"I just spent 500 pound on an unauthorized expense." "And you think you still work here?"

PT's home for the weekend! He's grown a fetchingly red goatee, which was disconcerting to witness. I pinpointed the source of at least a little of my disconcertion when I realized that, from the angle at which I was staring at him, he looked a little like a faun. Despite my mind's willingness to dive into Narnia or Classical Greece at any time, it has not yet progressed to presenting me with fictional beings at the dinner table. So that's why I was staring, PT, sorry. It looks lovely, really it does. :D

So there has been much celebration upon the advent of PT's return for four days, and upon the morrow we perhaps shall venture unto T'gate, there to climb cliffs and take profuse pictures of our siblings participating in the aforementioned vertical activity. Moreover, I have not the slightest idea why I am talking in this manner, unless it is perhaps attributable to the Tylenol, Midol and Coffee I have been eating over the course of the past five hours.

I've discovered the effects pane in iphoto, which causes me much joy. And yes, that is a tree I was wearing in my hair yesterday. I was gardening, see.

"You call this a favour?" "Yeah, you owe me one."

Fraulein and I made it to St. John's safely. 

We also made it across the city, which was tricky. 

And then we watched Star Trek. *maniac grin* It was very fun. Even Fraulein liked it, and she is not exactly a science-fiction fan. 

{Warning: What follows is just happy ranting. You may want to leave.}

Oh my, SO many lovely quotes. Even the main characters had good lines, which I wasn't expecting. Usually I don't particularly like or care about the main characters, I'm all caught up in the perils of the secondary- and more expendable- people. But this time I cared about everybody! It was particularly strange becuase I knew how things were supposed to be, in the original series, whereas the entire idea of this movie is that it turns the original series on it's ear, gives it a good shake, and puts the broken pieces back together in new and interesting ways. 

Let's see. The opening sequence was shiny. Lots of explosions and drama. I almost cried, though the person behind me did that for everyone in the area. :D

And Captain Pike! I LURVED Captain Pike! I wanted him to be in charge! He's an actual trustworthy chap! *waves hands* Though of course they had to get him out of the way so that the young people could take the leadership roles. That is one of the things that was interesting to me with this film. It had to be the young people that always saved the day, all the old ways lead to death or disfavor. *shrugs* Which I'm not sure if I agree with, in general life. It worked in the context of the movie and what the ship was that supposed to be doing, so I think it shall continue to make sense if and when the franchise continues, but it's not an idea I'd base my life around? Sometimes youth and imagination does not trump experience and actual leadership, that's all. *nods*

ANYHOW! The contrast between Spock's and Kirk's childhoods and how they dealt with early adulthood was lovely. Not only did the worlds look marvelous, (can I take a moment now to fangirl over how the film looked? *squueeeee!!!!* Okay I'm good.) but it set up the issues both main characters were dealing with, and the way they leaned in the face of pressure. And everything looked really pretty. Have I mentioned I love the design of the ship, the worlds, and everything? Yeah. It was Sooooo matchy. All right, we're good. Again. 

Oh, and the trailer made it look like there were all kinds of "hide your eyes, children," scenes, but in the actual film there were surprisingly few. I was happy that Mr. Abrams didn't feel it necessary to update the scandalous content of the story to a modern level. I mean, we all know it's there, this is Kirk after all, a character who lent his name to an entire Genre of character types, we don't need to have it spelled out more than sketchily. Heh, I'm so punny. *cough*

And the plot was, well, meh. It served its purpose, made for some shiny space battles, and set up some really interesting things for the future of the franchise. But I didn't really care about the bad guy, or even find him particularly blood-chilling. *flaps hand at Villain* Go, make your little revenge scheme. See if we care. Maybe it was because he was so pathetically unstable? I like sane bad guys, who have restraint and delicacy and stuff. And that makes a very different kind of sense if you were inside my head, but you're not, so just nod and smile, people. Just nod and smile and back away. 

Character roundup!

• Uhura: Feisty, interesting in a vague way, GJ not going for the blue-eyed-wonderkind! Go stand over there, please. You don't need to write.
  
• McCoy: *chortles* I liked him. Bad tempered, good at his job, has opinions, and you're gonna hear them! Let's see more!
  
• Kirk: Has an awful lot of good lines, and wears scars, blood and bruises surprisingly well. Smart-mouthed kid. *shakes head* I'll watch you from a distance. Long distance. From this universe. *waves* Have fun out there!
  
• Spock: Fascinating. I have no further comment on the matter. 
  
