Haven't posted in a while.  July in a nutshell:

• We suffered a minor crisis as an indirect result of installing our new dishwasher, when we woke up the following morning to discover that we had sprung a rather frightening leak in our basement ceiling from a pipe under our kitchen floor.  Luckily Mason and his father Bob the Builder'ed it up and managed to patch up the pipe within the day, and we spent the next week with fans cranked up full force up in the roof and on the floor to avoid any possible mold or water damage.  Things are now more or less fixed and back to normal other than the giant three foot hole still in our ceiling.
• Last weekend we had an unexpected kitty-shaped visitor camp out with us for an evening.  We found the young cat out in our backyard, unneutured, with no collar or tattoos, so I set him up with some food and water, a bed, and litterbox in the garage over night until the Humane Society opened up the next day.  I figure he was a house escapee rather than a stray, considering how openly friendly and affectionate he was, but I went around ringing doorbells that morning and no one recognized his photo.  He was so sweet, he liked to headbutt and nuzzle you in the face, being all "LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE I AM! SUBMIT ALL YOUR LOVES TO ME, MUH HA HA!"  I hope he was claimed by his family, if he had one, or gets adopted by someone nice.  *Hugs him*
• Sister and I had a Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows 2 movie date!  Both halves of this last movie were surprisingly awesome for a change, a really nice wrap up to a sadly lackluster movie franchise (with the exception of the epilogue which, trust me, is just as awful in movie form as it was in the book, only now you actually get too see Ron's thirty-year-old beer gut and Malfoy's hilarious facial hair.)  I liked that they ramped up the castle battle to be a bit more epic, though I was pretty choked that they cut out Fred's death scene; also sad that they hardly touched at all on Dumbledore's backstory.  On the other hand, as much as I've been a long time hater of Alan Rickman's portrayal of Snape, he really redeemed himself a bit in this one.  He finally abandoned the whole campy Capt Kirk line delivery and the over-the-top billow genie moves for some actual acting in parts for a change.  I've never been a fan at all of the Snape/Lily ship, but I gotta say that I sobbed like a giant goober during the scene where he finds her dead in Godric's Hollow, and afterward when he's lamenting to Albus.  ;_;  Oh yeah, and btw, McGonagall?  She's hilarious.  Trust me.
• Only one month until I go back to school.  It's a little pathetic how even at the age I am now that one of the parts I get most excited for about returning to college university (MacEwan would insist on accuracy) is the prospect of new school supplies, especially when you consider that school supplies for my program pretty much consist of maybe a binder, paper, and a handful of pens.  Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to the classes themselves, and the concept of graduating in two years and being able to secure a career I'm actually passionate about is obviously appealing, but some how that package of brand new blue Bic ballpoints makes me positively squirm with glee every time I walk by the office supply aisle at work.  Yes, it's absurd, I know.
• On the note of school and library careers, I applied for a (very) part-time page position at the St. Albert Public Library this week which I'm hoping my volunteer cred will score me first dibs at.  Even a few hours a week of legitimate library work would be great for my resume and maybe open up some opportunities for something full-time.  Please cross your fingers for me!  >_<

Mood: Triumph!

OMG, I BEAT ARKHAM ASYLUM ALL BY MYSELF! :B Sure, I had it on easy mode and it's taken me over a month to trudge through it, but I totally did it without handing the controller over even once! For anyone who knows what a crappy excuse for a gamer I am, this is a fairly big deal. I only have two big complaints about the game:

1. For a game that is so ridiculously gorgeous and highly detailed in design, it's pretty ridiculous that you spend practically all of your time in Detective Mode and don't even get to enjoy any of the eye-candy.
2. The final boss battle against the Joker is just plain disappointing. It was probably one of the easiest fights in the entire game (and I use the term "fight" loosely, considering you hardly even take a swing at Mister J and spend the entire time fighting henchmen instead) especially compared to Ivy, who I died six times with much swearing and gnashing of teeth before I managed to beat.

