pissybunny

belldancers, border cops, boats, etc...

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:07:43 GMT

So last weekend I had a fun filled weekend. Myself and four other girls took a road trip down to Seattle for a belly dancing work shop. It was amazing. The work shop was put on by the Ultra Gypsy Dance Troupe from San Francisco. I am still sore!
http://www.ultragypsy.com

These girls can shake it like nobodies business and I highly suggest you check 'em out on Youtube.

Any way, the trip was quite the adventure in itself. My belly dance teacher drove me and 3 other girls down in her VW Van, quite the comfy ride. We left Firday night and the ferry ride when off without a hitch, but... the border crossing... not so much, thanks to yours truly.

We had to leave the VW and come on in as something seemed to be the matter when they swiped my passport. It turns out that someone also named Sara Cosgrove was a 'very bad girl" in Ontario. So of course, many questions were asked, including multiple "Are you sure you have never been arresteds?" and a grill of my weight, eye colour etc. My saving grace apparently was that I have a different middle name and a VERY different weight. Seeing as I have never been past Alberta in Canada and never even been given so much as a speeding ticket, I was a little confused. For some reason I was getting verrrry nervous and totally stalled on my own middle name. Thankfully the guy was pretty nice and said in the end "Remember your middle name, it will save you every time". So now I am supe curious who my name-twin is and what ba-girl thing they did. Oooh.

Anyways, the trip continued, we were going to be staying that night at a total stranger's house. Our dance teacher, Candace, had hooked up a place to say with a dance teacher in Seattle named Tayeesa. Her and her husband were the most generous, friendliest people ever. We slept on air matresses in her little dance studio and in the morning her husband, Harvey, made us the most delicious custom omelettes (everyone had different and he even made a tofu stir fry for the vegan in our group) and Tayeesa made us the best home made latte's I have ever tasted!

Here are some pictures from our event, Tayeesa is the tall tattooed blonde:
http://www.harmonybellydance.com/index.php?pageid=6
The driver is Candace, my dance teacher (she is wearing a pink half top in the dance pictures). The knitting girl is Laura from our class; Tona (short dirty blonde bob) is my friend and fellow dancer and Jennifer (wearing a red tank top in dance pictures) is the last of our group.

After the workshops that day we went to a show called "Legends of Orient Dance" which was ok and a few of the dances were the Ultra Gypsies, but the real fun was the after party at this bar in downtown Seattle called ToST (Toast). The Ultra Gypsies had a full show, it was amazing and those girls are sooo hot. Think Suicide Girls with amazing muscle control and dancing talent. The music was so good. It was by this guy called SoulSalaam who could turn ANYTHING into an awesome belly-danceable tune with kick ass beats. He did a lot of M.I.A. remixes which made me happy. LOVED HIM! Unfortunately, anything I found online of him paled in comparison so I am keeping my eyes peeled for more of his live shows!

We decided, to save money and what not, that we would drive back right after the after party. We got terribly lost which was hilarious to most of us but I think frustrating the hell out of Candace. By the time we got over the border (no problems there) and at the ferry terminal, it was just after 6 so we just slept until Victoria. AWESOME trip, can't wait for another....

My first race...

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:41:11 GMT

So Sunday morning I ran my first race, the Bazan Bay 5K. It was out in Sidney and I actually LOVED it! I loved it despite the fact that it was pouring rain, cold and windy. It was a really noce course through Sidney with half of it being along the water. My official time was 40:06, which I KNOW sounds fairly unimpressive seeing as the winner was a hair over 15 minutes but my goal was finishing it without stopping to walk an that I did. Not so shabby for someone that couldn't run more for more than 4 minutes in January of this year, YAY ME :)

http://www.raceday.ca/bazan2007.php
http://twc.bc.ca/bb/5_BazanBay_2007_v4.pdf

love this

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 04:07:23 GMT

Question for IT people...

