Peevish Pets

For today's Tuesday 10 we're talking about our Pet Peeves- those things that drive you nuts whether they're a big deal to anyone else or not.  I'm co-hosting with the lovely Lena of Lena B, Actually. These are in no particular order and I'm absolutely positive that all day long I'll be remembering things that bug me MORE than things that wind up on this list.

1. I don't think anyone else will disagree with me on CAPTCHA or any other verification hoops that you have to jump through to comment on someone's blog.  So annoying! I don't necessarily mind the typing something in but why is it impossible to tell what the word is most of the time?

2. People who still wear perfume in enclosed public spaces.  Nothing like sitting in a cloud of perfume in my office all afternoon after someone leaves.

3. Spock and Dobby deciding to pull each other's fur out... at 5am.  It's going to take me awhile to forgive them for yesterday morning. Trilly still pissed at them too.

4.  The fact that the word "addicting" is being used instead of "addictive".  Chocolate and crystal meth are addictive not addicting. Urg.

5. The continued existence of the Kardashians.  I mean I don't want them to die or anything but what value do they add to society? What are they famous FOR (please don't write to me to tell me this).

6. When you're on hold listening to the muzzac that is interrupted every 30 seconds by a voice telling you that your call is important to them.  How does that actually make me feel better?

7.  Prerecorded telemarketing calls.  Who listens to those? How are they effective? If you're going to telemarket me at least pay someone to mispronounce my name.

8. People who misspell my name when replying to an email. I signed my name at the bottom of the email.  At least you can copy it correctly! I'm used to people getting confused by my name, mispronouncing my name and misspelling my name but if it's written right there at least copy it correctly (Leigh-Ellen isn't a common name)

9. Dirty laundry that has landed "near" the laundry hamper.  This point can also probably be made for dishes that are on the counter above the dishwasher rather than in it.  Is there a magic fairy that comes and puts the dishes in the dishwasher? Does it move your socks the extra foot into the hamper?  For Halloween maybe I need some fairy wings and a wand with a dirty sock on the end (there are only two humans who live in our house so yes... this is directed at you Husband... though Sadie does sometimes like to take things out of the hamper but you can't blame her for the dishes).

10.  Consistent misuse of  THEIR, THEY'RE, THERE.  Everyone typos once in awhile but learn the difference.  I can't understand with its and it's that sometimes the ' is just a pain to find on your phone but THEIR and THERE need to be sorted out.

So to summarize (Husband looking at one of his pet peeves right there... as a Brit he hates that z in summarize)... I seem to have entirely too many pet peeves related to spelling and linguistics.  I'm so very cool.

Would love to see your Tuesday 10 list.  Grab the button and link up below! 

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Accessorize

Today's Tuesday 10 prompt was Favourite (Canadian spelling!) Accessories.  Fun and easy... except for the part where I have to chose between my shoes! Actually, once I got trying to decide it became quite difficult.  So, to take the pressure off here are a few of my favourite (not my absolute favourite necessarily as I love many things... I have a big capacity for loving stuff) accessories in no particular order.

Last year I decided I was a headband kind of a girl.  I have to be careful wearing headbands because I'm prone to headaches.  These are three of my favourites made by Patience of Band Geek.

This Swarovski piece is a souvenir from the year I lived in Austria.  I love it and it sparkles like crazy in the light.  I once had my bag searched at an airport because it showed up in the scan. It seems it resembles a throwing star??

I have several handbags that I love but this is my brand new one from the Rowena's fashion show.  The colour is fabulous and I get compliments on it all the time.

I am a pretty lucky girl with my shoe collection.  This is a sampling of some favourites. Michael Kors colour block heels, Rosegold nude cutouts (so high!), Nine West famous shoes that my Dad bought for me and the most comfortable, beautiful sandals in the world.

I don't wear this one very much as it's quite special.  My grandmother gave me this signet ring as a high school graduation present.  She had the initials changed from hers to mine.  The gold was from her grandmother's wedding ring.

I could have picked all sorts of pieces that I love.  I tend to have sentimental attachment to much of my jewellery (and even my shoes).  I considered my engagement and wedding rings but somehow they don't seem like accessories.  Accessories are something that you don't wear every day!

I'm linking up with Mom 2 Memphis and Ruby for Tuesday 10.  Go check out the other lovely accessories.

To Be My Cat

This Tuesday I've decided to see if I can come up with ten reasons it would be very nice to be my cat- Trilly.  Notice I did not leave things open to just being any old cat.  Our area has an embarrassing homeless cat population.  I most definitely wouldn't want to be them. Both of our kitties were part of that population but were lucky enough to be rescued by the Saint John SPCA Animal Rescue League and their foster parents.

