I'm re-thinking the purpose of this blog, and I have an idea in mind to post one fun thing, 365 times, for a year of posts.   I came up with this idea in December, and I took out a piece of paper and  decided to create a list of fun things I could write about.  As soon as the page is full, I'll start the blog project.

My handwriting is way tiny.  I hope to start soon, but I had to write something tonight. HAD TO BECAUSE I HAVEN'T SPOKEN TO REAL HUMAN PEOPLE IN THREE DAYS.  I spent the weekend suffering from a nasty cold, and today was a scheduled day off.  BUT BECAUSE I HAVEN'T SPOKEN TO REGULAR HUMAN PEOPLE I NEED TO SHARE MY EXCITEMENT ABOUT SOMETHING.

I've clued into this Ryan Gosling thing.  I dedicated a big chunk of this weekend watching Ryan Gosling movies, as a celebration of finally getting on the Gos-train.   I've made some observations and I feel inclined to share:

• Ryan Gosling takes his shirt off in every movie he's in.   Exception: Lars and the Real Girl because (as explained by Lars himself) he and Bianca are young and religious so they don't even sleep in the same house.   And also she's his imaginary girlfriend.
• The Notebook is 1000% more palatable if ffwd through every scene Gena Rowlands is in and gete a little drunk.
• Ryan Gosling is a dobbelganger for my grade 12 boyfriend - except Gosling has way better hair and (I hope) doesn't use 'faggot' as a term of affection.

Yesterday I watched Half Nelson and Crazy, Stupid, Love back to back.  Have you seen Half Nelson? It's a powerful, weird and emotional story of a High School History teacher whose casual drug use is trigged by him not being able to deal with stuff. I watched Drive and Blue Valentine today. You guys, that handsome fella  can ACT and, as Russel Crowe tweeted,- There is some bullshit right there.

I have a very good reason for not blogging last week.  I was going to concerts.   In 8 days I went to five, for no reason except I was no longer tied to The Lousy Client and I could.   They were all amazing and thinking about chosing a favourite show, or song or moment is just a HARD thing.  I CAN'T DO IT.

Yesterday I spent the day in a time suck of sewing and netflix.  Sewing, specifically quilting BFF's Christmas Quilt from 2009, and queueing up music docs.  I watched Neil Young's Heart of Gold, and then Justin Beiber's Never Say Never.  The latter came on the  surprise recommendation of a hispter couple I really like, and the former because Neil Young is a God Amongst Men.   The two docs are like babies - I loved them both equally but for different reasons.

It's not like me to have such an inert to concerts OR documentaries, so with all these choices to offer you I'll behave even more so and offer you this song.  National Post hosted a Tournament of Muppets this week and Animal was voted out in round one.

Animal was robbed.

I didn't learn to speak properly until I was in elementary school because I was born my tounge was, more or less, stationary and didn't move.  Mostly I dropped the first syllable off words, but some times I just talked garbage and my mom would assume I was asking for dessert or a snack and give me food, and I'd take it to be polite.  Mom also taught me that because she was a child of depression I had to eat what I was given.  It's a bit of a miracle that I don't have an eating disorder.  

I can always eat - through flu or ever.  Stress or emergency.  ALWAYS. Also (I just realized this) I've only been rendered speechless, once.

I'm telling you this because something bad happened today and it was/is so bad that I didn't eat my lunch.  This 'incident' (according to the form I filled out) that is so bad that, for the first time ever, I lost my appetite.   Nobody was hurt and nothing went splodey, but it was my responsibility and I feel h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e about it.  Crumple to the ground horrible.  Especially because it's going to create a significant amount of work and stress for people I respect and THAT is a layer of awful in the HORRIBLE cake.

I'm telling you this because (1) I feel horrible and (2) I've been sitting here feeling horrible and wondering what I can do to feel SLIGHTLY LESS HORRIBLE and I decided that it would be good for me, right now, to tell you about a really good thing.

I've started a new project called CashMobYYC.  Last week, in the throes of birthday week, I attended TEDxCalgary. The theme for the talks of the day was volunteerism - they were all really excellent talks that seemed layer inspiration on motivation on inspiration on motivation and then, right when we're all vibrating from all the inspiring and motivating  Mayor Nenshi takes the stage to talk about the 3 Things For Calgary Project.   Things went spoldey.

