Fernie Trip
The Fernie trip has been confirmed. We have a group of five: Inge, me, Bryce, Mahe and Inge’s friend Will. More details as they come to me. I will be borrowing a whole bunch of things from my friends so I can ready myself for this trip. First, a snowboard and boots from Emily (or Mahe, we’ll see). Second, snow pants from Matty. After that, I think I need a good pair of gloves. Mostly I wear woolen mittens. They’re warm — they’re fleece-lined! — but not warm enough nor water-proof enough for snow boarding. Weee! I’m quite excited since I have never been to Fernie and it’s been a long 3-4 year since I’ve last snowboarded.

WOW! I’ll be going to Fernie!

Post-post Valentine’s Dinner
So the Great Valentine’s Seafood Dinner Fiesta for Matty and I have been delayed. This is a dinner that we want to spend together shopping, preparing, and treating ourselves. Partially, I blame the delay of the dinner on myself: my work schedule and schoolwork has caused great stress on me, so we kept putting the dinner off so I can focus on work and midterms. However, I’m glad that I’m taking the first Saturday of March off so Matty and I can actually go on a proper date together. Sure we hang out often, but sometimes it just feels as if we squeeze time for us between our busy schedule.

Board Games and D&D
Last night was a great show for the Wednesday Night crew. We had all the regulars — Matty, me, Inge, and Bryce — as well as two of our good friends, Greg and Mahe. Mahe brought a three layered homemade black forrest cake, so he was more than welcome to join in the fun.

Last night’s dinner was mostly provided by Inge. He brought 4 pieces of salmon and a bag od scallops last week that we didn’t use, so I used them this week. I made some rice, baked the salmon pieces, and bacon-wrapped scallops. We also had some naan bread and hummus.

There were a lot of great jokes and conversations (most of them include Greg’s mom). There was a mentioning of fraternities, fraternity dramas, Maury Povich, old exs, the upcoming ski trip, and movies.

We played some HALO for starters, moved on to two rounds of Scotland Yard (both of which I ended up somewhere in the middle of nowhere, nowhere close to where Mr. X was located), and three rounds of the card game Kuuduk. Kuuduk is the ultimate ganking (gank: (verb, expression) to intentionally screw someone in an activity.; eg. That camping bitch! I was ganked!) game for everyone.

Now, I hate card games of any kind. I get tense, silent, and angry. I wasn’t really ganking as I was enjoying watching others get ganked. I lost all three rounds of Kuuduk. The aim was to get 15 points. I got 4. Damn you cards!

But once again, another successful Wednesday Night. I love my Wednesday Night outings with the boys. (Though I could try to have one with “the girls”: Elya, me, and Kristine.) I wouldn’t give them up for anything. Well, may be for more chocolate cake. Well, I wouldn’t give it up, rather I would merely delay a Wednesday night for one. Haha.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering how to make bacon wrapped scallops, here are instructions:
- get one piece of scallop
- get 1/2 cut piece of bacon
- wrap bacon around scallop
- secure the bacon with a toothpick
- repeat for abazillion pieces
- place all of the wrapped pieces on a broiler pan
- (sprinkle a bit of salt on pieces)
- broil until done

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 90% River (Stowaway) 90% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 80% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 70% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 70% Inara Serra (Companion) 60% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 55% Wash (Ship Pilot) 50% Alliance 40% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 35% A Reaver (Cannibal) 25%

You are good at fixing things. You are usually cheerful. You appreciate being treated with delicacy and specialness.

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz

Hmm, so 90% Kaylee and 90% River.  Like what Inge says, that must mean I’m half sweet and half crazy.

In lieu of Post-Valentine’s Day merriment, I would like to take this bit of prose from Julian Barnes about the words I Love You.

We must keep these words in their box behind glass. And when we take them out we must be careful with them. Men will say ‘I love you’ to get women into bed with them; women will say ‘I love you’ to get men into marriage with them; both will say ‘I love you’ to keep fear at bay, to convince themselves of the deed by the word, to assure themselves that the promised condition has arrived, to deceive themselves that it hasn’t yet gone away. We must beware of such uses. I love you shouldn’t go out into the world, become a currency, a traded share, make profits for us. It will do that if we let it. But keep this biddable phrase for whispering into a nape from which the absent hair has just been swept.

