Springy Sunday

This past week seriously dragged on. Tuesday night we did cheapy Tuesday and saw 'Defiance.' It was really good - Daniel Craig was great, but I particularly enjoy Leiv What's-His-Name. He stole his scenes I thought. Sure, it wasn't the most uplifting of movies, but it was well done.

Wednesday evening was spent chillin' with my boy at my place. Thursday night we did ribs at Deli Planet with Melissa, Scott and Phil. The ribs are very tasty and the beers are cheap. :P

Friday I had to take off from work early to take Kaylee to get her stitches out. The vet was a half hour behind, which kind of sucked. Kaylee freaked out when a ginormous dog was brought in, and it took a good 5 minutes to calm her down. The stitches removal was pretty quick, and on the way home, I stopped in the grocery store to get something for supper. While I cooked, I caught up on episodes of How I Met Your Mother. I totally cried at the end. :P

Saturday I was up early-ish, read for a bit, napped and finally got up and got moving. I had leftovers for lunch, and watched "Doubt," which is excellent, btw. I walked east on Sherbrooke, and met Shane at Frontenac, and we made our way to the SAQ for some wine to take to Phil's. I can't find any of my favorite wines here. Remind me to bring some back with me from Saint John please! We spent the remainder of the afternoon snuggled on Shane's couch watching 'Kung Fu Panda.' Well, you know me and talking animals. Let's just say I enjoyed it. :)

We headed out around 6:30, a bit late as it turned out. We didn't end up getting to sit with Phil at dinner, which is too bad because he always knows the good sushi to order. Shane got to experience good quality sushi. The people at our table really liked the sashimi, which is great, but not really for the new sushi eater. They didn't bring us our dumplings either. :P The salmon sashimi was really good, and surprisingly enough, so were the octopus tentacles. My fav is always the eel - it was a little more bbq and a little less smokey, but still very tasty. After dinner, we went to Phil's, which ended up being a pretty mellow affair. We drank wine in the livingroom and talked video games and computers with his roommate Matt. It was nice to see Matt had taken a break from WoW to join the living. :P

Today, Shane and I were up kind of early. I played 'Super Swing Golf' while he make crepes (thanks babe!). We then headed downtown, and got him some lotion for his hands, and some work clothes. We then made our way out the the Jean Talon Market. The market is great. Butchers, pasta makers, fish market, fruits, veggies, flowers, cheese, you name it, they've got it and it's fresh. This is part of what I love about Montreal. There are places dedicated just to sausages (we got some fancy types to try), for example, or the shop that's all olive oil variations and spices.

I'm sitting on Shane's couch at the present. He's reading "The Watchmen" graphic novel in preparation for the movie. I recommend reading it if you haven't yet. I think we'll be making supper soon and then watching a movie. It's just getting cold out again now that the sun is going down, but it was like spring here today. I hope that's a sign that spring is coming early - I'm so over winter!

Labels: Daily Life, Food, Friends, Movies, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 5:00 PM |

 
Winter Wonderland

At least, that's what Quebec City was like. Pretty, but damn cold!

Friday night, Sarah, Phil, Sean, Oscar, Shane and myself hit O'Hara's for beer o'clock and karaoke. It was a good time. Not too busy so we (by we I mean me) got to sing lots. We got back to my place around quarter after 11, just enough time for me to pack before the next bus came.

We were up bright and early on Saturday. We headed to Berri-UQAM, arriving just in time to catch the 9 am bus. We watched "Burn After Reading" and the first part of a movie called "Outlander." I enjoyed them both, but "Outlander" was pretty bad. :P We landed in Quebec City about 12 pm. We figured out where we were and where we had to go. Shane assured me that our hotel, the lovely Chateau Bellevue wasn't far, so we decided to walk. It wasn't *too* cold, but by the time we got there, we were pretty cold. We cuddled up under the covers, finished watching "Outlander" while we warmed up and went in search for food.

We went to St. Patrick's Pub, Shane having heard that it was good. It wasn't. The food was expensive. The drinks were expensive, and the stew we ordered arrived at our table cold. I wasn't impressed needless to say. After we ate, we walked until we were too cold to go any further, stopping at this fun cafe for hot chocolate. I ordered a regular mug - Shane ordered a bowl. It was very tasty, but a little rich for me.

After our hot chocolate, we went in search of an SAQ, but ended up missing it because we'd stopped in a cool little medieval shop. The stuff was gorgeous but super expensive. We wandered around a bit, finally finding a dep that was open to get some wine. We met up with Dana briefly, and arranged for her to come to our hotel after she'd gone and changed. We headed back to our room, snuggled under the covers, and cracked open some wine.

Dana joined us at around 7 pm, and we finished our drinks before venturing back out into the cold to find food. We ended up in this lovely little Italian restaurant on Ste. Louis. They had a nice table d' hote. Shane got the lasagna, Dana and I ended up getting the garlic pesto penne. It was super tasty, and it was great spending some time with Dana. It was nice to finally meet her - we've been texting and facebooking for months so it felt like we already were old friends. :) We thought about going out, but Dana had fallen last week and did a number on her tailbone, and we were kind of tired, so we parted ways with hugs (and a few tears) and headed back to our hotels.

We were up early again on Sunday, and headed downstairs for breakfast. We were a bit late, so a lot of the buffet had been picked over, but considering we hadn't realized breakfast was included, were happy anyway. We checked out around 11:30, and hopped a cab to the bus station to come home. We landed at Berri-UQAM around 3 pm.

It was nice to get back - Quebec City is lovely, but it's not as welcoming a city as Montreal, and Montreal is home now. We went to Future Shop, and used our gift cards on a 2nd Wii remote and nunchuck as well as a charger. We headed back to Shane's place, got the fixings for dinner, and spent the evening curled up on his couch. It was a good weekend in all. :)

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 9:21 PM |

 
Hmm...

I can't think of a clever title. :P

So I had a really good audition yesterday. At least, I felt good about it. I didn't call back, but oh well. :-) Alex had just finished his audition when I arrived, so we were able to catch up before I made my way to Greg's. We got sushi - it was very good - from a sushi place on Mont Royal at St. Laurent (too far to be a regular sushi stop for me sadly). I left about ten to 7 to meet folks for roller derby, and of course, managed to get lost. It was pouring and I got completely soaked, but I did manage to hop on the St. Laurent bus to meet Jan and Dave and we made it to the arena.

Roller Derby is awesome! I can't wait to go again. About 15 minutes into the bout I had a light bulb moment where I actually knew what was going on. Plus 2 for $5 beer. :-) After the bout, we headed to KGB for the after party. We partied there until about 1 am before heading deeper into Mile End to crash a party that Greg was at. The host was very nice about 4 strange women just showing up. On the walk home, we got followed by this drunk guy. "My name is Fernado but I'm so much more!" We managed to lose him by the time we got to St. Viateur, which was close to where Andrea lived. I hailed a cab on Mont Royal, too drunk and tired to walk any further. I got to bed around 5 am. :P

Today was a lazy day. I slept until about 11 am, and headed out about 2:20 to meet Alex for a movie. Unfortunately, he got caught up at his call back and didn't make it, but since I was already there (and a bit too hung over to do anything else) I stayed and went to 'The Hulk.' After the movie, I ran him to see what was up, and he was still in the mood for a movie, so he treated me to see "Wanted" which was awesome / terrible / awesome again. :-) I'm about to turn in - it was a very exhausting weekend and I've got a busy day ahead of me tomorrow.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Stuff, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 11:24 PM |

 
Wish I Had Blogger At Work :P

Its so much more effort to blog from home!

Monday, I got a bit lost trying to find Helene and I ended up an hour late. We ate at a restaurant on Prince Arthur - I finally had moussaka but it wasn't awesome and didn't quite satisfy the craving. We walked back home, and, after discovering a mutual enjoyment of dance movies, we watched Step Up instead.

Tuesday was St. Jean Baptiste Day here in Quebec so pretty much everything was closed. It was so surreal going to work. I felt like I was in 28 Days Later. Imagine being in downtown Montreal on a Tuesday morning and only seeing about 3 people and 2 cars. Rene-Levesque, one of the busiest streets in downtown was completely deserted. The work day went very quickly though, and afterwards I went to an early show of "The Happening." I enjoyed it - I didn't really know anything about it going in, no trailer to really ruin it. :-) I walked home to work off some of the popcorn (:P), using the time to call and have a good catch up chat with Sarah.

Wednesday I got home, had a bite to eat, and then met a couple guys from work. We went to House of Jazz to see my trainer from work, Mark, play. It was a lot of fun, but the prices were a little high. We shared 3 pitchers of sangria, which ended up being about $30 a pitcher. We probably won't go there very often! I got home around midnight and then crashed out.

Thursday I met Rosanne at a shop on Parc for a vintage shoe party. I didn't really see anything that I liked - all the really cute ones were size 6 - but she found a fun purse. We walked downtown and walked around the Jazz Fest to discover that there was a homage to Leonard Cohen at Place des Arts. It was jam packed full of people, and we stayed until about 10/10:30. The Jazz Fest is super cool - they've got free shows happening all day from noon on.

Yesterday I picked up cat food, got home in dire need of a shower thanks to the humidity and then went to Allan's. He was throwing a party for our training class to celebrate the end of our classroom training (ie: excuse to get drunk together). It was a good time - I got home about 3:30 or 4. I think I'm going to hang out with Greg this afternoon, I've an audition at 3:20, and then tonight its Roller Derby! Woot! :)

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Music, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 11:52 AM |

 
Long Weekend

It figures, we get a long weekend and the extra day off is rainy. I don't care though - I'm going to wander around town anyway! :P

Saturday night I met up with Jan and Dave at the Fringe stage for 'Wintersleep.' They've gotten better since the last time I saw them - they had a nice tight set. We wandered around St. Laurent for a bit (got some tasty and crazy cheap Phad Thai from a street vendor). I ended up going to Club Date for karaoke. It was packed and I only got to sing two songs before it was time to head home.

Sunday started out kind of miserable. I wasn't in the mood to run, but I did anyway, and it was brutally difficult! Niko and I watched a few episodes of a show called "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' which is wonderfully funny and irreverent. We went to Mont Royal later in the day once the weather cleared up for a bit and met up with Izy, Sean, Alex, Tanya, Frank and Hania. I had to leave a bit early though as I was meeting Greg at 7-ish to watch 'Bladerunner.' Which he did not have a copy of. :P Luckily, I'd brought along 'DOA'. :)

Today I did some laundry, and now I'm off to run a few errands, including finding a comic shop. Later I'm meeting Helene for some Greek food, and then we're going to watch some Firefly. Woot!

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies, Music

posted by Lisa at 3:00 PM |

 
There Is Only One Thing Worse Than a Monday

And that's a Monday when you have to work while everyone else you know is off. Throw in some rain and gloom and you're set! :P

I met Sarah and the legal team at Churchill's after work for beer o'clock. We enjoyed a few beer, before heading to Tim Issac's to take part in the gallery hop. We hung out there for a bit but we actually had got started too late and everything was closing. The rest of the gang hit Happinez and I ran home to drop off my stuff. I chatted with Dre briefly - I ran into her as Doug and Colleen dropped her off after her salsa lesson - ran home, touched up my hair and make up and headed back to Happinez. We ended up going to Scott B's for some more wine etc. and were there until about 1 am.

I slept in a bit on Saturday and ran around the apartment getting things done. I packed a little bit, but didn't feel like venturing out into the pouring rain, so I spent the majority of the day relaxing. I think the most productive I got was washing the dishes.

Sarah and Matt arrived about 8 pm and we had some wine before heading to Akhord. It was a really good turn out. With the exception of the people in Hali, pretty much everyone made an appearance. I've got great friends. :) The drinks were flowing freely (thank you everyone who bought me a drink), and Aiden was mixing me random tasty drink treats. We closed the bar, and Brian walked me home (which is good - by that point I was pretty drunk and probably would have crawled into a corner somewhere on route if left to my own devices :P).

Yesterday I was feeling a wee bit under the weather. I got up around noon, all of my plans going out the window. I had planned on helping with the load in, and I was supposed to have coffee with Shane, but my tummy was not very happy with me. :P I ended up doing pretty much nothing all day. I did check out "Iron Man" again with Scott M, Mare, Jay and Lisa though - it was the movie in Cinema 3. It was just as good the second time - maybe even better because I was anticipating all the good parts. :)

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 8:23 AM |

 
Bang!

What a weekend! 4:45 pm on Friday, I got a *ton* of work dumped on my lap, the majority of which is due by the end of the week (As I'm waiting to hear from the SE, I thought I'd take a short break and blog).

I met Sarah and the lawyers at Churchills for a quick beer o'clock after work and then it was off to the Alehouse for supper with my family. It was a lot of fun. Nanny actually came out, which was nice to see, and (my cousin) Melissa was also up from Hali so she joined us as well. Dinner was very tasty, and the company was great. Jay M texted about 9:30 in dire need of karaoke therapy so we decided to meet him at the Prince Edward Square Pub. It ended up being closed, so Melissa, Jay and I wound up at the Somerset. It was pretty quiet, so I got to sing a number of times, and also tried some new stuff (some of which will never be sung again :P).

Saturday I was up early-ish to have brunch with Val. We went to Cora's (I ate the crepe-omelette - so good, so fatty) before heading out east to visit Holly. Holly bought a house a couple months ago and has been renovating, but I hadn't been out yet. It was good to see her and the house is really coming along nicely (She also gave me some boxes for packing, which is awesome). Afterwards, we drove out to see some wild geese, dropped into the mall for Starbucks, and then it was home.

I made chilli, downloaded some tunes and got ready to go out. Matt picked me up about 8 pm, and we went to grab Sarah before heading to the Thomas's for the Ten-o de Mayo party. It was a lot of fun - lots of great food and awesome company. I took a ton of pics and have a great little video clip of Jay and Keith dancing to George Michael. Thanks again S & A for the hospitality!

It was a late night though, and when I finally got up at noon, I was still pretty tired (and a wee bit hung over :P Tequila + Lisa = Bad!). I headed out to meet Justin for coffee about 1:20, only to discover that Java Moose is closed on Sundays (seriously, wtf?!). We went to Tim's and then sat in the park catching up. I walked with him to work at 3:30, dropped into Reads to pick up my comics, and then called Dre. My plans for the evening had fallen through, so she and I ended up eating Phad Thai and watching chick flicks. We watched '27 Dresses,' which is cute if a bit formulaic, and "The Devil Wears Prada," which I enjoyed immensely. Meryl Streep is delightful in it. I ran home for a bit at 8 pm to show my couch and sofa to potential buyers, went back to Dre's to finished the movie and was home by 11 pm.

