A lack of interests

All my life I have suffered from a lack of interests (plural). Oh, I had a couple of passions for a while, namely volunteering and fostering animals. However, after I was hired by the organization for which I had volunteered, and after I adopted my foster pets, my passions became my day-to-day reality. That's nothing to complain about, of course, but I have been feeling the need to replace those passions and my lack of interests has made that next to impossible.

Many people have more interests than they can count. Some of those interests are simple, quiet hobbies, while others involve travel and adventure. None of these myriad pastimes appeals to me. I don't want to cook, knit, play chess or partake in physical exercise, grueling or otherwise. I do enjoy a good book, but reading is what I do on the bus to and from work every day; reading in the comfort of my own home just puts me to sleep. I feel as though I've surfed the entire world wide web twice over. I don't have the money for expensive courses or trips, and even if I did I'm not sure that I would have the desire to sign up. So little piques my interest.

So, dear readers, what shall I do with my two-week vacation, which begins tomorrow? Scott will still be working, so I'm on my own. I won't even have the pleasures of sleeping in and relaxing in front of the TV, as we have men arriving early each morning with jackhammers, a radio and tone-deaf singing voices. (We are undergoing the noisy, dusty process of waterproofing and underpinning the basement. Oh joy.) I welcome your suggestions. I'm just so bored of being bored.

One year plus a day

No, that's not a jail sentence, it's how long Scott and I have been married. What a joy it was to be able to enjoy the autumn colours this year without fearing that the leaves would fall too soon. Scott and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday by taking the dogs to the conservation centre where we were wed. It was a beautiful day.

After our walk we went out to dinner, then came home to champagne and to wedding cake that we had frozen. Apparently it is traditional to save a bit of wedding cake to eat on one's first anniversary. We got that part of the tradition right. It is also traditional to give paper as a first-anniversary gift. Ironically, Scott and I sent each other e-cards. Hey, it fits with our green wedding.

Thanks to everyone who helped us to commemorate our special day!

Street View

When Google Maps' Street View feature was launched in my area a few days ago, my very first thought was "Cool!" My second thought was "Creepy!" Then I saw the poorly-stitched Street View image below and thought, "Ai yi yi..."

Twin Towers in Toronto?

On a completely unrelated note, happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

Have I mentioned that my parents are American?

And that they're Democrats? Perhaps that's why I enjoy posting things like this:

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

P.S. If anyone can tell me how to stop cutting off the right side of embedded videos, I'd appreciate it. I tried reducing the object and embed width, but to no avail.

Seriously?

Is this necessary?

As if I'm not feeling old enough these days, here are the targeted ads with which Facebook has decided to grace my home page:

DO NOT LIKE!

Hopefully they're both dancing in heaven

Patrick Swayze - Chippendale
Uploaded by tressage. -

Five things that recently made me laugh.

#1. This ad for a course at a ballet school:

From This Sign Has Sharp Edges

#2. The fact that this dog probably ran away because of its description:

#3. The acronym for this city project update dealing with solid waste:

BMPU -- had to be intentional.

#4. The way these supposed marathon runners are dressed:

Sweatjeans and Bermuda trackshorts?

#5. What appears to be the biggest set of domestic-feline cahones ever:

It's actually my female cat's belly.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire

Or in my case, away from the knife, onto the skewer. I managed to chop a zucchini, a pepper, an onion and some portabello mushrooms with a great big knife and I didn't even slice a fingernail. (Often the extra crunch in our meals is my own keratin.) Then, as I slid the chopped veggies and fungi onto a pair of bamboo skewers, I stabbed a vein in my hand. For a few minutes I had a teeny, tiny red geyser. So much for that part of dinner being vegetarian.

A memory

Out of the blue, I just remembered something that I saw at a subway station one evening several years ago. A man, perhaps in his thirties, was entering the station alone. He had a sheet of paper taped to his back. On the paper was written, in great big letters, "MY NAME IS BARRY AND I LOVE BINGO!"

That is all.

Bright-eyed and pony-tailed

My mood and mobility have been hampered by the recent hot, humid weather. At home, if I'm not slouched on a soft sofa, I'm sluggishly dragging myself around. My energy level is low and my ability to concentrate is compromised. Come to think of it, those could be symptoms of depression, but I thought I had that pretty much under control. (Thanks to drugs! Hooray for drugs!) (Er, the legal kind!)

Anyway, since I normally appear to be moping around like these two lugubrious characters...

Eeyore and Marvin the Paranoid Android

...I was puzzled today by an unfamiliar sensation of being very wide-eyed and alert. I don't take uppers, I've had no caffeine and I certainly haven't had any extra sleep. So what gives?

I figured it out when I removed my hair elastic this evening. Due to the heat and humidity, I had decided to wear my hair up. Apparently I had made my pony-tail too tight. What with my eyes pulled wide open you'd think that I would have noticed my stretched face in a mirror at some point. I must have looked like this:

...or this:

...or perhaps this.

Maybe a buzz cut would suit me.