Rose
In an effort to be proactive this year, I got an early start on organizing one of Jim's Christmas gifts. (Actually, there are two gifts, but one involved some legwork, and the second one I only purchased yesterday, so I don't know if I should count it in this week's roses n' thorns since that was technically Nov. 1st... Oh hell, why not?)
Now even though Jim doesn't read my blog, (I usually just read my posts aloud to him before I publish anything online), I'm not going to come right out and say what I got him, because, well, I dunno.... I just don't like everyone knowing my secrets. I will however give you a couple hints...
- The first gift involves the assistance of a former co-worker's husband.
- The second gift will replace my role as Chewbacca -- and because I was the only bidder on eBay, I managed to save over $100 off the regular price. Yay!
Okay, that's all I'm saying.
Thorn
So, while my visit to the pumpkin patch should kinda count as a rose, since I really did enjoy myself with Laurie and les kidlettes, I'm putting it down as a thorn because it was a little too late in the season and therefore the overall experience was pretty lame.
The wind was cold, the giant corn maze was waaay too muddy to explore (of course, it was no fault of their own that it had rained the week before), and there was barely a pumpkin to be seen - just dozens of empty pallets. In fact, I ended up asking if I could buy two of the tiny lil' pumpkins reserved for students only.
I took this picture while we were there, because I think it really captures the bareness of the pumpkin patch in late October. Lesson learned - buy your pumpkins early people!
Rose
Speaking of pumpkins, it was great to have a couple trick or treaters stop by this year - our nieces, pretty Punkin Shayla and the lovely Princess Leia Libby. Too cute! (Photo courtesy of Cheryl's Facebook.)
Thorn
Not having real Halloween plans this year was certainly a thorn. Although...
Rose
...For a mish-mash of items I found around the house, I think I pulled off the gypsy look quite well. At least it was convincing enough that three old ladies at the pub couldn't stop marveling at my costume. Then when I walked by they put out their palms and asked if I would read their fortunes. One lady had a phone number written on her wrist, so I said, "I see a phone call in your future." Oh, I'm so clever...
Jim's last-minute makeshift Indiana Jones wasn't too shabby either. Although the perfectionist in him complained that he hates doing anything half-assed.
Oh well, it's not like we were trying to win any prizes. Our evening consisted of having dinner n' drinks at Brandt's, then we came home, played a game and watched half of Freddy Vs. Jason.
Jealous? ;)
Thorn
I feel like I gotta get back to purification. Maybe I should hire Izzy Mandelbaum to whip me into shape.
Since our trip to Vancouver, my diet has been sliding down a slippery slope. First with all that eating out every single day, then indulging in comfort food that first night back, and then we've had a few dinners out with friends over this past week, and then we bought some candy for Halloween... and ugh. I feel gross. I mean, I love eating out as much as the next guy -- but I find that too much restaurant food makes me feel blegh, even if I'm making healthy choices. (Probably because restaurants never prepare their food with love. ;)
Not to mention, I've hardly been getting any exercise lately. We've been working on our new script outline every day, and with it getting darker earlier in the evenings now, I haven't been out for a good walk in what feels like forever. Although I did finally manage to get out for a good walk this morning. And actually, we did quite a lot of walking while in Van, but for some reason I don't feel that walking while shopping or being a tourist counts as 'real' cardio.
So yeah, purification it is. Actually, I almost feel like I need to do a full-on cleanse to purge myself of the gross. I might look into that before Christmas is upon us and I start overindulging on crap again.
Rose
Okay, so this isn't anything special or earth-shattering (not that any of my other roses ever are), but I think it's cute enough to mention...
Jim recently started this routine where he'll give les chats four treats every morning, and for the fourth treat he'll make them stand up on their hind legs and take it from his hand. So now once Luna eats her first three treats, without prompting, she'll automatically stand up on her back paws when she's ready for her fourth.
I realize that it's not nearly as impressive as a talking parrot or even a dog that can play dead... but considering that cats usually don't do tricks, we'll take what we can get.
Speaking of which, I should be honest and let you know that the following pic actually required some prompting. I guess she finds it degrading to put on her show more than once a day. It figures she'd start acting fussy as soon as I brought the camera out. Sheesh... cats....
Jim said that we should tell people that he's holding her up by her tongue in this photo. Ha ha.
Thorn
Lost Boys Two . Need I say more? Actually, I will... but not about Lost Boys Two. I think I said enough about it last week already. But in the same vein of bad movies, we also rented Silent Hill last week. To sum it up -- all style, no plot, and crazy slow pacing. At about the 22 minute mark we checked it's Rotten Tomatoes rating from the Cream of the Crop critics and it received 0%! Ouch! It didn't sound like it was about to get any better, so we just turned it off.
Rose
I've started doing some virtual volunteer work for Greenpeace International. I applied over a month ago when they first announced this new initiative, but they only got their software up n' running last Monday.
At the moment, I'm helping to moderate submitted slogans and images before they are posted online. Whenever I come across a really great slogan, I can tag it and Greenpeace will feature it as one of their slogans of the day. Then all approved messages will be sent to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is being held in Copenhagen in December.
I've been logging in at least once a day and I have to say, it's been a very pleasant surprise to have not encountered any sweary slogans or trolls. I had anticipated to find at least a handful of negative comments on a daily basis - but I honestly haven't seen any yet! It's also really cool to watch the numbers grow as people submit their slogans/photos from all over the world.
So yeah... it's kinda fun and it makes me feel nice in the heart. ;)
Thorn
Um... does daylight savings count as a thorn? I hate how it gets dark so early now. Meh.
Thorn
Since I've saved up a reserve of extra thorns from previous weeks, I'd like to add a sixth thorn to today's list -- our DE script outline. We've been messing around with a few scenes towards the end of the second act/beginning of the third, and it's such a brain drain. I look forward to jumping into writing (again). This outline stuff is a total drag.
Okay - and that's all she wrote!
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