Lather, rinse, repeat

Tonight we're bidding on house number 3. It's bigger, has more rooms, backyard, parking and is more expensive than the last. I'm not holding my breath though.

This is getting annoying.

Jesus Christ the Musical

I know what you're all thinking but there's no nudity, sex or violence. Sheesh.



Thanks to Robocub for this one.

This is why I love my boyfriend/husband/life partner

I had to work on Sunday afternoon so Q decided to do the laundry. We had planned on doing it after I finished but he decided to surprise me instead.

The laundromat was busy when he arrived - which lessened his already wavering excitement at having to wash, dry and fold almost 2 weeks worth of clothes. He finally found an empty 4 load washer and promptly stuffed in all the clothes. It wasn't until he had started the machine that a big black woman came rushing over to him in a rage. Apparently she was "reserving" that particular washer. There were no clothes in, on or in front of it but Q was somehow supposed to magically know that it was reserved for this very special lady. His response - "What am I supposed to do, stop it?" At that point the woman went on a tirade accusing him of stealing that washer from her because she was black!! He told her that she was being rediculous didn't entertain her after that. She muttered something about him being a white-something-or-other and stormed off.

When the clothes were done there were only 3 driers available. Q walked up to the woman with clothes in hand, looked her straight in the eye and said "I'm taking all three driers because I'm white."

She kept her distance after that.

Nothing to see here, please move along

We didn't get the house on Friday. I'm surprisingly relieved. We were up against one other offer which came in at the very absolute last minute. In fact they pushed the presentations back a half hour just to accomodate. Consequently we went in with our very best offer and refused to pay any more. They came back to us and said that the other offer was a little stronger and were we willing to up ours a little more. We said no. If the other offer was that much better than they would have taken it in the first place. It was clear they were trying to play us up against each other. The other people eventually got the place.

I don't know how to describe it, but the whole thing seemed a little fishy. Who waits until the last minute to put a bid in on a house. Did they forget or something?

Honey did we have any plans tonight?

I don't think so. Why do you ask?

Well I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something.

OH MY GOD!! WE FORGOT TO BID ON THE HOUSE!!!!!

The feedback we got from the selling agent was suspect as well. In a way I'm glad we didn't get it.

Anyways, I think we're going to put in a bid on another house on Tuesday. It's bigger and has 2 car parking. Plus there's a room in the basement that's filled with KISS memorabilia. Tons of figurines, posters, framed album covers, ticket stubs etc, but I don't think it all comes with the house. However, attached to it is a small, sound proofed room with a drum set. I can think of many uses for a sound proofed room in the basement, and I wouldn't have to worry about ruining the floor!

Jinkies!!

The offer goes in on the house today and I'm getting nervous. Beginning to wonder if it's too small, but then I think of our plans to dig out and finish the basement and that makes me feel better. Then I wonder when that will actually happen? Are we going to have to downsize even more to fit into this place?? Q has huge bedroom furniture and I don't know where we will put it all. My bed suits the exact style of this place and I'd like to have it as the master instead. Consequently Q's furniture would have to go into storage (aka my sister's house) where my bed is now. Is that wrong? Should I feel guilty? He spent a lot of money on his set, but I spent a lot on my bed too. The frame alone is worth $3600, but I got it half off cuz it was a floor model. I don't pay full price for anything. But I digress, all those problems can be resolved - if we actually get the place.

I thought this morning that I would go to the gym to work off some of the stress. I got there, went into the change room and discovered that I'd left my shorts at home. Fuck. No workout today. So I came home and bought tickets to see BodyWorlds instead. This is the last weekend and tickets are almost all gone. Consequently they are running the show 24/7 starting tonight. I was only able to get tickets for Saturday night at 12:30 am, which is fitting I guess for seeing dead people.

Blargh.

2:28pm: Ugh. It's only 2:28pm. Haven't heard from my agent about any other offers, so that's good news so far. Can this day go by any slower????