• Scotty: He didn't have hardly any screen time! He should have MORE!!! *waves hands in an excited fashion* And I was heartily annoyed at what Spock did to him. And then he saved the day, of course. :D 
  
• (Related- Walnut Man: Was cute. *grins* )
  
• Old Spock: Go away. Now. I mean it. Oh great, go mess with people's minds and realities, why don'tcha? Arrogant Hobgoblin.
  
• Sulu: Made of Win! Expandable swords are TOTALLY win, and you FLY that ship, man! As long as you take the parking brake off first. Oh, burn. 
  
• Chekov: Also has a lamentably short amount of screen time. What, they thought that the men with accents couldn't by understood other than that they were poked fun at for talking funny? Gosh, dudes. "Oh, I can do that! I can do that!" That made me grin. I don't quite understand his rank/shirt colour, though. Wasn't Chekov supposed to be enlisted? At that age, I'd certainly hope so. I need to find a listing of uniform design. *rummages about the internet* 
  
• Pike: Made. Of. Win. I think I mentioned this. Go the Old Guy! 
  
• Nero: You need a hobby, man.
  

Yep, I liked it. I can haz moer noew plz?

"I just waved at those hitchhikers, didn't I." "Yep, the little flirty wave, too."

Another blog post written on the highway!

• Soundtrack is: Coldplay
  
• Driver is: Fraulein
  
• Drink is: Ice cubes left over from McDonald's Root Beer
  
• Destination is: St. John's and the Home School Conference. 

Okay, now that you have all the vital stats, I suppose I may as well explain in labourious and tedious words.

We're going to the Home School Conference!

*crickets*

Okay, yes, the language portion of my brain is sadly lacking at this date. But despite this tragic handicap, I persevere and blog, for you, my loyal reader. I'm so noble. *sniffs*

Up until yesterday I though that I was going to stay home, live on tea and noodles, and watch television this weekend. My work schedule meant that I would miss the convey out, you see. And then, someone clever, (not me, sad to say), looked at the calander and noticed that I was off in the early afternoon. "So," Clever Person said to his or herself, "Snazel could leave on the latter half of the Convoy, if the latter half of the convoy delayed a couple hours. " And we all saw that this was good, and it was so.

And no we've been on the road for a little over two hours, looking to be on the road for a further three hours. Yay. On the other hand, the road is sparkly, and the clouds are beautiful. And I will probably double the amount of my freckles by the time we get there. *sigh*

We've gone 168 km, go us!

Geo: "Are we there yet?"
Fraulein: "You should do something fun while you you wait!"
Snazel: "You can always take up slapping yourself for personal amusement!"
Fraulein: "Self abuse is not entertainment."
Snazel: "I'm just pinking my cheeks the natural way." *lofty*

Oh, and when we stopped for a bathroom break a lovely old lady asked if four of my younger siblings were my children. This selection of my siblings included Slonner, who is 12 and a half. *headdesk* I guess my work clothes make me look REALLY mature? On the other hand, I just slapped Fraulein while she was driving "to make sure her eyes didn't close," and accused her music of being a travesty. So perhaps Maturity is negotiable? Yep, that's what I think.

In other news, Fraulein and I are meeting up with at least two other friends, perhaps more, and going to a movie tonight! It has been suggested that we watch a chick flick. My response, roughly, was "Yeah, sure! I know a great one called Star Trek! I'm just gonna go watch it, you can join me if you want. Tah!"

At work today my printer wasn't working when I went to balance out, so I had to call tech support. (We restarted the computer. :D) While waiting for the computer to claw its way back into relevance, I long-dated one arm, and date-stamped the other. It seemed like a good idea at the time. That's all I have to say on that subject. Annnddd, the air conditioning doesn't seem to be working. How dreadfully jolly. I think I'm going to buy myself a milkshake at our next stop! Good plan, me!

Geo: "Oh! I see houses!"
Snazel: *monotone* "False hope. False hope."

"Look! We're in Orc Country!"

I am writing this in the front seat of Fraulein's van Carrie, as she drives down the TCH. We are listening to John Mayer on my computer, and just finished milkshakes.

Is this a epic road trip, or is this an epic road trip? You're right, it's an epic road trip! You're so clever.... *pats you on the head*

We left our town yesterday, to travel to the West Coast (of Newfoundland), specifically, to /Location Censored/. Our friend Historian was getting married! Though of course, at this point, the proper tense is "is now married," but I'm hardly a grammar stickler. Only when i want to be. :D (Woah, Police car.)

*cough* Is it legal to be on a laptop in a car? I think it is.... It's not as though I'm the one driving, or anything. (Heheh, we just passed Boot Brook, where someone has nailed rubbers to the highway sign. This amused me.) ANYHOW. Yes, Fraulein is the one driving. It is her car, after all. I am merely a humble passenger.

