Chickens of the World RE-Unite

Iris rang this morning... she booked a flight to Vancouver!

MRQE: Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Saw the film Dirty Pretty Things (2002) at Fifth Avenue this evening, the first movie I've seen since "Spellbound" so long ago. It wasn't a great movie, but it was engaging. I just couldn't buy Audrey Tautou as a Turkish Muslim woman, though... her accent was pretty muddled.

Remarkable Quotes From Some Remarkable Jews

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying. ---Woody Allen

My father never lived to see his dream come true of an all-Yiddish-speaking Canada. ---David Steinberg

Too bad that all the people who know how to run this country are busy driving taxis and cutting hair. ---George Burns

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up. They have no holidays. ---Henny Youngman

Don't be humble; you are not that great. ----Golda Meir

It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it. ------Sam Levenson

I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in fourteen days I had lost exactly two weeks. -----Joe E. Lewis

I have enough money to last me the rest of my life unless I buy something. -----Jackie Mason

Most Texans think Hanukkah is some sort of duck call. -------Richard Lewis

The time is at hand when the wearing of a prayer shawl and skullcap will not bar a man from the White House, unless, of course, the man is Jewish. -------Jules Farber

Even if you are Catholic, if you live in New York you're Jewish. If you live in Butte, Montana, you are going to be goyish even if you are Jewish.. -----Lenny Bruce

The remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served us nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. ----Calvin Trillin

Let me tell you the one thing I have against Moses. He took us forty years into the desert in order to bring us to the one place in the Middle East that has no oil! -----Golda Meir

Even a secret agent can't lie to a Jewish mother. ------Peter Malkin

Humility is no substitute for a good personality. ------Fran Lebowitz

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. ----Benjamin Disraeli

God will pardon me. It's His business. ----Heinrich Heine

Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding in which you put your money in your pants pocket and give your coat to your creditors. ----Sam Goldwyn

A spoken contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. ----Sam Goldwyn

Marriage is a wonderful institution. But who wants to live in an institution? -----Groucho Marx

A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it. ----Oscar Levant

My Big Project of the Next Few Months

... until the Fall Term starts in a few weeks, anyway...

The H-R P-R Party website is nearly finished. Claire got hacked into yesterday, so it was a bit of a setback, but not a big one.

I'm expecting at least 200 people. I've booked the ballroom at the Renaissance Hotel, blocked out rooms, worked out a provisional banquet menu, and I've been working on the website with Claire. Things are shaping up. Much to do!

Stupid Mistakes. You Know the Ones.

Just when you thought you had 'em licked, they show up on exams and bite you on the butt. Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's because exams and I just don't get on. Let me give you an example. The first linguistics exam of the term (they are all multiple choice questions), I found a particular 9-question problem too easy (this professor likes trickery, I didn't think he would let it be this easy), and horror of horrors changed all my answers to that problem. Needless to say, that is clearly Stupid Mistake #1 in the "Top 10 Stupid Exam Mistakes." You'd think I'd have learned this lesson in bloody high school.

Even more stupidly (if that is indeed an adverb), I noticed some of the questions from exams 1 & 2 showed up on the final exam, and a couple of the ones I had right on the other exams I marked incorrectly on the final! What's the matter with me?? Am I out to prove even more how much I am my own worst enemy???

Two Down, One to Go

The Linguistics final exam is Monday night (I guess that's technically tonight), and I haven't started studying yet...

Christa and I arrived home from Monsoon Restaurant (Asian fusion) on Main Street at 10 o'clock. We've had a full couple of days. On Saturday we cleaned the apartment because I didn't want people to come over for fireworks in the state that the place was in!!! It was a biohazardous disaster area! We managed to both clean and eventually eat, but not without some friendly bickering over chores. Steve Savage had arrived in the afternoon from his stint in Surrey with his first host family while we were at the tail end of our domestic whirlwind. He came by to drop off his backpack before heading off to meet another contact from Olympia, Washington, who was in Vancouver for the weekend. So Steve headed up Burrard Street, and Christa and I headed over for some low-brow chow at Carlos 'n' Buds on Pacific. I'd pulled out the vacuum cleaner, but Christa would have none of it -- she gave me a loud ultimatum, and I wasn't about to argue with her any longer! She was hungry! As for me, earlier I'd taken some bites out of the fantastic birthday cake that she brought home on Friday night from a party in Burnaby, so I wasn't as ravenous.

