The Best of What's Around

There are about a dozen things I could blog about. I could finish our honeymoon. I could tell you about school. I could tell you about Ottawa. But right now, I am going to give you a random list post. Thanks to my friend Heather, who was tagged to do this on her blog, I am doing this on my own accord. I am listing my favourite 20 TV characters.

Why, you ask, would I do this? Because I was doing homework, and I decided to make a list. I watch quite a bit of TV, so I have a lot of love for a lot of characters. So here you go. My list of favourite characters, in no particular order. Some are from way-back and there may be some that I have forgotten.

1. Sydney Bristow, Alias
2. Michael Vaugn, Alias
3. Jack Bristow, Alias
4. Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars
5. Keith Mars, Veronica Mars
6. Xander Harris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
7. Pacey Whitter, Dawson's Creek
8. Joey Potter, Dawson's Creek
9. George, Dead Like Me
10. Mason, Dead Like Me
11. Greg, CSI
12. Grisam, CSI
13. Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City
14. Miranda Hobbes, Sex and the City
15. Gregory House, House
16. JD, Scrubs
17. Dr Cox, Scrubs
18. Brandon Walsh, Beverly Hills, 90210
19. Jim Halpert, The Office
20. Joey Jeremiah, Degrassi Junior High/Degrassi High

Some honorable mentions that I would feel bad leaving out:

21. Rudolph, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
22. Jessica Fletcher, Murder, She Wrote
23. Randy Taylor, Home improvement
24. Dude in glasses who put out the fire, Are you afraid of the dark?

There you go. A giant waste of time and done for no reason, other than the fact that I felt like it.

"Rest high above the clouds; no restriction. Television we bounce 'round the world. And while I spend these hours, five senses reeling, I laugh about the weatherman's satellite eyes" - DMB

Labels: 2006

Finally. Jeff and I finally received our furniture from Leon's and Ikea so now I feel like I can have people over and show people our home.

I am going to be completely honest about the whole situation. When we first walked up to our apartment building, I was disappointed. We had seen pictures but it is amazing to me how pictures can not only add ten pounds to a persons frame, but how it can also increase the attractiveness of buildings. Strange. So we walk up the building and I think "menh". But we get to our second floor apartment and I am pleasently surprised. It is quite big for a two bedroom apt. The ceilings are high, the wood floors are nice and there appears to only be minor things wrong with it. I will go through our house room by room. Not all of them are complete, some pictures and stuff still need to be hung, but so far things are coming along.















Jeff was scared that the living room was going to be too short to use the projector, but in reality it is too long. The picture is the size of the entire back wall. We just received the couches yesterday, so it is nice to finally have a place to sit, instead of lying on the floor. Just so that you know, the couch is so far away from the wall because the projector computer is back there.
























Ah, the kitchen. It is really nice and big. We have room for a kitchen table, which is always nice, you know, for eating. The cupboards don't close. They are permanently open. Now some of you may laugh and ask why I, Rachel - the girl who can't close cupboard doors-cares about open cupboards. It is because if I am going to leave it open, I won't do it half-assed. It will be all the way open. Half open is just annoying. That fire escape door at the far end has seven locks to undo if I want to escape. It makes me feel better that people can't break in, but I am concerned that I won't be able to get out. I must also say that I am not the biggest fan of a gas ovens. I keep thinking that there is going to be a gas leak and I am going to die.


















Our bedroom. It is so nice to finally have a bed to sleep in. We actually managed to buy matching furniture, but we didn't do this on purpose. We bought the dresser used. We needed a bedside table but after three weeks of looking for a decent used one, we finally just went out and bought the matching one. We then went out to buy our bed at Leon's. They promised that we would have it delivered by September 15th. On September 15th I called Leon's and they said that they weren't going to have it until October 7th. They weren't going to compensate for the lies and the lack of warning of a later delivery date, so to punish them, we went to Ikea to buy the matching bed and cancel our Leon's order. SCREW YOU LEON'S ( I am still bitter). Eventually I will have a little vanity station in a corner so that I can get ready in the mornings.