The day Trilly came home

1. Every thing is comfy enough to sleep on- books, keyboards, tea towels, pieces of paper, the cardboard scratching toy- everything.

2. She can sleep through everything.  I struggle to get to sleep, the cat can fall asleep pretty much anywhere through pretty much anything.

3. Her toughest job is guarding the house from crows.  She takes this job very seriously, sitting at the window and yelling at the crows who dare to come into sight.

4. Food appears in her bowl pretty much for free.  Plus since horrible kitten showed up she gets wet food every night.... and she's allowed to tell us off if the food does not appear at 10pm on the dot.

5. Everything belongs to Trilly.  We are slow to learn this but everything is Trilly's including counter tops and things put in the compost bin.

Trilly claims Husband's coat

6. She has incredibly high self esteem.  Trilly is a princess.  Trilly is in charge of everything.  Trilly never doubts this.

7. Trilly is told every day how pretty she is.  Multiple times a day.  While getting head bumps.

8. Trilly is crazy smart for a cat.  She can open cupboard doors (sleeping in cupboards is also very comfy) and she remembers where we've put things in case she wants to try to get to them to eat.  I'd like to be a smart cat if I'm going to be a cat.

9.  The worst things in Trilly's life are Sadie- the smelly goggy who worships her but knows better than to touch and Spock- who is still learning not to touch.  I wish Spock loved me as much as he loves Trilly!

I love her but I stay this far from her

10.  Something like 20 hours of sleep a day.  That sounds good to me!!

Linking up for Tuesday 10 again this week. Just made up my own theme :)

Movie Critic

The prompt for this week's Tuesday 10 is embarrassing movies you love. I waffled on this one like crazy and couldn't figure out why.  I do have a love of cheesy, romantic movies that I'm sure would fit the bill.  The thing is, I'm not embarrassed by my cheesy movies.  It's not like I have any dvds I avoid putting on display.  I would completely defend my girly chick flicks any day.

So instead I'm going to see how many movies I can come up with that other people love and I don't like.  We'll see if there are ten.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off- He is SO annoying. I would hate that guy in real life.
Fight Club- It's not the violence, I just didn't find the surprise surprising and I didn't like them... and the soap making deal
Zoolander- I I always used to think I liked Ben Stiller because of Leap of Faith but I don't
Hunt for Red October- torpedoes are slow... so slow
The Austin Powers Franchise- Not enough time
Gangs of New York- most Scorsese films really. He doesn't do character development. Or women who make any sense
It's a Wonderful Life- I tend to want to bop him over the head and dislike how it wraps up so suddenly in the last 5 minutes.  And what's wrong with being a librarian??
Run Lola Run- It's like the song that doesn't end
Napoleon Dynamite- Not enough time
Transformers- I just never engaged. I actually got bored.

Interestingly, I didn't like Casablanca the first time around but it grew on me.

I've decided not to present my reasons why I dislike some of the above since I'm aiming for brevity for once and they would have involved a very long rant.  I thought I'd give it a try, see how it feels. It may not happen again.

Egg-celent Memories

I apologize for the cheesy title.  I'll blame the cold meds and pain killers (for the sinus headache) shall I? Alright, the theme of this week's Tuesday 10 is Easter Memories so I've decided to do a "through the years" kind of post rather than 10 memories from the past Easter as they involve a lot of tissues and miserableness (though it was nice all the same).




1. Church pancake breakfasts.  These were a childhood staple and any Easter I don't go feels just the tiniest bit wrong. When I was little my parents were Church Youth Group leaders and the teens used to help make the breakfasts so we were there super early... in our pjs... which leads to...

2. New Easter Dresses that often had a little purse or a hat or gloves or all of thee above. All the little girls at Church would have lovely (generally white) dresses for Easter.  None of us were allowed to have pancake breakfast wearing them of course so we were all taken to the bathroom to get changed before the service.

3. When I was in grade 1 Mum came to school to help my class make Hot-Cross Bunnies.  They were bunnies made out of hot-cross bun stuff. I always think I love hot cross buns because of this memory... only they have raisins and I don't like raisins.  Assuming the raisins were optional.

4.  Cadbury Creme Eggs have been around since the beginning of time right? (Ok, I totally looked it up and turns out the creme egg as we know it has been around since the 1960s) I have no idea when I was allowed to have my first one but there's something about the sense memory of eating a creme egg that just says "all is right with the world"

5. During middle school my friends and I all started to learn to play band instruments (as opposed to the piano and recorder knowledge I already had).  A couple of Easters in a row four of us (my friend and our younger brothers) played at the sunrise service that our church had outside, by the water, sometimes (like this year) in the snow.  I remember the attempts to keep the instruments warm and it makes me laugh.

