Canton by Japan

I'm thinking that I didn't warn you all that I was on forced vacation last week, which apparently meant I could not post an entry. I thought about it, but the only day I really had the time was Tuesday and I was depressed, ergo, not really up to entertaining you all with my life, as I wasn't being all that entertained by my life then.

I had a good week off, for the most part, even though I didn't go anywhere. Before the break started I had talked to someone re: the model boats and was told that they had been informed that they were not allowed to use the lake/pond during the entire forced vacation. That's a full ten days of peace and quiet, right? Woohoo! My Contact told me to take his cell phone # home with me and to call if they showed up at all. I honestly, because I'm a dumbass, thought they wouldn't show up since they had been told they couldn't be here.

Saturday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. I heard the familiar high-pitched whine of one of those blasted boats. I ran outside, walked to the curb and made my phone call. Contact didn't answer his phone, so I left a message. While driving to Knitting Club less than an hour later, Contact called me back and said he had made a few phone calls including one to company security and they were going to roust the guy. Contact said, "Let's hope he passes the word along to his buddies that they can't be here." You can hope all you want, but things don't happen by hope, apparently.

Knitting Club was very interesting while also proving to me that I'm worthless unless I'm knitting something mindless. Soyon took a class on entrelac and she tried to teach us how to do it. Julieu and EGC picked it up, but me? Not so much. I have to try it again, but right now I'm really trying to finish up my cousin's afghan. Maybe then I'll try the entrelac again.

Canada Day I spent at the beach with Pamela and Michelle. We had food and lemonade and it was all good. I missed the Champ Car race from St. Jovite, Quebec, and forgot to set the VCR, but I called Ursamajor and asked her to DVR it for me. I've been lame, however, and haven't gotten over to her place to watch it. HRH was appalled to find out that not only had I not watched the race yet but knew nothing about it. I told her it's hideously easy to avoid Champ Car news.

Monday I went to the Zoo with Pamela and Michelle again, along with a woman from work. We had a good time and the weather wasn't too hideously hot at all. I've already posted the pics up at flickr.com. We stopped briefly to look at the hippo (something I normally don't do as I think they're quite ugly) and while looking at the hippo we were discussing the fact that I have had a number of people offer me hippo stuff after I've asked about rhino stuff (i.e., FAO Schwartz worker said, "We don't have any rhinos, but we do have hippos." This IT guy who had been flirting with me via e-mail sent me a message saying, "I saw a TV show about hippos over the weekend. They're kind of like rhinos.") and how rhinos are nothing like hippos. While the four of us were talking some woman butted in and said, "This is a hippo, not a rhino." WTF!?!? Did we look to be three-years-old? Pamela just turned and said, "Yes, we know. We were discussing rhinos." The woman wouldn't let it go, however, and said, "Hippos are so much cooler than rhinos, in my opinion. Did you know that they sleep on the bottom of rivers, but rise automatically to breathe?" You'll all be so proud of me. I didn’t say a word about how wrong she was wrong and how rhinos are infinitely cooler and cuter than hippos. Pamela said she wanted to say, "Do you really think I don't know the difference between a rhino and a hippo?" We were all so proud of ourselves for not taking the bitch down. ;-)

Nobody would agree with me that the rhinos are cute, even though they would concede that they are much much much cooler than hippos. I couldn't find the tree kangaroo and I kept telling them that it was really cute and we had to find it (never did), but they questioned my cute judgement, so I had to tell them, "No, not cute like a rhino, but cute like a prairie dog." They were then willing to look a little longer. I did find out that my co-worker's father also loves rhinos, so now she knows two people who appreciate rhinos appropriately. ;-)

Tuesday was HELL. It started with me trying to catch the bratface children to take them to the vet (this is why I put it off for four months). Boris is relatively easy to catch, but Igor? Oh dear heavens, he's so lucky to be alive today. I was ready to kill him. He's so bloody quick and he knows what I'm about to do. And he just takes off. Everybody says, "Why don't you catch him first?" Fucking A!!! I'm not stupid, people. I'm just not quicker than my damn cat. I know to catch him first, it just doesn't work out that way. I caught Boris TWICE in significantly less time than it took me to catch Igor. Twice you ask? I caught him, put him in what is traditionally Igor's carrier (soft-sided, netting, canvas type), closed the side where I put him, thought the top was completely closed – which it wasn't.

