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this weekend there be dragons

March 28th, 2010 @ 11:59 am

I seem to be having a pretty dragon-filled weekend! I am currently reading the fourth book in the Fablehaven series, Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary (although I am half-way through and we haven’t gotten to the dragons yet), I have two other books that I am eagerly awaiting to come out which are also about dragons. Perhaps Dragons are this year’s vampires, werewolves and zombies? Either way I like dragons better than those other ones, so I am happy. But the coolest dragon thing that happened this weekend?

We went to see How to Train Your Dragon on opening weekend! Yes, my friends, this is totally out of the norm for us. We hate crowded theaters and we never go to a movie on opening weekend. And to be honest we didn’t think we’d get to see this one until it came out on DVD due to the fact that it was IN 3D!!! everywhere. Except it was playing at two theaters that had one 2D version each. One of which was right near us and we still had gift certificates left so…

We went to the first showing of the movie yesterday. I figured if we did the earliest showing, during lunch and it was 2D we might not have a completely full theatre… sure enough I was (mostly) right. We got our favourite seats (two seats over the door so no one can sit in front of us and we have a ledge to put our food on, heh) and were the first ones in the room, as we were with the last movie we saw (which was Percy Jackson & the Olympians and it was just HORRID). If there weren’t two complete middle rows reserved for a kid’s birthday party, I think there would have been about 15 of us at that particular showing of the movie. I was grumpy about the entire rows of little kids, but for the most part they kept quiet. I only had to shush them once.

But enough about that.. what you really need to know is that this movie is fantastic! It’s funny, charming and the animation is superb! There’s this one scene near the end where the Viking chief is searching for his son through smoke and I swear to you that it looked like a real person running through that smoke. It was breathtaking. I have to say that DreamWorks is giving Pixar a run for their money when it comes to animation.

We were both concerned that we wouldn’t really like Hiccup, the main character when the movie started however that worry went away quickly. I was laughing out loud within the first 3 minutes of the movie and I knew then and there that I will need to own this movie the second it comes out on DVD. I am already trying to think of whom-else I can tag along with to see this movie a second time. I can’t remember the last time I wanted to see a movie more than once, especially as soon as the credits rolled. This was the most enjoyable movie I have seen in ages. Sure I loved Up! (when we finally got to see it on DVD last month) but it made me cry a lot and was more dramatic than this movie was, but HtTYD is sheer funny from start to finish, with a little scary thrown in near the end for good measure (which didn’t seem to bother the rows of little kids, but *I* was scared! I’m a wuss, what can I say?).

The different types of dragons were brilliant. The personalities of the Night Fury was priceless and I think they might have used Annie as a model for some of his behaviour and movements. Actually a few of the dragons reminded us of Annie, as did the sheep. I think DreamWorks owes us some royalties for Annie’s modeling. Hmm.

If you have the chance to see this movie at the cinema, do it. You will laugh, you will gasp and you might tear up at some point. You will have nothing but fun for the duration of the film. And, you will also leave wanting your very own dragon and trying to figure out how you can make that happen.

Well done, DreamWorks, well done. And thanks for having some shows in 2D so those who can’t see 3D are able to enjoy the movie as well.

And now we’re out of gift certificate money and so we’ll have to budget in a movie if we really want to see it (aka Iron Man 2 and Harry Potter this year!). I find it sad that $100 in gift certificates, plus two Admit One certificates only resulted in 3 movies (with food) total. Yikes. Those prices are insane!

tv/movies     5 comments - (Comments are closed)  

attack of the croooooooooows!

March 21st, 2010 @ 5:05 pm

I have had all the blinds pulled this afternoon due to a migraine and it’s just that kind of glare outside that kills me the most. But I was opening the back blinds to let some light in when Jinx noticed this huge crow staring into our living room from the wires outside. Jinx did not approve. I wasn’t about to let him out since I knew he’d just bark at it and frankly, I’m scared of crows. They are evil.

That’s when I noticed there were about 50 billion crows in the back yard and surroundings. Gah! So I let Jinx out to defend our home. Take that, crows!