We made the incredible and amazing five hour journey yesterday, and arrived at the church just as the decorating committee arrived. (That was a tire by the side of the road. Strangeness.) I should probably mention that the journey takes a normal person four hours, and certain members of Historian's family all of three hours. But we're nice law-abiding characters, and also we stopped at Wal-Mart to buy sandals and band-aids. Fraulein got some lovely strappy sandals, and I got a pair of black leather gladiator sandals. (This amuses me too.) (You know who makes good music? Terry Penney. You should go buy some. Especially the album "Time That Town Forgot". Go, look on itunes, gosh. *sings along to Plan B*) However, we did have a little tiny bit of trouble getting into Wal-Mart. We drove into the wrong parking lot, which didn't have an exit in the way we wanted to go. Well, that's no problem. We'll just cut across this flat empty lot and get into the right parking lot that way- It wasn't flat. That "empty" lot contained a marvelous selection of novelty potholes, to the extent that we conducted an impromptu test of the suspension, seat belts, and cup holders. The cup holders failed the test, but everything else passed with flying colours. GJ Carrie! (Which is the name of Fraulien's van, in case you've forgotten.)

When we got to the church, we helped blow up balloons at the church, set out tables, twisted streamers, and generally assisted in making the church basement beautiful. Then we went back to Historian's house, where Fraulein and I hung out played wii fit, tried on dresses, and talked with his sisters.

Oh! There was a previous triumph I should mention, where we dispensed with the mapquest directions and used an actual map to find the church. It was very exciting. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I have thrown continuity out of the window, there to shatter spectacularly and be run over. If you can't figure out what I'm saying, you don't deserve to know what's going on in my tremendous life! And the girls wanted to straighten my hair, and I said something about it previously having taken three people two hours to do so. They viewed this as a challenge. So my hair is now straight, and I don't recognize myself in the mirror. :D

In the morning we got a crash course in how to use the video cameras, and then we filmed the ceremony in the afternoon! (Someone left a red jacket by the side of the road.) This was the first ceremony that I've been to where I actually knew the people involved, which made it rather different. I was priviledged to be able to be zoomed in, via camera, on the faces of the (deliriously) happy couple, and they were very, very cute. *grins* They spent the time beaming at each other, and then being embarrassed about the people there, and then forgetting to be embarrassed and beaming at each other. Everybody together now, say "awwww!"

Which leads me again to hope our filming job was good... *nervous*

However, both Frauelien and I are working tomorrow, so we had to leave right after the ceremony. And now we're pelting down the highway, heading for home.

I hope we get to a Tims soon, I could really use some coffee.

Fraulein: "Your name is Fred!" *bites gummy snake* *pauses* "Oh, I really shouldn't have named my snake before I ate it."

"You burn like the sun, but all I need is the moon."

It's been sunny here for several days, and things are turning green. Green? What is this? This is Newfoundland, I'm not supposed to have to cope with green! The warmer temperatures have reminded me of the fact that my skin always decides to develop eczema  when I can walk around without a coat on. *sigh* At least I probably won't have to deal with florida temperatures this year! See, there is an upside to everything! 

And yes, this post really has nothing of note in it. You should just go give up and go to Tims, and drink some coffee. Doesn't that sound like a lovely plan? *nods* Yes, yes it does. Get me a medium double double double cupped, please?

At any rate, this is May Two Four weekend, based on the close proximity of Victoria day. Now, as everyone knows, May Two Four opens the national parks. Therefore, it's the beginning of summer camping seasons! Most of town, it seems are spending the weekend out at cabins, breaking in some Christmas Presents at the parks, or just pulled off the road at some gravel pits somewhere. (Wasn't that a clear sentence? I'm proud. I can write, I can!) This camping is unshakable tradition. It is also tradition that the weather is always AWEFUL for May Two Four. Spitting rain, sleet, fog, snow, clouds of mosquitoes, we get it all. And then when it snowed last weekend, the general consensus was that this weekend was going to be one for the history books. Flash floods and lightning strikes and things of that ilk were loudly predicted. 

Only now, as I think I have previously mentioned, it is sunshiny and gorgeous out. Newfoundland weather; never what you expect. 

"And if anything about this flight or the service doesn't meet your standards, please feel free to lower those standards!"

I went to Moon Unit's church on Sunday! She attends a Reform Presbyterian church. This was the first time I'd attended that particular denomination, and it was quite interesting. I realized the bulk of my church attendance, that I remember, at least, has been either Highly liturgical, fairly Charismatic, or home churching. And this was none of the above. :D *thinks* There's stained glass, and no organ or piano? How do I cope?!? 