If you have been reading Jeff's blog you may have read about the giant bubble of water that formed in our bathroom. Well, the following pictures are what happened after they tried to remedy the problem. I am grumpy and I want this fixed... The bathroom is small but ok. The door never stays closed and the drain goes so slow that by the time I am done a shower I am
standing mid-calf in my own filthy water.





















This is also the only room that I let Jeff tin foil the windows. You can also see our caretaker's quick fix of the bubble that was growing out of our ceiling.


Here is the office. Not much to it. There is nothing personal about this room; no pictures, no trinkets, just a lot of cords. Menh.

This is our hallway. Our place actually has a lot of storage space. There are five closets total so it is quite handy.
All in all, I like our place. We could have done a lot worse and I am trying to live with little nuisances. I hope you all come visit despite them.

"And my Heaven is a nice house in the sky, got central heating,and I'm alright" - DMB

Labels: 2006, jeff, Montreal, rachel

So as many of you may have read on Jeff's blog, I received some exciting news this week. It is even more exciting than Jeff let on. It looks like the Saskatchewan health region and the Saskatoon Health District are going to give me a bursary. Yay!

The exact words of the email were as follows:



... your total bursary will likely be in the range of $6,500 per year for two years.



I am very excited. Even just being in the range of 6500$ a year makes me happy. All I have to do is sign a contract saying that, if there is a job available, I will work in Saskatchewan for three years. This was our plan any ways and I am very excited that this has worked out. I hope that after the government has paid my tuition that they will want to have me work, otherwise I got free money.

It would have been nice to be the one to tell you, but apparently Jeff is even more excited that I am not driving him further in debt. Yay Saskatchewan!

"Look at me in my fancy car and my bank account" - DMB

Labels: 2006, jeff, rachel

I am sure that most of you have all ready heard about the horrible event that occurred in Montréal today. At Dawson College, a CEGEP here in Montréal, there was a gunman who went in and started firing. It is currently unknown the exact number of people shot, but about 12 shot, 8 critical is the current number. Also, the killer was shot by police. For those of you who don't know, a CEGEP is a school you go to after high school and before university, so most of the students there are 17-22 years old. This all started to go down at around 12:45 today.

Here is a link to the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/09/13/shots-dawson.html

It is really sad and the city has been in chaos since the shootings started.

I work in the Montréal's Children's Hospital. This is 0.8 km away from the school where the shootings took place.

So at 12:30, my friend Karine and I go across to the shopping mall and by the time we exit at 12:55, it is crazy outside. I didn't know what was going on and based on the police presence, just figured that there was a big accident. We go into the hospital and we find out about the shooting.
All of a sudden, over the loud speaker " Code Orange, level 2. All staff, patients and families must not leave the hospital until further notice". Apparently code orange means that there is an external disaster. At this time it was believed that there were three gun man and two were still on the loose and they could be anywhere. The hospital was very tense because it occurred just down the street and a lot of the staff have kids that go to the school . Cell phones were not working because there was just too many calls trying to get through.

Finally, around 4, they lifted the "Code Orange" and we could leave the hospital. You would think that the day couldn't get more ridiculous than that. I mean, it is my second week in school and I am all ready being locked down in a hospital. Oh, but wait....there is more.

The metro's are still shut down when I am leaving so after some time of trying to figure out what to do, Karine and I find a bus and get on it. Because the metro line that I would normally take is shut down so that the police can search the tunnels, the bus is packed. So I am standing, much like a sardine would stand in a can, when all of a sudden I hear an "air noise", much like an aerosol can. Then there is a smell....then there is the eye burning...and the throat hurting...and the coughing....and the panic.

My best guess is that someone released pepper spray on the very crowded, stressed-out bus. This was the scariest thing to happen to me all day. The shootings had put me on edge, and then an unknown substance is sprayed on the bus. People started screaming at the driver to stop the bus. I got out and decided that walking home would be the best thing I could do.

