Thursday, May 31, 2007

I went to my cabin over Memorial Day Weekend (Thursday-Tuesday). It was kinda crappy weather--too cold for swimming, a bit rainy. We put our dock in one day which involved getting in the water up to my waist or so. Within a few minutes every part of me under the water went numb. The water in our lake was really high. Usually the trees in this picture are up out of the water, but as you can see, this year a lot of them are under water. My dad is blaming it on beavers. Whatev. I didn't do much...lots of reading, playing solitaire, playing minesweeper. Anyway, here's a few highlights of the days.

Friday:
It was a nice day today. My mom and I went for a w
alk. There were a lot of mosquitos. Also a lot of butterflies, which was nice. We were walking down the road (gravel road in the middle of the woods, minimal, if any, traffic). We look up ahead and see this...thing...wobbling towards us. My mom kinda freaks out, "Emily?? What is that?!?" I look a bit harder and figure out that it's a porcupine. A PORCUPINE!!! I was so excited. I don't know if I've ever seen a porcupine in person, even at a zoo. Do zoos have porcupines? Anyway, it was the cutest thing ever. It has the most adorable walk. It just kept coming closer and closer, right towards us. Then my mom got scared and ran behind me, scaring it. It then turned to go off into the woods. I wanted to see it get all spikey, so I started making a lot of noise and pretended to walk after it. So then raised all the quills on its ass into the air and continued to wobble into the woods where is escaped. I was SO excited. Seriously, it was very cute. Then we saw a deer, but deer are boring. I want to see a bear. Or a moose or a wolf or something. Chances are slim, however.

I read The Martian Chronicles. It was ok.

I felt something on my neck, reached back and pulled off a tick. Ewwww!!! At least it hadn't "latched" onto me yet. It was just crawling around looking for a good place to eat. I HATE ticks. Now I keep feeling things crawling all over me.

Saturday:
Crappy-ish day. Overcast. Scattered showers. My mom and I went on another walk. We didn't see any wildlife. :(

I started reading A Tale of Two Cities. Man, this book gets off to a slow start. I hope it picks up soon. I'm 60 pages into it and I feel like minimal things have happened. Come on, Dickens! Pick up the pace!

We decided to go to the Pizza Palace for dinner tonight. The Pizza Palace is the local pizza parlor in Bigfork. It's pretty good. Anyway, we drove up there and when we left our car to enter the establishment the Twins game was in the bottom of the 1st inning. It was pretty crowded inside, but we did get a table. The waitress comes up to take our order and tells us that they're "a little backed up, so it might be a bit long." We say fine...we're not in any hurry. We order. Now, looking around the restaurant there's a big table in the middle and they all look to be finished. Then there's about 8 or so other tables other than ours...and none of them have any pizza yet (we were one of the last people to sit down in the restaurant). We sit. And sit. And sit. Still no one is getting any pizza. Finally the waitress brings out one little pizza for a table with a lone old guy. We sit some more. And some more. And still longer. No one else is getting any pizza. I'm thinking this is getting ridiculous, as there seems to be NO action on the food-serving front. Wtf? One table gets up and pays for their drinks and leaves, sans pizza. More time goes by. I eat a handful of parmasan cheese. It was funky tasting. More waiting. No pizza to be seen. A person from one of the tables gets up and goes to the kitchen. She comes back and reports to her group (who were there before us) that their pizza still hasn't been put in the ovens. They pay for their drinks and leave. More time goes by. Finally, the waitress comes out and brings 2 pizzas to one of the tables. More sitting. A different table (who were there before us) calls the waitress over to ask about the status of their pizza. Still not put in the oven. Wha???? They're told that their pizza is the next up. They're then informed that they're really backed up because their oven is broken. Wtf? Their oven is broken? How they hell are they making ANY pizzas?? At this point we decide to leave, as there are still at least 3 other tables in front of us, all who apparently haven't even had their pizzas put in the oven yet. We got back into our car and the Twins game was in the 7th inning! We were in there for over an hour and our pizza still was a while away from even being put in the oven!

The thing is, I wasn't even angry. It was just incredulous over the whole ordeal. I have never seen worse service EVER...and that includes the airport restaurant in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Which, I assure you, is HORRID. I just found it bizarre that they didn't tell people when they ordered just how much of a back-up there was, and what the problem was. I mean, when you're told, "It's a LITTLE backed up...it may take a BIT longer," you're not thinking it's going to take approximately 20 times longer than normal. Plus, there were also people ordering takeout. And they were getting their pizzas before those of us sitting in the restaurant. Which kinda annoyed me, I have to be honest. This group of guys got their pizza WAY before ours was put in the oven and they ordered at the same time as us. But yeah, I am still dumbfounded by the whole thing. It was like we were in the Twilight Zone while we were sitting there. I even made up a song to the tune of Hotel California. Substitutions went like this:

Welcome to the Hotel California = Welcome to the Bigfork Pizza Palace

What a nice surprise, for your alibi = Not a nice surprise, for your appetite

You can sign out any time you like = You can order any time you like

But you can never leave! = But you can never eat!