In any event, it has been the highlight of my lackluster gaming career to date, and I'm super excited for the sequel, Arkham City, to come out in 2011. Catwoman and Two-Face and even more Joker, oh my!

Iroh went in for his annual checkup and it turns out he really is getting a tad tubby. All this time I thought the extra weight was just the whole second year "filling out" stage that cats apparently go through. *Sweatdrop* The doctor says he should loose around 1/2 - 1lb, so in an effort to not end up with a rolly-polly kitty, I'm cutting back on his wet food in the evenings. *Iroh is very sad*

While we were in at the clinic, I also took the chance to ask the vet about how to put on the Soft Claw nail caps. (Iroh has been caught one too many times scratching at our sofa downstairs, and certain individuals were two whiskers away from having a conniption.) The caps were easy enough to apply (though I have no doubt that next time I try it by myself Iroh will fight me to the bitter end), and they seem to work pretty well. Other than visibly wigging him out when he walked anywhere for the first day of having them on, they don't appear to bother him much at all -- aside from any regrettable injury to his kitty pride he may bear, that is. Sometimes he'll shake his paws in annoyance and give me such a dirty look, like I've betrayed a sacred trust or something.

Poor Iroh. Vet visits, dieting, and no more scratching at the furniture. It's been a bad week for him. ^^;

Update on the kitchen renovations! And by that I mean that we've scrapped the kitchen reno idea for the time being (we're going to wait until we have more money to burn for that big project), and instead we've sort of -- and almost entirely by accident -- decided to redo the upstairs bathroom. What started as an outing to buy a new toilet seat turned into a new shower curtain, which in turn escalated into new bathmats, towels, and paint to match the new shower curtain, and has ended up with us buying a new vanity from Jysk and light fixtures and shopping around for the best deal on floor and wall tile. We haven't even done any of the big changes yet and already it's looking so much prettier! I'll post before and after pictures when we get it finished~

Mood: Content

Survived camping in bear country, hurrah! \o/ Next week I'm off again for our biennial Road Trip of Sisterly Win to visit equally awesome Brother of Awesome and Sister-In-Law of Rad over in B.C. This involves our traditional 12 hour drive through the mountains, the same ones I just returned from this past weekend; the only difference being that if we encounter bears, I will already be safely in our car traveling at 130 km/h on the highway. Ha HA! How do ya like them apples, bears?! *Smug*

Still no interviews. *Sad face* In the mean time I've begun taking on contract work again to at least bring in some sort of income aside from my EI. Last week through word of mouth I managed to pick up a couple new web projects, so that's keeping me nice and busy during the day when I was formerly just laying around watching episodes of Secret Diary of a Call Girl and napping.

In addition to contract work, I've started volunteering at the St. Albert Public Library! :3 (I've also put in an application at the EPL, but they haven't contacted me back yet.) It's great because it'll finally give me a little experience to put on my sad, library-lacking resume; plus, I'm really enjoying it. The people there are super nice and I find the shelving work very relaxing. They have me for a couple evening hours each week, though I'm hoping that I can eventually increase my hours -- then the next time they have a part-time page position open for hire they'll be all "Hey, that Brenna girl sure is a hard-working, enthusiastic volunteer! She's just the lady we're looking for, yes sir!" and BAM! Hired. That's my brilliant plan anyhow.

Over the past week, Mason and I have paid a couple of trips to various home hardware stores in an attempt to start planning out a tentative budget to remodel our very sad, ugly kitchen. No huge construction renos or anything, mostly just aesthetics -- painting the cupboards, new countertops, hardware, light fixtures, getting rid of ugly apple-print drapes, maybe a fancy shmancy new faucet~ I would love a new dishwasher as well (because it's getting to the point that our cat could lick clean our plates and utensils better than this silly machine) but that's a whole different time and budget all together. We've also picked out some paint swatches and have wonderful plans for when we eventually want to spruce up the upstairs walls. Very excited. (For the work to be finally done and finished, that is -- I am not looking forward to the actual physical labor of remodeling at all.)

