Target Practice!

T and I received a surprise package in the mail this week, packed full of our favourite things: candy and fake bats. I gave Tycho the bats (he has destroyed one and sleeps cuddled against another - who knows what his criteria is) and kept the candy for myself! Tycho, always taught not to gobble food from strangers (and not fully understanding the postal system) did a thorough investigation of the candies before deeming them safe and letting me indulge.

Brunch today with Marko of the parents-who-used-to-be-gangsters Marko, you'd know him if you saw him. We made crepes, which turned out marvellously well, and spiked smoothies (ditto on marvellosity, especially with the classic Megan steep tilt to the bottle), and even managed to run fast enough from my house to downtown to catch Marie Antoinette (the movie, not the girl.) Disappointment: the New Order song I have come to love wasn't actually in the movie. Un-disappointment: a Strokes song was in it! And it was a pageant, full of candy-for-the-eyes sort of goodness, if a little dull in terms of plot. Now I can imagine that every vehicle I'm in is a horse and carriage. This used to happen a lot as a kid, this easy bleeding of movie life into real life after seeing a particularly mesmerizing film. Doors to bedrooms became doors to secret bedrooms, creek beds became moors (as talked about in the Secret Garden movie, though I never fully understood what a moor was), and ordinary vehicles became horse-drawn carriages. The difference was that I had a bright yellow school bus whisking me off to kindergarten. These days I have a big grey bus jostling me to graduate seminars. It will be a test of the invisible faculties to say the least!

Horse-drawn carriages sound good right now actually, since they might actually operate for a dependable period of time. I am feeling pouty about technology because in the past three weeks these are the things that have crapped out in my apartment:
1) microwave
2) iPod
3) printer
Argh!!! Mom reminded me that these things happen in threes and I hope she's right! I got a new microwave already, and I can handle not having an iPod for a while, but not having a printer is really bad news - especially since I just spent $80 buying a new ink thingy! AND double-especially because I already had to ship this printer off once before to get it repaired. (note: that repair may or may not have been my fault, something to do with melting a transparency sheet inside, but I don't know how that would cause a whole system shut-down, come on). This time though the printer got jammed, for reals, through no fault of my own. I gutted it as always and pulled out the bad piece of paper, put it back together, and never got contact again. It's like my printer just shrugged its shoulders and gave up. Maybe it's sort of like an organ transplant, and the new ink thingy I got for it is getting rejected by the printer. I've tried everything. I even called Future Shop (baaaaaad idea). So tomorrow I will go downtown and (a) drop off my iPod at a UPS store to go back to Apple and (b) drop off my printer at Future Shop to go back to purgatory for a month or two. talk about URGH! especially because essay season is coming up! At least I finished printing out all the comments for my students' latest assignments already, AND printed out my latest workshop piece. Maybe that's what did it! The totall heart-stopping genius of my writing was just too much for my printer to handle, and it was all like, "Whoa man, my ink is not worthy! Abort! Abort!!" I will try printing a really bad story stolen from diary.com or something.

Nope, still not working.

Any suggestions before I take it back tomorrow morning? Because I'd reeeeeeally like to not have to take it back. That would be super helpful and probably deserving of a batch of cookies sent in your direction.

This morning I was out in the alley with Tycho when Jen & Mark called! So Tycho enjoyed an extra-long walk, and Megan enjoyed an extra-long "what's up!" with her Toronto syndicate. GOOD NEWS! They are both coming to visit this weekend! I knew it all along but now it seems extra exciting, since I've actually talked to both of them. Yay guys, you're coming!!!! We're going to eat in the dark! AND I got a little wee on-sale blender today, so we can make Kahlua mudshakes that Jen's mom gave me as a housewarming present! whooop.

Also, soon I will go home to Waterloo/Dundalk for the fastest trip ever (two days!) during which I will see important people: family, D, other [Dundalk] family... And I'm going to see THIS live & in person, starring a Dundalkian who is very near & dear to me: