Can't Sleep

So it's 4am in the morning and I'm so tired but for the last hour I laid in bed awake thinking about stressful things. Argggggggg it's so annoying I have so much to do tomorrow and I really should be thinking about all these things tomorrow instead of tonight. Owell the good news is that I get to watch 4am tv which is funny because I never do.
I'm watching the shopping channel and I'm very interested in smashbox cosmetics and purchasing their lastest neutral brown eyeshadows and a eyebrow makeup for 3 payments of 1$19.99. They have this little set that uses pigment and wax to define your eyebrows which they claim makes you look more youthful. I've never bought anything on TV before and I'm not going to but now I'm know that tomorrow I should head down to the Max store at Guilford Mall and pick at least this new lipstick I really wanted to buy last time I was there but didn't.
Hmmm other things to do at 4am besides watching the shopping channel, check every blog that I can possibly check, and I have so many to keep tabs on, oh and now I'm watching the women's channel and the angel show is on, which I'm thinking is a bit to heavy for 4am. Okay I'm finally feeling drowsy again, sleep time I hope!

What an interesting show!

Today Oprah did a great show that really analyzed marriage. Oprah of coarse never married and her concern is that, "it's too easy to not be true to yourself and forget who you are in a marriage" Oprah really challenges the institute of marriage saying it's barely changed since the 1400 century and it's time our society take another look . To be honest I find it very hard to imagine my life as never wanting to get married, how else should you have children. Since however I usually whole heartedly agree with Oprah I'm at less interested to understand why someone like her would make that decision
The show was great because it talked about how today our society is so geared around the event of the marriage instead of the actual marriage it's self. When I think about the year I was engaged I realize now that I was so busy with the job of preparing for the wedding and was so excited to get married that I forgot to be mature enough to really take the time to think about what marriage was. I think so often were like, "yah I know what marriage is all about well because my parents are married and I'm around them" so I'll be married for 4 years this September and my concept of being married has changed greatly in that time. Anyways I'm excited to buy this book because I assume the more I know the better it can be.

Questions to Ask:
Work Questions
Money Questions
Sex Questions
Parenthood Questions
Religion Questions

Quentin sent me this article it's interesting.

Not everyone says "um", "er" or "ah" when they hesitate while speaking. It depends upon the language. For example, speakers of Mandarin Chinese often say"zhege" which roughly translates as “this”. In English we say "um", "er", "ah", or other vocalisations for reasons that linguists are not entirely sure about. "Um", "er", and “ah” contain what linguists call "neutral vowel sounds" making them among the easiest sounds to make.
It may be that they can be said without a great deal of thought too. So that may be part of the answer. "Um", "er", and "ah" are what linguists call "fillers". "Fillers" help conversations continue smoothly.
Although we may not consciously realise it, in a two-person conversation, people speak by taking turns. When someone thinks it is their turn to talk, they do. Otherwise, they listen. A two-person conversation becomes like a tennis match. Inevitably there are short periods of silence as people pause to let the other person take over the speaking. But sometimes a speaker doesn’t want to give up their turn and instead wants a little extra time to think about what they’re going to say next. They use a “filler” to signal this.
When a listener hears the “filler”, they continue listening rather than start talking. “Um”, “er”, and “ah” are examples of phonemes. In linguistics, phonemes are the smallest meaningless speech sounds humans make. The smallest meaningful speech sounds humans make are called “morphemes”. Everything we humans say is either meaningless or meaningful. A lot of people never learn the difference.

Ultra wide angled lens

Quentin brought a new lens home from his work to try out for the weekend. We've both been running around the house taking pictures, great entertainment for a Friday night.





Here I am with my new herb and lettuce garden which I'm very excited about.

I smoked a salmon

My Dad came over and helped me get our smoker working. We smoked the salmon and it only took about 2 hours. We had it for dinner with rice and greek salad, it was so yummy and I can't wait to try smoking the turkey we have in the freezer.

