Top 5s of 2008

(for this thing Brandy is doing. Check her out more next week to see)

Top 5 Favourite Colour Combinations of 2008
1. dark green and light green
2. yellow and black
3. green and brown
4. navy and brown
5. black and green

Top 5 Best Bandwagons that I Finally Jumped on in 2008
1. 30 Rock (the show)
2. Feministing (the website)
3. Mates of State (the band)
4. Fluid dynamics (the joy of)
5. Catch-22 (the book)

Top 5 Biggest Purchases of 2008
1. Tuition
2. Physiotherapy
3. Laptop
4. Flight to improv camp
5. Textbooks

Just Latin talk

Jack, my six year old brother, asked me to get him a drink and I said sure.

Jack: Thanks, my little ancilla

Me: Your what?

Jack: oh, it's just Latin talk

Me: What does it mean?

Jack: slave girl

Despite the headbands, I am no Blair

I just want Teen Vogue to tell me which Gossip Girl character I am. But to do so I must answer:

Finally it's the weekend and you are uniform-free! What do you choose to wear for a day out?

-Jeans and a cute top with quirky jewelry from my endless collection.

-Something feminine and fun: a flirty dress with a bow in my hair to top it off.

-A bold dress I designed myself, worn with heels and socks.

-Skinny jeans, a loose top, a vest, and heels. It's effortless but still turns heads.

No joke, internet. I have been staring at this question for about 5 minutes. It's embarrassing enough that I'm actually taking the quiz. Where is "jeans that my mom says make it look like I just lost 20 lbs but didn't buy new jeans yet, a free tshirt from a triathlon I did 2 summers ago, sports bra, and running shoes with orthotics?"

I guess I am just not Gossip Girl material.

New things coming up

After recent bouts of frustration due to "I wish more girls realized math was great and engineering is fun" I decided I should put my money where my mouth is. And my mouth I mean fingers (typing). And by money I mean time commitment.

So and few emails here and there, and then a phone screening this morning and let's do this, I am a volunteer mentor (well I still have to submit a police check or whatevskies but I don't have a criminal record that I know of so no sweat).

There are two positions I am considering. The first is a one-on-one type of mentorship where I hang out with a kid for an hour a week during school time. This one is more of a "provide academic, social and emotional support" type of thing, and the kid is elementary school age. The second is a group session (me and a few 12-14 year old girls) talking about promoting healthy lifestyles, and being balanced, and making plans, and gaining confidence.

I don't know which I'd rather do because I think I'd be better at one-on-one, but also that I'd be better with older girls. Blah, I don't even really care which one I do, I'm just really excited. I guess I'll do whichever is located closer to my house, on account of I don't have a car.

Anyway, I haven't been blogging much because I've been in bad moods left, right, and centre. And that is called not fun to read. However, I arrive home at 6:30pm on Saturday and Jack-man promised he'd pick me up from the airport. That's only 54 hours away!

Another reason I can't wait to get home

Rob is undoubtedly adorable, but Jack's weird eye rolling/surreptitious mock whispering is what makes this video the best. This video is from December 2007. They are so much older now!


Guitar playing from Lisa on Vimeo.

When I get home, I'm not going to stop kissing these boys for several hours.

A present for all 5 senses

This post is part of 20sb's December carnival. One of the post theme instructions was to make a list of 5 items you would like, one for each sense. I couldn't narrow it down to 1, so here are 2 items for each of the 5 senses.

Sight

1. New goggles because my old ones fog up in the pool. Even though I do the spit trick (thanks for teaching that one to me, internet!).2. A lesson in Photoshop so i can make pretty things myself

Touch

1. Love Lettuce face mask from Lush. It's kind $10 for about 2 facials worth but holy cats you guys, this stuff is worth it.
2. A UW hoodie because am I even official a college kid without the gear? This is filed under touch because being cold counts as touch, right? And man oh man do I get chilly in the winter.

Taste

1. A granny smith apple pie with caramel on top. Lin made one at thanksgiving (recipe from Pioneer Woman) and then she made another because of ya!ya!ya! These are delicious.
2. A freezerful of frozen lasagnas and chicken pot pies. That my mom made. Just because I am poor and lazy, doesn't mean I shouldn't eat tasty homemade goodness all the time, you know?

Smell

1. Non scented mousse that is good. I have really good working stuff by Aussie right now but the scent is overwhelming and all non-scented ones I've tried make your hair crusty.

