new things

last night rob and i had a serious chat about buckling down on our spending habits. i made him feel very guilty about all the spending when i knew deep down that i was worse than him. the word "weekly stipend" was used during our discussion.

i dropped rob off at work and went to choices downtown (my favourite one) to pickup groceries to keep us on eating in. unfortunately, choices is half a block away from my The Cross which is a home furnishings store that's a white oasis of french country design. i love this store. i wish i could live in the store. of course, everything in the store is atrociously expensive. well, beyond my usual budget anyways.

the store had a boxing day sale that i purposely stayed away from so i thought i would be safe from any great deals if i walked in today. and just like every hollywood movie, you should have already guessed the next scene. i bought stuff. like maybe 5 things. but it only came to $85 with taxes and they are all beautiful things that give me great pleasure to now have in my little place.

the budget begins tomorrow.

the business end of things

i'm just in the middle of sorting out all our receipts for the past year and entering them into a spreadsheet.

i have a few thoughts:
1/ rob and i just finished watching Casino Royale and it kicked major action movie ass. one of the best movies for its genre. and, i'm now wondering... did eva green "get into her role" as an accountant by entering numbers into a spreadsheet, too? or was she doing calculations of the caloric kind?
2/ does buying minidv tapes fall under "production expense" or "office supply expense"?
3/ i'm thinking of creating neat folders using an old map so i can store these receipts in an organized manner.
4/ and **rob don't read this** holy shit is daniel craig hot in casino royale except near the end when he's in 'lovey dovey' land. i could have done without that.

i'll just go back to the spreadsheet now and suck in my gut.

friday

dudes and dudettes: i am already tipsy. i started with white wine at 5:30pm and am officially tipsy. but not drunk to the point where i can't make good wedding video editing decisions.

hence, i am editing.

yaoee!!!!

happy new year.

rob is working both new year's eve AND new year's day. bummer. yes. and i will be home doing more wedding video editing. YES!

ok, time for many glasses of water.

ebay

i'm just waiting for some video render and thought i would throw up a quick post.

i've just discovered ebay. yes, i'm late to the game but no less addicted.
yesterday, i won my 3rd item: a yashica electro 35 from the early 1970s. and yesterday, i picked up the very first item i won: a yashica e3 8mm camera. it is sweet.

the other item i won is a holga camera. it's considered a toy camera because it's made out of plastic. and it's also medium format which means it takes a 120mm film. the camera is poorly made which makes for some fantastic 'accidental' images from light leaks and triple exposures.

so, yah. notice a trend here?

i tried to get into clothing on ebay but it all looks so boring and uninspired like top 40 music.

gotta run and get back to that wedding video editing.

bah

sometimes i'm tormented by the banality of evil in the workplace.

this evil i speak of is the autopilot people go on when conversing with each other. no one cares what your answer will be. their attention had already wandered as soon as they breathed the last word. their duty to ask the stupid question has been fulfilled and the answer is inconsequential.

holidays are especially painful for me. so, i'd already prepared in my mind to be pleasant with my answers and emphasize back to the person asking me the question.

but.
really.

why must people ask every freaking person they see at work: how was your christmas?
my answer was fast and exact: great, how was YOUR christmas?

i hate all the robotic things that people say to each other in the workplace. these things include:
[asked on friday] got any plans for the weekend?
[asked on monday] did you do anything on the weekend?

often i want to run screaming from the building with my hands waving high above my head.

partay

by thursday i thought our party was going to be a dud because only 7 people had rsvp'd. then, by friday it escalated to 21 people but i thought maybe 15 would end up showing.

well, 24 people came by plus a baby (my nephew).