Of course, instead of going to bed like I should have, especially since I was exhausted, I opted instead to upload my pics to FB. I ended up being up until 1:30. It was rough getting up, let me tell you!

Well, gotta get back to it!

Labels: Daily Life, Family, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 2:21 PM |

 
The Times Top 100 Movies

Some interesting choices and changes from the AFI top 100 movies. Some I agree with, some I do not.

1. Casablanca (1942)
2. There Will Be Blood (2007)
3. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
4. Chinatown (1974)
5. The Shining (1980)
6. Vertigo (1958)
7. Kes (1969)
8. Sunset Boulvard (1950)
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
10. The Godfather (1972)
11. The Sound of Music (1965)
12. Alien (1979)
13. 2001: A Space Odyessy (1968)
14. The Jungle Book (1967)
15. Apocalypse Now (1979)
16. Metropolis (1927)
17. Annie Hall (1977)
18. Don't Look Now (1973)
19. The Exorcist (1973)
20. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
21. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
22. The Breakfast Club (1985)
23. Some Like It Hot (1959)
24. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
25. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
26. Goodfellas (1990)
27. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
28. Gone With the Wind (1939)
29. Duck Soup (1933)
30. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
31. His Girl Friday (1940)
32. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
35. Withnail and I (1987)
36. Jaws (1975)
37. Beau Travail (1999)
38. Rear Window (1954)
39. The Graduate (1967)
40. The Life of Brian (1979)
41. A Star is Born (1954)
42. Blue Velvet (1986)
43. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
44. A Street Car Named Desire (1951)
45. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
46. All About Eve (1960)
47. Fargo (1996)
48. Shoah (1985)
49. High Society (1956)
50. Blade Runner (1982)
51. Cabaret (1972)
52. La Dolce Vita (1960)
53. Mildred Pierce (1945)
54. LA Confidential (1977)
55. The Matrix (1999)
56. Whiskey Galore! (1949)
57. Raging Bull (1980)
58. Dr. Zhivago (1965)
59. Pulp Fiction (1994)
60. The Crying Game (1992)
61. Rashomon (1950)
62. Taxi Driver (1976)
63. On the Waterfront (1954)
64. Do the Right Thing (1989)
65. The Thin Blue Line (1988)
66. Toy Story (1995)
67. The Piano (1993)
68. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
69. Hidden (2005)
70. The Conversation (1974)
71. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
72. Days of Heaven (1978)
73. Great Expectations (1946)
74. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
75. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
76. Blazing Saddles (1974)
77. The Apu Trilogy (1956-59)
78. The Lady Eve (1941)
79. Deliverance (1972)
80. Tokyo Story (1953)
81. North by Northwest (1959)
82. Chungking Express (1994)
83. Spartacus (1960)
84. Festen (1999)
85. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
86. Nosferatu (1922)
87. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
88. Wild Strawberries (1957)
89. Touch of Evil (1958)
90. Trainspotting (1996)
91. Short Cuts (1993)
92. A Bout de Souffle (1960)
93. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
94. The Towering Inferno (1974)
95. Grand Hotel (1932)
96. Lost in Translation (2003)
97. Point Break (1992)
98. My Fair Lady (1964)
99. La Belle et la Bete (1946)
100. Jurassic Park (1993)

Labels: Movies, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 8:33 AM |

 
Time to Get Started

On my way home, Scott called and asked if I wanted to join he and Mare for curry. Never one to turn down curry, I met them at the library sale (scored a bunch of books for $8) and we headed to their place for a tasty supper. Thanks again S & M! We also watched "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" which is excellent. A lot of the French was still too fast for me to follow, but there were times that I was able to catch bits and pieces. Actually, the Quebec actor, Patrick something-or-other, was easier to follow than Colm. I headed home about 11, and ended up chatting with a friend for about an hour before going to bed.

I was up early-ish on Saturday, and headed down to the Market to meet Jay. I ran into Brian on the way, and while Jay took Dre a coffee from Jave Moose, B and I hit Reads for 'Free Comic Book Day.' I got about 8 or 9 comics, and also picked up a new set of dice. :) B and I then hit the book sale, and I got a bag of paperbacks for $2. Dre and Jay met us at the book sale and we made our way up to the Market again for lunch. We ended up having samosas from A Touch of Spice. Yum!

Matt and Sarah picked me up at a little after 3 pm, and we hit the theatre for "Iron Man." When we got there, they said that both afternoon shows were sold out. As the parking lot was next to empty, it seemed pretty sketchy, so I gave Sarah my coat and headed into the theatre proper to check it out. Turns out the second theatre had the projector break down Friday night and it was actually closed. I looked in the theatre where it was still playing, and as it didn't look like it was full, we hatched a plan to sneak in. We bought tickets for a different movie and got our snacks. As I was heading in to get seats, I heard the girl telling someone that there would be a delay because they were setting up the new projector. I asked and the girl said that it had been fixed and I could switch my ticket. So that's what we did and legally saw 'Iron Man.' :P It was AWESOME! I totally need to see it again. It's totally my new favorite super hero movie. Robert Downey Jr. is spectularly cast as Tony Stark, and the support cast is equally excellent.

After the movie, they dropped me off and I ran down to the booze hut to get some wine for book club. It was really nice by that time, so it was a good walk. When I got home, I curled up with a book, intending to read for just a little while, but I ended up dozing off and napping until about 9:30. I opted to head down to Elwoods where The Daisy Anthesis (the main band the Boys play in) were rocking out. I'm not a big fan of thrash metal, but I can appreciate the skill that they've got. I headed out with Skot about 1:30 am (I didn't want to walk home alone so he gave me a lift) after promising that we'd all rock out before I left. It was good to see them - it's been a couple of weeks since I saw Skot and about a month since I saw Andrew and Scott.

Yesterday was delightfully relaxing. I was awake early-ish, but read for a bit. Sarah picked me up about noon and took me to the grocery store to grab a few snacky things for book club. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching episodes of 'Veronica Mars' season 2. I had supper about 6, got food ready and people started showing up at 7. Sabine also gave me a belated Christmas present - a German book she'd ordered that took 3 months to arrive. Thanks again Sabine - I'm really excited to read it! The gals all left about 11 pm. In all, it was a good weekend.

Today I've another dentist appointment. This one is to replace a filling I got in junior high that's gone soft. Sigh. I'd forgotten about it, which means I probably won't be able to do a repeat viewing of 'Iron Man' because it's so expensive to cab over and back. Oh well, maybe when I move...

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, TV

posted by Lisa at 9:04 AM |

 
Seriously Cold, Time to Go

Being sick really sucks. I'm stuffy, congested, my head hurts and last night I was feeling a bit queasy.

I got home, had my slighly overcooked chicken (and rice) for supper, and crashed for a couple of hours. I watched "It's All About Love" with Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix, which is a really strange movie. I actually didn't really get it. I'm sure there is some deep hidden meaning, but it was a little too well hidden. I then spent some time cleaning my apartment. Not what I wanted to be doing considering I was feeling absolutely miserable, but Hazen is showing my apartment today (yes, already!) and I wanted it to look nice. Luckily I didn't have too much to do. It was mostly just a matter of sweeping, running the swiffer over the floor, and straightening up my bedroom. I still ended up being up later than I wanted, and didn't really sleep great.

I think tonight I'll be skipping out on beer o'clock and just taking it easy. Maybe rent a movie or two from Quality, and chill. Melissa said she may come over, depending on how work goes - she's been swamped and I haven't seen her all week. Actually, that's kind of true for most everyone. Everyone seems to be busy with work or Mockingbird. :) I'm also hoping to hear from Al tonight. At any rate, if anyone feels like watching movies with me, let me know. If you don't mind the sniffling and coughing that is.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 10:01 AM |

 
Happy May Day!

I can't believe it's May already! Seriously, where has the time gone?! :)

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I emailed my manager my resignation letter to proof, just to make sure I got everything, and she got all teary! She also offered to take the few of us on this pilot out to lunch tomorrow as well. I'm really going to miss the people I work with... After work, I walked down to the Superstore to get groceries. I was pretty much out of everything. Luckily it wasn't too busy and I was able to get done in about 35 minutes.

When I got home, I called to check on Dre (who was starting to feel better) and we chatted while I put my groceries away. I then did the pile o' dishes in my sink - seriously, I *hate* doing the dishes - before Brian came over to watch "Batman Begins" with me. He hadn't seen it, and I'd told him it was a must see, especially with "Dark Knight" rapidly approaching. It was nice to have the company, and he didn't mind that I was in my bummy clothes since I wasn't feeling well. :) He left about 10:30, and I self-medicated and crashed.

I didn't sleep great - I kept waking up with coughing fits and an epic runny nose. I'm feeling pretty miserable today - I wish I could have just stayed in bed. I may try to sneak out a bit early.

I am trying out my slow cooker finally. Izy went on and on about hers, so I thought, what the heck! :) I'm cooking chicken in a balsamic vinegar and fig sauce. The sauce smelled great, so I'm optimistic.

Labels: Daily Life, Food, Friends, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 9:07 AM |

 
Boo-Urns Cold!

So that tickle in my chest (that I've had forever) has again developed into a full blown cough over the course of last night, and now I'll all stuffy and headachy as well. :( Boo-frigging-urns. I'm all self-medicated, which is helping a bit, but sheesh, enough is enough all ready.

Suzy picked me up last night and we checked out the early show of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" with Ann. It was really cute. Jason Segel is just charming, and there are some great laughs in it. I particularly got a kick out of the guy who plays Sarah's new boyfriend.

I talked to Penny last night. The apartment is definitely mine - they're mailing down the lease for me to sign. :) She may stay for June 1st depending on 1. if she can find a place or not and 2. if I find a roommate. She's rather not stay if she doesn't have to - they actually broke up and that is why they are moving :(

I also talked to Al last night, and he seems pretty keen on the idea of moving. He's going to talk to his instructor who has contacts in Montreal to see if he can get hooked up with some possible studios who may be hiring. He's going to let me know Friday or Saturday if he's in for July 1st. I can manage rent for one month on my own if I have to.

I also rec'd a note from a guy named Scott from Vancouver who is planning to move to Montreal June 1st as well. He's not bringing any furniture as he's coming from Victoria, BC, so furnished is ideal (he'd have to buy a bed and dresser of course). He gave me his number so we'll chat.

I'd rather move in with someone I know, of course, but beggars can't be choosers. :P

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 10:03 AM |

 
Sunny Disposition

It's a lovely day today! I'm totally going to walk home and enjoy the sunshine.

It was a good weekend - very relaxing. I met Sarah at Churchill's for beer o'clock after work on Friday. We didn't stay too late - we ended up going to Quality and renting 'Once.' What a great movie. So sweet, and I've had the soundtrack for months. I highly recommend it. :) We chatted for a bit after the movie, and Sarah left around 11:30 to check on a sick Matt.

Saturday I didn't do very much. I read until about noon, put my hair into rollers and watched a movie. About 4:45, I headed to Rob Roy's studio to take part in the photo shoot for the banners for SJTC's next season. It was Kizzy, Suzy, myself and a whole lot of cake. It was a lot of fun. :) Afterwards, I headed to Dre's to hang out before going to see Improv Corp down at Akhord. It was a good show, if a little long. It's the first time I've been in the position to just watch them perform since I was asked to leave the group. The long form was really tight, but I realized that performing a Harold is a lot more fun than watching it. It made the show a bit too long.

I hung out at Akhord for a while, but everyone was heading out to Scott and Alison's (it seemed to be a cast only thing) so Brian and I went to Elwoods to see who was playing. It was some industrial goth band, so we skipped it and popped into Taco Pico to hang with Colleen and Doug for a bit. They have salsa night on Saturday nights, which I somehow did not know. :)

I couldn't sleep when I got home, so I was up until about 3 am. I ended up sleeping fitfully thanks to a budding cough and didn't get out of bed until about 11. Sarah and I were supposed to check out 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' but she was stuck in Freddy so we rainchecked. I didn't really mind - I'm super broke - so we'll go Wednesday or something (after I get paid :P). I went for a short walk mid-afternoon, and watched a movie. Dre picked up Brian and myself at 5:35 to head out to Jay and Lisa's for D&D. It was a great session - lots of fighting and a surprise ending. :) I'm hoping we can figure out a way to conference me in to session after I move. :P

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Gaming, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 9:46 AM |

 
Pfftt! Who Needs Sleep?

So yesterday afternoon I bit into something hard. Afterwards, one of my teeth on the upper right side of my mouth was feeling funny, like I had something stuck between it and the one next to it. I tried flossing whatever it was out, but it still felt weird. I was walking home, about 15 minutes or so into the walk, when I ran my tongue over the tooth and a small piece came off.

The weird feeling was apparently caused by the fact that I'd broken it. >_< I popped into the Zellers to find a mirror and survey the damage. It's not a big piece, luckily, and far enough back that it's not very noticeable. I immediately called my dentist and was able to get an appointment for the 29th and got a promise that if anyone cancels between now and the end of the day next Tuesday, she'll call.

As I said, its not very noticeable, I'm just extremely aware of it. I've got coverage, thankfully, but it only covers 80%. I'm not sure how much a repair costs, but I'm probably looking at the very least $100 out of my pocket - an expense I can't really afford. :(

I got home about 6:30, enough time to make a quick bite to eat and change before heading to Tim's to meet Anthony for coffee. We hung out until about 8:30, and it was good. I think we may actually be friends, which I'm happy about. He was my best friend for a very long time, and I'm glad that he's still going to be in my life in some way.

I headed home, and Em came over. We chatted until about 9:25, at which point we turned on "Pride & Prejudice," the new one, and my buzzer rang. It was Sarah. I really enjoyed it! It was extremely well cast all around. The guy who was cast as Mr. Collins was just delightful! Every time I saw him, I grinned. Em hit the wall around 11 pm, and headed home. Sarah and I ended up getting caught up in conversation, and didn't turn the movie back on until midnight, so it was a late night for both of us.

I couldn't sleep, and ended up awake until about 2 am, and was up again at 4:30, wide awake. *sigh* Some day I'll sleep through the night. Maybe. I hope. I was able to get back to sleep around 5:30 at least, and slept until about 8.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 8:24 AM |

 
Night In

I walked home again last night to take advantage of the beautiful weather (and to get some exercise until my lungs are in good enough shape to start running again) Seriously, if it could just stay like this... I stopped in at Quality and picked up a couple of movies and made my way home.