2. Grapefruit scented things from the body shop. I guess I already have the scrub and the body butter but I don't have the hand lotion. Then again I never moisturize my hands. Then again my knuckles are bloody all winter long because I never moisturize. Then again whatever.

Sound

1. Tickets for The Mountain Goats if ever they come to Canada again. This gift must also include a means of transportation from Waterloo to Toronto. Thank you.

2. A good mix tape of new bands. Who doesn't want that?

Data is my boyfriend

I don't think I'm alone in my love for data. I think charting progress makes us all feel good, and a nice visual representation of fun data is enough to make me high five just about anybody. I love data because it is HARD FACT, and most data trends can be explained with enough thinking/research.

I spend A LOT of time over at baby name wizard and I get upset when my period is early/late because it means my data at mon.thly.info will have a larger standard deviation.

I got my desktop computer in Sept 2005, and in January 2008 my library iTunes deleted. I still had all my songs, but I lost all the data. All the glorious play counts and skip counts (and equally important, my playlists. Every four months I make a playlist of the songs that were important that semester, so that later when I go back and listen I really remember how I felt that semester. It's a cool thing to have. I've started over but it's still sad)

My weeping (no joke) was consoled only by the fact that I had been using last.fm for about a year, and so some of my precious data was still preserved (only play counts). However, over the summer something bad happened. My last.fm didn't scrobble anything. This is very upsetting because now my overall top played artists list is WRONG!

This summer was full of big hits. And lots of studying= lots of music playing. For example, each song on the Vampire Weekend CD had at least 30 playcounts, some even in the 50s. When I got my new laptop a few months ago I again was faced with dataless songs in my iTunes library. So according to both last.fm and my computer, I've only played Vampire Weekend a few times... INCORRECT.

This is a devastating loss of data. How now will I compose a list of my favourite albums of the year? I mean, I can obviously remember which ones I like, but I can't use emotion to distinguish between 1st and 2nd place, you know? Where's my cold hard fact when I need it?

So instead I guess I can only sum up my favourite cds of 2008 in the order in which they became my favourites (top 4 in bold)

The Mountain Goats- Heretic Pride
Hawksley Workman- Between the Beautifuls
Tilly and the Wall- O
She & Him, Volume One
Lykke Li- Youth Novels
Scarlett Johansson- Anywhere I Lay My Head
Vampire Weekend- Vampire Weekend
Girl Talk- Feed the Animals
MGMT- Orcular Spectacular
Ingrid Michaelson- Be OK
Noah and the Whale- Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down
Slow Club- Let's Fall Back in Love (does that count as an album?)
Mates of State- Re-Arrange Us

That was so hard. I just want my numbers back.

Five sisters

I've gotten really into big family blogs lately, but sometimes I really wish they would do big roundup posts so we could see all the kids at once. A good example of big family done right is FiveBlondes. Plus they are Canadian!

So I'll do a "four brothers" roundup later, but for now here is a post about five sisters.

These are my four sisters. I am the blonde, Laura is the bride, Lin is the tall one, Junie is the kiddo, and Sass is the one with hair that doesn't get frizzy.
Let's start with Lin. She is so funny and regularly sends really hilarious emails. She's also the best athlete with achievements that so far include being on triathlon Team Canada and playing for a highly prestigious hockey team (that I won't name- that's how famous the hockey team is).
Lindsay is an electrical engineer and she lives in California. She has the most freckles of all the girls and is really good at doing eyebrows. She's 27. She's also really good at baking, and discovering new things at the grocery store that are both healthy and delicious. Laura is a brown eyed bombshell and also has giant beautiful white teeth. She's probably the best at soccer, and also a very good triathlete. Fun story- at our high school, the #19 soccer jersey was worn for10 years straight between Lin, Laur, and I. When Laura and I lived together, we went 4 months before cleaning the toilet, because we're similar like that. (Note: I do not recommend that course of action). Also we like swimming together and I really don't think there is a stronger duo in Taboo than her and me. (Strongest trio probably = Laur, SJ, and I)

Laur is a mechatronics engineer and she lives with her husband (who I love) in Washington. She is 24. Lin and Laura's favourite website is flotrack.Sassypants' real name is something else but what's important here is that this girl has got some sass. We even have a theme song for her that goes like this:

Sass (sass!) and attitude,
You better watch out or she'll be coming after to you with her
Sa-ah-aah, ah-aah, ah-ass (harmonize on this line, A LOT)

Sassy is very fashionable and is on any given day is least likely to have her hair in a pony tail. (Lin, Laur and I have pony tails probably 28+ days a month). She is 17 and refuses to add me as a friend on facebook. Teenagers, am I right?