CashMob YYC is something I can do for Calgary.  It's essentially a flash mob, but instead of dancing or singing an 80s love song the mob will do something tactile - commit to spend $20 at an independently owned, locally loved business.   The mob will do it en masse and give the to-be-determined business owner "real" economic stimulus.  It's going to be SO FUN!!

The most first step is to connect with people who want to participate... so here comes the a favour.   I've been tweeting my little brains out @cashmobsyyc and there's a facebook page to 'like'.  Details on the first mob will be available through these media and the date will be announced well in advance. 

Could you do this girl a solid and share these with your social media besties??  If you want to participate in CashMobYYC, like it on facebook for sure and it will reference twitter.  Please don't forward this posterous post  - you can invite people to the page directly via facebook.

You don't need a twitter account to follow the action on twitter - simply bookmark this page.

'Like' the Facebook page here.

Thank you for this uber induldgent blog post.  Writing about CashMobYYC completely erased my anxiety over .... oh. wait.

When I talk about ThirdCat flushing the toilet, or ThirdCat locking himself in the microwave, or ThirdCat destroying my bureau from the inside or ThirdCat opening rubbermaid that has chicken in it and IS IN THE FREEZER   (I prolly talk about ThirdCat more than I should),  often their response is "You should make a video and put it on youtube."

I won't, though.  All that fame will go to his head, and also I've noticed that the best way to stop Bad Cat Behaviour is to take out the camera.  Hmph.

He could make a killing though.  I hope he doesn't learn there's a cat out there who can fly by-way-of the ceiling fan. Damn, I just jinxed it, didn't I?

Regardless, I tell him every day that he owes me money and he should get a j-o-b.  I bet Catvertising would hire him. They could have him for FREE.

(I have video of ThirdCat  hijinx somewhere that I edited to the theme of Magnum PI.  I can't find it right now or I'd totally put it here.)

With apologies,  I'm getting back into the blog-post-a-day writing routine.  There are a few topics I'm attracted to the notion of writing about - and I have 188 posts to get there.  In the meantime, some stats about my day today:

The number of episodes of Breaking Bad viewed today: 5

(end of list)

My ratio of Sloth to Productivity Ratio was deliciously high. I very much enjoyed it - my favourite part was that I was completely unaware that it was snowing outside. 

I wonder what our attraction to Breaking Bad (and Weeds, too) says about us, and if the representation of average suburbanites dealing drugs is the popular culture equivalent of looting a grocery store in an apocalypse.  Justified - because the heroes are good guys trying to deal with a some unlucky events: a cancer diagnoisis in Breaking Bad, and death of the family's bread winner in Weeds. (Are there other shows that fit this mold?)

Tonight, I'm going for Thai food with a handsome gentleman.  Hey Rosetta's Calgary stop of their Yer Fall tour is tonight - I can't wait to see them perform.  Returning to CoolJob tomorrow at 8 am is going to hurt hard, but that's why it will be SO worth it.  Hey Rosetta just released a new video for Yer Fall -check it out and you'll see why I'm so happy to see this band live.  Happy Monday!

I didn't post yesterday  because I was  VERY busy taking sloth to a new level ALL AFTERNOON.  It was fabulous and after such a busy, busy month it felt completely induldgent.

I assembled these hexagons.  I hope this blanket looks less like your granny's crocheted blanket, and more like a modern crafty throw.    It's so far from being finished, it's ridiculous.  Whatevs.

FirstCat on guard. Clearly a piece of cheese could fall out of the blanket at any time.

I finished knitting a hat in a pattern called Felicity.  I made this hat almost a year ago, lost it and missed it all winter.  It's a great hat - slouchy, stylish and warm.

(Obviously I am ignoring housework.)

My favourite finished thing is a quilt block for Cauchy.  She put a shout out to quilters and asked for them to contribute to a project called The Give a F*ck Project.

And of course I effed it up - cutting the letters wrong side up, so they read backwards and I believe that made it completely perfect.   I'm quite sure that anyone who reads my blog is not offended by a solid F-bomb, but just in case I've linked it here.  I really love the back - fully improvised to match the vision I had in my head.  I would have liked to contain the word to the center of the block and have the colours burst out of it - but I couldn't get the geometry to work. Whatevs.