Of course, it was Tuesday. On Charlotte street, I passed by two guys. I made eye contact with one, and naturally smiled. He took this as encouragement, immediately turned around and began walking with me. He seemed nice enough if a little heavy with the flattery, but when I asked what he did for a living, he replied "Oh, I'm a... business man." This set off warning bells. He continued walking with me, so I walked past my apartment. I went into a building a few doors down and hid in the foyer until I figured enough time had passed that it was safe to venture out to my own building. Seriously, do I just look approachable?

I checked my hotmail etc. and then made supper, a tasty stirfry in a southwest sauce. I then popped in the first movie - "The Seeker: The Dark is Rising." I know it's based on a book, which I haven't read, but I enjoyed it. It was a little fluffy, and things seemed a little easy for the main character, but in all, I was entertained. I chatted with a friend for a bit, recounting my walk home adventure, and then put in the second movie "Dan in Real Life." It's very good - totally worth checking out. A "B+, maybe even an A-" for sure.

Labels: Daily Life, Movies

posted by Lisa at 8:25 AM |

 
Monday Yawns

Ah, there is nothing like starting your work week with about 4 hours of sleep.

*sigh*

Friday had some very stressful moments so I was very glad to get to Churchills for beer o'clock with the gang. I ended up going to Alanna and Sarah Price's with Sarah and Matt, which was interesting. We ended up spending some time looking at 100+ year old books and coins that Sarah P had got from her grandmother. I ended up heading home around midnight, wired for sound, and ended up awake until about 2 am.

I woke up at 10 am, read for a bit, and hung around my apartment for the afternoon. I did venture out to go the liquor store around 4:30 or so. Man, does it ever suck that the King Street store is closed. Prince Edward Square is a fair walk away, and it's a sketchy area. I then headed down to Suzy's for dinner at 7. It was great to hang out with the girls, for what is quite possibley going to be one of the last times. Suzy made a wonderful dinner and desserts - it was excellent! I ended up staying until 2 am, chatting with Suzy.

I was up until about 4 am thanks to being a bit tipsy when I got home, but I was still awake around 10:30 yesterday. I lounged about, and went for a walk about 2:30 as it was absolutely beautiful out. I ran into Dre, or rather, she ran into me (as she was actually out for a run) on Harbour Passage, and we walked back to her place together. She took a quick shower and we hit Studio 10 to see "Nim's Island," which is super cute. Plus, Gerard Butler. (And for you gals who scoffed when I said he would be shirtless and wet at one point, I would like to point out that I was right. He wasn't shirtless as much as I would have liked, but... :P). I made a tasty supper of indian curry and rice. I didn't feel like watching any of my movies so I walked down to Quality and ended up renting "Southland Tales," which was quite interesting. I rather enjoyed it.

And now it's Monday. On the up side, only 9 more days until my next trip up to Montreal. :)

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 8:38 AM |

 
Sigh

If the last 2 hours are any indication of how my day is going to be, it's going to be a long one.

After an uber long work day on Friday, Sarah picked me up and we met Matt at Churchills for a brief beer o'clock before heading to Liz's for her annual JCS viewing. I have to admit, it's not my favorite musical ever, but the company was great!

I had stayed up late, of course, and didn't end up getting up until late. I poked around the apartment, had a light lunch and then met Sarah and Matt at the Imperial to see "Tuesdays with Morrie." What an excellent show - Bob and Jeff were wonderful in it. Me being the sap that I am, cried pretty much the last 15/20 minutes. :P Good thing I brought tissue!

I had to rush off afterwards as Skot was picking me up for their gig is Sussex. It was a good time, despite the fact that it was all metal. :) The guys are actually very good. Skot is super entertaining to watch play - I've never seen a bass player get into it like he does.

After the gig, Skot and I had a drink at the Alehouse, then I made a pitstop at home to get my wine and throw some danceable tunes on my iPod for the 'Morrie' cast party. I'd been unsure if I wanted to go, and once I got there, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to stay. I did though, and ended up having an awesome time.

I didn't end up in bed until 7 am - nobody went for breakfast - but I got up at noon. I didn't want to sleep all day and then end up awake all night. I probably should have just stayed in bed though - I was exhausted, a bit hung over, and feeling way down because of it. I went had breakfast at Churchills (Reggie's was closed - wtf!), and spent the rest of the afternoon hiding out in my apartment.

For supper, I got some Phad Thai from the Thai Hut (yum!) and rented a couple of movies. I watched "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," which is just delightful, while I ate. Skot came over and we watched "Hitman," which was okay, and "DOA" because I love it (it's my 'Roadhouse') and Skot had never seen it.

Labels: Friends, Movies, Music, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 8:34 AM |

 
Happy Ostara!

Today is the Spring Equinox when the hours of daylight are equal to the hours of darkness. Tomorrow we begin to have more light than dark. Blessed be!

I opted to stay in and do nothing last night. It was glorious! ^_^ I ran into the grocery store after work to pick up something for supper (which reminds me I really need to find a vegetarian moussaka recipe...), some cat food and a few misc items. I watched the new episode of HIMYM while I ate, and then did my taxes. I was pleased to discover I'll be getting a decent refund, which will prove to be very timely I'm sure. :) I burned a couple of DVDs, and then settled in to watch 'Monster House.' It's a cute movie - it kind of reminded me a bit of 'The Goonies.' I Facebooked a little, then played my DS for a while, and got through a couple of lessons. I don't know that I'm ready to carry on a conversation in French yet, but my vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds!

Labels: Daily Life, Gaming, Movies, TV

posted by Lisa at 9:16 AM |

 
Hit me from the back side. I am on the white side. You are on the black side.

We were sent home early due to the crazy weather yesterday, which included some crazy flooding in areas not prone to flooding (like in front of my apartment - I live on a hill!). Jay cancelled rehearsal because the roads were so bad, and there was literally 2 inches of water on the street at any given time.

I'd had plans to meet Suzy after rehearsal, so I called her, and she invited me to come down for supper. I bundled up and splashed my way down Duke. We had a tasty supper (thanks again friends!), caught up as it had been weeks since we last hung out, and watched "Superbad." Why don't I have a copy of that movie yet?

Despite the rain, the walk home was kind of nice. It was warm, and I totally wanted to go puddle jumping. If it hadn't been so late, I think I would have. ^_^ Instead, I spent some time chatting with friends on and offline, downloaded some new tunes (seriously, I think I need a new Nano - 2 gigs is not cutting it anymore!), and went to bed early because I was feeling cold-like symptoms.

Today I'm definitely stuffy, and I'm a bit congested. I'm hoping to skip out early to get to the drugstore to get some medication, and maybe take a nap before meeting the girls before Elwoods. I'm hoping this cold will run its course so that I'm not sick when I'm out of town next week. Thanks cold gods, your timing is impeccable. :P

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies, Music

posted by Lisa at 11:48 AM |

 
Working on the List

Friday I met Jason at Churchills for a drink. We'd both had a long week, and before you know it, we'd each enough beer that driving to the Blue Olive was out. We ended up popping into Elwoods so Jason could drop off some posters, picked up a 6 pack and went to his place to hang out before heading to karaoke. We actually didn't leave his place until about midnight. Sarah and Jay met us there, and we were able to get in a few songs before the bar closed at 2.

Needless to say, after about 10 beer and staying up until 3:30-ish, getting up for 8:30 for our first reading of 'Oleanna' was less than pleasant. :P The reading went very well though. It took a bit to find the rhythm, one of the best and worst things about Mamet is the way he writes dialogue, broken with half expressed thoughts and sentences. After the reading, I went to meet Dre, and we made our way out to the mall for Starbucks, and so she could run a few errands. Keith met us at her place when we finished, and we ended up hanging out for the afternoon before having dinner at Swiss Chalet. I hadn't been in ages - so tasty! ^_^ The evening was spent watching movies. We watched "The Nines" with Ryan Reynolds and Melissa McCarthy, which was just excellent. I can't really tell you what it's about without ruining it for you except to say it's 3 interwoven stories where the characters are all played by the same actors. We also watched 'Blade' because Dre hadn't seen it. The evening was also punctuated with some hilarious texts from Matt. :-P

Yesterday was pretty quiet. I'd been up late, of course, and we had our second 'Oleanna' reading at 12:30. I did get out to pick up the latest Buffy issue, had coffee with Al around 8, and arranged to meet a guy this evening about the possibility of me fronting his band. ^_^ It was good to have a quiet night to myself because the next two weeks are going to be jam packed.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 11:44 AM |

 
Dirt and Drama

It has been a really long week, and I'm glad it's almost over. I don't really have time to be posting, but I need a break! Actually, I think I need a break in general. My upcoming trip is proving to be very timely (13 more sleeps! ^_^).

Tuesday night was my regular date with Em - we watched "Eastern Promises." It was really good, and man, you've got to give props to Viggo for the completely nude fight scene. It takes guts to have your junk flopping around on screen!

I woke up Wednesday feeling very flu-ish. I was pretty miserable actually, and spent the day alternating between the couch and my bed. It was a long and horrible day and surprisingly stressful.

I was back to work yesterday, even though I wasn't feeling my best. I was greeted with a stack of work, literally, and spent the day with my nose to the grindstone. I barely dented the pile. The Serenity game last night was a welcome distraction - killing things always makes me feel less stressed. :P I got to do an old fashioned fast draw gun fight, and we did a couple of neat flashbacks. I got home around 11, chatted with a few folks via text messages and Facebook, and went to bed.

Sarah has been my Friday night date these past couple of weeks, but she has a work function. I'm hoping someone is up for a drink after work with the possibility of checking out the Blue Olive later?

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Gaming, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 10:06 AM |

 
I'm Pulling a Ted - I Need 5 Shots!

Friday night I met up with Sarah, Em, Kizzy, and Jason at Churchills for beer o'clock. Sarah's co-worker was there as well, and we all squeezed into a booth for a couple of hours of chatting. At 9-ish, Sarah and I headed to Prince Edward Square to meet Jay for karaoke. Of course, it didn't start until 10:30. :P It was a good time regardless, and between Sarah and Jay, we won 5 free drinks. I hit the wall around 12:30, but we stayed until 1:30 to get the most out of our free drinks. The roads were terrible, so Sarah crashed at my place.

We slept in until 11. She had to rush home because her other book club was meeting at noon. I poked around the apartment until 1:30-ish. I dropped off some mail and my laundry before heading to the SJTC building to check out the progress and offer feedback. It's looking pretty amazing so far - they've done so much! I can't wait for it to be finished! ^_^ Sarah, Dre and I then piled into the car with Jay and Lisa and we hit the mall for Starbucks. Yum! I ended up hanging out with Jay and Lisa watching movies for the evening.

I was tired when I left their place, but when I got home, I could not relax. I was so wired from getting a full 8 hours of sleep. :P I was up until 6 am, and woke up at 9:30. I lounged in bed for about an hour, day dreaming (and hoping to doze off again) before giving up and just getting up. Mom picked me up at 1:45 and we went to meet Sarah, Chris and Suzy at the cineplex to see "There Will Be Blood." Stellar movie - Daniel Day Lewis should win the Oscar. I'm still rooting for "No Country-" for best picture, but it's a tough race this year.

I got home just in time to pick up my laundry and head to Jay and Lisa's with Dre for D&D. It was a good session. Lots of action and some fun story developments. It was 11 when I got home. Despite being tired, I was up until 1 am. *sigh*

I woke up yesterday at 5:30 and could not fall back to sleep. I finally gave up at 7 and hopped in the shower to wake myself up completely. My day was redonkulously busy, which was good. I'd much rather be busy. ^_^ I ran a few errands after supper and Sarah came over to watch the first two episodes of 'The Tudors." Mmmm... Jonathan Rhys Myers = hotness. :d

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, TV

posted by Lisa at 7:55 AM |

 
My Wall is Broken!

Jason came over last night to watch "The Holiday" with me. He said it was cute, but I think he may have exagerated his love of chick flicks. :P I've really been enjoying to get to know people better these past months, and having company is always good. ^_^ I actually kind of love having people over - I adore my apartment so much, that I like sharing it with others.

While he was there, I mentioned my wall-o-heat (tm). He touched it and it wasn't hot! I touched it and it wasn't hot! It wasn't even warm! It was like a normal wall! It still wasn't hot this morning. There was a note under my door when I got home last night indicating they were installing natural gas in my building and something about the water. I don't know if the wall just hadn't had time to reheat after being off all day, or if it won't ever be hot again because they've switched to the gas. I hope it's the former - the wall-o-heat (tm) is one of the charming quirks about my place!

Oh, and guess who slept a full 6 hours? Yup, it was me. Hells yeah! :P

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 9:45 AM |

 
Song Bird

Tuesday night Em and Sarah came over. We enjoyed a tasty dinner of Phad Thai and then introduced Sarah to the glory that is "300." We even watched some of the behind the scenes stuff. No, the abs are not painted in. *happy sigh* Have I mentioned how much I love that movie? :-P

Yesterday was a busy day. We were in training until 11:15, broke for an early lunch and then headed out to KV for our kick off. I always enjoy those kind of events. Kizzy was part of the entertainment - she was showing off her kick ass vocal stylings for the whole building - which was added fun. ^_^ I got home about 6:30, chatted with Sarah for a bit, and then headed out to Turtles. We had an action packed adventure - Zora now has impaired vision in her left eye permanently (thanks John!) - and we left in the midst of a huge battle with some shapeshifting horror monster as a second monster arrived. I think he's trying to kill us all off. :P I got home just before 11, ended up on the phone again until a little after midnight. I've really got to try to go to bed earlier, especially since I rarely sleep the night through. ^_^ (I think that might be why I'm still losing weight - I've been keeping really busy, but not sleeping more than 5 hours.)

I've got about 4 songs in my head at the moment, all by Emiliana Torrini. I'm so glad I discovered her - I wonder if she'll be touring in Canada any time in the near furture, I'd love to see her live.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Gaming, Movies

posted by Lisa at 10:09 AM |

 
The Nominations Are In!

Best Picture
"Atonement"
"Juno"
"Michael Clayton"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"
I've seen 3 of the 5 and they are easily in my top movies *ever*. It's going to be a tough race! Personally, I think "No Country" deserves the honor.

Best Actor
George Clooney - "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis - "There Will Be Blood"
Johnny Depp - "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Tommy Lee Jones - "In the Valley of Elah"
Viggo Mortensen - "Eastern Promises."
Excellent actors all.

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett - "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
Julie Christie - "Away From Her"
Marion Cotillard - "La Vie en Rose"
Laura Linney - "The Savages"
Ellen Page - "Juno"
I'm rooting for Page because she's a 'local' girl and I thought she was stellar in "Juno" but it will likely go to Cotiallard or Christie. Comedies rarely get the win.

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck - "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem - "No Country for Old Men"
Hal Holbrook - "Into the Wild"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "Charlie Wilson's War"
Tom Wilkinson - "Michael Clayton"
Another tough selection. I'm rooting for Bardem - his turn in "No Country" is incredible.

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - "I'm Not There"
Ruby Dee - "American Gangster"
Saoirse Ronan - "Atonement"
Amy Ryan - "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"
I really can't make a guess on this one. I've only seen the latter two, but I can say Swinton was amazing in "Michael Clayton"

Best Director
Julian Schnabel - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Jason Reitman - "Juno"
Tony Gilroy - "Michael Clayton"
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - "No Country for Old Men"
Paul Thomas Anderson - "There Will Be Blood"
Again, I've only seen 3 of the 5 and each were incredibly well directed. I think it's likely to go to "No Country."

Best Foreign Film
"Beaufort" - Israel
"The Counterfeiters" - Austria
"Katyn" - Poland
"Mongol" - Kazakhstan
"12" - Russia
Foreign films don't make it here, so I really can't even guess

Best Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton - "Atonement"
Sarah Polley - "Away from Her"
Ronald Harwood - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - "No Country for Old Men"
Paul Thomas Anderson - "There Will Be Blood"
I'd love to see Polley win - I love seeing Canadians win Oscars - but I think it will come down to Hampton, the Coen Brothers or Anderson.

Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody - "Juno"
Nancy Oliver - "Lars and the Real Girl"
Tony Gilroy - "Michael Clayton"
Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco - "Ratatouille"
Tamara Jenkins - "The Savages"
Wow! This may be anyone's game!

Best Animated Feature Film
"Persepolis"
"Ratatouille"
"Surf's Up"
Likely Ratatouille. While it didn't hold the attention of the kids, adults seem to love it and they are the ones judging.

Best Art Direction
"American Gangster"
"Atonement"
"The Golden Compass"
"Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
"There Will Be Blood"
This is a tough one. "Compass" and "Sweeney Todd" have very obvious artistic direction, while the others are a little more traditional.

Best Cinematography
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
"Atonement"
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"
I've only seen 1 of these, and can't really make an educated guess.

Best Sound Mixing
"The Bourne Ultimatum"
"No Country for Old Men"
"Ratatouille"
"3:10 to Yuma"
"Transformers"
Transformers gets my vote.

Best Sound Editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum"
"No Country for Old Men"
"Ratatouille"
"There Will Be Blood"
"Transformers"
Again, I've got to give Transformers its props. Will it win? Hard to say.

Best Original Score
"Atonement" - Dario Marianelli
"The Kite Runner" - Alberto Iglesias
"Michael Clayton" - James Newton Howard
"Ratatouille" - Michael Giacchino
"3:10 to Yuma" - Marco Beltrami
Honestly, unless a score is really stellar and distinctive, like LotR for example, I rarely notice score.

Original Song
"Falling Slowly" from "Once," - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" - Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" from "August Rush" - Nominees to be determined
"So Close" from "Enchanted" - Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
"That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" - Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
Hmm... I think "Enchanted" has a really good shot here. :P I adore "Falling Slowly" and am rooting for it, but realistically, it will likely go to "That's How You Know."

Best Costume
"Across the Universe"
"Atonement"
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
"La Vie en Rose"
"Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
These usually go to the period pieces. Elizabeth, unfortunately, has been done. It will likely be a toss up between "Atonement" and "Sweeney Todd."

Best Documentary Feature
"No End in Sight"
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience"
"Sicko"
"Taxi to the Dark Side"
"War/Dance"
I have not seen any of these.

Best Documentary (short subject)
"Freeheld"
"La Corona (The Crown)"
"Salim Baba"
"Sari's Mother"
Also, have not seen

Best Film Editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum"
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
"Into the Wild"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"
I don't know how anyone makes any sense out of the 'shaky cam' films, so 'Bourne' gets my vote. :P

Best Makeup
"La Vie en Rose"
"Norbit"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
Pirates has been done, I'd hate to see "Norbit" win anything ever, so "La Vie" has my vote

Best Animated Short Film
"I Met the Walrus"
"Madame Tutli-Putli,"
"Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)"
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)"
"Peter & the Wolf"
I've not seen any of these

Best Live Action Short Film
"At Night"
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)"
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)"
"Tanghi Argentini"
"The Tonto Woman"
Also, have not seen, cannot guess

Best Visual Effects
"The Golden Compass"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
"Transformers"
"Transformers" all the way.

Academy Award winners previously announced this year:

HONORARY AWARD (Oscar statuette): Robert Boyle

Labels: Movies

posted by Lisa at 11:43 AM |

 
Post Weekend Blahs

Friday night I met Sarah at Brunswick Square to run an errand before we went to Churchills. We arrived to discover Kizzy, Emily and Jason already there, so we joined them. Mike arrived not long after that, and we hung out there until about 8:30. By that point, the roads were terrible and neither Mike or I were comfortable with the thought of driving, so we opted to skip the movie and play Guitar Hero instead. ^_^

Saturday I didn't sleep in as long as I would have liked. I procrastinated and instead of going to the gym, we ended up going to see the 2 pm showing of "Cloverfield." I really enjoyed it - it's really well done. I'd kind of like to see it in the theatre again. I spent the remainder of the afternoon doing dishes (boo-urns!), and straightening up the apartment. Sarah arrived at a little after 8. We had so much fun! We hung out chatting and listening to music until about 11:45, and then went dancing at Studio 54 (which was an adventure all of its own). After the club closed, Sarah's friend Alana called and we headed down to a party. It was about 5 am by the time I got to bed.

The hangover yesterday was an acceptable price for the sheer volume of fun that was had Saturday night, I think. ^_^ I went to Reggie's for a greasy breakfast at noon, and then it was off to the Second Stage meeting at one. I'd managed to double book myself for Sunday evening, so I rearranged, and went for coffee with Andrew around 4, and Brian had invited me to hang out and have supper with him last week, so I went there around 6. By the time 9 pm rolled around, I was pretty wiped, so I headed home. I watched some tv before heading to bed.

I had crazy dreams all night, and ended up waking up about 4:45 this morning, and was pretty much up until 6:30. I was able to doze for an hour after that, but I'm a wee tired today. :-P Today should be a good day though - I've got training, I put in a vacation request, and once its approved, things should be good.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 7:41 AM |

 
Happy Birthday Brock!

I hope you have a great day!

Light Heart

After another rather dull day of training, I was pretty happy to get home. I had a few hours to kill, so I made a light supper, spent some time with the kitties and doing some travel research online. I'm loving all this trip planning! ^_^

Sarah picked up Em and I around 10 to 9, and we headed over to the movie theatre to see "Juno." Nicole, Brock, Chris and Suzy met us there. It was a truly delightful movie, a real must see. After the movie, I dropped in at Dre's to pick up some mail she'd collected for me, and then Sarah and I popped into Em's to check out her new apartment.

I'm feeling the need to get my boogie on. If anyone is interested, I'd love to do some dancing Saturday night.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 8:17 AM |

 
Friends = Good

Last night I headed down to Quality to pick up Phad Thai. Mare had invited Dre and I over for phad thai and a movie. I ran into Mare at the store, and I got a lift to her place once the food was ready. We enjoyed our tasty meal, and watched 'Stardust.' What a cute movie that is! I've really been digging these sweet romantic movies lately. ^_^

I got home a little before 10, and spent the remainder of the evening downloading cool tunes. I also added the iLike app to my Facebook profile and found some great stuff on the profiles of some of my friends. I'm pretty keen on a tune called "Ballad for Dead Friends" by the Dashboard Prophets - I've had it in my head all morning!

Tonight I'm heading to the late show of "Juno" with Sarah. I'm really looking forward to it - I hear it's awesome!

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 9:21 AM |

 
A Good Day

Today I am having a good day. A very good day. ^_^

Last night I dropped off Suzy's birthday gift before heading to grab Sabine. After an amusing run in with their door, we made our way down the slippery sidewalks of Germain to catch the bus. While waiting, we couldn't help but admire a man I'll dub "Dog Owner Hottie." He smiled at us as he tied his dog to the streetlamp before running into the Tim's. He came back out, again giving us another example of his beautiful smile, and then we saw the bus coming up the hill. And watched the bus drive right past us.

"Wow, I'm not feeling the love," said Dog Owner Hottie. "No kidding!" I replied. There was a moment where I kind of wished we didn't need to catch that particular bus before we ran up the hill in the hopes that the bus would still be there. Luckily, it was and we hopped on and headed east to go see "I Am Legend."

We met Jay and Mike at the theatre, and were in our seats and all comfy in time to enjoy the trailers. The "Dark Knight" trailer looks pretty sweet. ^_^ I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I thought Wil Smith had some wonderfully powerful moments where he's on the brink of completely losing it. After the movie, Mike kindly gave us a lift back uptown and I ended up hanging out and chatting with Sabine. The rest of the evening flew by, and before you know it, it was 11:40 and I had to run home to get to bed. :-P

I still spent some time playing with Zedd and Kaylee, but she was still up and rowdy at around 3:30. I don't know what is with her the last two nights, but she was thoroughly exhausted when I turned out the light, but she was completely nuts again. Foolish cat. :-P

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 12:21 PM |

 
Nap Time?

Yesterday was pretty good day. It was busy at work, but not painfully insane, I had lunch uptown with Jay and Dre and picked up a spool of DVD-R's at "The Source." After work yesterday I had a quick bite and hung out with Zedd and Kaylee for bit before heading out to have a coffee with a friend. Sarah picked me up at 8:30 and we went out to see "No Country for Old Men." Nicole met us there, and Jay ended up coming as well.

I loved it. It's definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen. I was completely riveted, and so tense throughout the entire thing that my muscles actually were aching by the time we left. It's incredibly intense, everyone is amazing, including (and possibly especially) the supporting characters. At one point, Nicole and I were holding hands, other hands clapped to our mouths waiting for something. I'd like to see it again - I think I may have missed some of the sublties because I was so completely wrapped up in the suspense. If you have any free time this week, you should definitely check it out.

After I got home, I called Dre to chat (and unwind - I was still pretty tense :-P) and spent some time playing with Zedd and Kaylee. The toys were such a good idea. :-P

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 10:48 AM |

 
Keeping Busy

I had a wonderfully busy weekend, which is exhausting, but still much needed.

Friday night I headed down with Dre to Happinez to share in some birthday celebrations with Ann. We hung out and chatted for a bit. Ann headed out for dinner at 8. Kristi, Dre, Sabine and myself hung out for a while after that, catching up. Dre and I then headed to Mike and Neil's for their Christmas party. It was a good time - we met a couple of really nice people. I got a kick out of their apartment though - total bachelor pad! ^_^ We left at midnight or so since we had to get up early. I was a bit tipsy from the wine, so it was actually 1-ish by the time I got to bed. :-P

7:30 am came very early. I was up and at Dre's by 8:40, and we got ready for our East Point gig at her place. We left at about quarter after and headed east. It was actually kind of fun. The customers seemed to get a kick out of us in our costumes, and it was so nice to be able to give away free turkeys and flowers. The kids especially seemed delighted. The only problem I had with the morning was leaking boots - my feet were soaked through and freezing cold. I was so glad to get them off! We finished just in time to head to Stephen and Sandra's for a reading with "Tuesdays with Morrie."

What a wonderful script! It's very sad, but uplifting at the same time. We hung out for a bit afterwards, but Dre and Mare had to get back into town, so we headed out around 5:30 or so. By this time I was exhausted and not feeling up to doing too much. Nicole came over and Jay picked us up a little while later. We watched "DoA," which is so bad it's awesome!

Yesterday I tried to sleep in, but Kaylee was having none of it. I just stayed curled up in bed reading until about 11:30 or so, because I was still tired and couldn't be bothered to finish unpacking. Dre and I went to see The Golden Compass - Sarah and Chris met us there - and it was really quite fun. It's been about 5 years since I read the books so I didn't remember anything, but I liked it a lot. The little girl in it is excellent! We stopped in at Pets Unlimited after the movie and I picked up some cat toys. Sarah dropped in to pick up her totes and hung out for a bit.

Kaylee was afraid of every toy I'd bought, which is pretty funny since she's usually so fearless. Zedd, on the other hand, went completely wild for everything, especially the cat nip mouse. He batted and chased it around, pouced on it, chewed it, cuddled it and chased it some more. When I left at 5 to go to Scott and Mare's, he'd completely exhausted himself and was lying on his back, legs spread, with the mouse on his belly. ^_^

Dinner at Scott and Mare's was excellent. The food was great, the company excellent. Thanks again Scott and Mare for your hospitality! I got home a little after 10, finished a movie I'd started, and played with Zedd and Kaylee to wear them out before going to bed.

Tonight is D&D, which should be fun. I still have to find time to get some groceries, buy some blank DVDs, and do my Christmas shopping. Maybe Thursday... ^_^

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 10:50 AM |

 
So Much to Do!

Since my kitchen is still a disaster, I stopped at Quality for take out curry on the way home from work. I also rented "Grindhouse: Death Proof," which I'd been wanting to see.

I worked pretty steady from 7 until about 9:30-10:00, and feel like I barely made a dent in my boxes. I managed to get my food put away, found a home for my strainer, cutting board, slow cooker and steamer. There are a number of things I'm not going to be able to get put away until I get my two shelves mounted though. I did spend some time looking for studs and of course there is only one right smack in the middle of the wall where I want the shelves. Does anyone have a drill? I think I need a drill to put in the plastic plugs.

I also took some time trying to hook up the surround system and discovered that I was missing the wire that connects the main piece to the woofer(?) and two of the speaker wires. *sigh* I called Anthony to ask if he'd mind keeping an eye out for them while he was doing his own apartment arranging. I have a feeling they're in the office - there were a pile of cords in there. I finally found my bathroom stuff too. The bathroom looks much nicer now that I've got my mat, shower curtain and accessories up. ^_^

By this time it was 10, so I curled up on the couch and watched the movie. I enjoyed it a lot, but I loved the soundtrack. I actually downloaded a couple of the songs immediately. :) I don't know who Tarantino gets to do his music, but it's always excellent.

