excess verbiage

New James Bond theme.

Discuss.

Major suckage for the past few days, so I'm not going to bother trying to post anything much right now. Too many lost posts and photos and formatting. Stayed tuned.... be back soon - I hope.

I finished all 4 books in the Twilight series this week, reading like a voracious psycho every chance I got. I consider them all to be one continuous story, rather than 4 separate books, but still, my favourites were the first and last ones, Twilight and Breaking Dawn.

I was just reading about how some people are kind of put off by some of the stuff in Breaking Dawn, that they're returning the book entirely. I say get over it - it's just a book! If characters are flawed and their character decisions are flawed, then oh well. It's fiction, people!

I'm not going to bother with a synopsis because 1) it'll spoil it if you haven't read the other ones, and 2) I'm kind of tired right now. Laziness wins. But anyway, it's a great series, so get off your butt and go read it!

I had this long post that I'd been writing for 15 minutes, and when I clicked to publish it, it just disappeared. Great, just great. Now I'm not in the mood to retype it just yet. Maybe later.

This book is the reason I can't read that often. Because it's so good that I just can't bear to put it down until I'm finished the entire thing. I was up until 4am  reading this one. The only reason I quit at 4 was because my eyelids just couldn't stay open any longer.

Some of you have probably heard of this book already. It's pretty popular with teens and women because it's an unabashed romance. But it's not like a trashy romance novel with the shirtless guy draped over some girl on the cover. This one is really well written, and um, it involves vampires.

The plot sounds completely ridiculous, but when you're reading it, it makes perfect sense. Okay, here goes. An average, ordinary girl named Bella Swan moves to a small town in Washington State to live with her dad. She meets a guy in school, Edward Cullen, that she's drawn to, even though she thinks he hates her. As it turns out, he's drawn to her too. She notices that he and his family of adopted siblings all sit together, alone at school, not socializing with the other kids. They're all beautiful and pale.

A few strange things happen that make her question him, and she concludes that he must be a vampire. (I know, it sounds dumb, but it's so good.) Eventually, he admits it to her, and tells her that his family are "vegetarian vampires" who don't drink from humans because of ethical and moral issues. They instead drink from wild animals in the forest. But the twist is that Edward is particularly attracted to Bella because of her "intoxicating" scent. They fall in love, though obviously it's an impossible situation. He wants to be with her, but is afraid of hurting her. He may be a "vegetarian", but her scent is too much of a temptation to him - but it's a temptation he's willing to try to control, because his love for her is so strong. He likens it to "waving a bottle of vodka in front of an alcoholic".

The rest of the story involves a lot of suspense, as Bella's life becomes in danger from other vampires who do feed on humans. It's the good vampires against the bad vampires, in a struggle to save Bella's life and soul. I know, I know, it still sounds dumb, but it's honestly not. Teen girls and adult women alike have gone bonkers over this series, and now I know why. If you're a sap like me, you'll love this. The "girl loves vampire" story isn't new to me, as I watched plenty of that from the Buffy series, but this is such a different vibe than that. Still, I'm a sucker for it, because what's more interesting than a relationship that's got true love, yet has all the odds completely against it? I love it!!!

Also, I heard that there's going to be a movie based on the first book coming out on November 21st, and I saw some photos and the trailer, and I think the casting is a pretty good job. The actress is just what I pictured as Bella. The guy they chose to play Edward isn't exactly what I pictured, but I think he's a good choice. They'd better not screw up this movie though, or they will have tons of angry book fans on their backs. hehe. So excited to go see this - who's coming with me??!

Here's the trailer....

Just saw these guys last night. This is one of my favourites. Happy Sunday. =)

Went for dinner and drinks after work today at Rugby Beach Club Grille on West Broadway. Read about a happy hour dinner and drink menu, so thought why not try it? Everything on the menu is a la carte, meaning you have to order the meat, veggies, and carbs separately, each at a different price. The happy hour special is that you can have a 6 oz steak & prawns for $5.96, or a single chicken breast for $3.97. Sounds cheap, right? But if you want potatoes, then there's a bunch on the regular menu you can choose from that all cost between $4.95-6.95. And veggies are about the same price. So really, $5.96 + $4.95 + $6.95 is still an $18 meal. That's pretty cheap, but it's not like you can get away with spending just $6 like the ad in the newspaper implies.

Also, I've never been super crazy about the food, but it was tolerable. But honestly, after what I ate today, there's no way I can say that again. I ordered the steak and prawns and my friend ordered the chicken. We both got mashed potatoes and split some szechuan green beans. The steak, prawns, and chicken were obviously from the freezer. It's not that I haven't had food that's been frozen before in restaurants - but normally, they don't have that freezer-burn taste and texture to them. The prawns didn't taste right, I can't explain it. But it just wasn't fresh. The steak was clearly thawed out quickly and the meat was tough. I've truly made better at home. The chicken was dry and just kind of gross. I've had better frozen chicken from Costco.

