

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Eight BelowWarning: Don’t read this review unless you want to know what happens. Because I’m about to rant here, big time!

J. rented Eight Below for us to watch tonight. What a sweetie, renting a movie I’d like, and a Disney one at that!

But unfortunately the movie went horribly wrong.

I hated this movie. The tagline for the movie is “The Most Amazing Story Of Survival, Friendship, And Adventure Ever Told.” What a crock of sh*t.

This movie is an American, chest-thumping, we’re-so-great-for-saving-them movie. When in reality, it’s a couple of hours of watching dogs suffer, get hurt, freeze, and die.

If you don’t know what this movie is about, it’s about some American research team in Antarctica who cut their mission short because of a storm, and aren’t able to get back to rescue their dog team.

Wait, before they leave, there is a bunch of woo-ha-ha’s, where the incredibly smart and loyal dogs save the humans a few times. Okay, then they are left alone to fend for themselves for 172 or so days.

Unlike every reviewer led me to believe, the dogs don’t all survive this movie! Two of the dogs die, and a third one comes damn close after suffering a wound for days on end. THIS MOVIE IS NOT FOR CHILDREN!!!! And it isn’t for people like me who have experienced enough dog death lately for a lifetime.

Let me repeat again, THIS MOVIE IS NOT FOR CHILDREN! I keep seeing reviewers say “if you love animals you need to see this movie”. NO YOU DON’T! If you love animals and enjoy watching them suffer and die, then go ahead and watch it!

The dogs are left on super-tight leashes, tied to a chain, with no food, while their selfish American heroes owners flee the approaching storm. (yes this movie is “inspired” by a real story, except in the real story, 15 dogs were left, and when people came back ELEVEN months later, they happened to notice 2 were still alive!). In the movie, after 172 days they are able to put their hero halos back on and they travel back to “save” them… what’s left of them.

The character development in the humans is lacking. Disney tried so put some stupid love story in the movie, so when the American heroes finally return to get their beloved dogs, and one of them is on the brink of death and is carried into their snow vehicle, two of the characters get to share a passionate kiss. Selfish bastards. How about some first aid for your dying dog?

I held off bawling until near the end, but then it was just too much to take and I let loose blubbering on J.’s futon. Poor guy has bad luck picking movies for us – but it wasn’t his fault – the Disney name is normally on quality products. Not this time!!!

I agree with most of the other “haters” of this movie. Their comments are here: http://imdb.com/title/tt0397313/usercomments?filter=hate

There. Consider yourself warned. I’m going to bed.

Should I be Surprised?

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No, I shouldn’t be surprised that my contract extension papers that I was asked to sign today outlined a contract that was a month shorter than I was previously told.

And you are right, that’s happened to me before. Why do I take anyone there at their word?

My contract extension now goes from August 4th until November 3rd. Yes, after 5.5 years of working there, I’m now down from 1 year contracts to 90 days extensions.

And this very well may be my last extension as I’m contemplating a move, job shift, and life change. I’ll just tease you with that and tell you more as things become more concrete.

As for now, back to work – I have bills to pay. And if I’m lucky, sleep.

You, Me, and Dupree

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You, Me, and DupreeJ. and I went to see You, Me, and Dupree last night at the theatre. Yes it was a pick of mine, not J’s :D

I really liked it. It’s a funny fluff film. Owen Wilson plays the same character he always plays. Sweet, lovable, and idiotic. This movie was actually quite lengthy so it was nice to see it in the theatre.

J. didn’t care much for it and has been harbouring an ever growing dislike for Owen Wilson. I did see him checking his watch a few times. He laughed at the funny parts though!

It also stars Michael Douglas, Kate Hudson, and Matt Dillon. Michael Douglas has a real Beavis hair do (as in Beavis and Butthead).

On a side note, it was RIDICULOUS how many commericals the Galaxy Cinemas made us watch. First it was 20 minutes of repeating commericals. Then the movie started and there was at least another 20 minutes before 3 horrible previews.

During the previews, eagle eye J. spotted a spider hanging from a super long web, dangling over the row in front of us. He played the hero and snagged it and let it free on the floor. I believe he was worried that I’d have to watch the movie through the spider and I’d scream like a little girl when I would first notice it. Every little skin twitch through the movie though, I thought it was the spider on my feet or my legs. I’m a spider wussie.

Okay, so my final rating: You, Me, and Dupree – 3/5
J’s rating: 2/5

Subdomain Isn’t Working Properly

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Since I upgraded my blog software, getting here using the address blog.goldwingnetwork.com isn’t working correctly. It’s best to switch your bookmarks back to goldwingnetwork.com/blog until I get to the bottom of the problem!

News of the morning:
-Dad is off on a 10 day vacation to the east coast this morning
-Julie (my sister) got a job yesterday in England starting at the end of August!

Have a good day!

Photos from Last Weekend

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Here are some photos I was took last weekend up in the bush while J. was learning how to use his new tree stands.