I did get to bed before midnight, but Zedd and Kaylee were wild all night. I could have killed them come 4:30 am and they woke me for the 5th time. >_< They were into everything and knocking stuff over, digging at boxes, climbing things and fighting. I've been happy to have them for company, but not last night! :-P

I was surprised to see how much it had snowed when I stepped outside this morning! We ended up being a bit late for work, but I guess that's to be expected when most of the streets uptown are bad and everyone forgets how to drive. :-P I was supposed to hang out with Kizzy tonight, but I think we're going to rain check - I've still got so much to do, and she says she didn't have a chance to shovel. Maybe tomorrow. ^_^

Labels: Daily Life, Movies, Music

posted by Lisa at 9:18 AM |

 
Somebody save me
Let your waters break right through
Somebody save me
I don't care how you do it
Just save, save me
-Remy Zero

From myself. Please. I don't know what's wrong with me. I vow that I'm going to be tough and then the next thing you know, I go and do something stupid and end up feeling like a complete ass.

Today, I'm going to try harder. I'll try to stay strong, resist those impulses that just result in me hurting more and feeling stupid, and get through the day. If I can do it just once, then tomorrow won't be so hard, right?

Please Week, Just End

How is it possible that the week can be dragging and speeding by all at the same time? It's Thursday, I wish it was Friday. I don't want to move. I can't wait to move. I've been here an hour and I just want to leave. I don't want to go home to that empty apartment again. *sigh*

Last night I went to Dre's after work. We packed up all of my dishes, dried goods etc. on Tuesday, so she'd offered to feed me for the rest of the week. She's awesome. ^_^ We popped in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" for some entertainment while we ate. She also started to paint above her mantel, but we were interupted by the arrival of Richard McQueen (I think that's his last name anyway) and his friend. He's brought a copy of two of his short pieces for Dre because she had a small part in one as well as did hair/make up/wardrobe.

One was the short film "My Immortalit" starring Alex. He actually won best actor at the Silver Wave festival for it, and it really is well deserved. He was, of course, excellent in it.

After they left, Dre finished applying the first coat of paint and we finished the movie. It had been years and years since I'd seen it - I'd forgotten how fun it is. I headed home around quarter after 10. I should have done that last bit of packing, but I couldn't bear to. Tonight and tomorrow will be soon enough I guess.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Music, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 8:58 AM |

 
Stress Belly

My stomach is so upset right now I feel like I'm on the verge of vomiting. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm overtired, upset and queasy. *sigh* I didn't get to bed until about 2 am, woke up around 5:00 and then dozed off and on until my alarm went off. All told, if I got 4 hours sleep, I'd count myself lucky.

The weekend, for the most part, was pretty good. Only a couple of really tough moments - thank the gods for shoulders to cry on. Friday night I bought some awesome curtains for my new place, leveled up my D&D character and then went to karaoke with Jay and Lisa M. I had thought of also popping in to see Kizzy sing, but I was in serious need of karaoke therapy. ^_^

Saturday was a busy day. Dre and I spent the afternoon shopping. I did find an awesome red dress for my work party and that was the whole point of the shopping trip. It's sassy and classy (It also provides a bit of glue for my tattered ego. It's been kind of hard to feel special, attracive or desirable after being dumped, no matter how easy he tried to let you down. :-(). We also took a peek in Winners and Pier 1 to see if I could spot any coffee table type things but I had no luck at all. We ran into Colleen on the way into Winners and she invited us to have dinner and watch movies with her and Doug. It was a good evening - wine, good food and we watched "Mannequin." Awesomely bad. ^_^

Yesterday I went with Dre, Nicole, Holly and Holly's friend to see 'Enchanted.' It was super fun - really cute and witty. There were a number of 'laugh out loud moments.' The movie finished just in time for us to head over to Sarah's for our book club meeting, which was a good time. I got home around 10, ended up having a meltdown around 10:30, called Dre, and she came over and took care of me until 1 am.

I'm trying, I am. This past week felt a lot like the first week all over again, and I'm having a hard time. I'm dreading moving and looking forward to it at the same time. He's been gone four weeks, but it feels like it just happened yesterday and moving means it really is over. I mean, I know that it is, but to quote Albee, believing what you know to be true, that's the hard part. My heart doesn't want to listen to what my brain is telling it. :'-(

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 10:14 AM |

 
And Are We Still Solemn and Bleeding?

And are we still swimming in water
that was already wet?
It's over, it's over, it is.
-Lisa Loeb

So the play is over. After the long and potentially disasterous dress rehearsal, we managed to get through opening night with minimal mistakes and the show really progressed. We've been getting positive feedback and everyone seemed to have really enjoyed it.

The cast party was, as many of you already know, a bit of a disaster. There was too much drinking (on my part as well as others) and I spent a large portion of the night sobbing on the shoulder of various friends. In the end, I just ended up hurting myself - literally - and had Kizzy, Kristi, Nicole and Brock take care of me. Nicole and Brock came home with me and stayed, which I really appreciated because I don't think I could have been home alone. I was in really rough shape.

Again, I'm sorry to everyone if I ruined the party for anyone, but I do appreciate the overwhelming support and caring I've received from you all.

Sunday we went for a late (late) breakfast with Dre and then it was off to see "Beowulf" with Jay and Lisa, Brock and Nicole and Sarah. It wasn't the best movie ever, but entertaining. Dre, being my girl, took me to her place and fed me supper before heading to co-host Jay's INXS special edition of his radio show. Chris and Suzy came over and watched "Audition" with me, a crazy Japanese film that Stephen had loaned me. The entire movie is a slow lead up to the creepiest last 15 minutes ever. The more I think about it, the more I liked it.

Yesterday, despite being up late and having only got 3 hours of sleep after the cast party, I was up at 8 am. I did managed to get in another hour between 10 and 11. I had lunch, and went through the Christmas decorations, separating them into two boxes. Anthony and I have agreed that seeing each other right now is not wise, so he's willing to trust that I'll be fair sorting out who gets what.

It's really not fair that one person can just decided "Hey, it's over" without thinking of all the other things involved in leaving. Going through our stuff has been incredibly difficult - a huge portion of the things in our apartment right were purchased together or given as gifts to the both of us - and every item holds a memory. I'm the only left alone in the home that we shared, tearing it into pieces and its horrible. I'm definitely going to need help getting through it; its really hard doing it on my own.

I met Dre for coffee at 3. After our coffee break, we ran into Stephen and I chatted with him until Colleen walked by on her coffee break, and I joined her. I didn't end up leaving the mall until 5 pm. Dre invited Keith and I to eat with her, and I ended up going out to Jay and Lisa's to jump back into the D&D game. It was a lot of fun, and good to think about something else for a little while.

I'd rather be anywhere but here today, but that's how I've been feeling about work these past couple of weeks. It's hard to focus...

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Stuff, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 10:11 AM |

 
Welcome to the Grindhouse

Or, just saying back to work is probably less dramatic. :-P

The weekend was a flurry of activity. I know, what a shock. Anthony picked me up after work on Friday and we headed east with Nicole to check out "30 Days of Night." While not the best movie ever, it was entertaining, and I did enjoy the look of the vampires. Afterwards, we went back to our place for a few drinks before heading over to O'Leary's. I was out of points by the time we got there, and since its generally not very fun to be the only one not drinking when everyone else is, I headed home around 12:30. Anthony showed up at home with a slew of people, and feeling grumpy for being woken, I sent them down to John's. Of course, once woken, I had a hard time falling back to sleep and was actually still awake when he got home a little after four.

This made Saturday an extra long day. We went for breakfast at Cora's with John about 11:30, and finished up just in time to head to the rehearsal space for our run of the show. Act 1 went pretty smooth. Act 2, a little less so. But, on the up side, I did get my little girl! Elsbeth, who is 11 (and a half, we were informed) came to try out being dead for me. It made a huge difference. I felt much creepier when making my entrance. Yay! We went to East Side Mario's with Scott, Kizzy and Stephen for supper since we were all going to see 'The Tempest' at 7:30, and Scott wasn't heading back home. We had about an hour to kill before heading to St. Mac's for the show.

The set was an interesting concept. However, combined with the period costumes, I found it almost jarring - it just didn't fit. Had the costumes been post modern or the set been pained to look like rocks, it would have worked much better. The scenes between Prospero and Miranda lacked energy, the young man playing the prince gave, at best, the weakest performance. Some of this could have been corrected with some direction, but it also seemed to be lacking. The show was a series of recitations followed by 'my blocking says I move left' action. However, the young woman who played Ariel was excellent, as was Michael, who filled the role of the witch's son (the character name is eluding me). The interplay between Keith and Jay was good, but unfortunately not enough to save the scenes they were in. Gilbert was the hightlight of the show by far - the scenes between him, Vince and Michael kept me awake. Costumes were lovely (although out of place on as I said), the specialty make up by Dre excellent. The goddesses in particular looked quite beautiful.

After the show, Anthony and I went with Sarah D, Chris, Suzy and John to Tapps to have a beer. We ended up going home right after and hitting the sack.

Sunday we slept in, which was much needed. I had to go to the rehearsal space at 2 pm for promo photos. Dre was on hand for make up - she did a great job, especially with my bite marks! Afterwards, we walked down to Market Square to meet Anthony. We ran into a former co-worker of mine, and new co-worker of Dre's on the boardwalk, and chatted with her a bit. We headed up the hill to the Smart Kart for drinks, and ran into Keith. We moved out to the street where we banged into Ann Keery. We all chatted for at least a half hour before heading our separate ways. Keith kindly ran me over north (one of front tires has a flat) to the Shoppers so I could get contact solution. He dropped me off home, and I made supper. Anthony and I ended up having a quiet evening. We went out at one point to go to the bank, and ran into John. He walked down with us, and then came back to our place where we watched a couple episodes of this and that. It was a nice and relaxing day in general.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 8:11 AM |

 
The Weekend Wackies

This past weekend was a flurry of activity. Friday we headed down to Churchills for 7:30 to have drinks to celebrate Dre's birthday. We had got her a FFXII 'Balthier' action figure that she'd been admiring. We opted to skip the movie, and hung out with Chris, Suzy, Doug and Colleen for a few hours. Colleen wanted to go to 'Blush' so we headed there. BT was working - seeing him is always a treat. We had an interesting conversation about a mutual acquaintance. At one point, one of the dancers approached me and asked if I remembered her. She did look vaguely familiar. Any way, it turned out to be one of my sister's friends from junior high! It was very surreal!

Saturday morning I totally overslept. I slept right through my alarm, and only woke up because Anthony returned home from his breakfast with John, at 11:55. I jumped out of bed, managed to shower, dress, grab food on my way through the Market and still get to the rehearsal space at 12:50. I had really wanted to go to the UNBSJ rally at noon too. Yar! Rehearsal went very well. We ran through Act 2 and Bob was pleased with our progress, so we didn't have to run through it again. We headed home and spent a few hours doing some cleaning before going to check out "Michael Clayton" at the plex. It's an incredible movie - easily one of the year's best. I highly recommend checking it out. After the movie, we ended up out at the Irving for pie, coffee and conversation with Scott, Alison, Chris, Suzy and Nicole - we actually hung out there until about 11 before going home.

Yesterday I was up bright and early for our Second Stage meeting. It was very productive and we made some good head way. We'll be making some changes that will result in higher quality programming, more exciting events, and an all around better season. I had lunch with John at Tim's before improv practice at 1. It was also very productive, and I'm looking forward to the show Wednesday (which I'm sure everyone except Tempest folks will be attending, right? ^_^). We went with Nicole and Brock to see "Across the Universe," which was terrible. The soundtrack is excellent - how can you go wrong with The Beatles - but the rest... *shakes head* Seriously, don't waste your money. Since we had the rest of the night ahead of us, I watched a couple episodes of 'Arrested Development' while Anthony did some script studying, and then we watched a random episode of 'Fun-Zai!' Gods, I hate watching myself on film! :-P

This week is going to be crazy, we've got rehearsal every night except Wednesday, improv Wednesday night, a full run Saturday, and we'll be going to see The Tempest Saturday evening. Oy!

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 11:13 AM |

 
Oh! My Points!

This was a weekend of food. Delicious food all, just too much of it!

Friday night began with an attempt to call Sabine on her birthday. Anthony and I really should have asked John how to say "Is Sabine there?" in German, in case her dad answered, which, of course he did. :-P Unfortunately she wasn't home, but we tried! ^_^ We then headed over the S & A's for a tasty, tasty dinner. Our contribution was a bagette, pitas, hummus, cheese ball, gouda and some wine. The dinner was, as usually super good as was the dessert provided by Suzy. Yum! We also watched the Coppola version of "Dracula." I'm feeling much more confident about my portrayl of Lucy thus far. I could come out and do a dance and still be better than anyone in the film version (with perhaps the exception of Gary Oldman, who is fantastic in it). :-P

Saturday was a long day of me not feeling well. I have good days and bad days and Saturday was definitely one of the bad. I ended up missing both improv and the Clone High Marathon at Nicole's place. I spent the day reading (and finishing book 4 of the 'Song of Fire and Ice' series loaned to me by Sabine-it's awesome!), gaming, doing a bit of writing and sketching.

Sunday I felt much better, and went for breakfast at Cora's with Anthony and John. I do love Cora's. :-d Afterwards, we walked over north to get the car from Nicole's, and then headed east. Anthony figured he was going to have to pick up his sister, but it turned out that she'd got a lift from another friend and didn't need him afterall. We turned it into a plus by stopping at Starbucks. ^_^ I am *so* glad there is not one uptown - I'd be more broke than I am already! Frappacinos are super good but expensive! We headed over to Holly and Ryan's about 6:45 for Ryan's surprise b-day party. It was a good time, but about 11:45, Anthony was ready to go home. I told him I was tired and was going to walk home. He, of course, wouldn't let me walk alone, and we headed out. I saved Holly a messy clean up, I'm sure. :-P

Monday started quietly. Anthony slept in and I did some laundry and few houseworky things. Around 2-ish, we walked over to pick up the car. We went for a coffee with John and then it was off to S & A's for Thanksgiving dinner. As is everything cooked by Scott, it was delicious and I ate way too much. ^_^ We hung out after dinner, and I played each of the guys a game of NHL '08. I am currently undefeated. :-P

Yesterday, because I'd booked it as a vacation day, and because I can't because I can't be exposed to any germ without catching it, I woke up with a sore throat. *sigh* I joined Anthony in the Market for lunch, got to chat with Dre and Jay M a bit, John lunched with us, and Chris also showed up unexpectedly. Oh, I wish I worked uptown... The remainder of the afternoon was pretty quiet. I went to vote, and then headed home to chill out. I was able to get into the After Hours Clinic at 5:30, and it turns out I've a throat infection. I was prescribed penicillin, and advised to drink lots of fluids (which is easier said than done when you're throat is sore and swollen). By the time my prescription was filled and we got home, it was time to head to rehearsal.

