My Sharona

Bitty Schram is leaving Monk. I don’t quite know what the show will be without her, it certainly won’t be the same. What’s worse is it seems that she won’t get closure, the article says she just won’t be in the new episodes in January. Naturally I’ll still watch, unless I can’t take the change. Maybe I should write Tony a letter.

A Fun Link

Strindberg & Helium.I recommend In Absinthe & Women. I got this link from Geoff.

Is It November Yet?

I’m so tired of election ads and election talk, and I just want it to be done. I don’t need to tell you who I’m supporting, and should it go the other way, you better believe I’ll be praying for the President to be making good decisions. I don’t have to like him, but I can pray for the decisions he’ll make.

I was very impressed to have Canada excel past the medal goal I set for them. I figured we’d get 10, and we got 12. Not a bad year, and medals in events we’ve never had before.

Not much else is going on. I had a weird dream that T.D. Baker had a anniversary to celebrate how many years it had been opened, and they wanted the first graduating class there. Everyone looked the same, like no time had passed, and I mostly hung out with my friend Candy. I told you it was weird.

Heather booked her trip and she’ll be here in 12 days! Whee! October brings a visit from the Armstrongs, and November brings Rod. And then it’s practically Christmas. I actually listened to a Christmas song last week. 🙂 I was in the mood for it. I’d say I’m out of control, but I have no Christmas shopping done yet, so I’m okay.

Tomorrow is the Scrubs season premiere. Yeah! I’m leery about the 8 episode guest appearance of Heather Graham, but we’ll see how it goes. I don’t know if I’ll adopt any new shows, I usually end up getting my heart broken. I may tune into Joey, it did get some good early buzz, which I was surprised by.

We’re having Brad, Fiona and Robin over for a BBQ on Saturday, but other than that, no plans for Labor Day.

I guess I’ll close with quote from Mallrats.

Shannon Hamilton: I have no respect for people with no shopping agenda.

Harsh Realm Comes To DVD

I guess those letters I sent to Fox made a difference. I’m sure other people sent in letters too. This was a great show by Chris Carter and I’m so glad it’s being released. Now if we could get them to release Titus or The Lone Gunmen…. 🙂

A Golden Day For Canada

We won a gold medal in gymnastics, which we’ve never done before. And the guy is from Calgary! Way to go Canada!

Numfar, Do The Dance Of Joy!

Heather is coming to visit! I’ll have someone to keep me company while Geoff goes to Breakenridge in September. I’m very excited. I just had to post that. 🙂

You Can’t Be Serious

I have to start off by saying how dumb I think the summer olympics are. No offense to those athletes competing, but who the heck decided that trampoline is an event? Seriously people, I thought the olympics were suppose to be about skill and strength. I’m happy that Canada was able to get a silver medal in this event, but at the same time, I’m embarrassed. Since I’m on the topic of events that are dumb, I don’t think ping pong, soccer, baseball, softball or basketball have a place at the olympics. As much as I love bridge, I hope it doesn’t become an event. I just think you can see soccer, baseball, softball and basketball any other time, so what’s the point of having it an event at the olympics. I should point out that at this point Canada has also won a silver medal in rowing (which I approve of), and a bronze medal for syncronized diving (which is at least better than trampoline).

Enough of the olympics, new topic. I’m nearly done with my week of living single. I hate this. I’d like to say I accomplished a lot on my own, but I didn’t. I watched way too much tv, had long naps with my cat, but at least I did make myself get dressed every day. I made sure to get out and interact with other people. I spent a lot of time online looking at flights for places I want to go. For all the complaining I did this year about traveling too much, I have a lot of traveling planned for next year. We want to take the baby up to Edmonton to meet my grandparents and our friends. And of course we want to take the baby to California to see our friends out there. I think a trip to Ontario to meet Grandma Joyce may have to wait until either later in 2005, or perhaps spring 2006. Sigh. Crazy! But such is life when you live nowhere near your family. 🙂

I’m annoyed at the fact that we haven’t gotten any mail for like the last 3 days in a row. But I guess that means no bills. I am in a Christmas craft kind of mood. I went to Hobby Lobby this week to see what kinds of crafts they have available. I decided to make my own Christmas crackers, so I’m gonna start collecting what I need to make those. I’m keeping my eyes open for fun toys to put in, I already found some corny jokes, and I can get some tissue paper to make the crowns. I just have to check the store to see if they sell the poppers for the crackers. It’s not the same if they don’t make the noise. 🙂

Sci Fi Channel is putting out an Earthsea movie, based on the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin. I read it as a child, and Diane is buying me the series, so it’s neat to think that I can see some director’s idea of it in December. I am keeping my expectations low, because in general books aren’t always adapted well into movies. Particularly fantasy books. It will apparently only cover the first two books, but if it’s successful they will consider doing the last book. One of the comments I read online was someone’s disappointment that Ged was going to be played by a blond headed actor (from Canada btw, as is the female lead). In the books, the people of Gont are dark skinned. Really, getting the actors to look just as they are written isn’t as important to me as getting the essence of the story captured right. Anyways, go out and read the books. I’ll be sure to let you know how the movie is when it comes out in December.