We also noticed approximately half the people bringing in their own drinks. Lots of people were going across the street to the bar and ordering beer and bringing it in. One table brought in cans of beer. Another large table came in with a grocery bag full of 20 oz drinks. We thought that was a little weird. Apparently, that's the thing to do in Bigfork.

We got home and made chili and cornbread muffins. We probably finished before our pizzas would have been ready. And that's including the 20 minute drive home.

Sunday:
Went on another walk. Trekked back into the woods and found a pond teeming with turtles. There were a few really big ones. Here's a picture of the biggest guy we saw. I think it's a snapper turtle.


We didn't do anything worth noting the rest of the time. Lazed around.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Garage Sale
Who Wants Our Old Junk??

9:56
We're having a garage sal
e today. I've been sitting out in my garage for about 2 hours now. I think I'm winning the money race (against my mom and her friend). We have so much shit, it's not even funny. The stuff we want to go isn't going...like big furniture stuff. Maybe we'll have to do a big price slash later on. Although we already have stuff priced cheap. Whatev. It's a little gloomy today, but it's supposed to get to about 80...although possible thunderstorms later on. Let's hope it's after the sale!

It's definitely garage sale season. Yesterday I saw a crap-load of garage sale signs while driving around and passed by a bunch of them. Garage sales are so funny. I always feel awkward going to them...like I need to buy something or else I'm offending them by not liking their stupid crap.

10:03
This lady is having the harde
st time in the world parking her car. Which is weird since it's a straight shot along the curb...no parallel parking, nothing to navigate around...nothing. Yet she's backed up, gone forward, backed up again like 5 times. And still keeps running over the curb. Moron.

10:05
Ed Fisher, the dude who does the daily cartoon for our newspa
per just walked in. Wow! Local celebrity! I should ask for his autograph. Right.

11:52
Old Man: Do you have any
fishing tackle?
Us: No
Old Man: How about any gu
ns or ammunition?
Us: Nope, sorry.

11:57
Old Man buys an American Flag pinwheel. I notice he's weari
ng an NRA hat.

12:59
It's really slowing down. It'
s really getting hot. I think it's about 83 degrees right now. I'm hungry.

1:45
Ok, rewind to
8:30 or so--my mom is selling these 2 Amish hat
s...a guy hat and a girl hat. As a joke, my mom and her friend each put one on for about 20 minutes or so. Luckily, they took them off because [fast forward to 1:45]:

In walk an Amish couple with a baby. I shit you not. Full Amish get-up and all. Complete with the hats. Man, would that have been bad. How embarassing. So anyway, we were all glad that they had taken off the Amish hats as it would have been horrible to offend the poor Amish folk. I don't know how they got here since there was no horse and buggy. Maybe they walked. They bought some books, sheets, and a flashlight/lantern thing. So I guess battery operated things are acceptable.

5:30
We just finished boxing up the crap left over that no one bought when…we hear the Ice Cream Man!!! Perfect timing! She was being mobbed by a group of children down the street. We hailed it down outside our house (‘hailed’ meaning me walked slowly to the street as it approached at the breakneck speed of 2 mph). I got a “Chips Galore”, which was a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. It was pretty good. As we were standing there children started emerging from out of nowhere to get ice cream. Seriously, they must have come from a few blocks away…that ice cream van music is loud! It’s like a magnet for children. I thought it was hilarious.

[Aside for Charlie - I saw the movie 28 Weeks Later the other day...it takes place in London. Anyway, there was a scene with a bunch of overturned vehicles, and one was a truck that said "Mr. Whippy" on it! I thought to myself, "Hey! It's what Charlie was talking about!" It was only on the screen for a split second, but long enough for me to spot it!]

6:15
Money is counted and individual totals are summed. Guess who came out the money victor?? I did! Go me!!! I made exactly $166.00. Not too shabby.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

It's official: my house lies on the Ice Cream Man route. Awesome. The neighbor kids purchased some frozen tasty treats yet again this afternoon. And it's actually the Ice Cream Woman, not man. One of these days I need to run out and buy myself an ice cream cone. Or popsicle. Or something of similar ilk.

There's a gorgeous sunset out our window right now.

I can't get over how much I hate Dancing With the Stars. I saw a small bit of it last night and my hatred for it continued to burn strong. In fact, it may have added fuel to the flames of hatred. Then I saw a commercial for the season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance. And I was happy again. Because that show is about 8 billion times better. Even though I hate Cat Deeley. What a dumb-ass name.

So guess who Sunny "met" last week? Ryan Seacrest!! Hahahahahahaha!!!!! He ate at The French Laundry and went back to the kitchen to "give his compliments to the chefs," or whatever. I guess he eats there occasionally and the wait staff there says he's kind of a dick. Anyway, I thought that that was hilarious.