And that was my weekend. ^_^ Thanks again S & A.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 1:49 PM |

 
Waterlogged

I got drenched this morning just crossing the street in front of our apartment. Boo-urns! I'm mostly dry again, but I've had to take of my sneakers to dry them (and my feet) out, and the bottom of my jeans are still damp.

I went for a run when I got home. 6k in 41 minutes. My average pace was 6:48, which I feel pretty good about. ^_^ I dropped into Mom's new place after my run, and spent two hours chatting with her about this and that. By the time I got home, it was 9 pm, and I was starving! So I heated up some supper, chowed down and then watched "DoA" on loan from Scott M.

It's awesome! So bad, and yet so good. ^_^ It's totally silly, but the fight choreography is pretty decent - it's just a lot of fun. And man, is Jaime Pressly ever buff! I wish I had the discipline to get abs like that!

Labels: Daily Life, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 12:15 PM |

 
Happy Birthday Jenn!!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday, and I look forward to celebrating with you this weekend. ^_^

In Your Face 10k!

Friday night was spent pretty quietly. Anthony worked late, and around 8:30-ish, Doug called to see if I felt like going for a drink with him and Colleen at Churchills. I headed down there, and enjoyed a couple of cold beer. Anthony came down about 9:30 with John, and we stayed until about 11:30 before heading home.

Saturday I was up early-ish for improv practice at 11. It was a good practice, and then it was over to the Market for lunch. I got the Curry Chicken Rice from Slocum and Ferris, but it wasn't the best ever. It was actually kind of dry, and they didn't put the sauce on it. I ended up only eating about half. Very disappointing. It was a long rehearsal. Productive, but long. We finished at 5:10, just enough time to run home, change and then head back out to the Alehouse for Jay's birthday dinner. I had the Kilkenny pasta, which I think may have had something bad in it. I ended up feeling sick to my stomach (as did Mare who had the same thing) and we both headed home early.

Sunday I was up bright and early (Okay, it was foggy and dark, but it was early!) for the Marathon by the Sea. I got down there at about 7:50 and the race started at 8. Mare and I ran together the whole race, which was great. The time flew by, and we were able to keep each other motivated. My personal goal was 1:15 for my first race, and I finished at 1:11:29. Yay me! I'm totally pumped to train for a half now. ^_^ We hung around to see everyone else finish, and after Keith crossed, I ran home to change and then went to Tim's with Mare, Scott and Roger (Karen and Jack met us there) for a breakfast sandwich. I headed back down to the finish line to await Anthony's triumphant arrival. He finished the full at 4:53. Woot! ^_^ Chris, Anthony and I had a coffee in Market Square, Doug and Colleen joined us for a bit, but finally it was time to get an increasingly tired Anthony home for a nap. We ended up going to see "Resident Evil: Extinction." The zombies reminded me a lot of Buffy-verse zombies, and there really wasn't that many. I was nightmare free, which was nice.

My legs are feeling tight today, and my gluts are a bit sore, but otherwise, I'm feeling good. I went to bed early last night, and Anthony gave me a lift to work, so I got to sleep in a bit. I've got lots to do today, but hopefully I won't be too tired for rehearsal tonight.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 9:23 AM |

 
I Vant to - Aw, forget it.

It was a very busy weekend, so busy in fact that I can't remember what I did Friday night. :-P We had lots of Dracula rehearsing. We blocked the entire show - Act 1 on Saturday and Act 2 on Sunday. Bob's a machine! ^_^

Saturday after rehearsal we went with Scott out to the mall and helped him pick out a movie. We went home, had supper, and then headed out to S & A's to watch The Manchurian Canidate (the remake with Denzel). It was quite good. We also watched a bit of the original Batman movie - that movie has not aged well! :-P

Sunday was a busy day. We got up and went to breakfast with Doug and Colleen at Cora's. Anthony wanted to show off the new NHL '08 for the X-Box 360 so they went into U-Zone to play a quick game. After the (very close) game, it was over to the Superstore for groceries. That gave us just enough time to head to the Nature Park for a quick run before rehearsal at 6. I decided to do the entire outer trail, which Anthony told me was 7 km. I think it's more like 7.5. After a few wrong turns etc. my total run ended up being a little over 8 km. Oy! I kept a good time though; I love running in the Nature Park. My legs were a little rubbery for rehearsal though. :-P

Monday and Tuesday I was sick. Very sick. With some sort of flu bug. Why do I catch everything? :-( Yesterday I was back to work, but after missing two days, I was way to busy to update. 106 emails, 28 voicemail messages and a whole slew of to-do's. Last night's rehearsal was a ton of fun though. I got to practice my horror movie scream, get chased around and bitten. Good times. ^_^

On the Side
If you haven't written to, well, every political official in the province regarding this post-secondary report, I strongly urge you to do so. The government is here to serve us, and we've got to let them know that collapsing UNBSJ is not serving us, but themselves.

Labels: Daily Life, Health, Movies, Stuff, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 12:40 PM |

 
Tuesday Blahs

I know I've said it before, and I'll surely say it again, but Tuesdays are the worst day of the week! Especially when it's rainy and gloomy. Boo!

Yesterday felt like a Monday. It was busy at work, but not that good busy that makes the day fly by. At the end of the day, I went into the ladies room to change into my running gear only to discover I'd left my shirt at home. I rushed back to my desk to gather my things so I could catch the bus. On the up side, however, when I got home, Anthony was in his running clothes, so he waited for me to change, and we did a 6 km run together. ^_^

The run went well. It had been over a week since my last run, and I was concerned that I would have a hard time. I actually found myself being surprised at the end of each interval, so I think my next run I'll add a minute. I'm a little worried about the upcoming 10 km race though. I haven't been able to stick to my running schedule very closely, and I'm supposed to be up to a 9 km run this Saturday, which I don't think is going to happen. I had wanted to complete the 10 km in under an hour, but I think at this rate, I'll have to content myself with just finishing. At my current pace etc. I should be able to finish 1 hour / 1 hour 15, but we'll see. I'm going to try to run as often as possible between now and then.

The rest of the evening was spent quietly, and I ended up watching 'Disturbia' before going to bed. Movie of the year? No, but I enjoyed it. Some of the romance stuff seemed forced, but other than that...

I'm really pumped for the first reading of "Dracula" tonight. It will be cool to see who else has been cast; I only know who is cast in a couple of roles for certain. I almost always really enjoy a first read (unless it takes all night - that's less fun). It's cool to see how people first preceive their characters, and then we get to watch them evolve as we go.

Labels: Daily Life, Health, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 2:09 PM |

 
Monday Monday

It was a good, if busy weekend. My weekend sort of started Friday. I took part in our company's 'Day of Sharing' program, so instead of coming in to work Friday, I headed down to Brunswick Square to help out with the Big Brothers Big Sisters Book Sale. It was a long day! It's been a long time since I had to stand on my feet all day. It was nice to spend the day doing something, but I'm not sure I'll do it again next year... I did get a bunch of books for $5 though. ^_^ My feet were pretty sore by the end of the day though, so I ended up spending the evening reading and gaming. It was nice and relaxing. ^_^

Saturday I was up bright and early to get ready for Liz and John's wedding at 11 pm. Liz looked gorgeous, and John was very dapper. The ceremony was pretty quick, and while they went to do the picture thing, a bunch of us went to Churchills for a drink. We headed up to the Union Club at 1, and once John and Liz arrived, we sat down for lunch, which included very tasty wedding cake a la Suzy. Anthony and I went home and ended up napping. We went east after our nap, and decided to pop in to Scott and Alison's briefly. Our short visit ended up us staying for supper (Scott, can I get that recipe?), and we watched The Godfather, which I had never seen.

Yesterday was a busy day. We had a Second Stage meeting at 1 to discuss TotE as well as a few other things. It was a good meeting, I think, with lots of interesting thoughts and feedback. At 3, I stuck around to help out with the Dracula call backs, and then a little after 4, headed for home. Anthony went for a run, which I should have also done, but I was hungry so I opted to eat instead. :-P He got back at 6, just in time for us to run to the movie theatre. We watched "Shoot 'em Up," and stuck around for "3:10 to Yuma." In between movies, Andrea C called to offer me the role of "Lucy," which I accepted, of course. I'm pretty pumped; our first reading is tomorrow.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 12:12 PM |

 
Back to It

September already! Where did the summer go? I know, technically, it's still summer until the 21st, but still...

Friday night I went out to Scott and Alison's with Kristi, Sabine and John for a going-away dinner for Sabine. The new kitchen looks incredible, and dinner was amazing as always. I was pretty beat, however, and ended up ducking out with Dre at about 10:30/11.

Saturday, thanks to another terrible sleep, I slept in, and didn't really get moving until it was time to head over to John and Sabine's. I went with them and John's dad to the airport to see her off, and then it was back in town. Dre and I ended up at Boilerworks for a drink, and dinner. I had the portobello mushroom burger, which was tasty except for the pile of wasabi mayo that was piled on. I had to scrape it off because it was so overpowering. We popped in to Lawtons for some bandaids (my shoes had created and popped a blister on my toe) and then we headed to Harbour Station so Dre could pick up her Cirque de Soleil ticket for the Sunday matinee. We ended up at her place, checking the listings and went with Colleen to see "The Nanny Diaries," which was cute (especially Harvard Hottie played by the yummy Chris Evans). I was in a mood to do something, so we ended up down at O'Leary's for a couple of beer and then Churchills for a drink. Anthony, back from surfing, was very tired, and we ended up going home about midnight. There was an amusing interlude where Keith popped over to borrow pants from Anthony around 12:30. :-P

Sunday started out lazy and then it was out to run errands. I had to take something back to Zellers, which was a disaster. There is definitely a disconnect that happens to people while waiting in line. You don't need to give your life story people; just tell them why you want to return it and have the item you are exchanging it for ready! Grrr! Then it was off for groceries at the insanely busy Superstore. We hung out for a bit, stopped at Harvey's for veggie burgers and then it was off to Jay and Lisa's for our D&D session.

Yesterday I woke up feeling off. At quarter to 2, I tried Anthony's cell and his work number, wondering where he was as we were supposed to go out to Jay and Lisa's to watch movies. He had misunderstood when I said I'd see how I was feeling when it was time to go and went without me. :-P I spent the day 'researching' by watching Angel, gaming, reading, and doing some laundry. It was kind of nice. :-P

Labels: Daily Life, Food, Friends, Gaming, Movies, TV

posted by Lisa at 11:46 AM |

 
Have I Loaned You...

Specifically,

Harry Potter and the Sorcorer's Stone by JK Rowling?
Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield


While digging through my books, I noticed a few missing, most notably the first in the Harry Potter series. We've also loaned out a pile of movies and tv series. If you've got one, and have read/watched it, can we get it back?

Labels: Books, Movies, TV

posted by Lisa at 4:20 PM |

 
Relax

Our vacation day on Friday ended up being a very quiet day. Anthony had come down with a cold, so he spent the day resting, and I gamed and read. Since it was rainy, it wasn't too bad, but it would have been nice to go on some sort of day adventure. I headed over to the Somerset Pub at 7:30-ish to get set up for Liz's karaoke shindig. Anthony was feeling too sick to stay, so he just dropped me off and went back home to bed. The karaoke was big fun, but I wrapped it up at midnight; I was actually pretty tired and not really feeling up to any more socializing. :-P

Saturday, since Anthony was still feeling ill, we cancelled our Fundy Trail trip, and went to see "War," which was a little disappointing. Jet Li and Jason Statham, but hardly any action. WTF? Since we'd already planned to hang with John and Sabine, we invited them over, and watched "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon," a great mockumentary about the next great super natural psycho slasher, and "Ravenous," which is an awesome movie, except for some bizarre soundtrack choices. We popped down to Tapps after the second movie to say hello and give best wishes to Greg and Chris who are getting married this weekend, but we didn't stay too long. We ended up staying up pretty late though; Anthony had rented "Bioshock" for the 360. I half watched him play while curled up with the DS and before you know it, it was almost 4 am!

Needless to say, we slept in yesterday. :-P We ended up just hanging out until 4:30, and then we headed out to Jay and Lisa's for D&D, which is always fun. ^_^ I really should have gone for a run yesterday, but I was feeling lazy. I'll do it today; it'll be good.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Gaming, Movies

posted by Lisa at 9:51 AM |

 
Better Days

I went with Chris and Suzy after work on Friday to see "Superbad." It was super awesome! ^_^ Anthony had gone out to St. Martin's to hang with his sister and Ryan out at his parents' camp, so I spent the remainder of the evening just chilling.

Saturday I was awake early-ish, but I read for a bit before actually getting out of bed. Once Anthony got up, we headed to the Superstore for groceries. We ate lunch and headed east for a quick errand, and we got back home with a few minutes to spare before Randy, who was visiting from Toronto arrived.

We chatted and went down to Churchills for a drink. We ended up back at the mall because Randy wanted to check out West 49 for skate shoes for his brother (and Anthony discovered, much to my dismay, that they stock longboards). We popped out to Kizzy's for her birthday shindig for a bit, but by that time it was six and we were getting hungry again. We tried Boilerworks, but they were full, so we ended up at Churchills again. We were joined by Keith and April and Dan and Julie for the meal, and Scott and Mare stopped at our table after they finished their meal. We all headed back to our place for a few drinks.

Anthony and Randy had a furious foozball battle for one of the Killer Bees, their trophies from old. In a best of 7 'tournament' it came down to one point for each of them. Anthony managed to retain both the Bees. I played a couple of games against Keith and Ryan, who had shown up later in the evening. They won the first but I took them down in the second. Anthony wanted to make sure Randy had the full 'Saint John experience' so of course that meant he wanted to go to the strip club. I passed and went to 54 for Keith and Ryan for some dancing.

I slept in late on Sunday. Anthony and Randy were up fairly early and went to breakfast and walked along Harbour Passage. I went for a run, my first in almost two weeks. The last kilometer was a tough one, but it felt good for the most part. The guys had gone to U-Zone and they got back to the apartment not long after I did. Randy stuck around for a bit before heading back to the stock. I showered and we ended up picking up Keith so that they could check out "Superbad."

The evening was spent pretty quiet. Anthony went for a run, I watched some Angel, read, gamed, and had supper. We watched a movie called "Renaissance," an animated story set in the future. It was quite good; very interesting animation style too.

I feel much better after the weekend. Things are still not wonderful, but they're a little better. I'm definately feeling a little less stressed. I'm glad I have Friday booked off though...

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 10:32 AM |

 
Back to the Grind

Friday night I headed down to the Mary Oland Theatre for around 7:15 to help get things underway for "Wingin' It!" We got the people taking part split into their groups, and at 8 pm, it got started.