here are some random things that happened:
1/ when the first guests arrived (at 3:20pm), i had just gotten out of the shower and was changing in my bedroom. based on the last open house, people didn't arrive for about 3 hours. not this time.
2/ i broke the hallway mirror.
3/ the signature drink for the night was hot chocolate with frangelico. mmmm. delicious.
4/ rob kept showing people his (what i call) "home movies" - actually his documentary trailers.
5/ there were at least 7 people who were going non-alcoholic. rob had to dash out and buy some juice.
6/ rob played some halo with the last guest of the evening.

thanks to everyone who spent some time with us yesterday. it sure was fun. rob and i were saying that this was our best party yet.

i'm already thinking about our next party, the chinese new year open house. how to ensure that the traditional dumplings are always ready, etc. what the signature drink will be...

rhymes with stew

at top is the cheesecake with pomegranates. to the right (middle) is the chocolate cookie with a wrapping paper cutout cradling the cookie. the bottom is the offending truffle.

they were a hit. all that work was worth it. i think. anyways, lots of brownie points in the office.

yummy fingers

so i thought that i would have a chance to smooth out the truffles so they are more round. yes, that would be a negative. so, all my truffles kinda look like poo.

but thanks to the miracle of cocoa powder all my sins are covered up.

here's what i've produced:
53 truffles
14 little cheese cake in muffin cases (what are they called?)
26 chocolate cookies

let's see, i have about 60 people.... why do i care? why do i think people will think less of me if i don't give them something?

in other news, i've "cut back scope" on the tags. before i was going to cut them out, cut out a red square out of card stock, glue them together, punch a hole into the card stock, thread ribbon thru hole and around plastic i need to cut out that will wrap around each of the stuff.

now it's gonna be: cut out tags, punch up plastic and staple it all together.

i need to lie down.

tired

i am up at this post-consciousness hour waiting for the truffles (that I'm making the second time ever and hoping it'll work this time) to "harden." i guess i could wait until the morning. but i also need to make little cute tags to go with them. this way, people at work will quickly identify each other as lucky recipients of my midnight labour.

oh god are my eyes tired.

why do i do this to myself every year? really, i should just give up and do what someone else (someone high up in the food chain at work) did and buy those cheap ass 'pot of gold' numbers. i hate the pot of gold. i say: pot of shite.

one of my bosses (i'm so lucky to have more than one) gave me a christmas card and when i opened it up, out fell a $100 gift certificate. wow. for a second i thought i was opening a card from my parents. actually, i told my boss about this thought and he thought it was funny. then, another boss (let's call him boss b) who was in the presence of boss a and myself when i related this funny moment, decides to regift a $10 starbucks card he got from a vendor. when he hands it to me he says: i didn't want boss a to be the only one who treated you like a parent. uh. yah. thanks. i regifted that card to rob.

random sightings

during the big wind storm last week, while i was gazing out my window at work, i saw what looked like a pile of black velvet rags flying through the air. they were being pushed and pulled by the stongly armed air currents. the deep black rags were a sharp contrast against the medium grey sky.

then i noticed they were crows.

:::
every year in november i have the strongest desire and intentions to mailout christmas cards within the first week of december. i think: this is an easy task. buy cards, write stuff in them, bring them to post office. it's not rocket-science.

and every year, i'm scrambling to get those cards out a couple of days before christmas. clearly i need to adjust my timelines on this task.

:::
rob and i are having a christmas open house this saturday. hope everyone can make it. i'm having loads of fun researching the recipes.

office cooler stuff

was anyone else woken up by the super sonic loud wind last night? it was so cool to hear the power that nature has. course it seemed neat from the comfort of my heated abode.

...
i've been feeling particularly guilty in the past 3 months about the garbage i generate. i look at my doubled up plastic bags and think "this bag will outlive me. it will sit in the ground and be a testament to my lack of respect for the earth."

yes, happy thoughts these are.

...
Rob and Mona's Christmas OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, December 23rd
3-10pm

be there or be somewhere else not as fun

...
i'm going to seattle this sunday to help out a film friend shoot a concert. i'll be the one asking for people to sign a release form if they happen to step into the camera frame.