A certain boy (ahem ahem, Laura's husband) once said Sassy was the pretty sister. Nobody cried because we all know it's true.
Junie is also not Junie's real name, but sometimes I call her June Bug or Junie B. I am unsure why, and I don't think anybody else in my family besides my mom does it. June is craaaazy. She's probably even crazier than Laura circa grade 10. She likes Rihanna and other things that make me realize I am no longer in touch with the youth of today.

Junie used to go to a French immersion school, but now she goes to some private school with only 10 people in her grade which means that when she calls me to say she got the 2nd best math mark I say things like "but that means you only beat 8 people." You know why? Because I am a motivational/mean sister. But then we're all good again if I buy her leggings or something trendy like that. She's a sweet heart. She's 11.

This is us last Christmas. Fun times! I will take more pictures this Christmas and you can see how we've aged.

Gift ideas for awesome girls

I'm tired of seeing those lame "For that Special Girl" Christmas gift idea lists featuring Sex and the City boxed DVD sets, self pedicure kits, or fancy leather driving gloves. Come on, can we not do better than that, internet? Most females I know honestly do not need a pile of soap or any more scented candles. And just because I have a uterus doesn't mean I want 'Definitely, Maybe' on Bluray.

Instead I'm going to redefine the "For Her" gift idea list. I mean clearly I'm still stereotyping an entire gender, but in a new, refreshing way, right? So if you're at a loss as to what you buy your special female friend who is awesome and wonderful, let me give my suggestions.

Gift givers: Control B this post! Or control-shift-L. Or control-D. Or whatever you bookmarking keyboard shortcut is. What I'm saying is bookmark it.

Gift recipients: send an email to people who might otherwise buy you bad gifts. Make the subject be "ahem ahem" and then just copy and paste this link. Control-c, control-v. If we want to keep with keyboard shortcuts which I obviously do.

Now, might I suggest items from my list of things that most awesome girls I know would like:

1. A really pretty Sigg. Aren't they stylish? Also, I have had mine for about a year and a half and water still tastes delicious in it.2. Hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, and a bottle of Kahlua or Baileys. How warm and snuggley! More fun than the slanket, that's for sure.

3. A cool laptop sleeve. (example)(example)(example)

4. Books she loves but doesn't own even though they wouldn't be great to own, hey? For this, might I suggest checking if she has a wish list on Amazon. If she is computer savvy, then I should sincerely hope she has a wish list on amazon.

5. A Flickr pro account if the poor thing doesn't have one.

6. Homemade treats, particularly healthy ones. Like, use whole wheat flour at the very least.

7. A season of 30 Rock. everybody should love this show. Or if they already have it (or, unimaginably, they don't like that show) then Veronica Mars season 1.

8. Great board games. Cranium and Taboo are super starter games if she doesn't already own them, but for the board game connoisseur let me direct you to Blokus, Set, or Gobblet!9. A subscription to an awesome magazine like Runner's World, National Geographic, Wired or Women's Health.

10. Super fun kitchen stuff. I feel like I'm going to have to defend putting kitchen items on a list of things girls like, but really let's be honest, a pretty spice kit or a good spatula that doesn't get gross on the end, or colourful and really sharp knives, or something made for flipping meat on the bbq so she doesn't burn her fingers because she uses a fork and salad tong, a matching set of good mixing bowls... it makes cooking and eating healthily all the more fun, am I wrong?

11. A terrific watch. Jewelery has no purpose at all but watches are both pretty and practical. If your girl is the sporting type, perhaps those cool ones with heart monitors or GPS or something really fun, you know?12. Really fun coffee table books that will probably be good conversation starters (like 14000 Things to be Happy About or If)

13. This lululemon jacket. Everybody really ought to own at least one. They are so high quality and they fit so well and are so gosh darn attractive. (Also, jackets in general are awesome because they often don't have to fit properly, like awesome rain coats or running jackets are good ideas)
14. Lastly, get her Etsy password and check all her favourited items.

Yeah? Do you agree that this is a list most A+ girls would be happy about? I guess other than the lulu jacket, this is really just a list of things most A+ people would be happy about, hey?