Seacrest Out.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

So, I was sitting in my living room watching This Film Is Not Yet Rated (pretty interesting) when I swear I hear weird chimy music. Wtf? I pause the movie. Listen. It sounds like a music box is playing, but it's pretty loud. I almost think it's coming from inside my house, but as I'm the only one home I sure hope it's not. I think maybe the neighbor kids are doing something, so I go to the window and look out. I don't see anyone. Hmmm. Suddenly, the music gets louder and an ice cream truck comes slowly ambling down my street!! You seriously have no idea how happy that made me. It was actually more of an ice cream van than a truck. Instead of the stereotypical ice cream truck in my mind, it was more like a white conversion van with ice cream pictures all over it. And flashing lights on top. And a bunch of signs in the back that read, "Caution: this vehicle makes frequent stops."

Closest picture of aforementiond Ice Cream Van that I could find online

I was so excited. It made my month, at least. (This tells you of the boring life I lead) To top it all off, it stopped next door and the two little kids and their dad ran over to it and proceeded to purchase ice cream. The kids were so excited about it. It was a pretty crappy day for ice cream, though. Not very warm, completely overcast, and super windy.

I was discussing the Ice Cream Man with Joleen a while ago. She mentioned the Ice Cream Man coming to our old neighborhood when we were little. I don't really remember that. I think this is the first time I remember seeing the Ice Cream Man in a LONG time. Aside from once in California when I was visiting Joleen. I also thought it was interesting because the birthday card I recently bought Candy featured an ice cream truck. So yeah, the whole thing made me incredibly happy.

In Other News...

I'm really starting to like coffee. Even plain ol' coffee sans creamer/sugar/etc. I'm not too concerned about it because it's apparently maybe even good for you to drink a few cups a day. I convinced my mom to buy fair trade organic coffee, so that's good. I guess coffee crops are among the most sprayed with chemicals and pesticides and such. So organic's good. And fair trade is good because...well, it's fair trade. Fair trade always reminds me of Chris Martin and how he's always wearing a Fair Trade t-shirt or has it written on his arm or piano or something. I'm just worried about yellowing my teeth, however.

I've also convinced my mom to start buying "green" cleaning products (dishwashing stuff, counter spray, laudry detergent, etc). It's 7th Generation stuff. It's more expensive, but at least you can feel better about yourself. It makes me laugh that I've guilted my mom into buying it. "It's so much more expensive!" "Well, do whatever you feel is right." "Well, Ok..." Haha.

I just watched Taxi Driver. It was interesting. Jodie Foster was really cute in it. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for it. I think she was 14. I was prompted to look up stuff about Jodie Foster, because I really don't know much about her and I think I like her. Apparently, she's very private. She has two kids and she's never said anything about who their dad is. She's a member of Mensa. John Hinkley Jr. shot Ronald Reagan because he wanted to impress Jodie Foster. Wow, if that doesn't scream, "I'm psychotic," I don't know what does. Perhaps attacking Dan Rather and yelling, "Kenneth, what's the Frequency?!?" :D

I got a hair cut. My hair (especially my bangs) were driving me mad. I basically told the lady to do whatever because I have no idea about hair. It's pretty short. And layered. I think I like it. I'm always stuck on the idea of having/wanting long hair, but I'm never that happy with my hair when it's long. I'm always happier with it when I get it cut shorter. I just love getting hair cuts. I wish I could get one every week. Aside from the cost. And the shear impracticality of it. Here's a picture of it. But it's hard to really see what it looks like in a picture...especially when I'm taking it myself.


I subbed for a science class at Mayo (high school) yesterday. I noticed that the teacher who had the classroom next to mine was my old 7th and 8th grade science teacher at JA. So I went in during lunch to say hi. I walked in and said, "Mrs. DeYoung? You were my science teacher back at JA!" She looked at me, smiled, and said, "Emily!" I was pretty impressed that she remembered my name. I mean, it was...12 or so years ago. But she was my teacher for 2 years, I guess. She didn't remember my last name, and I don't think she really remembered much else about me. But hey, I was duly impressed with her recollection of my name. I also saw my 8th grade geography teacher roaming the halls, but I didn't stop him to say hi because he didn't look especially welcoming. And I doubted he'd remember me. I was a very quiet middle schooler.

I was thinking about the word "pajamas" today. Isn't it a ridiculous word? It just sounds so stupid to me. Brits spell it "pyjamas." When it's spelled that way I want to pronounce it "Pie-jam-uz." Then I thought how some people pronounce it "Puh-jam-uz" (like myself) and others pronounce it "puh-jah-muz." Huh.

Hmm, I don't think I have anything else to say. I want it to storm tonight. The weather looks to be positively ripe for one. We'll see. I hate applying for jobs. It's such a hassle. Ugh. I probably won't end up getting one and I'll have to sub for another year or something. I would hate that. Maybe I'll have to move to Alabama or something where I could probably walk into a school and get a job in 5 minutes. Bah.