FYI, the sexy Old Spice guy has managed to somehow defy the laws of awesome and become EVEN MORE AWESOME. They're putting out new spots (some of which that are quite hilarious) on their YouTube channel in which he personally responds to comments and questions from fans. This man is so awesome, in fact, that I have added him to my Hug Bucket. I bet hugging him would be like hugging every awesome person in the world at the same time, while listening to Journey, while standing in the the most beautiful sunny and grassy panorama, among the grand scenic backdrop of looming mountains made entirely of chocolate, immediately after being rescued single-handedly from a hoard of ravenous bears. Ooh. Not to mention my Hug Bucket would forever carry the wonderfully manly fragrance of Old Spice scented body wash.

Mood: Playing the waiting game

This is by far the best (and addicting) video I've seen this week. Suggestively lewd geek humor is the best. I still can't get this song out of my head.

I've finally started The Time Traveler's Wife and while I'm only 100ish pages in so far it's lived up to the praise. I'm really enjoying it. It's been a while since I've read a book that's made me look so forward to the bus ride home so that I can continue reading.

This week I also went and saw District 9 which was also great. The plot wasn't anything like I thought it would be -- much more of a documentary than anything like the suspenseful, thriller sci-fi flicks I'm used to (though with the at times almost dizzying camera shaking from Cloverfield.) I liked the aliens; poor Christopher Johnson's drive and motivation to return home and save his people and his love for his son (adorable!) managed to make him seem so human. It was a very different and fresh kind of alien movie. I both hope and dread for a future sequel.

Someone should come with me to see both The Time Traveler's Wife movie (though I'll probably kick myself for going to see it after I've already immersed myself in the novel), as well as Julie & Julia, because Meryl Streep is just piles of win in anything she has a lead role in. Hilarity and awesomeness can only follow.

We finally sold our old tv! Or at least I hope we actually do. The woman who's buying it is driving in all the way over from Lloydminister so she must want it pretty bad. *Looks at clock* She needs to speed it up though or I'm selling it to the guy next in line. Once that giant monstrosity is finally out of our house we can finally buy living room furniture! *Joy* I'm also in need of some nice fake plants for around the house to bring some much-needed green inside, but not inevitably kill. Anyone know where I can find some nice ones at really cheap prices?

Oh god the poor flowers my Mom gave me out in the front of the house are dead already. Oh god oh god oh god. There must be a special little corner of hell reserved for awful people like me who kill flowers, surrounded forever by hellfire and brimstone and piles of dead pansies and tulips. D: *Crafts pots filled with little paper flowers in hopes that her mother won't notice.*

Mood: You see this happy fox? He's a happy home owner!

The very belated moving-in recap.

YAY NEW HOUSE! :B We have officially been living in our new home for one week~ Happy week-aversary, us! I love this place, and it already feels like home. *Snuggles down in her chair all cozy-like*

Right. The big move. To start with, it was surprisingly quick. With our convoy of happy helpers and a giant 14' U-Haul truck, we loaded all the vehicles, carted them to the new house, moved everything in, and were already relaxing and eating pizza out in the backyard in just two and half hours. Much love and thanks to our army of wonderful family and friends who came out and lent a hand. *Hearts you all*

The only hiccup in our otherwise smooth moving day was the discovery that our giant rear-projection 60-something inch television wouldn't fit down the bloody basement stairs. We made sure to measure the width of the staircase and door beforehand, but we completely overlooked the sheer height of the thing. =_=; The low, dropped ceiling in the stairwell was like "HAHAHAHA, EPIC FAIL." So in the end we abandoned the effort and resigned ourselves to the fact that we will have to invest in a new T.V. in a month or two, and until then are using our smaller bedroom television for the basement.