I guess I’ll sign off now. I’m closing with a quote from Toy Story.

Woody : Look, we’re all very impressed with Andy’s new toy.

Buzz : Toy?

Woody : T-O-Y, toy.

Buzz : Excuse me, I think the word you’re searching for is “space ranger”.

Woody : The word I’m searching for, I can’t say, because there’s preschool toys present.

To Make You Smile

This ‘N That

Touching Evil has been cancelled. I’m totally bummed, and mad that I never taped the show, so I can’t even have my reruns. I don’t really know what USA was thinking, but apparently it feels that airing constant repeats of Law & Order and Walker Texas Ranger are good programming. If they didn’t have Monk, I’d toss them like I did the WB. Bruce Willis is allegedly talking to FX about picking up the show, but I’ll count on that like me winning the lottery without a ticket. I won’t even bother getting excited about a possible DVD, that won’t happen. I’m gonna sulk for a few days, then I’ll try to move on. It was just getting better with each episode.

I’ve tried to tune into the olympics, but they don’t really show the events of interest to me. I mean I could watch volleyball, or basketball anytime. I really only like the track, the swimming, and the men’s gymnastics. Give me sports that require real strength. I mean come on, can you do a routine on the pommel horse?

Geoff is in Irvine, and I’m very bored. I just don’t feel much like watching movies, weird I know. I did order some 5×7 photos from our Scotland trip, so I may take a trip up to the scrapbook store tomorrow to get some supplies.

I know there has been some concern for my health while Geoff is away, but I assure you all I am eating 3 meals a day. I am drinking my milk, eating my greens, and taking my vitamins. So please stop worrying about me. 🙂

So… Denver has bats. Yup, we saw some last week when we went out for ice cream. Now I don’t want to walk along the creek after dusk. I get that they are God’s creatures, and that they probably don’t want to do me harm. But I’d really rather that they stayed up in the air and not swoop. I just don’t want to have them come within a set distance of me. Irrational? Maybe, but I don’t like bats.

I don’t remember if I mentioned it, but I got an email about our 10 year high school reunion. Geoff says he’d rather have shards of glass shoved under his fingernails than go. I am keen on going, pending that people I like will be there. It won’t happen unless it happens to coincide with our visit to Edmonton next spring/summer. But there are people I’d like to see. Who? Um, I dunno. Maybe Melinda. Haven’t spoken to her since we got engaged. But Jason & James for sure. actually if they combined the 1994 class with the 1995 class that would be awesome. I had such fun catching up with everyone at Doug’s wedding.

I guess I’ll sign off. I’ll close with a quote from Touching Evil in remembrance.

David Creegan: I was clinically insane for a while there, but I’m alright now, near enough. Hey, can I have your goldfish?

Susan Branca: What do you mean “near enough”?

David Creegan: I lost a big chunk of my brain, the doctors say, “Hey, weird.” These aren’t goldfish, they’re whales.