When we came back, we finished up the apartment, and I was wondering where Tara was... she'd called while we were at Carlos 'n' Buds, and said she was coming over with her sister, but maybe she forgot where the apartment was??? Or got stuck in the crowds coming down to English Bay and gave up?? Anyway, Steve showed up about 10 minutes after the finale started, and Erich and Caroline showed up about 10 minutes after that.

I read the announcement online in the Vancouver Sun that China won, by the way... Canada was a distant third behind the Czech Republic, the Sun reported that Canada had major computer glitches.

Steve crashes hard.

We hung out on the balcony for a while, talking but Erich and Caroline had to go back to Canada Place to get Erich's car, so they didn't stay late. Meanwhile, Wayne, my neighbour from two doors down the hall was picking up stuff from his car, so we invited him for some sangria. We all sat out on the balcony, chatting and drinking, then Wayne called it a night. By this time Steve was almost incomprehensible -- he'd been up since 5:30am, and could barely keep his eyes open. Christa was feeling crappy from the weather change (too windy), so she was ready to hit the sack. So I was the last one standing at 2am!

Christa set up her rolling bed by the closet, and I dragged Steve off to my bed and slept on the couch, since I'm the shortest (which Christa often points out, but in reality it's by probably less than an inch).

Morning came all too quickly, but we all finally got ourselves moving and showered and dressed to head off to Horseshoe Bay, which was flat out busy. Steve was taking the ferry to Nanaimo, and we barely had time to order food for him before he had to make a run for the ramp. We quickly said our goodbyes, and Christa and I remained to finish our brunch.

Auntie Fely

Then it was off to Stanley Park, where there was a BIBAK picnic, and Christa experienced her largest gathering of Filipinos ever.

I met my cousin Marlow for the first time in nearly 20 years, and I think she was quite shocked at the beginning, trying to reconcile her memories of a 12-year old kid with a now-31 year old. Some aunts were there, and Melissa was happy to see her Attie Gail. Dad wanted to take them sightseeing (cousin Mishael's wife was also there, visiting from Penticton, but I can't for the life of me remember her name), so I suggested we park the Jeep at my place and go to Granville Island.

Granville Island

That we did -- a nice wander around the so-called Island, some ice cream, and the requisite photo-taking. They headed home after 7 o'clock, and that was when Christa and I headed off to fill our tummies.

So, here we are again, one last all-nighter before a few weeks of no assignments, papers, or exams!

When Your Brain Hurts, You Know It's Working

... that's what I keep telling myself, anyway. Yesterday (well, Thursday) I submitted my American History paper by e-mail, and near the end of my working day, which I struggled through since I hadn't slept since Tuesday, I got a phone call from Mr. Savage himself. He'd hitched back from Alaska, and he caught a lift all the way down from Prince Rupert to Vancouver with a furniture moving guy. If you haven't checked out Steve's journal, he's got some amazing photos from Alaska posted. He's a pretty funny writer, too.

Anyway, I told Steve he was welcome to come by, but I was lucky to be able to string a sentence together...

Am I Allergic to Sleep???

It's nearly 4 o'clock in the morning and I'm still awake! I should be clinically dead by now!

I wrote an Anthropology exam today -- well, technically yesterday now -- and I got back my research paper on volunteerism... wooohooo! I got an A!

The Kind of Personal Record You Don't Like to Set

I've pulled at least 7 consecutive all-nighters. It's official. I've seen both dawn and dusk every single day. I'm really delirious...

Note: Edited Blog

The little story I wrote on Sunday has been changed...