Our new neighbors seem nice, they even brought us homemade cake as we were moving in! :3 They're an older couple, though in fact it seems like a lot of older people live in our area, so it's made for a pretty quiet street so far. Everyone's lawns and gardens are all nicely taken care of and meticulously manicured -- I feel like I'm under pressure to make sure I have lush green lawns and extravagant gardens with lanterns and little garden gnomes. I'm not much of a gardening girl -- I have some nice pots with some flowers out front courtesy of my green-thumbed Mom though, does that count? *Desperately tries to not kill little flowers* *Sweatdrop*

We're more or less unpacked. There's still a couple boxes laying around in some corners and the upstairs living room is scattered with pictures and wall stuff that needs to be hung (as well as has a giant freaking T.V. sitting in it that I badly need to list on kijiji.com so we can get rid of it), but we're mostly done. I'm going to use this weekend to go check out the library that's right near us *excited* and take a gander in at the rec center across the road to see what they offer. I love that we still ended up close to a bus depot -- depending on how much time I have in the morning, I can make the 10 minute leisurely stroll to the transit center or just run out my door and wait at the stop right outside our crescent. My daily commute to work and back is a little longer now, but I don't really mind. (On the topic of the ETS, holy hannah is it hard track down bus passes in Edmonton. I thought all Shoppers Drugmart's sold them, but apparently not; I went to three different places before finally finding a 7/11 where I could buy one.)

Update to previous post: Toby is doing much better~ (I'm so glad he's finally back home. Extra thanks to the Glory Hole crew who took such good care of him for those four weeks before we moved.) The vet wasn't completely sure what caused him to get sick -- she didn't think it was a GI problem, and figures more it was just all of the stress in the past month, with the moving from our apartment to the Glory Hole then to our new house; and then having all of the people over at our house the other night so soon after moving him in. He seems fine now though, he's back to his old self, gorging himself on food and being hilariously silly. *Hugs*

He seems to really like his new room~ :3 He been binkying around and crawling all over his new sofa, and I'm going to try to build him a little window seat out of NIC panels this weekend so he can look outside. *Bunny joy*

Mood: Impatient

Recently while I've been waiting at the bus stop to go home this week, among the usual suburban transit passengers I've come to recognize, there's this new woman with a young girl. The kid is probably around thirteen or so, and she must be being picked up each day from a swimming class at the YMCA or something because she smells so strongly of chlorine all of the time. Is it completely weird and creepy that I've come to actually look forward to this smelly haze of swimming pool chemicals that greets me at the end of each day? It's not as if chlorine is a particularly pleasing aroma, but I swear it's like this wonderful breath full of fresh air that breaks up all of the stifling heat and car fumes and grimy smell of downtown. I actually go out of my way to sidle my way closer to the pair of them or take a seat on the next bench over just so I can no doubt look completely stupid as I take giant, noisy inhales. I'm worried that this girl's mother/older sister/whatever is going to notice and think I'm a dirty pedophile or something.

I hate the downtown city area, I really do. Everything is ugly and concrete, way too crowded and noisy; there's not enough trees or grass or sky that you can see in between all of the freaking buildings. It makes me all that much more excited for the fact that in a week's time we're going to have our own green lawn and quiet crescent tucked out of the way. (I sound like an old fart and I don't care. You can take the girl out of suburbia, but you can't take suburbia out of the girl.)

Did I mention that OMG WE'RE DOWN TO A WEEK? *Squee!* I am so excited, but each day has begun dragging by so slowly and it's excruciating. We have a meeting with the lawyers on Friday and we still have like half of the apartment to pack still. D: This weekend Mason and I are getting down to some serious moving business -- watch your head for cardboard boxes and packing tape flying through the air.

Countdown until shiny exciting house possession: 8 (LOOK, WE'RE IN THE SINGLE DIGITS NOW!)