My team got a plastic banana as a prop and the line "That dog looks like she means business." We headed to the Hilton bar (the name of which escapes me at the moment) for drinks and to do some brainstorming. We were there until about 1-ish and then we headed to our place to do some writing. We broke up around two to get some sleep.

We met again in the morning, and finished writing the script at about 11:45. We had lunch at the loft, went through the script again to make some tweaks, printed it out and started production. We gathered our props and costumes first, and then broke up to take some time to learn our lines. Our tech was at 6:30, and of course, we made it nice and complicated. :-P Scott M was a big help as he ran our tech for us.

The shows were excellent, really clever and funny. My team squeaked in a second win, but it was close. Frankly, I was pretty shocked that we won; I thought the other scripts were amazing! Definately one of the hightlights was Keith as "Prospectron" the gold mining robot, and Scott T as the diabolical Viktor. ^_^

The party got started around 11 or so. It was a good time, although around 2:30, I made the mistake of sitting down, and that was it for me. Exhaustion hit and I ended up leaving at 3:00 am.

Yesterday started out as not being a good day. I had an anxiety attack at around 5 am, and ended up not getting much sleep. The morning was actually pretty terrible all around... The afternoon was better. We went to Cora's and then to see "Stardust" and, on a whim, "The Bourne Ultimatum." Both were very good (although I still don't care for the 'shaky cam' style of the 'Bourne' director. I find it hard to watch.)

Labels: Daily Life, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 7:56 AM |

 
Back to Work

Friday after work we had dinner to celebrate Lisa and Alison's birthdays at "Boilerworks." I have to say I was impressed by the restaurant, everything tasted delicious! I will certainly go back. Afterwards we headed over to Chris and Suzy's to hang out a bit. We didn't stay too late; I was pretty tired (and having a full belly made me want to sleep ^_^).

Saturday we were up early for improv at 11. After lunch, Anthony went to Uzone with Doug and John to play hockey. I went for a run, and chilled for a bit before we headed over to Jay and Lisa's for dinner. Thanks again for the tasty meal J & L! Again, the full belly made me sleepy and we didn't stay too late.

Sunday we slept in, ran a few errands in the afternoon, and of course, The Aramando / The MP3 Experiment took place Sunday evening. The improv went well; it came together nicely. Michelle Hooton, our 'celebrity' guest, did a great job with her monologues. The MP3 Experiment was a blast! For those of you who didn't take part, you really missed out. And I don't care if it's 'not your thing.' I know you would have had fun (and besides, how do you know without trying it?). Two highlights for me included seeing people walk by outside to see us dancing to 'nothing' and running around the block with Santa (aka: Gilbert), handing out candy to strangers, waving and singing 'Downtown.' It was awesome!

After the show, we ended up at our place for a few drinks. The company was great, but come 3 am, when everyone left, I was beat. I didn't envy Anthony who had to get up for tennis with Gilbert, John and Scott T. at 10 am. ^_^

When Anthony got home from tennis, I got up. Yes, I slept in and it was glorious! Anthony went for a run, and I spent some time people watching at the NB day flea market (what a weird, and increasingly lame, tradition) before our reading at 2:30. The reading went really well; I'm so looking forward to sharing "The Goat" tonight. We ended up chatting afterwards, and the time just flew. Before we knew it, it was 6:45 and Alex had to rush off to his 'Bash' rehearsal. Then it was suddenly 7:40, we were starving and John was calling looking for Sabine. ^_^ We ended up renting a Korean movie called 'The Host,' which was interesting, and getting Chinese food from the Hong Kong Take Out. Yum!

Yesterday we were up early-ish, and on the road at 11:30. We picked up Sabine and headed out to St. Martin's. We visited the caves, to which neither Sabine or I had been in before, had 'world famous' seafood chowder at the restaurant on the beach with Anthony's mom, and headed to The Fundy Trail, again something neither Sabine and I had visited. We spent 3 hours walking and exploring the trails. We saw squirrels and flying caterpillars , picked raspberries on a beach, saw Fuller Falls and other wonderful scenery. We stopped for ice cream at the canteen on the way back (Sabine had fries instead) and headed back into town. We got back about 6:30, just in time to eat before heading to the museum to set up the camcorder to film "Out on the Edge." The show was great; I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out.

Labels: Daily Life, Food, Friends, Health, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 11:08 AM |

 
Taking a Break From the Work Drama

I don't know if it's the heat, the recent full moon or what, but my gods, people are being major drama queens today! I totally need a moment to save my sanity!

Friday night we gathered at Studio 10 to see The Simpsons Movie. It was better than I was expecting, and I was pretty pumped for it. ^_^ My only disappointment was that I couldn't sit next to John to see his expression of childlike delight. ^_^ After the movie, we went to Boston Pizza for a beer, and to chat about it before heading home.

Saturday we were up early. I had to weigh in and then we had improv at 11. Improv was interesting, made all the more so by the drunk who harassed us. Afterwards, I stopped for dolma in the market, and we headed home. I read and gamed for most of the afternoon. We ended up having a few folks over and went to karaoke with Mo, Kathleen and Mary Ellen at a pool hall on the west side. He had a good selection, but the host was new to karaoke and didn't know some of the cardinal karaoke rules (like don't let one person sing 15 times when there are people who haven't sung yet).

Sunday we slept in a bit after the late night. Keith had crashed at our place, and we gave him a lift home so he could get ready for a Simpsons date with John. Since we were out and about, we headed east and I rented "Viva Pinata" for the 360. We ended up going to see "Hairspray," which was a fun film. Anthony had to work on the program, so I spent the evening gaming and reading. Nice and relaxing. It's too bad D & D ended up cancelled since it will be a few weeks before we can have a session.

Yesterday was a crazy day at work. There was just the two of us and it was busy! I ran home (finishing at a personal best ^_^) and met Anthony for a coffee since he had to work late. It actually was a really good run. Probably one of the best ever. It just felt good from beginning to end. The night was pretty mellow since Anthony was working late. I ended up just watching Angel. It's research. Really.

Labels: Daily Life, Gaming, Health, Movies, Theatre, TV

posted by Lisa at 2:31 PM |

 
Runaway Weekend

Wow! What a busy weekend!

First, let me say Congratulations! to Chris and Suzy, and Christine and Andrew on your nuptials.

Friday, I got off work early. Originally this was the plan because the rehearsal for Christine's wedding was supposed to be at 5. I took a few hours to just relax, and then headed down to Ambiance for an Aveda Hand Treatment. I'd received it as a gift certificate for Christmas from Holly, and it seemed like a good time to use it. It was awesome! It includes a manicure, but also a hand and forearm massage, a hand mask, and heat mitts. I could have fallen asleep. It turned out that after the massage I had some time to kill. Anthony and I ran a few errands out at the mall, and he dropped me off at the church at 7 pm for the rehearsal. Rehearsal took about an hour, and then we headed back in town for dinner. Anthony and I bailed a little early and we hit the movie theatre to check out Harry Potter and The Order of the Pheonix, which I found quite enjoyable.

Saturday I was up bright and early. I had a hair appointment for 10 am. I had asked for it to be a half up, half down do, but Doug got a bit excited, and it ended up as an up do. :-P It looked great though. Of course, it meant make up was required to cover up my tattoo... Oh well. I got home about 11, sent Anthony down to Coles to pick up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and did my make up. I arrived at Christine's at 12:15 just in time for photos.

We made our way to the church for 1:30. Christine was super nervous, but looked beautiful. The ceremony was really nice, for the most part. Unfortunately, the air conditioning got turned off accidently, and it got really hot. About 2/3 of the way through the ceremony, the best man fainted from the heat. And he hit his head. We had to call an ambulance. It turned out that he was fine, just embarrassed. Once he got the okay from the paramedics, the rest of the day went great. Of course, everything was about a half hour behind. By the time we got back to have dinner, it was 5:30 and I was starving!

At 7, while the bride and groom were mingling with guest, Anthony and I split to put in an appearance at Chris and Suzy's shindig. We had perfect timing and arrived just in time for cheesecake. Yum! ^_^ We also received one of the warmest greetings ever. Thanks for missing us everyone! ^_^ We hung out there until about 8:30 before making our way to the dance. It wasn't a rocking dance, except for those two women who seem to be at every event like this and dance the macarena to every song while wooping. *shakes head* We bailed after Christine and Andrew left at 11; I was beat!

It took an hour to get the 35 pins out of my hair and to brush it out. I then settled in to read a few chapters of Harry Potter before going to sleep.

Sunday we slept in a bit, and I spent a few hours curled in bed reading. I eventually felt a bit guilty and called Dre to see if she was up for breakfast/lunch at Cora's. We had lunch, stopped at United (and each bought two sets of dice. I know the geekiness never ends. :-P), and hung out in the Loyalist Burial Ground until it was time to head out to Lisa and Jay's for D & D. We had a great game with some fun surprises, and managed to get Act 1 wrapped up. I'm looking forward to Act 2! ^_^

When we got home, I proceeded to devour Harry Potter until 3 in the morning. I'd planned to only read for an hour but I'd hit the point of no return and could not bring myself to put it down. It's awesome! I even went back and read the last three chapters again because they were so good. By the time I turned out my light, it was about 3:30. :-P

Needless to say, I slept in yesterday. I met Anthony for lunch, which was a nice treat, bought a chilly chino from Java Moose, and spent the afternoon watching Angel and playing Puzzle Quest. I went to the track with Dre to calibrate my iPod and we got in a 3 km run, which was nice after a week of inactivity.

Labels: Books, Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 4:06 PM |

 
Well, it's Friday...

I've had a bit of a headache all day. It may be from the weather. It may be due to lack of sleep (I was up a few times during the nice. First too warm. Then too cold. Then Kaylee was destroying the apartment, or least, that's how it sounded. Then the bathroom. Then too hot again. Boo-urns!).

Last night Chris generously picked me up after work to ensure that we could hit the road for Transformers good and early. By the time I waited in line to use my free pass, and for my frozen yogurt, I was just in time for the trailers. It was actually better the second time! (Turns out movies are better when they are not blurry. Go figure. :-P) I could actually see it again. Maybe not tomorrow, but it would be good to see it in a few more weeks, before it goes out of theatres. I got home about quarter after nine, had a light late supper, chatted with the movie a bit with Anthony, gamed and went to bed. It was a good evening. ^_^

The day has kind of dragged out. Probably thanks to the headache. Only a half hour left! We're heading out to the Rothesay Commons tonight to check out "As You Like It." I'm hoping its less foggy out there than it is here in town.

Tomorrow should be a busy day. I've got a 5.5 km run scheduled, I need to go to the gym desperately (but I may push that to Sunday, depending on how I feel after the run), a few errands to run, a stop at the Booze Hut and then its off to Yessy's for a BBQ with my co-workers. It should be a good time; I'm looking forward to it.

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 3:52 PM |

 
So, When Are We Going Again?

After work, I had to get groceries, which I should have done Friday or Saturday but didn't. Anthony picked me up afterwards, and while I put the groceries away and made dinner, he went for a run. We headed over to the movie theatre very early because Anthony was worried it would be crazy. It wasn't went we got there, but was by about 5 after 9.

Okay, Transformers is awesome. We're totally going again. Partly because of the totally awesome-ness of the movie and partly because some technical difficulties caused the screen to be out of focus for a large portion of the movie. I think we're going to check out the early show tomorrow night if anyone wants to join us.

Tonight is TMNT. I'm pumped because we're finishing the battle with the giant lizard.

Labels: Daily Life, Movies

posted by Lisa at 9:23 AM |

 
I Wish I Had One More Day Off...

Long weekends are never long enough. :-P Even when you've taken an extra day to make it even longer. *sigh* :-P

Friday I gloried in some sleeping in. Anthony and I went for lunch at the Market before heading over to the Nature Park for a run. He needed to do 8 km, and I needed to do 5 km. It was my first run in the Nature Park, and it was great! Running on the paths is so much easier on the legs, and it's just a nice change of scenery. I'm looking forward to more runs there in the future.

We were supposed to go over for groceries, but after showering Anthony felt like a nap. We went east to run some errands, and to get groceries, but the errands took longer than expected and we ended up just having enough time to grab something to BBQ. Doug had invited us over to enjoy their deck, so we fired up the grill, drank some beer, and ended up staying to watch "Shooter." (I found it kind of dragged out and predictable.)

Saturday we were up early. I stopped in to weigh in, and then we headed out of town to Moncton to meet up with Sandra and David. The weather was calling for partly cloudy, so we figured our Bouctouche plans would still be good. As we drove into Bouctouche, it was pouring out, so we stopped into Pizza Delight (apparently Bouctouche doesn't have a bar...) for a beer to wait out the storm. Once it stopped, the sun was shining and it was mostly warm, so we headed to the Dunes. We had a picnic lunch and managed to enjoy the brief moments of sun. We even watched a thunder storm moving across the water to PEI, which was cool. In the end, however, the weather was just too unpredictable, and too cold for sunbathing (especially without sun).

We drove into Shediac to have supper. I had a tasty lobster wrap, and side salad. We headed back into Moncton, chatted with Sandra and David a bit before heading back to Saint John. We got back into town a little after 10, just in time to catch the grocery store for some snacks and salad stuff. We ended up watching "Stomp the Yard" when we got home. The story was a little cliched but I enjoyed it. The stomp routines were quite interesting...

Sunday we were up at a fairly decent time. Anthony left around 12:30 to do his 20 km run as called for by his training schedule. I enjoyed some How I Met Your Mother while waiting for him to return. We headed out to Kizzy's around 3:30. Thanks again Kizzy for the hospitality and a great party. It was a blast!

Yesterday I got up and did a 3 km run as part of my training. The afternoon was spent quietly. I watched How I Met Your Mother, Anthony had a coffee with John, and then we headed out to Jay and Lisa's for some D & D. It wasn't action packed but some of the role playing was interesting. We managed to get to the King's birthday, but the party was just starting when we left. ^_^

So, tonight we are hitting the movie theatre for The Transformers. I'm super pumped. We're going to the late show (I'm not sure which one yet - Anthony was going to get tickets this afternoon). It's gonna be awesome! ^_^

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Gaming, Health, Movies, TV

posted by Lisa at 10:57 AM |

 
Tuesday Blahs

I know I've said it before and I've no doubt I will say it again, but I hate Tuesdays. Okay, hate is a strong word, but I certainly don't like them. I woke up this morning wanting to just stay in bed, and once I got to work, pretty much anywhere would have been better than here. *sigh*

Last night I hit the gym for a 20 minute run on the treadmill and an upper body workout. Anthony ran me over to the movie theatre afterwards for my movie date with Michelle. We went to see Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End. I liked it as much as I liked the second one, but it wasn't as enjoyable as the first.