Wednesday, July 28

Having packed the night before, all we have to do is eat breakfast and brush our teeth. We have our last breakfast at the City Inn, and eat out on the terrace by the river. It’s another beautiful day, and it’s hard to believe that we’ll be home that night. We finish our meal, and head upstairs to do one final look over the room. Heading back to the lobby with all our suitcases, we ask the front desk to call us a taxi. The cab has no trunk, the back of the cab is huge and that’s where the luggage goes. It sits in an open space in front of the backseat. Our driver’s name is Marilyn, and when she’s not driving a cab, she’s a teacher in Busby. We mentioned that Grandpa Jim is from Busby, and that’s when she tells us she’s a teacher there. She asks if we made it out there, and we tell her no. She says it’s a lovely town, not at all like Glasgow. She fills the ride to the airport with suggestions of what to do on our next trip. She spent a few years living in Ontario, but she didn’t really like it. We get to the Glasgow airport, which is fairly small, but well laid out, and has plenty to offer. There are no problems, and we make our way to the gate. Along the way to the gate, we pass a play area they have set up for kids. Why doesn’t every airport have that? There are no problems boarding the plane, and it’s a nice flight overseas. They show Starsky & Hutch, which was pretty funny, and I think I am able to have a short nap. Once we arrive in Toronto, we go through customs and I’m a little confused about filling out the declaration form. Since none of our souvenirs are staying in Canada, I’m confused if they will or won’t charge us for them. This all stems from my beef with Fed-Ex & Canada wanting to charge me for the Christmas gifts I sent. Anyways, they are no problems, aside from me feeling completely ill. I feel nauseated and light headed. Once we get to our gate, Geoff checks his watch to see how long it’s taken to get from one plane to the next. Gosh darn if it isn’t 1 hour. There is a restaurant beside our gate, and we decide at 4 we’ll go get some food. We read our books until then. Our plane isn’t due to leave until 5. I have a salad for dinner, and Geoff orders a sandwich. We then return to our seats and wait to be boarded. Before they start to board us they inform us their computers are down, so they will have to check us in by hand. It will slow the process. Also, the pilots are a little delayed, they are coming from a flight from L.A. and have to go through customs. We finally get to board, and the plane is packed. There are other passengers who met the same fate we did on our way to the UK, so we are able to share stories. After sitting on the plane for a while, it’s starting to get very warm and stuffy. We’re all starting to sweat, and get a little thirsty. We finally get an update on the pilots, they are detained in customs, but they’ll get here soon. People are starting to ask if they can work on getting the air turned on. More time passes, the next announcement is the pilots have been permanently detained at customs. They will call for replacement pilots. At this point I ask, what the heck did they buy in L.A. that got them permanently detained in customs? I laugh and say to Geoff, “at least they aren’t asking us to get off the plane”. The crew tells us they will start the beverage service shortly. 10 minutes later, we are asked to get off the plane. Frustrated we de-plane. Some passengers aren’t taking it very well. The desk is empty of anyone, and the phone is ringing frequently. I’m annoyed because we have no information, and no one is willing to stand there and get yelled at. I can be sympathetic to it to some degree. Who wants to stand at the desk saying I don’t know what’s going on, while angry passengers are in their face. But the phone is ringing and no one is there to answer it. I go off to buy a snack with what’s left of my Canadian money. We’re now delayed enough that I think I should call the Mary and ask her to stop in and feed Honey. I realize I don’t have her number, and I’ll need to track it down online. So I call my mom, since she has a computer and she can look it up. Also, talking to her will help pass the time. But she’s not home. I try Colin & Dawn, they also are not home. Glen & Diane are in Victoria, so I have to accept that we’ll just have a hungry cat when we get home. I know we’re going to make it home, it’s not like the last time in Toronto where we’ll be trapped. We will get home. Eventually someone comes to the desk and starts answering the phone. People flock the desk trying to find out what’s going on, and one group of 3 is demanding their luggage be removed from the aircraft, they don’t want to continue with the flight. They are bordering on belligerent, I’m sitting 3 rows away and I can hear them from where I am. They are told their luggage won’t be removed until they figure out what’s going on with the flight. We are told the replacement pilots are on their way. More time passes and I see what looks like two pilots walk towards us. I turn in my chair and sit on my knees with a hopeful look upon my face. The pilot smiles at me and gives a small nod saying, Yes, it’s us. We erupt into cheers and applause. Geoff remarks that they probably don’t get that kind of response often. They are ready to board us again, and they continue to do random searches. Geoff gets picked. I tell him I’m going back to my seat, rather than wait for him. We all file back in, and we all hope this time it’s for good. We’re all very thankful the air conditioning is on. Once we’re all seated, we’re informed there will be a small delay as the luggage is removed form the 3 passengers who chose not to continue their flight. There is grumbling. Geoff sitting by the window, points out they are just now fueling the plane up. I’m wondering why the heck wouldn’t they do that for the last few hours while we were in the boarding area. Geoff points out that I should be glad the pilots are doing their pre-flight checklist. The flight crew alerts all of us that drinks are on Air Canada to compensate for the delay. Well, goody for those who drink, but where’s my compensation? I want free snacks. Geoff takes advantage of free Canadian beer, so it looks like I’ll be driving home. I try to get some sleep so I’ll be able to drive once we get to Denver. By the time we depart from the airport, we’ve been delayed 3 hours. Once we’re in flight, the pilots inform us why we were so delayed. He says I don’t know what you heard but here’s what happened. They are our original pilots, they came from a flight from L.A. and went through customs. At that point they found out the computers were down, so, not having access to the flight plans, they went to hang out in the lounge. They said they assumed the plane wouldn’t be boarded if the pilots weren’t there and they had no access to the flight plans. So they were in the lounge the whole time! I am not able to sleep too much on the plane, and I worry about the drive home. Once we land in Denver, Geoff offers to drive home. He figures he’ll be okay, it’s been hours since he had his beer, and I’m tired, and I hate to drive at night. We head home and I have to keep talking to keep myself and Geoff awake. We talk about the trip, what was our favorite parts. We arrive home to a very hungry cat. She is crying and she devours her food. We brush our teeth, and head to bed. Collapsing into bed, we try to fall asleep. Honey won’t stop crying. Geoff gets up and gives her a little more food, thinking this will solve the problem. No such luck, she’s still crying. I tell her I’m very tired, mommy needs to sleep because I have to get up in 6 hours and go to work. I go into the hallway and pick her up. I bring her back to bed and place her beside me and stroke her until she’s purring. That did it, poor kitty missed her mommy and daddy. She was lonely. We all go to sleep. It takes a few days before I’m all caught up on sleep.

So lessons, learned are…

1. Don’t fly Air Canada

2. Don’t fly through Toronto

3. Pubs don’t necessarily serve food, so don’t count it as a means of a meal

4. You need to have a lot of money if you are going to travel to the UK

5. You need to have a sense of humor for traveling