Polish Movie Posters

Taken from Retrocrush:

"While most movie posters in the United States pretty much showcase the standard corporate style imagery to hawk the film, the fine folks in Poland have a brilliant dramatic license when marketing Hollywood's finest in their country, resulting in some of the most brilliantly surreal and amazing pieces of movie artwork ever created. Some of them are obvious, some seem to be crazy nonsequiters that have nothing to do with the original picture, while others seem to change the focus of the movie altogether. "

These are absolutely brilliant and wonderfully odd. Check out the poster for Weekend At Bernie's. How creepy is that? Does not look like a comedy. The one for Romancing the Stone is even weirder. They made it look like a Friday the 13th poster.

You can see more here, and if you want to see even more and buy them, go to polishposter.com.

Silly Polaks.

What the hell??

When I drive I always have my ipod plugged in and usually on random. The other morning, much to my surprise, a dance remix of Mr. Roboto came on followed by Corey Hart telling me why he likes to wear his Sunglasses at Night. I don't know how they got there or where they came from. I swear.

But I didn't skip past them. Instead I faithfully sang along to "Thank you very much-o Mister Roboto" and tried my best I'm-Canadian-but-I-really-want-to-be-Billy-Idol growl to "Don't switch the blade on the guy in shades oh no! Don't masquerade with the guy in shades oh no!"

I've decided to make those tracks part of the permanent collection.

Looks can be deceiving

Who knew that this



could look like this on the inside?






I'm completely in love. The floors are maple, the countertop is granite, the backsplash is glass but looks like tile, the appliances are stainless steel, the bathroom sink is fantastic and I love pot lights. There are 2 bedrooms, a partially finished basement with laundry, another bathroom and central air, plus a backyard.

The downside - it's small. Our main living space won't increase very much from our current apt. The bedrooms are small with only room for a bed and side tables - no dressers, but there are built in closets in each room. The basement needs to be dug down another foot and a half to make it full height since right now my head touches the ceiling. The backyard is very small with enough room for a BBQ, a table and some chairs. There also isn't any parking.

The upside - same living space as before but with a lot more storage. On site laundry. We only need one bedroom and can make the other an office and fill it with clothes. When we dig out the basement, we can move the office or second bedroom down there. Since the yard is so small, not a lot of maintenance is necessary which is good since we aren't home a lot. We can also BBQ again! Also, with the house being the size it is, our utilities won't be very high. Parking isn't a big issue since it's on a cul de sac, we shouldn't have a lot of problems finding a spot. Plus a lot of houses do have their own parking on the street. We will also see about adding a second story to the place in the future - if the city will let us.

The biggest and bestest reason of them all is if we get it at or around asking price, our monthly "rent" won't change. We could still maintain the same standard of living while having equity, and I could still continue to pay off my debts and save.

I wish it came with the flat panel tv too. The offer goes in on Friday.

Wish us luck!

Evil Dad

Some guy filmed his kid playing the scary maze game. Then he put it on the internet. Who in the hell (besides everyone reading this) would do such a traumatic, terrible thing to their own child?



Updated: For those of you who want to play the scary maze game, you can do so here.

Cold feet

Q and I were going to put an offer in on a house today. We met our agent at the house to take another look and sign the offer. As we looked around I got a bad feeling which steadily got worse and worse. The house was recently renovated, but poorly, and initially I was prepared to accept that, but as I looked around and added up all the little things that were wrong, it totalled the sum of one bad house. I hadn't noticed a couple of cracks in a couple of walls the last time - cracks in the brand new walls. The floors upstairs were brand new, but so uneven that the bottom of the closet door in the master bedroom had to be cut up on an angle. When closed it was over an inch above the floor, but when open it was only a few millimeters. One or two things like that I could deal with, but there were significant problems in every single room of the house, including the "finished" basement. The railing on the second floor wasn't properly attached, either and the banister - while stained - hadn't ever been sanded. I could go on and on.

Then there were the neighbours. On one side was a junky semi and the occupant had two large dogs which barked and growled at us as soon as we entered the backyard. On the other side, which is the other half of the semi, was a backyard full of huge mounds of dogshit I presumed were from yet another big noisy dog. No thank you.