Penne

Tonight I made penne and this time the base was tomato and cream. So I chopped about 3 fresh tomatoes and threw it in a pan of melted butter and pressed garlic. After I added the rest of a bag of spinach and whiled it. Then to make the dish creamy I added light cream cheese and a bit of whipping cream. Then I found a few frozen prawns in the freezer and cooked those as well. I wanted to try vodka but I didn't have any so I did a bit of a vermoth reduction. Last I added some lemon. Anyways the sauce was wonderful but the penne was a bit al dente. I'd love to try to find fresh penne thats softer. Hope you like the picture I love how the sun light is shining on the wood and bowl and is throwing shadows.

My first Poetry Slam in Vancouver

Tonight I went on a little adventure in the city to Cafe du Soleil. Sharon and Stephanie came with me although Sharon and I were the newbies to the Cafe du Soleil scene.



So the readings were great, unfortunately the one that I'm still think of is titled Anal Fissure. So this guy shown below gets up and says, " the parents of the guy who said he had an Anal Fissure are in the crowd and they told me not to do this one and especially not to say his name" then in a really low voice he says, "Ben Brown of Vancouver" I don't maybe know you had to be there but he complained that he was very distraught as he ate his dinner and he heard this guy talk about his Fissure and then he started to cite all the times it might be helpful to think about the Fissures. I won't mention the reasons on my blog cause it's bad, but it was so freaking funny I was in stiches laughing. Also I included a link to the google search above because the guy said a bit about how he overhearing the conversation about the Fissures and it made him want to google the item as soon as he came near an internet connection. See that's funny, because who isn't dependent on google!



Another girl who was really funny did a poem on braces and how they totally turn her on, k I loved that one too, she was hilarious, but I forget the punchlines.



Beside the silly poetry Sharon and I both commented on how comfortable we felt at the Cafe. It's definitely on the other side of Van, (east) and people aren't too fancy or fussy there. You feel like you can totally hang out in your jeans (I wore ripped ones) and just be yourself. It's great to have a place in Vancouver that's so funky and comfortable.



Friday night their is a final competition and I just might check it out.

Presents from Greece

My parents came back from Greece Saturday and when my Mom called and asked me what I wanted from there so I told her whatever was the latest trendy accessory.
She came back with these scarf necklace combinations that supposively my cousin and aunt are crazy about in Greece. I'm supposed to wear these scarves with either a tank or tube top of some sort. and if you don't feel like wearing your scarf anymore you're suppose to be able to tie it to your purse.
I also love the black tube top with all it's jewels, supposively jewelled things are really popular too.
Okay so hopefully I'll be able to coordinate these things into an outfit properly and I hope I don't miss the mark and look silly.

Sunny's Birthday

I love spring barbecues, I brought my camera and had fun taking a few pics.

The rebar cook book.

Here we go, I cooked and then took pictures of it again. This is a recipe out the rebar cook book which is surprisingly really interesting. This pasta has a whipping cream, lemon, and vodka reduction which I surprisingly didn't add enough off.

Check out the book especially if you want to explore the world of sesame and peanut oils with weird types of noodles and miso tofu items, all of which I'm not used too but curious about.

Singing in the car is embarrassing!

Here's a little story, I was driving down the main road in White Rock the other day singing as loud as I could to this country song by Keith Urban, "But for the grace of god" its the best country sing along in the car song. Anyways I'm totally singing and all of a sudden this guy in the car beside me looks over starts waving his figures to the beat and smiles. I rolled down my window and was like, "oh no are you making fun of me". He was like, "no I'm listening to the same song as you on JRFM." Oh I felt totally exposed and embarrased, but it's fun at the same time to know that someone else was listening to the same song as me at the same red light.