So, craziness in Montréal. Just another reason for Jeff not to like it :(

Rach

"Oh, people killing people, kings to conquer kings. Always in the seeker, taking the light away from me"- DMB

Labels: 2006, GC girls, Montreal, rachel

Day 2 - St John, NB to Tidnish, NS

We spent the morning touring around St John. We went to a market, and a National Historic Site.

I am a moose:

I even got Jeff to play:

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel

I figure that I should start posting the adventures of the honeymoon. In brief, it was 4000 km of driving and a lot of good times. If you want to see an abbreviated (and biased) version, go read Jeff's blog.

I just also mention (to those of you who don't know) that has been a hobby of mine for well over ten years to take ridiculous photos of me with statues or anything that looks like it has been placed in my path for a golden picture opportunity. Now and again I could coerce Jeff into posing as well.

Day 1 - Montreal to St John, NB

This was a long driving day. We drove for about nine hours and really only made one stop during the day. We stopped at Grand-Falls, NB. We looked at their waterfalls and took a boat trip of the gorge.

Rachel biking at the gorge:

Pics of the gorge:

One of our favourite things to do was to put the camera on timer and rush into the photo. We have a clever camera so we can set it to take 10 pictures after the timer goes off so we have at least one good one together. All the photos you will see with the two of us are thanks to the timer.

We spent the night in St John, NB. Before bed, though, we had to have some fun at their "fort".

Over all, the first day was good. We saw a moose, which I refused to pull over and photograph because I didn't want to be responsible for starting a wildlife jam.

To be continued...

Rach

I drink you up, for every drop of you is sacred. Every drop I drink you up - DMB

Labels: 2006, honeymoon, jeff, rachel

We have returned from our honeymoon and over time I will delight you with how are 11 day trip went. You will laugh, you will cry, you will get tired of seeing Rachel pose with every random statue. But that is later.

Yesterday was a hectic day, one I feel I must share. We are trying to get settled into our new place. We have yet to get the parking spot we were promised (starting yesterday) so we have to move our car every week day because every street has different rules. "No parking Monday, Thursday" and on the other side of the street "No parking Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday". Good times.

We went and bought furniture. What a hassle for stuff that is "ok". We went to Leon's to buy some stuff, found out that we wouldn't get our bed, couch and loveseat for two weeks and said "no thanks". We then went to Sears...nothing. We went to the Brick where we were going to buy stuff until it was 300$ more. We had gone to Ikea and ix-nayed all that stuff. So back to Leons where we bought what we had originally intended. Way to waste 2.5 hours.

Speaking of Ikea...that place makes me claustrophobic. People are everywhere, kids are everywhere...I start going crazy, getting frantic and try to get around everyone maniacally. I am not going there again unless I have a purpose.

After the furniture incident, we get on the metro and head to McGill. It is orientation week and I wasn't invited! Well, I may have been, but I didn't read the memo. There are drunk 18-21 years olds all over the place. They look so little and cute. We actually had a really successful time at McGill. After 45 minutes of waiting, I got a student card. I also got a metro card so that I can get cheap metro. We also walked to the gym.

Now you may have been wondering why the title is what it is. Jeff said it while at the gym, and here is why. They have a nice gym...but U of S's is nicer. I have to pay 50$ a year to access the gym and U of S is free. I had to pay 25$ for a locker in S'toon but 50$ for a basket ( you know, the kind in high school) at McGill. Jeff is grumpy because he must pay more to use the squash courts AND pay to get there. Hence, U of S for the win.

Despite yesterday, I am looking forward to our life in Montreal. I hope to be settled within the month and have a good routine. Jeff is looking forward to going home, but I don't take it personally...this is not in his comfort zone.

Rach


"If along the way you are growing weary, you can rest with me until a brighter day"- DMB

Labels: 2006, Montreal