Happy Crafturday!!

This week I've been feeling meh - anxiety, maybe? I've had a touch of (what might have been) the flu, and feeling anxious about starting school  in January.  Today, though, I came home and look what I found waiting for me at my door.

COOKIES!  A box of cookies at my door from my sweet friend, Kendra.  How did she know?*  It was such a surprise.**

That's Kendra, though.   If you're reading this, you prolly know me well enough to know that I have a helping disorder? Kendra's helping disorder would kick my helping disorder's ass.***  Kendra get's really excited for Christmas - it's HER season to SHINE.

They're the good cookies, too!  At a former place of employ, our boss would receive a box of these same cookies every month. She'd put them in the kitchen and watch her employees turn into fighting vultures.

ThirdCat liked the ribbon.  I immediately took it away.****  Little One liked the reflection the celophane made on the wall (she's still looking for it. So pretty.)

Fat Cat on a Diet really likes the butter that is in the cookies, not pictured because her head is in the way.

I have a long weekend this weekend, my first weekend since KENDRA WAS IN TOWN. :( So I'll have a cookie every day and continue to feel touched that I have such a generous friend.

Thanks Kendra. Moosenocular (& MISS) you.  Sniff.

* She knew because last night I changed my facebook status to: "I wish I had a cookie."

** It was a surprise to me because when Kendra texted me last night and said "The cookies are on their way!" I didn't understand that she was literally saying "I'm sending you cookies. They're coming tomorrow".  "Cookies are on their way" can be a euphamism for a LOT of things. 

*** I imagine such a street fight would happen on Sesame Street. hehe.

**** and put it on top of the frig.  I went outside to carry in my costco purchases, and when I came back the ribbon and ThirdCat were in the living room.  He does like the ribbon.

Oh my, it was fun to attend the satelite broadcast of The Giller Prize last night.  It was so fun to participate in the speculation - Pages and Wordfest organized the swaray and join the speculation about which book would win.  I added at least 2 new books to my "books I'm really excited about reading" list (which is different from my "books I simply must read" and "books I know I'll enjoy" lists. I have a lot of lists.)  And Melanie (of Roughing it in the Books) won a prize!  My favourite moments were when (a) the crowd gushed as Jian took the stage, and (b) also when everybody sounded like a Hockey Night in Canada crowd after a low blow as the winner made her speech.  tee hee.

The number one thing learned (or realized) was that I completely & fully love watching authors talk about their books.

It was fun.  I can't wait till next year.   You can see the results here.

Working an ambitious schedule for over  a month caught up with me around 7 last night, when I had to go be in bed RIGHT now.  I slept solidly until 6 am -was awake long enough to recognize I wanted to be awake, and then went right back to bed. I feel like I need therapy to recover from that much sleep. I'm only vaguely aware that it's not Monday.

Tonight we're heading off to the Giller Light awards - a locally hosted broadcast of the Giller prize awards that's hosted by Pages on Kensington.  I'm excited - watching & tweeting the Giller's is SO much geeky-nerd fun and I expect it to be even more so live with like-minded geeky nerds.

I'm excited about The Cat's Table and The Sisters and Brothers  - all the short listed titles are online here at Giller's official website.     I'm excited to read the winner.  Also Jian is hosting.  Jian hosts everything.

Fact: Canadians buy or borrow 2.7 million books per week.  (I read that on Jian's twitter feed.) 

Sub-category - Songs about Mondays always seem so freakin' cheerful.

I worked my  last shift at the no-tell last night.  This morning...erm, afternoon, I woke up with a feeling of the elusive sense of relaxation.  Yay.

Do you still want to read about the no-tell? I have a post, or 3, in my head where I can share the deets.  Last Winter I collected names for a sekrit no-tell distribution list that I did not follow up on.

Regardless, for the while  or so I'll be enjoying the lack of no-tell in my schedule.  Specifically I am looking forward to Sunday mornings at home, with coffee and CBC.   I spent a lot of time tucked in that little office listening to R3, and that is how I found this song: Emm Gryner's Ciao Monday.

Enjoy! And kiss it, no-tell.