However, I liked it. There wasn't the mega-church effect that inspires panic attacks in me, I agreed with the theology I heard, and the people seemed genuinely friendly, without stalking the new people. Also, there was coffee after the service, and then potluck. *big grin* Free food? I'm there! 

Then we had to go back home, get my luggage together, check for things left behind, and go to the airport. *cut to Moon Unit and I remaining determinedly up-beat the whole way, despite shakiness* We got caught in a small amount of traffic on the way. Not much, but just enough to make getting checked in and through security more URGENT than usual. 

So I checked in, in a matter of less then ten minutes- God Bless West Jet- and hurried down through security. Zaktrik had come to see me off as well, which was nice of him. At that point of panic about missing my flight, however, I waved, said good-bye, and dashed off through security with a minimum of protracted farewells to anyone. And I made my flight with minute to spare, which I am sure is a tribute to the power of prayer. 

However, once we got to Toronto, it chanced that only one of the runways was open. So we circled the city for some time. 

While we were circling, I realized, with a shocking lack of panic, that I had 35 minutes to make my connection. Before I started being delayed. Mmmmm. Well, if I got stuck in Toronto, I know people to call! And there's free internet, I could go to the Lush store, and it would make a great blog entry! Yes, that is the way I think, in actuality. However, we landed only a few minutes late, and I started walking quickly through the airport. Speed walk... And while speed walking, I hear the final boarding call for my flight come over the intercom. That is a marvelously motivational thing to hear. You find that your speed walking in heels can indeed accelerate even faster. 

Fast enough to see two other women closing in on your gate just ahead of you, and the door still open! Yay! We scurried down the tunnel onto the plane, the door closing behind me, and hurried to our respective seats. Whereupon we then sat on the tarmac for ten extra minutes, while the one usable runway was opened up. Air travel is so logical, timeline wise... 

Then I got into St. Johns, yadda yadda yadda, got my baggage, blah blah blah, took a taxi to Ms. B's house, yabbla yabbla yabbla, went to ring her to let her know I was there- and she doesn't have her apartment set up with a bell. Okay, I seem to remember something like this in the planning session. I am just gonna call her cell phone. Only I don't have a cell phone. Right. Okay, I'll ring the other people in the building who I know. They don't answer. No need to panic, no need to panic, I'll just log onto the internet- I have the password from when I stayed here before- and msn her that I'm here. A quick check later, I can't see her internet router. Maybe panic is a good idea... No, wait! I can just sleep here on the bench in the lobby until someone comes in, and get them to let me into the building! Only, I seem to remember that it's almost 1 o-clock, and I've heard complaining rumors about people coming in loaded drunk after midnight to this building, making all kinds of noise... So, uh, uh, uh, I'll go out and throw rocks at her window! Sadly, (and yes I am saddened by this, at this hour), I can't identify which one is her window. It's a three story building, and even shouting in my best WHERE-ARE-THE-NEFARIOUS-TRAITORS-WHO-HAVE-COMMITTED-THIS-TERRIBLE-TRESPASS voice does not provoke a magical turning on of lights or head at the door. 

This is about where I sat down on my luggage in the wet grass and reassessed my situation. It was after midnight. I was tired. I had no phone. I had no cash. I apparently had no place to stay. I was in the student ghetto. It was dark (but not raining!) 

What to do? I could go to the mall, which I could see, only they close at night. And so does the Tim's in the mall, obviously. And so does the University library, oddly enough. But there, there's the hospital! I can see it! Open 24 hours! And I know people there, I know the cafeteria, I even know where there are vacant couches! Plus, I only have to get on the bus in 6 hours, now. I can stay awake for six hours, if needed. Right? Right. Cue me standing up and getting ready to progress down the street. But then one little niggling bit of social graces in the back of my head mentioned that it'd be hard to explain why I didn't show up at Ms. B's apartment, after making all those arrangements. Plus I might need to explain to my parents.... I decided to try the other doors in the fire escape and such. Just in case. So I could say I really couldn't get in- oh look this one opens i don't have to sleep on the side of the hallway!

And I got inside, had a lovely time chatting and not sleeping with Ms. B, slept on the bus, and made it home without further drama. I even had a welcoming committee. 

The committee had put up a banner for me. :D

"You whip out a couple of swords at your ex-girlfriends wedding. They will never, ever forget it. "

Due to the late night on Friday, Rose stayed the night at Moon Unit's house. And in the morning, one of the things we did was take a ramble around Moon Unit's property. It's pretty, I see why Moon Unit likes it. *nods* According to tradition, I took pictures and walked into tree branches.

 You'll notice there are no pictures of me here? That's because I am nefariously clever and deflected any picture-taking by taking all the pictures anyone might possibly want myself, and also because I caught a branch or two with my face. No, no pictures, please. 