...
still working on gord's wedding video.

over and out

stuff

outside my window at work, i look directly at the parking lot that sits across the street from the playland entrance. the same people rent that parking lot space to sell christmas trees. this year they setup the lights and signs but without the trees on december 1st. the trees arrived on december 4th (monday).

today, all the trees were blown down. the lights are still up though.

.....
i was just thinking that i have the most crazy imagination.

my work had it's staff christmas party last thursday and i decided i would wear my silvery long skirt with a top. i didn't really like how i looked after putting on the black top and black boots along with square silver earrings. but it was too late.

and just now i'm remembering how i ended up with this silvery skirt. in february 2000, i had this amazing opportunity to work with some gifted graphic designers on a website for cbc radio 3. i had these amazing visions of myself attending some swank cbc soiree to celebrate the launch of the website. i even thought we would all be flown to toronto to attend this event.

i so believed that this was going to happen even though nobody said anything about a launch, that i decided i needed to buy a great outfit. at the time, my favourite clothing store was kookai in oakridge which was situated right infront of the kids play area.

this long silver skirt with an asymetrical pleat on the side took my breath away. i loved it immediately. so i bought it.

but i didn't stay with the project long enough to see the launch. the first time i wore it was last year, i think, at one of my home parties. last week was the second time i wore it.

i wonder about my grasp on reality sometimes.

addicted

rob and i went to zipang again tonight. we had:
1/ deep friend pumpkin balls
2/ zipang roll (salmon, scallops, radish)
3/ kimchi beef fried rice
4/ prawns cooked in mayo

oh. my. god.
it was so delicious.

best japanese in town

Zipang Sushi
3710 Main Street (at 20th)
Lunch 11:30am-3pm
Dinner 5-10pm
Closed Mondays

Rob and I had lunch today at this place and it is now my favourite japanese restaurant in town. the interior is modern but retro and clean. it's actually owned by japanese people. all the seafood is ultra fresh. and the price is downright cheap.

i had a nabeyaki udon (chicken, udon noodle, broth, veggie, prawn tempura) for $5.95! it costs that much at a crappy food fair but at Zipang the broth was perfectly understated without too much salt, the chicken was tender, the tempura of a high quality. we also had veggie gyoza (5 pieces) for $3.95. rob had the assorted sushi special which was $8.95 but he says all the seafood was melt in your mouth delicious. we decided to also order the black sesame seed ice cream (awesome, not too sweet) and the ginger creme brulee (delicious). it was $2.95 for the ice cream and $3.95 for the brulee. these are unreal prices.

the service was prompt and they refilled out tea cups about 5 times without us having to ask.

seriously, this place has one of the best quality food at pretty cheap prices. go now.

sore and sorer

rob and i came back from whistler around 8pm last night. and boy do we have news.

rob and his partner's doc, futureproof, was a huge hit with the right people. they had about 15 meetings with potential funders like broadcasters and distributors. the meetings went so well, they now have good interest in all 3 of their doc ideas: futureproof, the dubai story and superdogs.

i recorded on my shitty little digital camera their pitch to a packed audience of 200 to a panel of 20 broadcasters/distributors. their pitch was a combination of talking and the video trailer. i think their trailer looked the best with it being shot on HD and was well edited. well, okay, i thought the sound was the best, too. professional without being too slick.

rob and his partner also shmoozed and went to some very cool parties with free booze and food. i was lucky enough to get into one of these parties.

one of the highlights was when we attended the Norman Jewison tribute which ended being an interview but it was a really interesting interview. although i was hoping for more questions about the craft of filmmaking.

on friday, i went snowboarding and on saturday, i got a massage and today... i am one sore person. everything hurts. okay, typing doesn't hurt but getting up, putting on the coat, driving: it all hurts. but i'm not complaining. i'm lucky to be sore.

oh yah, we ended up taking the snow bus.