The Notorious Bettie Page

Hmmm my best friend growing up had black hair and bangs practically her whole life, Cabby, so right away I love Betttie's look. I don't know why but I just want to know what Bettie Page's life was like and how she must have reacted to all the crazy encounters.
The plot of the movie has SMS and in the trailer this guy tells her she must enjoy punishing him, "wooooo what is with a guy who wants to be tortured, weirdo" But maybe it would be fun to boss people around and give orders, I would never have a problem with that.
Anyways I can't wait to see how Bettie Page would handled it.
Watch the trailer.

Oprah talks about Africa

Genocide in Africa! Oprah spoke today about how Africa is in shambles. Honestly if it wasn't for Oprah I would never pay attention to these things so far away. So after watching the show I want to know what is that I can actually do to help change this horrible situation. How do I take an hour out of my day and do something from all the way here in Canada BC. Oprah made the statement that political backing and lobbying is one approach. I don't really know much but I think that's it's terrible that something like the holocaust of the Jews is happening again. Anyways now I'm thinking about it, and I want to know what can be done here in Surrey to help the African people way over there.

http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml

Stuff on a Canadian Website

http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/africa/rwanda10-en.asp

Whistler Video

We helped out some local guys creating a short story film for the Whistler festival and the video has been uploaded to google videos. Click here to watch.

Talia is the newest member of the family

Today we visited Amanda, Jerin and Talia in Boundry Bay! When we arrived she didn't quite have a name but I think by dinner time they decided on Talia!



Amanda and her two day old baby girl.



She's so tiny, Jerin would just hold her in one hand.



New little family



Quentin always loves holding babies.



Talia is only 2 days old, I love how she was sleeping oh her grandma's chest, she would fit perfectly under your chin and looked so cute and warm.

Sun Run 2006

Today I ran my first Sun Run and it was very exciting. I loved heading downtown and being amongst over 50,000 people and participating. I had a decent race but unfortunately I had really bad cramps at the 5km mark and had to walk it out. It was still so much fun though, the weather was beautiful and I couldn't believe how every time you turned a corner their would be a rock band playing in the weirdest places, like on the green grass in the middle of W4th Avenue.

My running friend Caroline.


Here's my running group from peninsula Runners.

Scooting Around Town

I've never been one to get too excited over sports cars, but my girlfriend Hadley just moved back to White Rock and her car for the summer is this red convertible BMW.



So since today was so beautiful we went for a drive all over White Rock, out to the Campbell Valley, down Marine drive and then up through White Rock. I was allowed to drive the car and it's soooo much fun. Cornering a hot red standard convertible car with two girls is great, it's going to be fun summer.

Somehow I took this picture while Hadley was driving, it's my favorite from that day.





We're planning a drive to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Hwy, it really feels like summer.

Perfect Pink

I've never had my own fuchsia pink rhododendron plant before. Looking out my kitchen window this morning and I just had to get my camera and go out there in the rainy morning to take a picture. I love how the more you enlarge the picture you can see the water droplets.

p.s Sharon these pictures reminded me of how we need to go on another field trip really soon.

Sarah McNair-Landry

19-year-old Sarah McNair-Landry, of Iqaluit, is taking a trip from Russia to Ellesmere Island, via the North Pole to raise awareness of the environment.

I love this photograph, especially how her eyelashes are frozen. Their's something very interesting about it.

Whistler for the Day

Whistler was filled with promotions today for the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, here's Quentin drinking the free Yop being handed out.



Here I am posing away by the chair lift.



We convinced Tom to buy new shoes and these ones have funky orange heels which I love.



The boys went and bought cigars and then Tom took us to an actual smoke room. It was surprisingly really relaxing and a great place to play with the camera and funky lighting.



Look someone put two buns on either side of the wiener dog so now he's a hotdog, poor guy.



We're in these guys video if they make it to the top 10 videos to be shown at the video festival.
The script:
The tall guy in a trench coat asked all three of us separately if we could be in his video and we would say no.
They were filming a video about making a video I think.



Surprisingly it was harder to say, "no" than I thought, I kept messing it up, either way to fast or laughing.

I haven't had a day like that in awhile, it felt so good to just get out run around the village and relax.