And then we went and met up with Zaktrik and Rose's older brother and his friend in the nearby town of /Location Censored/. We were going to watch Wolverine, which had just come out. In the Theatre! *jazz hands* I'm usually about a three hour drive away from a theatre, so I don't get in to see movies much. And this was a very fun one. 

[Movie thoughts]

Characters;

• Deadpool was lovely, until he stopped talking. My title is one of his lines. 
  
• I less than three Bolt/Bradley. All his lights. *grins* 
  
• Sabertooth was lame and insane.
  
• Gambit needs his own movie. How Gambit Breaks Out Of The Island, yes plz?
  
• Cyclops was shiny when he wasn't being a microphone for Professor X. 
  
• Agent Zero was shiny when he was fighting, and lame otherwise.
• Wolverine was not as much fun as when he was in the X-men movies. 

Plot;

• There was a plot?
  

Overall;

• If you didn't like the X-men movies, don't go and see it. It has the same flavor as the previous three.
  
• The fight scenes were EXCELLENT. 
• The music was good. 

[/Movie thoughts]

"You couldn't kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy bit!" "Meet the greatest actor who ever lived. I'd rather kiss a tarantula."

Friday night was Movie Night! We're so awesome, we had to start our "night" at 4:30, with punch and doughnuts and pizza and root beer and, uh, pie. A whole bunch of Moon Unit's friends from homeschooling events and such came over, and we completely took over the (fortunately soundproof) family room. Fortunately I already had met quite about half of the attendees, which included Zaktrik, Boudewijn, and Rose! *cheering is heard* 

However, it has been brought to my attention that apparently Rose, Moon Unit and I all look rather similar. Something about our hair colour, glasses, eccentric dress and deranged manner. And to further confound the issue, apparently Rose and I have a similar manner of standing in corners and watching people. At any rate, one of the guests walked up and hugged me when she walked in. Moon Unit said, "Oh, *Joss,* this is *Snazel*, who you've heard a lot about-" and Joss jumped back, mortified. "Oh, I thought you were *Rose*!" This served as a good ice breaker, in fact, especially since when Rose arrived everyone had to tell her the story.

And then we had supper, which was lovely. You know, I was gonna caption these pictures, but on looking at them, I really don't think it's necessary. 

Interesting how we had the Young group, the Old group, and the Cool group. With partial overlaps. But still. 

Anyhow, we watched Singin' in the Rain first. It's an older movie, 1952, and hilarious. You should all see it. :D It's a musical, as you may have noticed from the title, and knows it's a musical. Doesn't take its self too seriously? Lots of lovely quotes- my title is one- and pretty song and dance routines. 

Reload and regroup for movie two! We made another punch bowl, broke into the squares, and settled in for MirrorMask. This one's written by Neil Gaiman, which, if you're familiar with that writer, gives you a fair idea the film. The majority of it is inside a dream, for one. Moon Unit was describing it to people as "very trippy." It just looks so different, all kinds of different. *looks at what she's just written* Did I actually say "all kinds of different?" Impressive. *cough* Anyway... I'd watched it once before, with Third World and Moon Unit, after midnight while studying for exams. And my initial impression of "this is so on drugs. But I like it!" was reaffirmed. I could pay attention to little things this time, instead of just being confused over the plot. I'm not sure if those who hadn't seen it liked it, though. It is a very strange film. 

When we were done with MirrorMask, it was still only 8:30. And since going home then would just be toooo "homeschooler," a label we're all eager to avoid- *chokes* *coughing fit*- we decided to watch another! Enter Signs, which I hadn't seen, though most everyone else had. I don't scream in scary movies, I'll just say that right now, but I definitely flinch. It worked out that we had the screamers on one side of the room, and the flinchers on the other side. :D I nearly crushed Moon Unit's hand at one point. Look, when you're in a dark room with eerie film playing, you want to know where someone else is! Right? Right. *serious nod* And it wasn't my favorite movie of all time, but it was interesting. And jumpy, at least for several people, as I believe I mentioned. Hands poking out from under doors just do interesting things to my heart rate. 

And then it was 11:30, and everyone went home, secure in the knowledge that they'd done their part towards not being "Homeschoolers." :D

My Good People! I missed my introduction!

So, how far am I caught up? Oh yes, through Tuesday. So what glittering social occasion did Snazel and Moon Unit and entourage attend next? 