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:37:48 GMT

My boss has asked the following, please reply if you have a moment:

"I am trying to construct a document which outlines where we go looking for talented staff that fit our organization. I have a few ideas and I am hoping you or a friend has some thoughts or ideas as well. Places to look for potential staff may include:

Newspapers

Province, Sun, Times Colonist

Job Posting Boards

Monster (the big example)

Search Firms/Head Hunters

Professional Magazines that run job adds (both regional and national)

Computer User Groups

NT User Group, UNIX User Group

Professional Organizations

Job Fairs

I am looking for each of you to provide me with some details to fill out this list. Talk to your friends outside of Coast and ask where they would be looking for an IT job. I am looking for names of newspapers and computer magazines I am not aware of, professional organizations and their contact information, names of search firms, and any place else I should look."

knee diagnosis

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 05:05:52 GMT

Sooo saw the physio guy today. Apparently my hips were out of alignment which made my knees take more of the brunt of the impact than necessary, causing my knee joints to lock. He said it's very common with runners and that he could fix me up - sweet. He did some crazy adjustments, dude was straddling me at one point - quite comical and did some crazy knee things, ultrasound, electrical current thingy and showed me some exercises to build stronger core muscles so that I don't lock my knees or whatever. Yay, it felt a lot better already and I probably won't have to see him again. I can even run on Sunday - if death flu goes away ever.

I also learned I have excellent hyper-something-range which means I am basically a human Gumby.

It's been a while...

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:15:56 GMT

Here's what's up lately:

So right now I am suffering from DEATH FLU 2007. More than half the staff at my work has it. I hear this is pretty much par for thr course at a lot of work places... Damn people and their germs. I was one of the last people at my work to get it, I guess that's what I get for being a cheeky bastard and being proud I was staying so symptom free... now I am achy all over, and stuff is coming out of me at rapid rates and I kinda wanna die. Ugh... Pandemic!

Running - I was really making some awesome progress on the running, almost up to 5K already (run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute intervals, which is really impressive for me because I used to be winded after like running down the street. I say was because then my knees, especially the left one, decided they HATE me and got progressively sorer after each run to the point I haven't been able to go to my last 3 runs (running group won't let me). But the owner of Peninsula Runners has a friend who is a physiotherapist I am supposed to see today to see if it's an actual injury or something called a 'niggle'. All I know is I actually crave running. So I need to decide if I can even make it with this DAMN flu going on up in here. ARG.

On a much cooler note:
John and I moved into our new place... It's so lovely! Much bigger! We now have two bedrooms! Two (no more sleeping on our kitchen floor when you visit Snarf!) WE have a huge kitchen and a dining area and a living room with a fireplace! And, gasp... Bell Express Vu came with the rent so we, the no TV for years couple, has a television. 900 channels and I still couldn't find much to watch! Ha! Our landlord is quite rad as well... Since we were moving from tiny town, we had no living room furniture. He gave us a couch, big comfy chair, side table, coffee table and this cute little telephone table thing - all in excellent condition! His girlfriend was moving in with him and they had 'too much furniture'. Another example of his awesomeness:

John (calling landlord): Hi we noticed that one of the burners on the stove doesn't work
Landlord: Oh, yeah I had tried to fix that before, I thought I had. I might come by to try again but I will probably just get you guys a new stove.

SWEEEEEET!

AND we are no longer in a basement, it's an above ground lower suite and the people upstairs are a couple in their 40's who have lived here forever and seem really cool and laid back so far.

And this was the first and only place to look at! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Eeek.

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:28:50 GMT

I have joined a running clinic. It is supposed to be every Wednesday night but because of the evil snow, the first class was postponed to this morning :( I have to leaave in about 10 minutes and to tell you the truth, I am terrified. I can run all af about 5 minutes before I get winded and feel like I am going to puke. Hoooray! But I must stay positive, the whole point of the clinic is to make me better... Why WHY WHY did I agree to attempting half the Vancouver marathon with John's sister...? Haaaa.... Oh well... She had the same amount of training I will have had when she did it last year...
5 minutes to about 2.5 hours... it's d0-able, right guys? RIGHT!?!

hmmm

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 20:54:49 GMT

A large, paper pineapple recently appeared above my desk at work. No one will own up to it... GOD I LOVE IT HERE!

bring on the IT jokes...

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:25:00 GMT

A man in a hot air balloon is lost. He sees a man on the ground and reduces height to speak to him.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

"You're in a hot air balloon hovering thirty feet above this field," comes the reply.

"You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist.

"I do," says the man, "How did you know?"

"Well," says the balloonist, "Everything you told me is technically correct, but it's no use to anyone."