Tonight is our weekly TMNT meeting. I'm looking forward to an action packed adventure now that we're all in Mexico. ^_^

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Gaming, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 2:02 PM |

 
I Wish Weekends Were Longer

Actually I wish I could have a weekend that would last until I was ready for it to end. Or that I was independently wealthy and could just spend my days travelling the world. I should start buying lotto tickets. :-P

I had a mostly relaxing weekend. Friday night I went to the gym, and then Anthony and I headed to Swiss Chalet for dinner. He'd been pretty busy, so it was nice to hang out with him. Saturday we got a slow start, but I did get up and go for a run. I had intended to do 30 minutes, but I couldn't muster the will to do the last two minute stretch. Next time! ^_^ Afterwards, I headed to the market to grab a couple of things before meeting Doug and Anthony at Cora's for breakfast (okay, lunch. :-P). I sort of poked around for the rest of the afternoon and then we headed over to Scott and Mare's to watch some MST.

Yesterday was also a quiet day. I had planned to go tubing but when I looked at the temperature on the weather network, I opted to skip it. It, of course, ended up being really nice out. The afternoon was very relaxing: I went for a walk, did a couple of errands, spent some time in Queen Square with a book and a blanket. Anthony got home at 6, and we grabbed John and Sabine to check out "Knocked Up." It's hilarious; I recommend checking it out. After the movie, Anthony felt like nursing his burn, so we rented "Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker." It's based on a popular British series of books, and is the British "Agent Cody Banks." I liked it quite a bit. Apparently the secret to success is kids books these days. ^_^

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Movies

posted by Lisa at 10:11 AM |

 
One of Those Days

Yesterday was one of those days. There were ups and downs, but such is life. A misunderstanding was cleared up, much to my relief. It had been weighing on me, and turns out that I'm a bit of a dope. :-P

After work, Anthony surprised me by picking me up. He dropped me off at the gym for my work out date with Dre. It was our first time working out together in months, so it was nice to get back to it. We didn't push ourselves too hard since it had been a long time between work outs for her, and it was my first time back since the 10th. We just did an upper body workout. It had been a tough day for her as well, so it was good to work out some of the frustrations etc.

I got home to find Anthony had beat God of War, and we had a quick supper together. Afterwards, we went out east so he could trade the game in. On a whim, we decided to go see Shrek the Third. It was cute, if a little crammed full of plot and characters...

Then it was home to bed.

Break a leg tonight to ye Improv Corp folks doing the National Sycro gig! I think tonight I may try running...

Labels: Daily Life, Friends, Health, Movies

posted by Lisa at 9:54 AM |

 
Tuesday Blues...

Back to the real world. It was nice having four days off, even if they weren't all relaxing. ^_^ I kind of wish I had today off today, although I probably would have just spent the day moping.

Let's see, but the time Anthony and I got home from the cast party, it was after 4 in the morning. I was both physically and emotionally exhausted and crashed pretty hard. I slept for a full 8 hours, which was much needed. I was still feeling a little down, so Anthony and I picked up Dre and headed out to Quispamsis to see "The Ex." It wasn't the greatest movie ever, but Jason Bateman is awesome in it and we got some good laughs. A comedy was much needed...

The popcorn made me feel kind of queasy, so I ended up curling up in bed with a book for a few hours. Still beat, I opted to stay home when Anthony went to improv, and I made soup for supper and watched "Wallace and Grombit; Curse of the Were-Rabbit," which was super cute. I read a bit more, did some logic puzzles and turned in early. In all, it was a very relaxing day.

Labels: Daily Life, Movies

posted by Lisa at 8:50 AM |

 
Jim Emerson's 102 Movies to Become Movie Literate

Stolen from Liz who stole it from Chris. Bold movies are the ones I have seen.

2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Alien
All About Eve
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now
Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
Blue Velvet
Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
Carrie
Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise
Chinatown
Citizen Kane
A Clockwork Orange
The Crying Game
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
Double Indemnity
Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial
Easy Rider
The Empire Strikes Back
The Exorcist
Fargo
Fight Club
Frankenstein
The General
The Godfather
The Godfather, Part 2
Gone With the Wind
Goodfellas
The Graduate
Halloween
A Hard Day's Night
Intolerance
It's a Gift
It's a Wonderful Life
Jaws
The Lady Eve
Lawrence of Arabia
M
Mad Max 2
The Maltese Falcon
The Manchurian Candidate
Metropolis
Modern Times
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
Night of the Living Dead
North by Northwest
Nosferatu
On the Waterfront
Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
Pink Flamingos
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Rashomon
Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
Schindler's List
The Searchers
The Seven Samurai
Singin' in the Rain
Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard
Taxi Driver
The Third Man
Tokyo Story
Touch of Evil
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
Vertigo
West Side Story
The Wild Bunch
The Wizard of Oz

Wow! It turns out I'm a movie ignoramus! :-P

Labels: Movies, Stuff

posted by Lisa at 12:34 PM |

 
The Countdown Is On!

Friday night we had a full run of the show in partial costume. What a difference being partially done up made for the attitude of the show! My hot pants are shorter than I remember them being though. :-P

Afterwards, we went to Churchills for a drink. I didn't stay too long. I hit the wall not long after I finished my drink and went home. Doug and Anthony were playing Justice League Heroes when I arrived. I chatted with them for a few minutes and then went to bed.

Stephen gave us Saturday off. I slept in, which was much needed, and awoke feeling refreshed. We poked around the apartment a bit and then headed over east to see "28 Weeks Later." I enjoyed it. It was a pretty solid sequel, in my opinion. Yes, I'm okay with this one because they're not zombies; they're just infected. Alive, not dead. Huge difference. ^_^

We then stopped at the mall. I needed to pick up a few things, plus I found some great shoes at Payless on sale. I had a gift certificate from Anthony for $20 so they ended up costing me only 51 cents. Woot! ^_^ The evening was spent loafing around, with the exception of some dance practice. 45 minutes of going over the kick line to get my timing. I put 2000 steps on my pedometer. :-P I also read a bit, did some laundry, and then settled down to watch a movie. We rented "The Curse of the Golden Flower," with Chow Yun-Fat and Li Gong. It wasn't super heavy on the action, but they did nice character development and the sets and costumes were amazing!

Yesterday we slept in again (Ah!) and we ended up meeting Doug and Colleen at Cora's for breakfast around 2. Yes, it was a late breakfast. ^_^ It was then off to the Imperial for a trial run of hair and make up. That was fun, even if we didn't get everyone done by the time 5 pm came. We then did a full run of the show at St. Mac's with the band. It went well for the most part. I got screwed up somewhere in the kickline which was very frustrating after taking the time to practice Saturday. Yar! It was about 10 pm by the time I got home. By the time I got my hair brushed out and the make up off and had a light supper, it was late. I don't like eating that late, but it had to be done; I was starving!

Tonight is cue to cue. We have a 5 pm call. I won't be able to get there until closer to 6 (since I work until 5:30 and all :-P). It will be a late night. I charged my iPod and brought my DS so that should help fill the time.

Labels: Daily Life, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 9:21 AM |

 
All Work And Lots of Play Make Lisa a Tired Girl!

It was a busy, busy weekend. I know, what a shocker. :-P After work on Friday, Anthony, Doug and Colleen picked me up at work and we raced off to Fredericton to catch the 6:40 viewing of "Hot Fuzz." It was super funny and totally worth the drive. Those guys are hilarious! After the movie, we popped into Chapters for Starbucks and I picked up a book of 4 Ibsen plays for $9.95. Then it was back to Saint John.

Saturday we were up early-ish. I needed to weigh in and Anthony wanted to rejoin, so we headed over east. Anthony dropped me off at 11:30 for our music rehearsal, which luckily wasn't super long. When we finished, I went down to Suzy Shier to find something to wear for our girls night. I did well. I tried on about half the store, but I found a shirt, a jean skirt and a super girly floofy dress that was totally unnecessary but I love it. ^_^ I went to the bank to deposit a cheque, and on the way up to the market, ran into Doug and Colleen. I ended up joining them for a break at Java Moose, and then we headed to the market together. I got some Korean food to take home for supper and Sense of Tokyo had a booth set up, so I got some uber-tasty dragon rolls for lunch. That's some good sushi! :-d

That gave me just enough time to go home, eat, change and head back to the rehearsal space for dance rehearsal. It was a good rehearsal. We worked hard for three full hours, learning new stuff, tweaking other things. It was great! I got home at about 6:30, heated up supper and relaxed for an hour. Then it was time to start getting ready to head over to Kristi's for our girls night. It was a blast! It was the Kit Kat girls, Jenn, Dre, Kizzy, Heather and Sabine. Dre and Kizzy helped with makeup, and we chatted, etc. until 12:30 when we finally realized the time and made our way to Studio 54. As part of their 5 year annivesary celebrations, the bar was opened until 3. By the time I got home, got changed and relaxed, it was 4 am.

When my phone rang about 11 am, my first thought was "Gah, its morning." That thought was immediately followed by "Mmmm... pancakes." It was then I registered that my phone was ringing. :-P I answered the phone and it was Anthony telling me how he'd lost his keys. In Moncton. I then called Sabine, asked how she felt about pancakes and we met 30 minutes later. Cora's was closed, so we ended up in Reggie's, where Irwin joined us. After breakfast, I made a pitstop at the Bargain Shop and the Smart Kart before rehearsal. We got started the run a bit late, which bumped everything late. We finished rehearsal at almost 6 pm. I joined Dre and Kizzy for a super quick bite at Churchills before Dre and I headed over to Jay and Lisa's for part 2 of the Serenity 'pilot.' I was tired, but it was good to go and think about something other than Cabaret. Plus, Mare made Fruity Oaty Bars. :-d Mmmm.....

And now, its Monday. I've booked tomorrow off for vacation. I totally need a break that involved sleeping in. Holly gave me a gift certificate for a manicure at Ambiance; I may try to book that for tomorrow afternoon. ^_^

Labels: Books, Daily Life, Food, Gaming, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 10:06 AM |

 
Tuckered Out

I haven't been sleeping well the last couple of nights. It's been bee tough getting up in the morning, let me tell you!

Let's see, Sunday we had rehearsal at noon. We finished a little early, so I hit the gym for a much needed upper body workout. I was feeling all weak and kittenish. :-P Anthony met me afterwards for a coffee at Tim's (he needed a break from work), and then I headed home for supper. We opted last minute to go to see "Pathfinder." It was entertaining. I'll give it that much. It's amusing when you see a film where the writer and director obviously knew nothing about the subject matter. I think they may have heard of vikings, but never researched them, and I think they believe that the vikings came from Asia because it was so obviously filmed in BC with huge mountain ranges and redwood forests. :-P I scoff, but it was enjoyable. Tobaggan chase anyone? ~_^

Last night we didn't have rehearsal, which was a lovely treat. I got groceries after work. While I ate, I watched an episode of Buffy that I'd started the night before, and then gamed for about an hour and a half. I've got to do some leveling before I can move on to the next battle. I'm only a couple levels above the next boss, and considering my last big fight with a bunch of jellies nearly wiped me out... ^_^ I stopped gaming around 10, walked through the dance routines, and then hit the hay. Again, with the not sleeping well, I figured it was best to get in as much extra sleep as possible. I did sleep a little better, but I woke up with a headache and hit snooze a bunch of times.

Labels: Daily Life, Gaming, Health, Movies, TV

posted by Lisa at 11:03 AM |

 
Monday Blues

It feels like a Monday.

After a long day at work Thursday, I headed to St. Mac's for dance rehearsal. We got a lot done, almost finishing Mein Herr, but after the 3 hours, we were feeling sluggish. I opted to go home after rehearsal, take a bath to soothe my sore muscles and game a bit before going to bed.

Friday, I slept in a bit, and then it was off to another dance rehearsal for 1 pm. We finished Mein Herr and got two of the last three items done for Don't Tell Mama. We also had costume fittings, which was both fun and scary. ^_^ My "Brooke" costume is extremely ladylike and elegant in comparison. :-P We finished up at 4:30 and I treated myself to Phad Thai for supper because I was not feeling up to cooking anything. I dozed off after I'd eaten, only to be awaken by a rowdy Kaylee at 6:55, just in time to run out for music rehearsal at 7. It was a good rehearsal though; I think we've really got The Money Song now. We just have to become more confident with it; it's a tough song. That evening, Anthony and I rented "Flushed Away," which is awesome. It's super cute; I totally recommend it.

Saturday I slept in a bit more, and did a few things around the apartment after lunch and before music rehearsal at 2. We finished at 3:30 and then Anthony and I went to pick up Holly and Ryan to go out to Anthony's parents' place. They spoiled us, as usual. We got our usual treats and card, but they also got us a slow cooker, which I've been wanting for ages. ^_^

We got home about 9, and I decided I wasn't up for Elwoods, so I called Michelle to see if she wanted to go dancing. We decided not to wait outside in the cold and snow for Studio 54 and went instead to Club Montreal. We had a blast! We got on the dance floor and stayed there for two hours. I felt so relaxed afterwards! By the time we got home and got Michelle home, it was 4 am when I finally turned out my light.

Sunday I slept in a lot. :-P We headed out to Cora's for a late lunch around 2. I had the apple-cheddar crepe, which was kind of disappointing. We headed home, and I ran through my routines while Anthony gamed. I don't have a good chair for Mein Herr though; the back is too high and it slips too much on the hardwood. :-( I scrubbed the livingroom floor, washed the bed linens, and did a couple of loads of laundry, watched some Buffy and then we rented "For Your Consideration," the Oscar buzz film by the same group that did "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show." It was really weak; I was disappointed. I went to bed after that. Although I was tired, I couldn't fall asleep. I couldn't get comfortable and my mind wouldn't stop racing. I'm pretty tired today.

I'm looking forward to playing "Serenity" tonight though. ^_^ It's my first foray into the world of RPGs.

Labels: Daily Life, Food, Movies, Theatre

posted by Lisa at 11:00 AM |

 
Just As Good The Second Time

After work I went to the Superstore to get groceries. It didn't take very long and I was home by 6:30. I had a light supper and curled up on the couch to pass the time.

Emily picked me up at 8:40 for the late show of "300." I enjoyed it just as much the second time. ^_^ There was actually a fair amount that I missed the first time around, and I was again struck by the style, the choreography and the acting (the abs :-P). That movie is definitely being added to my collection when it comes out on DVD.

Labels: Daily Life, Movies

posted by Lisa at 1:12 PM |