We ran errands. And it was fun. :D Wednesday, we hung out talked, ate waffles, watched Stargate and washed dishes at Rose's house until lunchtime. Then we made our way over to where Moon Unit's family was, and shopped for groceries and sundry assorted things for one of Moon Unit's siblings birthday party on Saturday. (Read- we browsed the electronics section, the book room and EB games while shopping took place.) And in the evening Moon Unit and I watched A Knight's Tale, which was hilarious,

Jocelyn: Sir Ulrick. What are you wearing to the ball tonight?
William: [who isn't planning on going to the ball] er... nothing...
Jocelyn: Well, we shall cause a sensation, for I shall dress to match.

William: Oi sir, what are you doing?
Chaucer: Uh... trudging. You know, trudging?
[pause]
Chaucer: To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.
William: Uhhh... were you robbed?
Chaucer: [laughs] Funny really, yes, but at the same time a huge resounding no. It's more of an... involuntary vow of poverty... really.

Adhemar: And you are?
William: Well, I am, um.
Adhemar: You've forgotten, or your name is Sir Um?
William: Ulrich von Lichtenstein from Gelderland.
Adhemar: Well, I'd forget as well, what a mouthful.

Chaucer: You're good. You're very good. My lords, my ladies, and everybody else here not sitting on a cushion!
[crowd roars]
Chaucer: Today... today, you find yourselves equals.
[crowd roars]
Chaucer: For you are all equally blessed. For I have the pride, the privilege, nay, the pleasure of introducing to you to a knight, sired by knights. A knight who can trace his lineage back beyond Charlemagne. I first met him atop a mountain near Jerusalem, praying to God, asking his forgiveness for the Saracen blood spilt by his sword. Next, he amazed me still further in Italy when he saved a fatherless beauty from the would-be ravishing of her dreadful Turkish uncle.
[crowd, boo]
Chaucer: In Greece he spent a year in silence just to better understand the sound- of a whisper. And so without further gilding the lily, and with no more ado, I give to you, the seeker of serenity, the protector of Italian virginity, the enforcer of our Lord God, the one, the only, Sir Ulllrrrich von Lichtenstein!
[crowd roars]
Chaucer: Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.

Chaucer: I'm a writer.
Wat: A what?
Chaucer: A wha- a what? A writer. You know, I write, with ink, and parchment. Geoffrey Chaucer's the name, writing's the game. You've probably read my book? the Book of the Duchess? No? Well, it was allegorical.
Roland: Well, we won't hold that against you, that's for every man to decide for himself.

...and then we wrote. Oh, I forgot to mention that on Monday we watched Sinbad: legend of the seven seas, which was also hilarious, and soooo quotable! But since I've already spammed you with Knight's Tale quotes, I'll only give you one.

Sinbad: "I've seen the kind of highbred boys your kind runs with with. I'm the only man you've ever met!"

Incedently, Third World was the first person I'd ever heard quote that movie, which, given some of the lines, was disconcerting, to say the least. 

And on Thursday we roamed around the cemetery next to Moon Unit's house, and did more things which I can't quite remember at this time. Oh! We visited the house of Boudewijn, where I was introduced to lambs for the first time. :D 

Boudewijn is Moon Unit's Sunday School partner, and his family is heavily involved in Moon Unit's church, as is Moon Unit's family. (Wow, can I write convoluted sentences or can I write convoluted sentences? (And no, you don't get a picture of him or his family yet.)) I'm afraid I'm not quite as enthusiastic about fuzzy things as most everyone else- in the world- so I took pictures while the others squeed over the fuzzy bouncing things. *sheepish grin*

Here. *shoves pictures at you* See, fuzzy things!

"The kids these don't say Cool, they say Slammin." "This movie is so 2008."

On Tuesday, Moon Unit and I left the country, and traveled the winding road to the bustling metropolis of /Location Censored/, where Rose lives. We were going to have a sleepover, where we were going to overdose on sugar, watch movies with much hilarity, and attempt to not sleep. And we were successful. :D

Moon Unit's and Rose's friend Carter was back from Post-Secondary Education in Vancouver, full of stories and hilarity. So we made a three layer chocolate cake and chocolate icing of Doom, with much laughing and washing dishes. Seriously, this was some intense icing. *shakes head*

Moon Unit makes icing.

 Regretably, one of the cake layers broke coming out of the pan, so we just had to eat it in broken pieces, dipped in the icing. Such hardship. 

Some hilarity with Moon Unit and Carter. 

And then we descended into the depths of the darkened basement, and watched, *hushed voice*, Twilight. For those who have managed to escape this, it's a story about a "normal" girl who falls in love with a good vampire. Who sparkles in the sun. *dry tone* It's a fangirl phenomenon, and you'd be hard pressed to find a teenage girl who is not mildly to moderately obsessed with the franchise. But because we're special, we managed to find four teenage or near-teenage girls who are not obsessed. Throw in Rose's older brother, and her older sister and her husband, and we had to watch it with the subtitles on, we were laughing so hard. ^_^

At this point, the sun was just going down. 

