Temporarily under construction

I've decided to embrace the blog design editing capabilities of the new Blogger, but unfortunately that means that I will temporarily lose my customization. Don't worry, the butterflies will be back in a couple of days.

Random update

Wow. I hadn't been to Stone Road Mall in way too long. They've been doing construction work for a while now, with a couple of areas blocked off by those construction-in-the-mall wall thingies (I haven't had my caffeine yet, so please excuse my lack of vocabularly). So Aaron and I stopped by the mall to pick up a couple of things from the dollar store, and just about fell over. There was a brand new food court where there used to be a barrier! Further exploration revealed an entire new section with new stores! It was crazy. The SportChek store is now upstairs where the cinema used to be. It's just weird.

In other news, this past weekend we visited Aaron's family and went out to the tree farm to find a Christmas tree. There was no snow, a stark contrast to last year when walking was somewhat diffucult. I didn't even have a hat or gloves on. Didn't need them. Friday night we watched 'Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest', since Aaron's mom had been waiting ages to see it. I'd forgotten how absolutely hilarious and entertaining that movie is. I think what makes those movies so much fun is that they don't attempt to take themselves seriously at all, so there's no pressure to be a 'good' movies. But neither do they resort to the cheap, often disgusting, stupidity that seems to pass for comedy these days. The result is total entertainment.

Saturday evening we headed out to Chris and Emma's for a birthday/Christmas party. Someday we too will throw a party with such yummy, classy nibblies. They actually had a Christmas tree up and decorated, the first one we'd been in the same room with. Suddenly Christmas felt a lot closer. There was even personalised wrapping paper, aka newspaper that had been printed with "Chris and Emma's Christmas 2007" over and over in red, green and black. I guess working for a newspaper has its advantages.

I baked my first set of Christmas cookies. Chocolate chip. I'm pretty sure I must have added extra flour, because the dough was awfully dry, and the recipe made significantly more cookies than it was supposed to, but they turned out really well. Instead of the moist, chewy cookies I was expecting to make, we now have really yummy and light cookies. Ones that didn't spread at all, so they are fun, lumpy shapes from me squeezing the dough into lumps assuming they'd spread out and not have imprints of my fingers on them.

Despite still having some shopping to do, I am eagerly awaiting the end of the week and the beginning of my holiday. For now, I am stuck at work.

Freedom!

As of 9:15am, I completed my final undergrad exam. Yes, it was an 8:30am exam and I was finished at 9:15am. Actually, I was finished before then, but checked it over a couple times. Dr. Bogart said on the first day of Herpetology that he wanted us to have fun and that he wasn't looking to fail anyone. He meant what he said, and I'm finishing on a high note. I feel strangely light. Always do after my last exam of a semester, but this is different. Now I suppsose it's time to get started on the job I'm being paid to do.

The beast

The cat is entirely fascinated and somewhat weary of the startling beast that is the printer. She seems to feel that sitting on top of it and accidentally hitting buttons with her paws is an excellent idea. I guess she thinks that she can keep an eye on it more easily that way. She can't seem to figure out why she keeps getting hit with a jet of water from the squirt bottle every time she approaches it to see what all the noise is about. Little paws swatting uncertainly at the paper as it comes out onto the tray. Last thing I need is my study notes scattered about the apartment with little claw and teeth holes in them.