Q was disappointed. The house is in the area that we would really like to be in, and we already go outbid on another house just up the street. He was willing to live with the problems and fix them as we went along but I just couldn't. It's one thing to live in an old house and deal with all the quirks, but in my mind it's entirely different to be in a newly renovated one and dealing with crap. My gut was screaming at me to walk away from this one, and I just couldn't ignore it.

Besides, we just got some new listings to check out on Wednesday and some of them may have potential. I'm not worried. I'll know the house when I see it.

28 Product Placements Later

Phil and I watched 28 Days Later last night. Not a bad film, but the relentless barrage of blatant product placements was very distracting. Within the first half hour there are a disproportionate number of cans of Pepsi being consumed, asked for, passed to someone, stepped on, tripped over or laying on the ground. Not to mention the Pepsi product vending machines in the backgrounds. the worst however was the box of Malteasers that was kicked along the floor and stopped right in front of the camera with the label clearly showing. In fact there was no other reason for that shot other than to place product.

I realize that film makers need all the money they can get, but that was just pathetic.

Which is worse?

OR

You decide.

Do You Take It? (NSFW)

Blockhead

This is me after spending the day setting up new imacs with built in iSight cameras and tediously downloading all the 100's of megabytes of updates. Photobooth is fun.

A case of Foot In Mouth Disease

Sometimes I can be bitchy. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true.

Sometimes when I'm stressed, I can get bitchy.

Sometimes when my blood sugar drops, I can get bitchy-er.

Sometimes when I'm stressed and my blood sugar drops, I get really really cunty but don't know it. Until this happens:

I have my own office at a client's and I'm there 2 days a week. This was one of those days.

(phone rings)Me: Hello?

Client: Hi it's Shelley. When are you going out to Ajax next? Can you fix Julie's wireless connection on her laptop when you're out there?

(This woman's laptop is not very good. A couple of weeks ago I spent 3 hours trying to get the wireless card working. That included installing Windows XP service pack 2, which works much better with wireless connections. , but didn't help much. It was an exercise in frustration. Not to mention the wireless card had to be in the slot in a certain way or it wouldn't work. You couldn't touch it at all or the connection would break.)

Me: Let me tell you something. Julie's laptop is a complete piece of shit and she'd be lucky if it worked for her 50% of the time.

Client: Oh my God! Why would you say that! Julie's right here in my office, you're on speakerphone!

At that point I had to back pedal and Shelley tried to smooth things over. After I hung up the phone I realized that I'd just had a stressed-out-low-blood-sugar diva moment. I quickly ran out, ate some food and came back.

Thankfully I ran into the 2 of them in the hallway. I apologized to Julie, but did reiterate that although her computer wasn't the best in the world, it wasn't a complete piece of shit (even if it actually was). They both laughed it off and took it in stride.

Sometimes a little warning about being on speakerphone would be very, very helpful. I also know better than to eat chocolate in the morning. It always throws my sugars way off kilter. But what else am I supposed to do when I get hershey's kisses first thing in the morning??? Not eat them??

Brokeback Grocery List

Got this in my inbox the other day:

Weekly Grocery List for Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, Summer, 1962

WEEK ONE
Beans
Bacon
Coffee
Whiskey

WEEK TWO
Beans
Ham
Coffee
Whiskey

WEEK THREE
Beans
Bacon
Coffee
Whiskey
K-Y

WEEK FOUR
Beans
Pancetta
Coffee (espresso grind)
Whiskey
2 tubes K-Y

WEEK FIVE
Fresh Fava beans
Jasmine rice
Prosciutto, approx. 8 ounces, thinly sliced
Medallions of veal
Porcini mushrooms
1/2 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 Cub Scout uniform, size 42 long
5-6 bottles good Chardonnay
1 large bottle Astro-glide

WEEK SIX
Yukon Gold potatoes
Heavy whipping cream
Asparagus (very thin)
Eggs
Lemons
Gruyere cheese (well aged)
Walnuts
Arugula
Butter
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
6 yards white silk organdy
6 yards pale ivory taffeta
Case of Chardonnay
Large tin Crisco