Question: What to do next? 

Answer: Make pull taffy!

We let Moon Unit, who is adept with a Candy Thermometer, stir the candy, while I took pictures, Carter regaled us with tales of the Wild West Coast, and Rose looked up shiny information on the internet.

Eventually the taffy was done, and we pulled it, with massive hilarity and concentration. Pulling taffy is harder than you'd think. It seems to be going along fine, and then suddenly you've got a handful of sticky spaghetti trying to escape your grasp. 

Here's our taffy in the end. Aren't you jealous?

And then we decamped down the to basement again, with a coil of candy. Where we crammed four girls and a lot of sugar and ginger beer on one couch, and watched Stargate Atlantis. We universally considered this to be much higher art than Twilight, which either reflects really poorly on us, or on Twilight, depending on your viewpoint. Sometime at about the sixth episode, we were chased upstairs by Rose's brother, who had this strange idea that he should sleep sometime, and we were making too much noise. Silly Boy. *shakes head* And then we talked of dreams and creepy people met at work, and books and tv shows, and fell sleep at some point, I assume, due to a gap in my memory. 

Then we made waffles and talked and watched a little more Stargate, and left Rose to her own devices. It was an excellent sleepover.

"You're from the East Coast, aren't you?"

One of the things I had been rather loud about, while at Augustine, was donating blood. And Moon Unit had promised, back in the day, that she would go with me and donate next time I did. Of course, shortly after the promising I moved back to Newfoundland, so she seemingly escaped from that pledge. 

And then I came to visit! *evil laughter* 

I even made the appointments for us, and dragged Moon Unit along with me. We drove to a park-and-ride, and then rode the bus across town to the national headquarters. This was Moon Unit's first donation, so she was a bit- not nervous, but tense. Something about needles and blood and the smells of a hospital tends to do that to people. I don't know why... *pretends she wasn't flinching at small noises the whole time herself* 

So we filled out the detailed questionaries. Those always amuse me, in a perverse way. Mostly because I answer no to all the questions about health issues, travel, and especially relationships. I'm just not a high risk individual!

And then we got to sit in big cushy laz-e-boy chairs, while they stuck needles in our arms. Don't you wish you were there? I got hooked up a little before Moon Unit, but then I kept clotting up, so the nurses were doing a lot of hovering. "Just squeeze this ball here, every ten seconds, okay? Keep the arm still. *adjusts needle* Keep squeezing..." 

During the delicate operation of adjusting the needle again, one of the nurses spent some time staring at my chest. And, carefully not meeting my eyes, said the following. 

"I saw your shirt, and first I thought it said "I heart Baby Seals." And I thought, that's nice, that's nice, Seals are cute. But then I looked again, and I saw there was a club there." She paused. "You're from the East Coast, aren't you?" 

And I laughed and said I was, and she went to deal with Moon Unit, who was bleeding beautifully. In fact, Moon Unit finished her donation about five minutes before I was done, and stood by my chair until the nurses decided they were not going to get a full donation out of me, and pulled the needle out.

Then we headed on to get refreshments! Free tea and cookies, what is not to love? So I was trying to figure out the coffee machine, when from behind me I hear Moon Unit say dreamily, "I'm just gonna.. sit down.. here." Looking around quickly proved that she was about the colour of a sheet of paper, and listing to the right. The volunteers and nurses quickly had her sit down and put her head between her knees, and then rushed over a stretcher, and wheeled her away behind a curtain, and took her blood pressure, and fed her juice, and fanned her, and generally Moon Unit was the centre of attention. Meanwhile, I drank tea, and juice, and ate my way through the basket of cookies. I'm such a considerate friend. 

At any rate, they eventually let her out, and I made her eat some more cookies. Then we decided to take our free mugs and get out of the hospital-smelling atmosphere. To the mall! Moon Unit magically had some more bus tickets, so that was good. Though while waiting for the bus we were both tired enough that we just sat down by the sidewalk- and found later that we'd been sitting in a collection of broken glass. You know the pebbles of safety glass that get everywhere after a windshield is broken? Apparently someone had had a windshield broken right about where we chose to sit down. But we only realized this later, observant girls. 

It was right about that time that we started joking that I had been having all the attention on me, so Moon Unit had to faint to get the attention on her. We just want attention! 

And then I started feeling stomach sick. Tempting fate much? Oops....  Maybe we just need to eat. That sound about right! So when we got to the mall we reconvene at the food court. We decide on Thai food and root beer, and head off in separate directions to get said food and drink. 

