two years? really?

And that is exactly how long it has been since my last post. Wow. That's a really long time to slack off.

I'm not even in school any more and I apparently am still an excellent procrastinator! Good.

So...the last post was about Kerry (my then boyfriend, to-be fiance, and now husband) and his awesome 29th birthday party. Well, we celebrated his 30th, and now his 31st birthday too! Those were also great parties. But I did not make another elephant cake...

So, now that I'm out of school, and into the real world, perhaps I will re-join the internet for things other than youtube videos and tv shows, and begin blogging again.

My brother is getting married on Saturday! That's big news! I'm thrilled for him and April, and looking forward to the big celebration. Which reminds me, I need to go work on my speech...

Peace out, friends. And if I don't post again for another 2 years....well, that might actually be funny.

kmo

29 only comes once (or twice) a lifetime!

yay, kerry tunred 29 years old this month!!! to celebrate this wonderful occasion, i decided to secretly plan a surprise party for him! and what a party it was. currently i'm too tired to write all about it, because i just finished 2 hours of clean up, and my fingers are all dry and crinkly from dishwater (ewww!), but i CAN post photos for you to peruse! :)

7:00AM, 1:34PM, 10:16PM, 12:45AM

i live in a beautiful neighbourhood in uptown waterloo. we pay a reasonable amount of rent for a beautifully decorated, 3 bedroom house, with a large backyard, deck, covered front porch, and lovely flowerbeds. the thing that was NOT described in the superfluous write-up was that we were located on a very, very busy through-fare. now, our street is parallel to king street by about one and a half blocks, and people tend to make left-turns onto our street at the closest intersection, 200 metres from our house. now, i don't know what the deal is, but EVERYONE seems to get super excited that they're finally on park street!! and they feel the need to push their well-manicured toes just a little teeny weeny bit harder on the SUV petal than is probably necessary, or rev their BWM just a little harder in the 1st-to-2nd gear transition, to get that "extra pick-up" that is definitely necessary right off the hop, to prove that you can.

so here's the thing. tuesday night, joy and i were enjoying a lovely bottle of wine, accompanied by marbled cheese and crackers, after work on our front porch. it was well after midnight. there were a few times that we actually couldn't hear the other person talking because a car was flying past us.

seriously? where are you rushing to at 12:45AM?

in a suburb?

i realize that sometimes (okay usually) people like to drive as quickly as possible, to waste as little time as possible. i get that. i DO that. but....in a suburb? directly after turning left? and...when you have to stop again in about....7 seconds?

it is for all of these reasons, and more (i'm sure i could spout more reasons, like that we're part of a time warp or something. what, that's totally legit), that i have nicknamed our portion of the street "ACCELERATION CORRIDOR". that's right, people. and in case you have forgotten, a 'corridor' is sometimes used to describe a particularly voluminous section of roadway, not normally associated with suburban roads, but in this case, helps prove my point. athank you very much.



X <--the next stop sign X <-- my house
←←←←←ACCELERATION CORRIDOR←←←←←



← = path of vehicle

if you'd be interested in proving me right, feel free to stop by the house. our porch really is nice. and we can swap bits of conversation in between our heavy-footed friends.

dating an ex-marshall (or how my boyfriend is a prostar laserquester)

tonight, the much-feared eve of friday the 13th, my girls and i went out on our first TRIPLE DATE!! c.note and the hissa, randell-pants & johnny c, k.burk and o'brien. i know you're sitting there with baited breath, just WAITING to hear what we did. i shall not keep you in a state of suspense. we went to..... LASER QUEST!!!! yeah we did. and you also may have figured that out from the title of this post. congratulations, you can read!

so we sign up for the ironman, which is essentially the laser quest game for awesome people, with twice as much play time. oh yes, it will ONLY be the 6 of us -- no 17 year old hard-core teenage boys who ALWAYS seem to tag you like 10 times in a row, while you're fumbling with your laser, trying to just get the kid at least once!! so we go in to the "prep" room, or whatever it's called - i feel like it's the "airlock" - and guess who's guest marshaling for us?? none other than my honey, who impressed us all with his uber-energetic and FUN recitation of the rules and procedures. well...we didn't necessarily agree on ALL of the rules. number 5 was one that we had questions about...i think we all vetoed it. i will not tell you what it was. you will have to go play LQ to find out for yourself. i think that caroline, randell and i were all expecting just a LITTLE bit of teaming up in the game. oh no, we forgot that these men we're dating turn into competitive MACHINES when you give them laser guns and throw them into a black-lit, two-story maze. it was iiiiiintense!! at one point, randell and i went on a death mission to try and hunt down kerry and john -- only to be hit again and again by them!! it really was every person for themselves. when the lasers finally started beeping "game over", we were all soaked in sweat and (some of us) already developing blisters on our trigger fingers... showtime came in first place (of course), and also managed to get top score of the day!! he had something ridiculous like 1500 points. me, on the otherhand, came in my usual placement, LAST, with a glorious 55 points. awwwwwesome. i really need to get better at aiming the stupid laser :)

after we jetted for the night, randell and i went on a mission in clumsy, kerry's wonderful focus, to find food and beverage. what did we pick? only the best canadian option - TIM HORTON'S - where we were served by 3 wonderful women who had to be 65+...one of them was ROCKING out a high side ponytail, pure silver/gray hair. here is a list of what we bought and consumed:

• chocolate dip donut
• maple cream donut
• sour cream glazed donut
• large chocolate milk
• 2 ice tea cans
• large water

come on, that's a pretty impressive haul for two chicks to inhale in like 8 minutes!! i think it's merely a reflection of how hard we tried to beat our stupid boyfriends at laserquest...and we lost. still, good times were had.
conclusion? triple dates rock. and i will never beat my boyfriend at this game, or be allowed to be on his team. us girls will just have to go in on our own and practice....next time, gentlemen, next time...

k.burk out.

ducks are monogomous...right?

here at the foxbox, we've come to know and love a beautiful pair of mallard ducks that hang out in our neighbourhood. sometimes they're on our front lawn, picking through the bits of trash to find some semblance of food scraps. sometimes they plop down in the middle of the driveway and rest for a bit. sometimes they get really close and start quacking at me (or maybe it's because i get really close, and that's why they quack...). at any rate, we've all kind of assumed that ducks mate for life -- someone had that tidbit of knowledge stashed away from early elementary school, and we totally ran with it. "awwww, so cute! look at mr. and mrs. mallard" et cetera, et cetera. after a month of bliss, i had a not so pleasant encounter this morning.

i saw three ducks flying overhead while i was walking up ezra street. they landed on a lawn about 20 feet from me. as i approached, i heard loud quacking and saw some...wrestling... then they disappeared around the corner. by the time i reached that point, what i saw caused me to stop dead in my tracks. poor mrs. mallard was being FOUGHT over!! except, she didn't seem so happy. she kept trying to escape, while the two drakes pecked and quacked at each other, beating the other off with wings and head. as soon as one would mount her, he'd just get going and the other drake would shove him off and jump on her back. AHHHHH!!!! THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!! feeling a mixture of disbelief and anger at the stupid horny drakes, i continued my walk home, determined to figure out what the crap just happened.

as it turns out, wikipedia had some enlightening information for me. apparently not all the drakes match up with a female; whoever is 'left out' will band together. "This group will sometimes target an isolated female duck — chasing, pestering and pecking at her until she weakens (a phenomenon referred to by researchers as rape flight), at which point each male will take turns copulating with the female." does this shock anyone else?! i kind of thought that rape was a tragedy only known by our species, but poor, single female ducks also experience aggressive sexual dominance by their male counterparts.

i feel like i was still an innocent little girl, up until this morning's revelations, that thought that cute little animals were nice to each other. my feminist inclinations definitely rile up at the thought of a woman being attacked -- and now i know that that feeling carries over to "the weaker sex" of other species too. can someone get a lawyer for poor mrs. mallard? i think she needs a divorce.

"For the person with the first initial 'J'..."

the phone rang this morning, 9:27 AM. long distance ring. the thought crosses my mind, it's probably my mom -- and then alaina answers it. "who was it for?" i ask her, to which she replies with in a comical voice, "for the person with the first initial 'j'".

what the crap is that?! we get solicitors calling for joyce ALL the bloody time, usually asking for "Mrs. Moase, please" -- if she's not here (and she never is, because her name is MISS moase), then the person occasionally will ask for Mr. Moase. "ummmm yeah, he doesn't exist...thanks, though, for rubbing that in," was randell's snappy response one afternoon. so now they don't even know her actual NAME? just the first INITIAL of it?! come. on. people.

pick up a copy of errata this week on WLU's campus, the women's center zine. it's got a hilarious story in it about the whole 'Mrs' business. i might post it later, if i have more time...it's really funny.

for now, i should get back to writing for marks, not for pleasure.

peace out

i must confess, you're so much more than i remember

over the past week, i have rediscovered the joy that is found in nature. after 6 months of snow (or has it been a whole year??), the grass has reappeared from under it's hiding spot, i can finally feel the warmth of the sun on my shoulders, and most importantly, i don't have to wear my mittens anymore!!

about 2 weeks ago, i started to get irritated with mother nature. we had a teaser of a nice day, followed by a morning of snow-covered cars and sidewalks again. would winter never end? and then this week happened. this glorious, sun-drenched, sweet-smelling-like-earth week. just as i was about to break up with nature for pissing me off, she rewarded me with kisses and smiles...and reminded me of all the beauty that she has to offer.

it's like she knows! knows just how far to push me before i get pouty, and then at the last second FINALLY bursts forth with brilliant dawns, warm afternoons, cool (not cold) evenings, and long, drawn-out sunsets painted with the patterns of joyous dancers in the sky.

it's so much more than i remember from last spring.

and it's only going to get better from here.

my only dilemma? it's paper writing season, ie. never-leave-my-desk month. at least i can justify the walks that i take with needing fresh air to clear my mind...make sure you do the same. the feeling of invigoration and...happiness...when your eyes drink in the vibrant colours, your lungs burst with crisp and fresh breath, and your heart lifts up out of the stressful corners it might recluse to.

trust me, you'll want to take the time to remember.