typewriter.blogsome.com

It’s almost 3am, and I don’t feel like sleeping. …so I decided to fill out another survey.
but with pictures! “oooo exciting!”

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?

Rode in an 8-seater airplane. It felt like riding on a rollercoaster where you may actually die.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn’t make for 2007. So far, my 2008 resolution is to make a quilt. I was also going to make a “resolution” about learning all the different names for egg preparation and then eating each kind. …but I dunno… that might be a lot of eggs…

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No one super close to me. …but there were babies around this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

no…

5. What countries did you visit?

The States, Guyana, Croatia, Italy, Greece, (and does the Germany airport count?)

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

hmm, a car! …or my own apartment. oo! or a dog or cat!

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

October 5. The date I registered Kiwi Punch Designs! yay!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

starting Kiwi Punch Designs, I think

9. What was your biggest failure?

missing the cutoff date for the Braille Transcription course. …..what a bummer. That’s probably not my ‘biggest’ failure though….

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

nope, not that I can remember

11. What was the best thing you bought?

hmm! I think paintings for my dad. This is one of them:

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

mine! …lol, just joking. I’m voting for my newly married friend who was “stranded” in America for months (couldn’t come back to Canada until the immigration papers were processed.)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

hm, I’ll have to think about that one.

14. Where did most of your money go?

travel and music.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Coming home from Guyana!!

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?

Songs by Sergio Mendes!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
 a) happier or sadder? 
b) richer or poorer?

a. happier — oh, so much happier!
b. poorer. ..surprisingly. bummer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Socializing in Guyana.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Complaining about having nothing to do during the summer months. …those months were pure bliss.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Christmas morning with my family, and then an impromptu roadtrip to Ottawa!

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?

nope

22. What was your favorite TV program?

Grey’s Anatomy… or The Office.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

nope.

24. What was the best book you read?

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I can’t name just one! Imogen Heap, Kate Havnevik, Regina Spektor, and Ingrid Michaelson.

26. What did you want and get?

to see Venice!

27. What did you want and not get?

a pet. …though I’m not 100% sure I actually wanted one.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

Please Vote for Me or Sisters In Law.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 23 and I really can’t remember what I did. Though I remember going to a Joshua Radin concert for a b-day present!

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

more popcorn? It was pretty good!

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?

comfy.

32. What kept you sane?

my family and friends and email

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

…Clive Owen maybe. I like his voice

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

yes! a politics question!!

35. Who did you miss?

during the first 4 months of the year: everyone.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

a girl at church

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007

Canada rocks!

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
“That that don’t kill me can only make me stronger”

oh dear. the floodgates have opened.
I noticed a new Regina Spektor single on iTunes the other day.
so I bought it.

and then I bought a couple new songs by Maroon 5.

oh, and I figured I’d pick up the version of “I am not my hair” with Pink.

and oh look! a fun live version of “Goodnight and Go” by Imogen Heap.

yes. ‘oh dear’ indeed.

I really like that Regina Spektor rendition! (not a fan of the background noises though.)

My dear acquaintance it’s so good to know you.
The strength of your hand that is loving and giving.
And happy new year with love overflowing.
With joy in our hearts for the blessed new year.

….Happy New Year!!

We went to Benihana tonight. It was my parents’ second time at that location (downtown Toronto), and for the rest of us, it was our first time. (Though, my sis has been to lots of American Benihana’s.)

They get a big two thumbs down from me.

Perhaps, I’m just cheap… but I don’t see the point in paying $50 for one meal.

But, you could say that it’s not their fault that I don’t like spending so much money.
So if I put aside the crazy crazy prices, I’ll bump up their rating to a: two thumbs down (not big ones

The food was too salty.
And the service was bad. …they were obviously understaffed.

My sis said that the American Benihanas are much better. In terms of prices, service and ‘chef tricks’. (I guess the latter is the whole reason why people go there.)

so yeah, I don’t recommend the T.O Benihana Restaurant.

Anyways,
I made something today!!
I was inspired by a very cute “gift bag” my friend Laura made to package Christmas gifts in.
Mine was bright orange and I love it!

So since I have some felt hanging around, and I need something to protect my iPod, I made an iPod Sleeve.

Bright orange of course..and yellow! …with red thread!!

and the back:

A couple days ago (while Christmas shopping) I bought myself Ingrid Michaelson’s album “girls and boys”.

IT’S SO GOOD!!

It was refreshing! …mostly because the random CDs I’ve been buying lately haven’t exceeded my expectations. Part of that is due to my very high expectations. — for example: Corneille’s English album. (See my over-excitement and resulting disappointment)

Right now my fav song from her album is “The Hat”.
It has clapping!
hah! I love it!

on a completely different note, I’ve noticed a couple companies online that have fun names, so I thought I’d share:

“Coffee Cup Software: fresh software. warm people”
and
“Crazy Egg: visualize your visitors”

I love ‘Crazy egg’!
It seems like my kind of business name. ‘huh? what does that have to do with your product?!! …oh you chose it b/c it’s fun!!

Merrrrry Christmas!!

today was fun.
in classic fashion, my family decided to go to Ottawa for Christmas dinner tonight.

So we piled into 2 cars this afternoon and arrived here before 8pm.
what fun.