 
6. Writing that just reminded me of taking part in the Passion Plays at the campus chapel when I was a university student.  No idea how I'd blanked on that one before.  It was usually a little stressful since it tended to be right when end of term papers were due but so much fun.  One year the play paralleled the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Christ.  Not sure there are many Passion Plays that require Natzi uniforms... or many Welsh Bonhoeffers but we had both. 

7. The year I was doing my Masters I was too far away to bother coming home for Easter which (like this year) was at the same time as Mum's birthday.  Little Brother was at university as well.  The two of us decided to surprise Mum, Dad and Baby Brother.  It involved me driving 10 hours on Good Friday and then again on Easter Monday but it was great fun.

8. One of my favourite Easters was the one when I was living in Austria. Spring in the Alps is a beautiful time (well all year round in the Alps really) and it was such a wonderful weekend of celebration with a Passion Play that began on Friday and concluded on Sunday.

9.  This one has been mentioned many, many times.  The year Husband and I were engaged we went camping in the Peak District over Easter.  Husband would point out that I was miserable but it's made such a good story that it is now a wonderful memory. Plus I was only truly miserable the first night. The second night I had a little tiny mattress and the snow insulated the tent!

10.  This one is a mixed memory too because it was another Easter camping trip (the first year we were married) and I wound up getting sick.  We turned up at Husband's Aunt's place for the big family get together and I looked pretty bad. I was put in a corner and given a lot of tea.  I think my sister in law brought the bunny ears.... I love the photos that came out of that!

This week I'm not only linking up with Mom 2 Memphis and Ruby for Tuesday 10. I'm actually co-hosting! Link up with us below and grab a button to let people know what you're up to!

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10 Things About Shoe-lessness

Once again I'm linking up with Tuesday Ten over at Mom 2 Memphis and Ruby and this week's theme is Shoes. If you know me or have been reading this blog for any length of time at all you'll know that I love shoes so I was pretty excited by the theme.  I started brainstorming "My 10 favourite pairs of shoes" "10 Pairs of shoes I wish I owned"....

My famous "red" Nine West. My friends all know them.

 The thing is, recently I've realized that thinking about shoes too much makes me dissatisfied and ungrateful.  I own quite a few pairs of shoes. Thinking about it I actually own more than 10 pairs of boots (I live in Canada so boots seem necessary until you note that at least 4 pairs can't be worn in the snow or rain!!). But it's very easy to start craving the next thing I don't have... like leopard print pumps or flats with toe caps or...you get the picture.

My fabulous Michael Kors.

I have every intention of fully enjoying the shoe related lists and hopefully lots of pretty shoe photos hopping around the other blogs linking up today but for Blog Positivity Week I'm going to use my list to be thankful I have shoes... so very many impractical pairs of shoes.

The following information largely comes from the TOMS One Day Without Shoes website. 

1. Millions of children in the world do not own a single pair of shoes... many of those live in climates that can get pretty cold.

2. Thousands of children are unable to attend school because wearing shoes is a requirement and they don't have any.

3. According to the WHO 740,000,000 people are affected by hookworm which can cause intestinal pain, weakness and cognitive impairment.

4. If you don't have shoes you don't have protection from hookworm.

5. Approximately 4,000,000 people have podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring soil-based disease.

6. I went to do more internet research on podoconiosis and hookworm and then wussed out after about 2 pictures.  I am pathetic.

7. Throughout the world there are people living in landfills and shanty "towns" who have no shoes. 30,000 people live on one landfill in the Philippines, where many are without shoes and are exposed to broken glass, syringes and debris.

8. Jiggers, burrowing fleas that cause painful infection and in just one case study 1,890,000 Kenyan children without shoes were found to be infected.

9. I firmly refused to further investigate jiggers because just word is giving me the creeps and likely to give me nightmares.

10. April 10, 2012 Is the One Day Without Shoes event.  If I'm being honest I really don't think i can handle going without shoes in our Atlantic Canadian climate on that date. My brain is already pointing out to me that it is illegal to drive without wearing shoes here, also that the floor in my office doesn't seem to get cleaned... ever. That's right, I just told you that there are millions of people living in landfill sites with no shoes and I'm concerned about the dusty floor of my office.   Thank goodness it's Blog Positivity Week so hopefully no one can call me really awful names for that!