"You must be in business," says the man.

"I am," says the balloonist, "How did you know?"

"Well," says the man, "You don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault."

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 13:47:49 GMT

here is why I love my new job:
-the "Super Call" wall: where we print off our really dumb calls and tack 'em to the wall, at the end of the month, the dumbest call gets a prize... a good one, like half a day off with pay. October's winner: my co-worker actually took a call (at the Help Desk of TECH SUPPORT) from a girl asking if there were only '28 days in October"?? Ummmmm it's called a calendar!

-the "Rule of Three": there are 3 very well known "special staff" who call help desk several times a day (one called 300 times in one month) with dumb questions and don't understand ANYTHING (one has been doing her job for 12 years and still calls for the same things repeatedly). If you get all three of these people in one day, you get to go home for the rest of the day.

-many of my co-workes have equipped their desks with nerf guns and other such projectiles. Sudden nerf gun fights can and do happen on a daily basis. My bosses often get involved. Sometimes they get inventive... i.e. coating nerf darts in vaseline, shooting repeatedly at one staff members screen, often waiting for him to completely clean said screen before launching another attack

-the lovely photoshop art. for instance, the entrance door to our office has a plethora of cheesy album covers from the 70's (TINO, for example) with all the help desk crews' faces photoshopped on... One co-worker has another copy of it taped above his desk, this is exactly what he told me after I let him know how disturbing he looked as TINO:

"I just leave it above my desk now because if I ever take it down, it will be back up as soon as I next leave my desk. This has been happening for over a year".

LOVE IT!

i love halloween!

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 02:10:56 GMT

Went to TOna's for a little Halloween shin diggy last Saturday. I have to say my favourite part is seeing everyone's great costumes, and there were definitely some great ones...

Megan and Jamal = Kick ass as Zombie Janis Joplin and Zombie Jimmy Hendrix

Tona, the little fraulein

Sabrina and Josh as Goldilocks and a Bear, so cute...

Maybe a little too soon, Matt... CRIKEY!

Yours truly as Rosie the Riveter

Caroline is on Team Zizou

Joey as... something creepy, his friend a cowboy and some guy who I think was a pirate???

Random girl in a very cool Ice Queen costume(The Lion, The WItch and the Wardrobe)

Gina the ninja

And last but not least, your favourite party-slut... PARIS HILTON (aka John)

a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"></a>

CLOSE YOUR LEGS, PARIS!
That's what you get when you let Sara pick your costume last minute!! haaaa

i have no shame

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:35:05 GMT

My bestest friend, Kylie, has joined the land of youtube... check out her sillyness... she's got this little hobby of making funny little videos, that I often get as gifts, here's the first few she has posted... please note, my guest appearance was a drunken one.

we're baccccck

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:08:41 GMT

After over 24 hrs of travelling, we are back... last plane hit a bird (seriously, we all heard a thud and it smnelled like burning) and had to go back to Vancouver and change planes... will give lots of trip details once I no longer feel like a zombie....

Ich haben ein kase auf mein kopf...

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:46:37 GMT

Hello! It is Thursday in Germany.

The city of Pinneberg is very nice and our hosts could not be nicer... my cousin and her boyfriend George also like to play games so this works out well for John and I... Today we took a train to Hamburg and took a bus tour around the city... then we went to this super old church and went to the top (560 stairs!) and looked at the whole city... John and I just got back from picking up some beer (which is CHEAPER than water here, literally) and are resting before we ave dinner and a games night with Andrea and George... We are having fun and I have learned I can basically communicate with strangers through nods, grunts and vague hand gestures... I would so live here in a heart beat. The letters are äll screwy ön this keyböärd sö I must stöp nöw.

Auf Wiedersehen!!!!!

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:25:51 GMT

Today is the the day!!! I woke up at 6 this morning, yet we fly at 4 p.m.... Excited much? Oh yes.

So see you all in two weeks!

things I will miss about this job...

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 00:18:33 GMT

The fact that I have not actually seen a customer since 2:00 today... yet I am still getting paid...

Muahahahahahahaaaaaaaa. Tomorrow is my last day, this week probably couldn't have been any more slower.

Another thing I will miss:

Myself, three other co-workers and OUR BOSS just stood around joking and laughing... again, getting paid for it.