I did some fun ‘knitting in the dark’ and listened to a few podcasts. other than one from The Hour, they were significantly boring.
Does anyone know of any good podcasts?
(…have I asked about this already?)

oh, so I did end up thinking of a ‘gift giving’ game for this morning, but I was just too tired to put it together, so there was no game this Christmas.
…it was kinda sad (for me), but oh well. …you do what you can.

oh, I just had a fantastic idea for this week! I have a lot of Kiwi Punch Designs ‘work’ that I want to do (not crafting stuff, but business stuff. … you know, report writing and other ‘fun’ things).
So, I’ve decided to do them in coffee shops!
eeee! I’m very excited about it.
Symposium here I come!
…. I wonder how long they would let me stay there.

so yes, that is my plan.

I’m so excited.
SO excited.

This is going to be the best week ever.

Right now I’m reading blogs and knitting my scarf — the craft that just won’t end. (I would’ve stopped long ago but I figure it’s better to have it be too long than too short.)

I’m slowly making my way through the blog list. I started this afternoon at work. The office closed at noon, but I stuck around for a few extra hours to make sure that the courier picked up my package.
The week ended off well. I felt like things are pretty wrapped up.

There was this big uncertainty about whether a certain project would get done in time (people all over the province are asking about it. …asking random people in the organization, asking the Executive Director… asking the President… crazyness!)
So, it looks like it will be done in time! And I’m so excited!!
one of my co-workers said, “It’s a Christmas miracle!”
which cracks me up to no end.

So all I need to do is double-check the shipping information on the website tomorrow, and then I won’t be thinking about work until the new year! sweeet!!

Now I just have to do some heavy duty shopping.
— which I apparently suck at. …I’ve come to realize that every time I buy a gift for someone, I end up getting two or three extra things for myself. Like today I went to HMV and bought a dvd and a cd as gifts, and then 3 cds for myself. (Elliott Yamin, Amy Winehouse, & Regina Spektor).

Anyways, it looks like I won’t be doing my infamous “unique gift-giving” thing with my family this year. (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on this blog, but basically every year for Christmas (and sometimes for birthdays) I give gifts to my family in various fun/ time-consuming ways. Example: scavenger hunt, wrapping up tons of things from the house so that they’re not sure which is the ‘real’ gift, wrapping the gifts in plastic bags and newspaper so that it takes forever to open, dvd quiz games…)

For one, I couldn’t think of something new to do this year.
And I didn’t really have any time to do anything.
…but I have time now! so I’m going to try and think of something tonight.
Any suggestions??

A couple weeks after I started working here, I was sitting at my desk doing some random work and then I heard it.

background noise.

people talking quietly, a piece of paper coming out of the photocopier…

then someone’s phone rang and I almost jumped out of my seat.

my office sounds like The Office!!!!!!

…I suppose that’s the whole point of the background noises in the show… but I haven’t worked at an office with that exact ‘ring tone’ before.

It cracks me up.
So now I answer the phone like Pam. (”Dunder Mifflin this is Pam”) substituting in the applicable information, of course.

it’s like an inside joke with myself.

5 more days!

how exciting!!

Work has been a LOT better this week. which is good.

The work itself (the amount and urgency of everything) has stayed the same, but my attitude about it all has changed. …which just shows the power of positive thinking.

I didn’t really do anything. …I guess everything seems okay because I know I won’t have to deal with any of it next week.
woo hooo holidays!!

It’s funny how much better this job is (on paper) compared to the job I initially accepted back in October/November.

With the other job you only got Christmas-time (between November and February) vacation every 4 years. They had it on a rotation schedule because that’s their busiest time of the year.
BRUTAL.

Anyways, I finished that book that I was reading.
I was going to offer to give it to anyone who wants it… but I didn’t like it, so why would I give it to a friend?
yeah, I don’t recommend it at all.
It was written well, I suppose, but I didn’t like the subject matter. …a little too graphic /vulgar for my tastes.
I’m actually fairly disappointed in myself for reading the entire thing.
(Well… if anyone wants it against my advice, you’re welcome to it! I’ll gladly ship it to anyone if they reimburse me for the shipping cost!)

But anyways, I’m SUPER excited about my new book! I realized last night that I have been wanting to read this book since last January. I need to take a deep breath before I start reading it because as is, there is no way it could live up to my expectations.

oo, I should go put away my coffee cup! (I’m at work right now.)
This afternoon I used egg nog in my coffee instead of cream.
Is that disgusting?
…it didn’t taste any different really.

I actually forgot that I was going to try and use this word as often as possible.

And then I saw a video by Gala Darling where she calls guacamole one of life’s underrated pleasures.
:)

Gala’s was one of the first blogs I’ve started reading again this weekend. It’s fun.

Church was canceled today because of the snow storm. I think that’s the first time that’s ever happened! …or maybe it’s just the first time my dad has been the one to ‘make the call’.
So this morning I slept in while my parents called people to let them know.
I doubt anyone would have made the trip anyway. …well, other than the people who live within walking distance of the church.
The snow is crazzzy! …but in a good way.
The pic above is the view out the window.

And here’s a guy shoveling the road:

haha, that was kind funny.

So another gem found through blogland this weekend was GOOD Magazine. Thanks Lauren!

As planned, I got my hair braided yesterday.
…I don’t like it.
but I will keep it for at least so that I won’t feel bad about wasting a boatload of money.

alrighty, off to read more blogs!!