It's a sad, depressing sight when I look out of the office window and there's gales of snow whirlwinding outside the building. It's late April and it's blizzarding in Alberta. Mother Nature needs a swift kick in the patoot, or wherever an anthropomorphic personification keeps their kickable parts.

Last week I went with Mom to a Condon Barr cooking class...sale...thing. They wined and dined us with fancy cheese and bubbly high class drinks for two hours while a charming, well-groomed young chef prepared sweet dessert after dessert for us. I'd like to say that I'll be trying out all the recipes he gave us at home, but anyone who knows me would know that that's a horrible filthy lie and that despite all my good intentions they will probably end up in the bottom junk drawer of my kitchen. I did however use my one-night 15% off while I was in their store to buy myself a set of very nice metal mixing bowls. Now I just need to get ambitious and make some cookies or something. *Tiny background voices call liar! and bluff! and Brenna fends them off with a spatula.*

I've finally gotten around to begin reading the pile of new Terry Pratchett books I got for Christmas, starting with Guards! Guards! I forgot how much I love the Discworld series and it's lunacy~ The trouble I find with Pratchett's brand of writing is that it's so crammed to the brim with jokes and wit and tomfoolery that I have to pace myself while reading in order to catch it all or I end up missing something important for later on. I have to be in a mood to concentrate when I read Discworld novels. They're awesome, just...brain consuming.

It comes as no surprise now that the long-awaited and apparently new Avatar episode on Friday was a big bust. Nickelodeon is getting very good at building up our innocent hopes as fans and then crushing them into the dirt under the sole of their stupid, lying, corporatey-sized boot. We're the gullible Charlie Brown to their conniving Lucy, with the Gaang and associates serving as the football. Color me sad. Apparently "The Boiling Rock" episode is now slotted for May, which gives them two months to get their asses in gear and serve out the entire rest of the series before the final volumes of the season 3 DVD set are supposed to hit shelves. It's not looking very promising.

As if they weren't being cruel enough, at the New York Comic Con they released a teaser of the finale to let us drool over, which can be watched here. *Paw paw* *Angst* To tide me over until then I've put the first two seasons on my iPod to re-watch on my bus commutes each day. Watching a series through the second time always highlights different aspects you never had time to focus on the first time, and I'm absolutely falling in love with the art this go around -- the animation in "The Southern Air Temple" for the Agni Kai between Zuko and Zhao is mouthwateringly gorgeous~ I love the style of martial arts that firebending is based from, it's so beautiful and fluid. It makes me really want to look into some sort of martial arts classes (again...) I've lost count of how many times in my life I've said I want to do it and then don't. :P I need to get up off my lazy bum like I should have when I was a kid and actually try it out; besides it would be a rare form of exercise for me without the "OMG I hate this and want to die" part of, say, going to the dreaded gym. :3

BTW, one movie I highly recommend to the world at large is Black Sheep. It's about a New Zealand farm where sheep go crazy. And eat people. Kind of a zombie sheep flick with a tasteful hint of weresheep on the side. In any event it's made of hilarious piles of awesome. Go rent it now!

HA HA HA HA HA, best scene in Avatar ever. EVER.

First off, a heartfelt Happy Panda filled congrats to Coleen on her one year anniversary of sobriety! I shall buy you tasty cake next time I see you~ Tasty cake SHALL BE HAD.

So I thought poor C.J. was on the mend, her fins were growing back, and I stopped her Melafix treatment; but yesterday while I was cleaning her tank I noticed the re-growth is getting ragged and her fins and tail have blackish tips, so apparently she's relapsed. *So much sadness* It makes me especially sad because I feel somewhat guilty of maybe causing the relapse by stopping medicating too soon. I know she's just a tiny beta fish, but the way I see it, just like a dog or cat she's still a pet and I'm responsible for her, and I don't believe her being a fraction of the size excuses me of being concerned for her health. I did a big clean of her tank once more and started her on the medication again. It would be piles of help if the damn heater in our apartment would regulate itself so the aquarium water wouldn't keep constantly changing temperature.

Ugh. The microwave dinner I had for lunch is not agreeing with me... Tummy, behave now. Digesting food, stop poking tummy and go sit in the corner. *Scolds*

While playing losing a game of poker on the weekend, I had the strongest craving to go swimming at the WEM Waterpark; and since at that moment I was devoid of said wave pool, I suddenly realized exactly what I was going to do for my birthday this year! YAY waterpark! YAY waterslides! YAY relaxing tube ride! YAY new swimsuit bought in Hawaii! YAY tasty curly fries sold from the snack food vendor which had better still be there or I will cry! *Is very excited* Apparently there will also be bungee jumping involved, but it will not be directly involving me on any level other than the watching-from-the-ground sort of kind. I wish the four of you brave men a complete lack of doomy squishy death this coming April.

So I'm raising the bar of my geekery by drawing my Guild Wars characters~! :B It's been a stupidly long time since I've opened my art pad (and maybe for good reason since last time I tried to sit down and draw it twisted and curled and imploded in my face in a mess of frustrated scribbles never to be seen.) I finished Lady Hadelphia, my adorable necromancer/ranger, and now I've furiously trying to track down my lost reference images so I can draw in my Stalker, Newt. Then maybe I'll start on my ritualist, she'll be ten exploded bunnies worth of fun to draw~ I am such a geek.