But everything else? Won't miss it at all, my friends, won't miss it at all...

5 more sleeps

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:00:37 GMT

...until Germany... and I am getting SO CONFUSED as to what I can and cannot bring on the plane... they keep changing what's allowed every few days (I am NOT exagerrating* either)... all I know is we are stopping in London basically, if they had their way, we'd all walk through security naked carry a clear plastic bag of clothes only. no one needs to see that.

*exaggerating is hard to spell

these are a few of my favorite things...

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:17:22 GMT

I just bought these, they are hot. I am happy.

*sigh*

To Shannon/Erin...

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:32:25 GMT

Saturday Night?

Do tell... :)

i am so gonna love it...

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:35:17 GMT

so my new boss e-mailed me the job manual and I found this little ditty...

"DRESS CODE: We encourage your individuality as long as you stay within the 'business casual' guidelines"

I kind of got that impression since my boss had a red faux-hawk. I then looked up "business casual" in the company manual and it basically means "no jeans, no boobies hanging out"

SWEEEET. No more suits for me... wahoo!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:35:25 GMT

I got the job!!!! Sara is an ITG Help Desk Analyst! I start as soon as I am back from Germany...

Whhhhhheeeeeeeee. Debt-free life awaits!!!!

And to show my excitement, here is a pug.

Pheeeeewwww.

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:31:34 GMT

Just had my interview for the help desk job. I think I rocked it. The two guys interviewing me said I did well and they were impressed. I have a good feeling about it, however, they have interviews until Friday and said they'd let me know probably just after the weekend.... yaaarg.

I think I actually called myself a nerd in my interview. Good Lordy - this weekend is going to kill me.

Costochondritis - say it with me kids

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:21:12 GMT

cos·to·chon·dri·tis (kst-kn-drts)
n.

The inflammation of the costal cartilages, that is characterized by pain of the anterior chest wall that may radiate.
see:
http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sprainsstrains/a/costochondritis.htm

I have been dealing with this since Saturday and it's progressively gotten worse... today I decided to go to the clinic at work because I thought I was having a heart attack. No just turns out I have unbeknowingly injured myself somehow. Now I have a prescription for some anti-inflammatory/pain killers. I swear to god if this is still bothering me for Germany... hell to pay!!!

A big fat L.A.M.E. to the O.
I have been walking around all stiff like a robot for days, I actually feel quite dorkalicious.

BEER FEST!!!

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 16:13:32 GMT

So as soon as I am off at 3... whizzing over to the Great Canadian Beer Fest... ahhh I am as excited as a kid on Christmas... only kids don't usually get raging drunk and eat way too much pizza... but I digress... I actually do enjoy trying new things... why just last year I discovered the wonder that is sour cherry beer.... oooh yum. I was also skeptical, thinking it would taste somewhat like vomit and cough syrup... oh no... it is most delicious. I will also line up copious amounts of time in the Pumkin Beer queue... mmm...

I have found that, as much as I hate to say it, being a woman has its advantages at beer fest. I have got it down to an art on how to get double, even triple the amount of beer for your buck. Ladies, take heed:

Step 1: When you get up to the booth, give your chip, and choose the strongest or "oddest" sounding beer.

Step 2: Guzzle said beer before even leaving.

Step 3: Make horrid "I don't like it" face (even if you find it delicious) and say "eww I really don't like that one".

Step 4: The beer guy is a rep of the company, he doesn't WANT you to dislike the beer, he will probably suggest another one of their beers and fill your glass for free. In my experience this happens about 2/3 times.

Step 5: Flirt ever so slightly with said beer guy and tell him how sweet he is. Especially works if the beer man is your dad's age. Guaranteed you will get doubles for free next time you see this beer guy.

PLEASE NOTE: Does not work if beer rep is female. I tried.

It's sick, I know. But I am there not just for quality but sheer volume. Those tickets are expensive, I want my money's worth. Frankly, if having a rack helps, yay me.

i got an interview... wheee

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:30:29 GMT

So I have an interview for the help desk position next wednesday... oooh it would be sweet... the office is like, a 5 minute walk from our house... crossing my fingers!

so work has been easy today... we had a hot dog sale to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society and I was a cooker... easy peasey, now only 3.5 hrs left of work!