–A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Julian Barnes

Yesterday, Matty and I got our Chinese noodle soup. Tau Bauy was closed, but we went to the second best thing: the Vietnamese restaurant across the street. (Though, if they didn’t accept interact/debit, we would have gone to the other Chinese restaurant across from that. Everything in Chinatown is always across from something.) I don’t know why I love the noodle soups. I really like the ones with vermicelli noodles in them. Just plain with meat, broth, a a sprinkle of bean sprouts and I’m in soup heaven thank you very much. The rest of my Valentine’s Day wasn’t too exciting. I worked on my essay, Matty played video games beside me, and our one treat which was watching Star Wars: Episode 3 on Shaw on Demand, didn’t pan out since Shaw on Demand kept playing a blank black screen on us. (Sometimes the screen went blue. I think they change the colors to mock us.) Tonight should be better as it is Teppanyaki Night for me and the boyz. I got to goes to T&T, yo.

Final Decision
Ok, you know you’re in the hole when you don’t even want to face the mid-term. That was my final thought before I decided that I will withdraw from Math 115. I don’t have time to do it and it’s only adding stress to my schedule. I hate feeling like a failure and a quitter, but hey — if Nobis can be a computer techie without math, then I can be, uh, something without math too!

Because of this decision, Matty informed me that I should take something in the spring/summer so I can ease my burden in my final semester next fall. Spanish comes to mind.

Ah. Good ole burden lifted off my shoulders. On another note, I am back to tutoring Japanese students with English! Yay! I am working once a week at the Alberta Language Center. Pretty damn exciting.

So far my morning began with a nice breakfast followed by The Feats of Strength. Some of you might be thinking that I’m celebrating Festivus. Nope. In fact, this is how my Valentine’s Day with Matty began.

How will the rest of my Valentine’s Day end? Only time will tell.  There was a full moon last night so the wierdos may be out tonight …

Woo. Usually, the Wednesday Night: Fight Nights are just what the name suggests: a fight night of video games on Wednesday night. However, this week it’s going to be different. In lieu of Valentine’s Day, Matty and I will be throwing a teppanyaki dinner (grilled food stuffs Japanese-style) for the core four. We’ll be in charge of bringing meat and veggies and rice. Everyone else is in charge of appetitzers and dessert.

So, here’s the run-down:
Where: Matty’s Place (call/email to get address)
When: This Wednesday, February 15th at 8pm
Why: To play video games and generally hangout and to see Inge’s presentation
Inge and The Bryce: Talk amongst yourselves to determine what to bring. We’ll be making steak and chicken teriyaki, so you can bring something to compliment it or whatever. Some ideas may include soup, cheese and cracker plate, fruit plate, bacon-wrapped scallops, etc.

Elya-chama: Roomie!
Starting this Friday, Elya will be my roomie. Woot woot! Now Murasaki has more than enough reason to stop by and crash at my place. Weeee! It’ll be a girlish delight!

Shelf-Worthy
Matty and I have progressed so far into our relationship that we find each other to be shelf-worthy. That’s right, I now have a designated shelf in his room where I can keep my stuff. My own personal shelf. (Matty will also have a shelf at my place, though it’s location is still unknown.) Now, I’m trying to determine what kind of embarassing things I can place in this shelf …

Next week, I shall be going insane because of midterms and papers.  It’s the dreaded midterm week and just when I think I would be next to commiting harakiri, Reading Week saves the day.  Almost.

I’m sitting here in the Old Arts building, chatting with my Mr. Man, my sister, and Mariko as I get the call numbers for readings and ponder if I should go now to photocopy the readings or if I should go later.  At the same time, I’m fighting this urge of mine to fall asleep.  I’ve been feeling under the weather due to school stress and this bit of illness that periodically returns to bother me.  The company of Murasaki and Bernard Callebaut helped me fight the blues yesterday as well as the back massages from my boyfriend.  And a trip to the library that has enforced my passion to run my own business.

I guess I’m just trudging along this week and the next.  I need a break so I’ll be more than glad when Reading Week comes along.

Oh yes, the curse of February strikes again with me doing the wrong questions for my math assignment.  Boourns.  This week has done a number for me because as soon as I receive good news or fun news, I get hit with a hail of bad news and bad vibes.  I’m just lucky to have some good people around me to help me out of the quicksand of negativity.  That and Bernard. Or may be just Lakeland.  Lakeland would do me some good. 

Kim
Wooo! I ran into Kim today!  Kim is reponsible for telling me about the fantastic kendo club that I am in now.  We chatted for a good long 15 minutes and then unwillingly left for our obligatory classes and practices.  She and I must get together.  She’s going to be a future Nutritionist, so I must cook with her when I have the time.  Good ole Reading Week will give me that time. Weeee!

Kakes (pronounced, Cakes) is the sister of my Mr. Man. She’s in Cortona Italy right now and has pictures to show. I have uploaded the favorite ones of her trip onto my own flickr account. Here they are:

I had two kendo books.  They are missing.  Does anyone know where my kendo books have gone?