Looks can be decieving

Some things look better in pictures. The loft was nice, but nowhere near as nice as the picture made it seem. The tile in the kitchen was ugly too. And the "second bedroom" was a 6x8 storage room with pipes running about 1 inch above my head. It would make for a great walk in closet. However, if I was single it would have been the perfect place. Of course they're only accepting bids sometime next week which means another bidding war. It's not that nice. Plus I don't think that a loft is the right place for a couple. Sometimes no matter how much you love someone, it's nice to have your own space and privacy. How else could I look at porn while Q's sleeping and not wake him up?

Went and looked at other houses too but there wasn't anything special. Just have to wait I guess.

Crazy like Patrick Swayze

Wow. That was just nuts. 13 offers on one freaking house!!! 13!!!! The house was listed at $269000 and we decided to go in at $281000 subject to financing/inspection/termite inspection. Agents were going in one at a time and presenting their offer, and they weren't in there long. By the time our agent got in there, they weren't accepting anything under $300000 and were only taking firm offers with no conditions. He was in and out in less than 3 minutes.

No conditions??? Who buys a house without having a building inspector comb through it first?? Termites are also a huge problem in downtown Toronto. And as for financing, that's an issue because the CMHC and banks tend to appraise a house if less than %35 is put down. It's very possible that the bank could say that the house isn't worth what it was sold for, and refuse to give that much of a mortgage. The bank can decide this at any time before closing - even days.

We decided what we were willing to pay and stuck with it. I don't want to rip myself off and end up paying too much for a house that may have a ton of problems. Besides, being the Gemini that I am, I'm already totally over the house and am completely in love this loft. We'll be looking at it tomorrow.


We're a fickle bunch, us Geminis.

Homo sweet home

Q and I went house hunting on the weekend. We found a great place in the film district along Queen St East. We're putting a bid in tonight, but there's a bidding war so I'm not getting my hopes up. We've decided on the maximum that we're willing to pay and are sticking with it. I refuse to overpay, in fact we both do.

Wish us luck!

Why I hate technology sometimes.

Back in December I won $150 gift certificate for Yorkdale Mall at a work Christmas party. It was for winning the Dance Contest. Go ahead -insert joke here- I've heard them all already. Anyways, I wasn't sure what to spend it on until I was at the gym one day a few weeks ago. I was on a cardio machine when I moved my arm, caught the wire for the headphones and sent my ipod flying to the ground. Thankfully it was in it's rubberized, soft case. I'm a clutz and try to prepare for it. I decided right then and there to get an ipod shuffle - no finish to scratch, no display to crack, and no harddrive to break. It's also very light and I can throw it in my knapsack. So I got the 1GB Shuffle for $169 and love it. It was a great idea.

Today, only a few weeks later, Apple has announced the 1GB Nano -for $179. Now the 1GB Shuffle has dropped to $119. That's a $60 difference in only a few weeks! Just what kind of margin is on these things???? Arrgh!!!

I'm going to try complaining to see if I can get the difference back, since I love to complain and usually do it pretty well. I know they have some sort of price protection, but I'll have to check on when I bought it.

Bastards.

UPDATE: Apparently Apple has a 14 day price protection in place. Thankfully I qualify. No bitching necessary. Guess I'll have to put the claws away.

UPDATE #2: I got my $57.00 back! Woohoo!

Spazzy Day

I have a lot of work to do today. Too much in fact. That goes for yesterday too. I don't know how I'll get all my work done, but I guess the world will not come to a screeching halt if things don't go 100%

As such I decided to get a coffee this morning to give me the energy I need throughout the morning. I usually get a tall, 3/4 full Americano (2 shots espresso + water) from Starfucks. This morning they screwed up and filled the cup to the top with water (makes it too weak). So the guy simply poured it into a grande cup and added 2 more shots of espresso.

That equals 4 shots of espresso.

If any of you see someone in the next couple of hours bouncing off walls screaming I CAN FLY! I CAN FLY!! Don't worry, it's just me.