These ones are SMALL. There are rooster-sized ones hovering around as well. But they must be camera shy because they fly away as soon as I try to snap their photo. Probably afraid I’ll capture their evil souls.

Jinx was quite concerned about the crows in his yard. Not quite as bad as squirrels, but even the squirrels know better than to stick around with the evil crows.

The yard is crow-free, however they are still up on the electric wires and in the trees.

Right before they settled in these trees they all flew up from the yard below (not mine) and it was SO LOUD – and that was just their wings! *shudder*

The one good thing about all these crows? I got this awesome shot of my Winxy Jinx!

(You can click some of these to enlarge – like if you want to see the billions of crows up close)

jinx, various & sundry     3 comments - (Comments are closed)  

highlander finnegan – there can be only one!

March 20th, 2010 @ 12:11 pm

Hi there! Finnegan D. Ephalent MD here to tell you about the exciting Highland Dancing competition I was asked to be at last weekend! Obviously the Montreal Highland Dancing Association is well aware of my Scottish heritage and my ability to look hella awesome in a kilt. I took Mummy and Daddy with me since I had no other means of transportation to get there. Luckily they did not hinder my magic with the ladeez.

This here is Elizabeth, my Mummy’s BFF. They have been friends since she was 5 – because they were both the same age at the time. Now Elizabeth is 8 and a very pretty highland dancer. This was her first competition.

This is Elizabeth’s sister Rebecca. She’ll be 5 in May. She’s almost the right age for my Mummy. Wait, that sounds wrong doesn’t it? This was also Rebecca’s first competition. She did her Bubblegum and a Peanut Butters. Whatever that means. Either way, she did it very adorably!

This is my Daddy’s Amazon, Mo. She’s also friends with my Mummy, but really she belongs to Daddy. I think she’s very pretty and I might have made some moves on her.

Here I am in all my handsome highlander glory with some very pretty highland wenches! Look how I put such big smiles on their faces! No one can resist my ephalent charms!

Elise is my most favourite Highland Wench. She couldn’t keep her hands off of me. I might be a little smitten with her. She’s dating a Jazz musician. I can totally take him out with one of my patented Butt Bops. Muahahah.

Do you see my Highland Wench on stage? You’d better be watching her and cheering her on! Or I’ll Butt Bop you!

Hmm, Elise is a rather angry Wench and seems to be skilled in the art of 1920′s fisticuffs. I’d best stay on her good side. *swoon*

Daddy might be all happy that his Amazon is holding on to him, but just look at who is getting the smoochies! ME! I am so irresistible! The other dude is the Amazon’s “husband”. Yeah, I can take him out, too.

And that brings me to the end of my highander report from last weekend! Luckily I didn’t have to fight off any rivals with swords. It was a little sketchy there for a while when the swords came out, but thankfully I did not have to chop anyone’s head off. I really didn’t feel like getting my kilt all bloody last weekend. That’s more of an April event.

Until next time my minions! This is Finnegan D. Ephalent MD signing off!

finnegan     5 comments - (Comments are closed)  

happy st. patrick’s day!!

March 17th, 2010 @ 1:55 pm

I’m decked out, are you?

the anomaly that is me     4 comments - (Comments are closed)  

i’m not dead, i’m just resting my eyes

March 12th, 2010 @ 7:39 pm

A big ol’ hello to my 5 readers! *wave* Ok, so I know I have more than 5 of you out there, I’m just being silly.

It feels like it’s been forever since I have been online in any sort of fun, non-work related way. I have so much to blog about but my stupid eyes are taking forever to heal and I am trying very hard to be a good girl and rest them on the weekends. I have to say that I can see almost everything normally about 90% of the time right now except that using my computer at work all week is frying my eyeballs. Sigh. So last week I put a ban on using Molly the laptop and only logged on 3 times to check email, write the Birthday Belly post and then to transfer money from accounts since I realized I had not yet done that.

And that’s where the story starts, my friends.

Well, that’s not quite where it starts, but it’s where I am starting.