I finally scared Igor into the closet from under the bed, follow him, close the door and proceed with yet another fight to get him into the bloody carrier. This is when I discovered that Boris had escaped the fancy-ass carrier. Oh, I was fit to be tied at this point, but found Boris sitting relatively calmly in the living (family?) room and caught him again with next to no problems. Igor screamed all the friggin' way to the vet and I was ready to kill him. Good thing he wasn't a model boat or Crave and that I love him.

Tuesday night I went dancing, but didn't take any ibuprofen so after two hours, my knees and my right hip had me saying good-bye and heading home. Pathetic. It didn't help that I had been thinking about the Libertarian and how I had hoped to spend forced vacation time with him. Yeah, I know, stupid.

I had zero plans for the 4th, as my family as never been big on BBQs or anything like that. I ended up watching Disc 1 from Season 9 of Stargate SG-1 from Netflix. I took a 3 hour nap and then, of course, couldn't sleep that night. Again, I'm a dumbass.

Thursday found me back at the Zoo as my friend Rick from CT (he's commented a few times) was in town and that's where he was going to be with his fiancee Delia. Moron hadn't told me that he had gotten engaged. Delia said something and I questioned "Fiancee?" She showed me the ring and I smacked Rick from CT for not telling me. I lasted a good five hours before my feet cried "Uncle." and I went home. Here Rick and me at the Zoo.

Friday was a nice, semi-relaxing day. I went for sushi with Martha, went shoe shopping at DSW, but I couldn't find anything at the DSW by the sushi restaurant, but Martha found a cute pair for $10!!! Can't beat that with a stick. I went to the DSW by my house and found five pairs of sandals. I hadn't bought any sandals for a few year so it was all good, especially since I found one pair for $7 and another for $9. Woohoo!!! HRH called me from the Toronto race to ask me to check on qualifying and I had to tell her that I was out shoe shopping. This is something that would never ever happen in her world - shoe shopping instead of following qualifying on-line???? Dear heavens!!! It'd be different if I could buy Race Director and get all the cool features, but they don't support the Mac, so why bother?

That night I watched Disc 2 Season 9 of SG-1. How lame am I? There wasn't even Richard Dean Anderson to make it a bit more interesting. *sigh*

Saturday was even more exciting as I did laundry. I did have a party on Saturday night which was fun. We watched the Tigers game which went 13 innings (I was beginning to think it was never going to end) and then just chatted and hung out with friends. Mom had called me and told me she was going to church that afternoon as she had a cough (I think it comes from working in a pediatrician's office), so I didn't set my alarm which means I didn't go to church. Good thing Mom's praying for me, eh?

This meant that when I got up Sunday morning I called Martha and we made plans for the day. We went to Meijer and got veggies for grilling for dinner. Martha likes to work in the kitchen alone (meaning she wouldn't let me help) and made a macaroni salad. We then went for an hour long walk in the 90+F heat and humidity. (Have I mentioned how much I hate Barry Bonds?) Then we hung out and I read the fifth Harry Potter (since the movie comes out this week) while Martha read the paper.

We had lovely grilled veggies for dinner with Paul Newman's balsamic vinaigrette (nothing icky in it), then I read some more while Martha did some sort of gardening crap. She can't sit still. I have no problem sitting still and reading. I left in time to shower (it was so hot and sticky and icky) and then watch the Champ Car race from Toronto. HRH had to be in her glory as there was rain (yuk).

And now it's time for the Home Run Derby! GO MAGGLIO!!!! (Dear heavens, I hate the friggin' Counting Crows! Thank God for the *mute* button.).