Butterfly
Butterfly in the Wildflowers

Butterfly
Beautiful Butterfly

Bee
This bee flew into this photo as I was trying to focus on the dying daisy. It isn’t quite in focus, but it is still a cool accidental shot !

Two Baby Maple Leaves
Two Baby Maple Leaves

Yellow Wildflowers
Yellow Wildflowers

Butterfly
Okay one more beautiful butterfly

We went across the river to Michigan to pick up my package tonight. And the border guard waved us on even when J. told them it was $240 worth. I guess that $5 bribe last week worked :D

What did I buy? Dog stuff of course ;)

OH! and the PIZZA!! Little Ceasars across the river has this “Hot and Ready” promo with large Supreme pizzas. Meaning they are already hot and ready to go so you place your order and walk out with your pizza all in under a minute! We got two so we could have left-overs. Oh man I love pizza. :>>

Oh No! Another CBC nose dive?

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Alan Neal is leaving CBC’s Ontario Today in September? Did he really just say that? Does anyone know who is taking over? Gawd help us.

I promised photos from the weekend and to update Monty’s page. Hopefully tonight. We’re taking a run across the river to pick up a package after work. It’s great to get things shipped there to save the ridiculous UPS imposed fees when they take packages over the border. It also means we can pizza for dinner from the “real world”. Not this crappy Sault Ste. Marie pizza that is the worst pizza on earth, unless you were born and raised here, and then you think it’s heavenly.

Blog Is Updated

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Okay!
It’s 12:41am. Once again I started to update something way to late, ran into snags, and missed my bedtime by hours! Oh WELL!

This blog is running the newest version of b2evolution. It’s much more powerful than the last version and it will hopefully block much more of the annoying comment spam so I don’t have to delete it all the time.

I still have to sort out some configuration issues. When you leave a comment, it will probably be invisible until I approve it, unless you actually make an account here and stop leaving guest comments (hint, hint).

Okay, I gotta wake up Monty to go outside and pee. Then bedtime. zzzz Pictures from the weekend coming hopefully tomorrow. Monty’s website needs updating too. He’s 9 months old now and quite possibly he is 73 lbs. YIKES!

Hot and Humid Weekend

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Or so I hear anyway. I spent most of it in my air conditioned house or in J’s air conditioned truck.

Just running my little window air conditioner and keeping the curtains closed on the sunny sides of the house, and all the windows and doors closed, really keeps my house quite comfortable. What a good purchase. I can still sleep all cuddled up in my goosedown duvet in my bed :-)

I took several very nice butterfly and flower photos on Saturday from a trip up to the woods. J was trying out his new tree stands. They were impressive. A chair that hugs a tree and climbs it as you go up higher. He even found his way back down ;-)

I’ll add some of those photos here later. I’ll also be upgrading the software that runs this blog soon, hopefully tonight.

I’ve got a new website started. Check it out: http://PetMedSource.com

Curves For Women

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I noticed a couple of months ago that one of the Curves for Women gyms relocated to be quite close to my house!

I hummed and hawed, since I *do* have a treadmill that isn’t used enough, but I figured I spend way too much time sitting on my butt at a computer so a month ago I signed up. I had been doing good exercise wise last summer but then when Winger and Surf got sick and died, I quickly gained it all and probably more back.

Today was my 1 month date where they re-weigh and re-measure me.

I’m pleased to present my stellar results:

Weight: -1 pound
Bust: -1.25 inches
Waist: -3 inches
Abdomen: no change
Hips: -1.75 inches
Thighs: -2.25 inches EACH!
Arms: -0.25 inches EACH
Body Fat: -1%

So like they say, I guess you lose either weight or inches. I’ll settle for inches. I can’t believe in one month that each of thighs is 2.25 inches less around. No wonder my shorts felt too big on my legs yesterday. I mean I watched them measure it both times directly on my skin so it probably isn’t a mistake.

I signed up for a year membership so there will be more inches to go.

What I like about Curves:
It’s so easy.
It’s a 30 minute work out, 3 times a week.
You get out of it what you put into it.
You spend 30 seconds at each station.
All the machines are resistant machines so the harder to work, the harder it is.
I don’t have to think.
I don’t have to adjust a machine.
I don’t have to carry a book around to figure out how much I lifted on each machine last time.
I don’t have to watch the clock.
I don’t have to figure out what to do next.
I don’t feel like I need to bring a friend.
It is only women.
It has never been very busy while I was there.
Excellent air conditioning and fans.
It’s in a very convenient location for me.

What I don’t like about it:
It’s a little expensive.
I don’t feel the ladies who are working watch enough to correct people who are not using the machines correctly. It’s a shame to watch ladies come in together and just talk to each other as they go around the circuit with no effort. I work HARD while I’m there (probably too hard because my heart rate is usually too high). To each their own I suppose.

I’ll report back in a month.