The magical (and well-designed!) land of yellow and blue

yippee!

so,for those of you not in the know, Miss Fitz will be making the transition from mommy's pockets to a home of her very own (!) in the next few weeks. sooo, excited! *squeal!*

ahem. sorry. don't make that sound very often, but sometimes, you need to squeal.

as such, i've been browsing, bartering and begging left and right for furniture and any other accoutrements of a nice bachelor suite. so far, the generosity and deals have been awesome.

Mr. M and his aunt jo have offered me a couch, a tv and a chaise lounge which happens to be my all-time favorite piece of furniture. it's rad.

i know that i have to spend money on SOME things, but i'm looking for deals where i can get 'em. found a great kitchy '50s table at value village, but the asking price was too high ($200 for a 40-year-old table? i think not!) so i went back last night to bargain...and some sucker had paid full price for it. (sad and snickering at the same time...)

so mums agreed/got dragged to IKEA, which is one of my all-time favorite places to shop. i just love it there. every time you go you are just amazed by the clever designs and funky colours. (they love orange, as do i!)

being a snob, i never shopped in the as-is section, since i figured it was all broken stuff. however, scotty, buddy and IKEA employee extraordinaire, explained that sometimes the stuff there is perfectly fine, only with one scratch or even so much as a mere broken box!

so, once there, we picked through the as-is stuff and found a half price dresser in pristine condition, and i also go myself a teeny little table and two chairs for my kitchen that were on super sale. in all, i spent slightly over $150 for all that. not too bad, if i do say so myself. now all i need is a bed and some linens, and i'm good to go!

swank!

k

A little bit fascist, a little bit rock n' roll...

So, looks like the County of Strathcona (ie: the ruling body of my bubblicious suburb) voted 5-3 in favour of a curfew for all those residents under 18. First offence is $100 fine, second is $200 and it only gets more ridiculous from there. As an added kick to the gut, the fines go to the parents of supposed "malicious, rampaging no-goodnik teens" for their implicit bad parenting in allowing their children to stay out past bedtime. *gasp!*

I for one believe this new bylaw is a bunch o' malarky and applaud the kids who I read in the paper are planning to take this thing to court or ignore it outright.

Not that I believe teens should be out raising hell all night, mind you. However, I do not believe that:

a) Staying out late is really the problem; and
b) Imposing a "time limit" on underaged fun is going to curtail mischief-making in the wee hours.

Let's face it. If you're going to be bad, you're going to find a way to do it, regardless of the "rules" of society. so what are we left with? Punishing some poor 16 year old who decides to walk home from a buddy's house after a night of drinking in an effort to be responsible and forcing said teen to work an extra bloody 40 hours at mcdonald's to pay off his not heeding the new bylaw?

hooey. It's all so much hooey. blecch. How about we teach young people respect and give them the benefit of the doubt and instill faith in them that they're not evil little shits who magically transform upon their 18th birthdays into respectable and contributing members of society? It doesn't work that way. Fostering distrust and suspicion will only make the bad more untrustworthy and the good less willing to participate in a society that treats them as lesser citizens.

The irony of all this, of course, is while we're punishing young people for not being old enough, it's the adults in this situation who need to be reminded to GROW UP.

Erin go Bragh!

Hey all you sexy ladies and gents!

yes, that's right, 'tis I, your lovely neighbourhood non-blogger, checking in to wish you all a happy st.paddy's day and all that jazz. This is a particularly memorable paddy's day for me, as it is the one year anniversary of my arrival in the lovely land of Eire for my travels and tribulations in Dublin's fair city. Wow. can't belive it's been a year. that's so crazy. why does time keep speeding up on me? at this rate, i'll be 80 in the span of time that it felt it took to get from 4-8 years of age. damn!

anyways, lots of apologies for not blogging sooner, been a rather hectic past month or so. lots of job and relationship turmoil, to say the least, which has finally settled down and allowed me to do those little fun things again, such as write useless crap and post it for the world to see! yah!

am now gainfully (and permanently) employed for the official opposition caucus of my province, which is actually pretty rad. a decent paycheque isn't too bad, either. leaving the last temp job with the real estate office was tough, since the people there were totally fun, and two of the guys there were fighting between themselves to see who could offer me more money and keep me there. I was seriously tempted, but in the long run i think there are more opportunities here for me. that, and there's a younger crowd of 20-30ish peeps here, which means one seriously awesome thing: new drinking buddies!

last night got rather tipsy with said new coworkers and then went home and baked cupcakes at midnight (amazingly, no 3rd degree burns obtained)and frosted them with green icing for lots of st.paddy's day deliciousness! woo!

Anyways, enough of my blathering. see, this is what comes of not blogging in a while: verbal diarrhea. lots more to say, but will pace myself and just write more frequently.

cheers!

k