So I was on this self-imposed computer vacation over the weekend, right? And so I went off with Shawn to his Dungeons & Dragons game (and had a fun time just watching, because to play? It looks terrifyingly daunting! Too much MATH!) and whilst there some random 800-number phoned and I missed it but then got a text-message of the voicemail (did I mention I also got an iPhone recently? Like, last week. And I LOVE IT!) and it said that my bank card had been compromised and please change the pin if you have one of those new secure chip cards, blah, blah, blah. It was Shawn’s card and we went and changed the pin like good little law abiding people. And that was that. The odd thing is that on the Friday I had thought, I’d best transfer the money I needed to while the banks were still open since payments were due on a Monday and I have run into that “your card is cancelled” thing over a weekend before and it sucked. Premonition maybe? Can’t I have a decent Charmed One power? Like the blowing up or moving things with my mind?

Anyway…

So I forget about transferring the money until I am on my way to bed Sunday night at 10PM. I was going up to bed with my book, all relaxed to read 2 pages before I fell asleep. Remembering I needed to get that money from one account to the other I took Molly up to bed with me and logged into my bank… only to notice that the account in question was $300 IN OVERDRAFT. Um.. guh? I checked the transactions and ran downstairs in a t-shirt only, holding my laptop and called down to Shawn in the basement asking if when he “tested” the card with the new pin if he happened to take out $482 dollars. He took out $20. So our money was gone.

Before we got the call from the bank of course. But we never checked. GAH!

I was so upset that I couldn’t even dial the stupid number to the bank and Shawn eventually did it and spoke with someone. We had to go to the bank branch of the account that was empties and file a report, etc. Since it was out joint account we both went. We both got to work stupidly late on Monday but the bank did give us our money back saying  even though we had to be told it was temporary due to the investigation it was pretty obvious it was fraud. I told the adorable bank teller that I could assure her the heart attack I had at 10PM the night before was completely legit. heh

Fast forward to Wednesday morning as we’re getting dressed to go to work and my cell rings again – turns out it’s the bank calling because MY card was compromised and I needed to change the pin!! What the hell?!?! So we drove to the bank on the way to work, I changed my pin, but we couldn’t wait until 10AM for it to open so I stopped at the bank downtown on the way to my hair appointment and got a new card. THIS time our money was safe and we CHECKED when I changed my pin.

Stupid week. The bank, or the dumbass thieves out there who clone cards, owe us 2 days of parking money since both of these trips robbed Shawn of his free parking spaces.

Meanwhile my eyes are up and down, but for the most part I am feeling almost  normal again vision-wise. Yesterday they even made their own moisture! I was so proud of them!

And other things… last Sunday (before the theft discovery) we went out to dinner for my father’s birthday – which was this past Monday and then we all went back to my parents’ place for cake. A pound cake that my mum made that was delicious and weighed at least 1o pounds. But the best part?

My mother actually LIT the happy birthday candles!!!

The candles that I swear we have had for at least 10 years that she got at the dollar store and NEVER EVER get lit. It was such an event I had to document it.

Also of note, the glasses my niece gave me some new glasses to help my eyes heal since she was very concerned about my eye surgery.

How about that! They match my hair and my star tattoos. She’s very thoughtful my 3 1/2 year old niece is. I think it’s a good look for me.

And since I had a birthday post for both of my dogs with photos it seems only fair that I honour my father as well. As the Bible says Honour thy father and all that stuff. So here’s to you, Daddy!

I love you, old man! ;)

And lastly, this evening I looked out my front window and it looked like the sky was on fire. I couldn’t capture it decently with my camera, but it was breath-taking. Yet again, sky phase this year.

And that’s it for now, I think. I squished a whole bunch of stuff in this one post. Sorry about that! I have my 2-week follow-up at the Lasik clinic tomorrow and will see if my eyes are healing normally or if anything is wrong. Have to say I’m slightly nervous, but I was told due to my having dry eyes to begin with it could take longer than most. And to be honest, I am not a very fast healer in general.

I shall try to be computer-free as much as I can this long weekend (we took Friday and Monday off this week for vacation for Shawn and to celebrate his birthday!) I don’t know how well I’ll do, but at least I can read BOOKS now so I’m going through those pretty fast.

Toodles, lovelies!

various & sundry   ,   5 comments - (Comments are closed)  
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