*Hand flail* I've now officially caught up to the current episode in Avatar and it's HORRIBLE. What's with this crazy sporadic episode release schedule? March? I have to wait until MARCH? The latest episode was aired in January! D: How can the shiny television gods give me two and a half seasons of smarmy-ness and then dangle the last eight episodes just out of my reach? Bad Nickelodeon! Bad! *Rant rant bitterness stomp stomp kicking puppies*

Does anyone else notice how somehow Zuko manages to be a ridiculously badass ninja one moment, and the next moment be such a loser? Prince Zuko, you have no people skills. At all. Also, cut your damn hair. You have eight episodes in which to repent for your evil ways, swoon the girl, and make her forgive you for all your evil whatnots; but Katara will never fall in love with you in time for the season finale if you have emo hair.

Ho ho ho, grumpy Zuko avatarness FTW.

YES WAY!

I really should have gone home two episodes of West Wing earlier last night. *Cries a little at the thought of her bed at home so very empty and calling to her*

Welcome to my blog, version...uh...4.1? Version Wordpress! Version Awesome! After working for weeks on the contract project I had to learn Wordpress for I found myself wishing for a simple, sleek, and oh-so-extra-customizable install of my own. So goodbye to Blogger, and here we are after two or three days of relatively painless transferring of all my posts and comments and templates. It's like going from snowy cold Alberta to sunny tropical Hawaii. *Glee*

I'm thinking of getting a newspaper subscription, probably the Edmonton Sun because the Journal is stupidly sized and awkward to read. I miss sitting down in the morning before work and flipping through the paper while munching on (insert ridiculously non-breakfast food here) -- even if I only read the few articles that interest me, being able to glance at the headlines every morning keeps me relatively up to date and informed on what's going on in the world around me. I suppose I could watch the news each night, but that's long and arduous, and I don't fancy sitting through the silly sports segment. The only potential flaw to my brilliant plan is if the delivery person will be able to get into my building or not; and if and when they do, if some nasty neighbor will steal my morning paper. *Looks accusingly at other building tenants* Yes, cucumber lady, that includes you.

We're starting into the third and current season of Avatar, so soon I'll be all caught up! (Aang has HAIR! Zutara is...um...trying to be a prostitot?) I'm enjoying this series to a remarkable extent and it's bringing out the sad, lost little fangirl in me that hasn't had any fandoms to squee over in a while. I'm having some ongoing debates on the Facebook discussion threads about the great Kataang vs. Zutara question, and I'm fairly certain that Zutara shippers everywhere will prevail and earn gloating rights before the season is out. On a related note, Mako, the guy who plays Iroh, totally guest starred on an episode of West Wing! This little Asian man was waiting outside the Oval Office and the first time he speaks I'm like "DUDE, he sounds like Mako," and then a second later his name floats by on the credits. Muh ha ha.

Yay for Theatresports this Friday~! It's one of those shows I love but don't go to hardly enough (I think mostly because it's on Whyte Ave and that's a long and doomy drive, and also every time we go it ends up being freezing cold outside. I guess it's the price you pay for improv comedy...plus obviously the $10.00 at the door. Bastards!)

I finally got my West Wing series DVDs delivered! YAY! I've lost a little bit of faith in Amazon after all the trouble I went through to get them, but I blame it more on the incompetent customer service person on the phone rather than the company itself. *Hugs her long-awaited seven seasons of the Bartlett administration*

My poor beta fish is in a state of doomy sick turmoil. I realized on Sunday when I was feeding her that her tail appeared noticeably shorter than usual, almost like it had been ripped or torn, but careful inspection of the gravel in the tank showed no evidence of any falling off. I did some frantic Googling and found out that C.J. has a disease called fin rot, in which the fins and tail start to deteriorate and can be lost entirely and kill the fish. D: I went out after work the next day and bought some antibiotics for her, so hopefully we start to see some regrowth pretty soon. *Stares sadly into tank and nurses Claudia Jean back to health* ;_;

So after careful consideration and some general playing around, Wordpress = Awesome. I've spent the last week learning my way through the tagging and templating process and the CMS system, and on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a firm exploding bunny with half a rainbow. Blogger, eat your heart out. After I'm done this contract work I think I may make the switch over~

Speaking of joy that is probably not as exciting for anyone as it is for me, progress is actually being made in our apartment! Mason has been absolutely splendid and handy-man-ish and over the last month we've gotten the bathroom painted, doors installed, light fixtures changed, pictures hung; and when I came home the other day he had even completely cleaned out the chaos that was our computer room! XD *so much love and cuddles for sweet boyfriend*

We have also discovered the television series awesomeness that is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Mason downloaded the entire first season and we watch a couple episodes before bed each night. It's one of those shows that you don't really have much hope for when you first hear about it, but then you're pleasantly surprised and soon enthralled by the quality after watching a couple episodes~ The art style is kind of American anime-ish, the animation is great, and the dialogue is really where Avatar shines. They have some funny damn writers on that staff, fresh and clever. There's a few characters that you just can't help but love too. Color me addicted. :D

EDIT: OMG, I just found out that Admiral Zhao is actually voiced by Jason Isaacs! Jason. Freaking. Isaacs. Okay, see, now I understand why Makani gets all fluttery and fangirlish.