Standing in line in front of the heat lamps, Moon Unit almost falls over. "I'm.. just... gonna sit down... over here. Call me when it's ready!" *she escapes the evil line and sits down* And then she comes back to the table, and finds me lying across two chairs, eyes closed. 

Moon unit: "Are you okay?"

Me: "Fine..."

Moon Unit: "Do you want to eat-"

Me: "No!"

She was rather pale at the time too. I took this particular picture to show how much better she was looking, now that she had some colour back in her face. And then I looked at it and went whatttt???? That's less pale???? *cough*

Then we decided that the attention seeking was getting out of control, so we should just take the bus home before we were hit by a bus or set ourselves on fire, or something. Moon Unit ate the Pad Thai, and I drank the Root Beer, and we headed for the bus stop. *sigh* I made it about a hundred yards before I had to run for a garbage can to throw up in. Fortunately for the mall staff I was NOT actually sick, I just attempted to cough up a lung, and then collapsed on a bench.  (See picture there. \/ )

At that was when Moon Unit called her dad and asked him to drive us to where we'd left the car. It was very exciting. 

Some people can ride the bus to places, or give blood, without incident. Lesson of the day: we are not those people.

~I can't think of anything clever to put here~

Sunday, we'd planned for Moon Unit and I to go to Zaktrik's church. However, we didn't know exactly where it was, so he was going to stop by the college and pick us up at about 9:30. And then we would go attend his Anglican-Catholic church. This was a good plan, don't you think? Yes, a good plan. 

However, it was not to be. 

Zaktrik overslept. 

I'd like to be able to take shift some of the blame off from him by saying that the Augustine socializing of the day before had extended till midnight, after which he'd had to go home. I could also say that he hadn't been getting enough sleep for the previous six weeks of writing papers and exams, or that there was a power bump in the night- but it wouldn't make any difference. I could also point out that I haven't made a practice of attending liturgical churches, uh, ever, and that attending "normal" charismatic churches usually inspires panic attacks of some kind, but still.*shakes head sadly* The fact remains- he overslept. On Sunday. And we didn't go to church. We're such heathens. 

It's tragic, really. We had to hang out at the college drink tea, eat chocolate cake and leftover veggies from the dinner yesterday, and discuss everything under the sun, while lolling around the living room of a Christian College. The horror. 

Oh, we also took some pictures. That is, I took some pictures. It was very exciting. 

Zaktrik finds something amusing. 

TTGH is also amused. About the same thing? I'm not sure. 

Moon Unit watches the Serbians across the street. 

Laptop, tea, books, pepsi, quilts, bowl of strange candy, and sunshine. Still life with Augustine College.

And then later Moon Unit's parents came and picked up her and myself, and we went back to her house out in the country. 

"How did you get here?" "I took a bus, a shuttle and two planes, and caught a ride with Moon Unit's parents."

On Friday night, after arriving safely in Ottawa, Moon Unit and I hung out at mocked and stalked the College and met this year's crop of insane students, as well as several alumni from previous years. And then Moon Unit and I kept each other awake for far too long, talking and laughing. 

And then Saturday was the grad! In traditional form, most of the class came over to the College early to be nervous and offer adjectives for the Valedictorian's speech. So we hung out drank tea, talked about papers and vegetables, and were companionable for a little, and then walked over to the church where the service was taking place. 

Ruth enjoys the tea and scones.

Em and TTGH are amused.

Em and TTGH are serious. 

We reconvened in the sunny living room once the boys started to arrive.

Moon Unit and TTGH are companionable. 

The service was quite similar to last year's, only this time I sat on the other side of the church, and I didn't get a piece of paper with Latin on it. *dejected* But I got to wear a lovely black robe again!  Here is a pic of the graduating class, and a view of the church. It's a high Anglican church, in case that's not obvious from the candles, iconography, and general decor. 

After the service was the dinner, where according to tradition, the Alumni help serve the food and clean up. Which, given the hilarious and hardworking people who are Augustine Alumni, is actually oodles of fun. And it continued to be fun, despite the fact that the dishwashing took approximately two to three hours. After about 90 minutes time ceased to exist in the normal fashion. I just know that it was light when we got there, and dark and raining when we left. I was rather tired as well, so that might contribute to the haziness of my memory of that afternoon. :D The professors didn't know that I was coming either, so I had some fun moments when they did double-takes at me. 

And then we went back to the college and hung out drank tea, ate cake, and took pictures. I offer you a selection of the best pictures, for your eternal edification. 

There was a moment when, for unknown reasons, my hat started being passed around the room. And my camera was following it, taking pictures.

Write more later!