I am Not a Robot

hello friends! i hope i didnt alienate any of you during this little glitch where my blog was "removed" from the interwebs. im not totally sure what happened, or when, but apparently google detected SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY on my blog and removed it until i proved that i was not a robot. this proved to be more challenging than im sure google would have imagined, since i do not have a cell phone and i dont have the internet at my house. basically, google wanted to either text me a verification code or phone me with one, but those both posed obvious problems for me due to the aforementioned non-phone-or-internet-having issues. anyway, i managed to hit up one of my brothers friends on facebook to use his phone to receive the text and now we are back online and i owe him a hat. purple and black, which is odd because one of my brothers other friends is buying a purple and black hat from me. this didnt seem to change the friend who did me the favour's mind, though, but i suppose teenage boys dont have teh same hangups as teenage girls when finding themselves in social situations wearing the same clothing and accessories. also, im not going to make the two hats the same in design so that should improve the situation. anyway, im just glad to see that my blog does in fact, exist, and so do i. thank you for bearing with me, dear readers!!!!!!!

Big News, Everybody!

hello comrades! i have some exciting news to share!!!! yesterday, i made two very big and related decisions. the first is that i have decided to set a date to quit smoking. i have never done this before, and ive never wanted to, but now i have and i do. the date is going to be june first, and im going to do it, because i feel ready. im already smoking a quarter of what i was a year and a half ago, and i just dont feel like cigarettes have the hold on me that they once did. it used to be that every moment of every day i was thinking, at least in part, of when i would have my next cigarette, and i really dont feel that way anymore. so i think the time is right.
the second, and far more exciting decision is that the REASON i am going to quit smoking is because i am going to start training for a triathlon!!!! huzzah!!!! where did this come from? well, as im sure my regular readers know, i have always been a pretty bang up swimmer and i do distance cycling every day because i dont have a car. i have always said that im just one sport away from a triathlon. the reason i have never tried to pursue it until now, is i just thought i was physically incapable of running. growing up, i was always a terrible runner, and nowadays im paranoid about hurting my fragile knee. however, last week i was so bored of my usual workout at the gym that i decided to try the treadmill and see how it went. i told myself that if i had any pain in my knee at all, i would stop immediately. it went really well, and ive been using it since. i do have a groin injury that bothers me a little bit, but ive been doing lots of stretching before treadmilling and its getting better. so, i think that triathletics might actually be within my realm of possibility. im super excited about it, and i shall keep you abreast of what is going on.

Put Trudeau's Face On Money

hello comrades. i am not sure how many of my readers are canadian.... i know my sister is and i know jen vandervecht is, but im only 100% sure that 50% of those people actually read my blog, so its a relative question. anyway, in the event that anyone else is reading this and they are in fact canadian, i have started a facebook group called "Canadians in Favour of Putting Trudeau's Face on Money." although i feel this goes without saying, i shall briefly explain. pierre trudeau was canada's most famous and popular prime minister. i get the feeling there are some people who werent that impressed with him, but even THOSE people cant ignore the fact that he bears most of the responsibility for getting us our canadian charter of rights and freedoms. this is the equivalent of the american bill of rights, and it is the highest law in the land. with it, we are protected by law to enjoy all sorts of things like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and freedom from discrimination. it is also surprisingly readable. anyway, i am hoping to get enough support for my group that the government might actually take notice, so click the above link to join and lets make a difference in our country!

If You Know Me, This Post May Surprise You

alright, so the big news (alright maybe not that big) this week was that the white stripes announced that they are "splitting up" and no longer making any records or performing together. of course, of course, my nearest and dearest were fast to tell me this and slightly less fast to ask my opinion on the matter, so here it is.

it is difficult for me to admit this, but i think i can safely say that all of my fellow red and white wearing white stripes fans will agree that we all saw this coming. after the white stripes made their documentary "white stripes under northern lights," meg white suffered from a pretty severe case of anxiety and stage fright and has basically been out of the picture ever since. im sure some people might suggest that this was a staged nervous breakdown in order to orchestrate the eventual demise of the white stripes, but that is neither here nor there. the point is, the white stripes simply announced what all of us knew already whether we would admit it or not. and here is the surprising part: i am ok with that.

although i am a little bit sad that the white stripes arent going to be making any more albums, and although i will always consider them my favourite band, the fact of the matter is that even i cannot deny the awesome awesomeness of jack whites other, other band, the dead weather. both horehound and sea of cowards were possibly the most amazing and fantastical things he has ever been a part of and if the white stripes officially admitting they are through is going to be the first in many steps towards jack white committing more or all of his time to the dead weather, then so be it. the white stripes is who he was and the dead weather is what he has become, and i am ok with that. instead of feeling like someone i love (the white stripes) doesnt exist any more, i feel more like that person married some other person who ive only seen pictures of but they look really hot in the pictures and are holding an adorable puppy and i can tell they make more than fifty thousand dollars a year. or something like that. anyway, i guess what im getting at is that i want to be sad, but i know that i cant, because this isnt the closing of a door or the end of an era, its the next starburst of potential in what is surely going to be some of the most gratifying alterna-rock ever written.

I See Trouble on the Way

welp, we are supposed to be getting a massive blizzard overnight and into tomorrow morning, which should be interesting. last time we had a storm as bad as the one they are calling for, most of the businesses in town were shut down because we were all totally snowlocked, which was actually pretty cool. i enjoy crazy snow storms, and im going to enjoy this one especially because i have a fairly large supply of tea, pirates of the carribean movies and knitting to do. i also think im going to break my no drinking during the week rules a get a little bottle of vodka since im going to be stuck inside with my idiotic cats for who knows how long. i also made the proactive move of buying groceries today because its slim pickings over at my place. although i only bought as many groceries as i could fit in my knapsack, and yoghurt was on sale so i used up most of the available volume on three litres of yoghurt. but whatever. i also had the joyous experience of contending with packs of semi retired mediterranean women who for some reason shop in groups of three, have ill advised super short hair cuts and bad dye jobs. it must be a cultural thing. anyway i suppose i shall be in radio silence for the next couple of days, so fare thee well comrades! i will let you know how the storm turned out!!!!!!!!!!!