The worst though - the very worst was the mashed potatoes. We both love mashed potatoes, and so when we dug into them, we both immediately said, "these are instant, aren't they?" Yep, INSTANT powdered potatoes. WTF?! I can't believe a place like that, that tries to come off as being cutting edge - can't even mash their own potatoes! Gross.

The only decent thing was the szechuan green beans, but now that I know what they're all about, I'm guessing that it tasted good because they probably just scooped out the sauce from a jar that they got from an asian supermarket. I also ordered a maple cream ale, since it was only $2.68. (I'm trying to get used to drinking beer. Long story.) I would say that when you hear me saying that the best thing I had all night was the beer, then you know the food was bad.

I just think it's insulting to charge the kind of prices they do (the regular menu is way overpriced) and then to not use fresh ingredients. Plus, you can't even say it's because they charge so little, so what do you expect - because there are lots of restaurants out there that are inexpensive but still care about fresh, quality ingredients. I could have a plate of thai green curry chicken with rice for less than $10 and I guarantee the ingredients would be fresh and the flavours would be vibrant.

My stomach has not felt well from the moment I got home. I kind of suspected that would happen while I was eating my food. I should've just not eaten it, but I guess you make dumb decisions when you're hungry. So anyway, don't waste your money or stomach space on any of the crap at Rugby. Just go for cheap beer or cocktails ($3.95 martinis) and that's enough.

Behold - the most talked-about and laughed-about item at work today.  The... how do I put this... twig-and-berries, the ding dong, the third leg, the mangina... oh what the hell - the penis-shaped chocolate!!!

Please forgive the crappy photo, as I only had my camera phone with me and the lighting was horrible. But you can pretty much make out what you need to see.

We got a complimentary box of chocolates today and so I put it out for everyone to share. My colleague, Jackie, came over to me and said, "Hey, take a look at this! Doesn't this look like a .......?!" And then I looked at it and we both burst into laughter. Then she took it to show someone else and more laughter ensued. She wound up giving it to Jenny K as a gift. (Who wouldn't want that as a gift? hehe) Pretty much all of the women sitting in that area were cackling away for a good 10 minutes, as we took photos, and marvelled at its uncanny resemblence to a um, you know. haha

You can insert (pun intended) your own jokes about having a mouthful of chewy nuts, or how it was kind of small, or how it didn't taste good. Really, there are lots of options here. Be creative! Anyway, it was a damn good laugh. Funny how at the end of the day, it all goes back to the kiddie pee pee jokes. It never gets old. Never!

So apparently, chef Mario Batali took Gwyneth Paltrow with him on a culinary road trip through Spain, and they made a show and a book about it. I don't know about you, but when I think of food or cooking, the last person I think of is Gwyneth "I'm better than you and you know it" Paltrow. She, of the macrobiotic diet, and he, of the sausage fingers, do not make for a likely pair. But I like food and travel shows, so I'll probably watch this.

I saw a bit of the Oprah episode yesterday when they were both on it, and Gwyneth is one of those people who I like and dislike at the same time. She totally has that holier-than-thou air about her, but for some reason, I find her likeable as well. I don't get it!

And Mario, if there's one thing I like, it's a fat chef. I like chefs that are on the chubby side because you know it means their food is actually good. I don't trust skinny chefs. If they have sausage fingers like Mario, you know they're good!

I've seen the first couple of episodes of Fringe, the new JJ Abrams show, and so far, so good. I've been a fan of every JJ Abrams show since Felicity, including Alias and Lost. Fringe, in a nutshell, is kind of like X-Files Jr. and I mean that in a good way.

The woman on the show is so pretty and has the most amazing hair. It's so perfect! And of course, Joshua Jackson is finally doing something on tv again. Where the hell has he been since Dawson's Creek ended? Really - how's he been paying the bills?! He's gotten so much better looking now that he's in his late 20s. I think that people will always think of him as Pacey from Dawson's Creek though. I know I do. But with the right role, he might finally break away from that.

For the longest time when I started watching Lost, I could only think of Jack as "Charlie Salinger from Party of Five". But after a while, I got used to him in the new role. Hopefully, that'll happen for Pacey - uh, I mean Joshua Jackson - too. I heard from a friend's friend that he's a really nice guy in real life. He got to meet him at a house party and was a totally normal, cool guy. I'm so glad to hear that. I hate hearing about celebrities I like turning out to be assholes in real life. I'd love to see him around him if he ever comes back here.

Anyway, Fringe is a good show and I recommend it to anyone who likes that mysterious x-files-ish kind of stuff. Hopefully it'll get good enough ratings to stick around for a whole season.