Back from B.C. sister road trip! I'm contemplating changing the name to Bacon Vacation, however, due not only to the undeniable fact that it (sort of) rhymes and everyone knows that rhymes are fun for everyone -- but also paying homage to the additional fact that I don't think we ate one meal in Sean and Liz's home that didn't include bacon. It was a plethora of bacon! On top of, inside, shredded into, sprinkled on, and wrapped around! A variable bacon cornucopia, if you will. I know a few salivating individuals who would indeed have some fine dining at Sean and Liz's House of the Crispy Fried Swine.

Anyway, our trip was lots of fun, minus the actual sitting in the car for twelve straight hours there and back again -- that starts to lose it's appeal after the first hour or two. For the first time in all of our many B.C. excursions, we actually hung out in downtown Vancouver for a day. It's a much nicer city to stroll around in than Edmonton, visually-wise, what with all its envy-invoking mountain/bay scenery that puts us to shame. It also scores bonus points on the personal Brenna scale with it's monumental vaguely-coliseum-like Public Library of All Kinds of Win!

Seriously cool. I bought a used book from their gift shop and every time I turn a page I shall think back to the VPL fondly and FILLED WITH JEALOUSLY.

We also spent a day down in Seattle checking out the Space Needle, and before that the Seattle Zoo (I got super close to a grizzly bear! Like, SUPER CLOSE! D: The entire lack of actual fences around the animal enclosures do not help at all with soothing the fearful concept of serious bear mauling.) I had to stop and have a "the hell?" moment when in one of the aviaries they featured ...wait for it... magpies. *Blink* Really? We could have carted a whole car load of them over from Alberta for you, and I think I speak on behalf of all Edmontonians when I say we'd be glad to be rid of them. Though I suppose they're considered exotic to someone. When you think about it, I'm sure somewhere in South America, the locals are all like "Fucking toucans! Get your exotic profile and beautifully-colored giant beak out of my fucking backyard and off my breakfast cereal! Jeeze!"

On the way home we also made a pit stop by our favorite B.C. roadside fruit vendor and I bought some delicious fresh cherries. Yum~ X3

Tomorrow, CT's wedding! *Excited flails!* Very excited and happy for them. I tried the few dresses I own all on yesterday and realized that they all either: a) don't fit anymore, b) never did fit in the first place but I was too style-stupid to realize it, or c) fit but are made a material so see-through that undergarments can clearly be seen. So I ventured out today to buy a much-needed dress slip to hide unfortunate pantie exposure, except that I couldn't manage to find a bloody slip so instead I spent two hours frantically hunting for a whole new dress. Fortunately I managed to find one that was on sale and ended up being more or less the same amount of money I would have spent on the slip in the first place. That's a win in my book.

Mmm, have no doubt that there shall be cake and possibly other tasty desserts at wedding tomorrow. That's always a delightful perk. Is it acceptable these days to slip the groom a fiver in order to score an extra piece? A corner piece, maybe? With a grotesque amount of icing...?

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.

The following is the one and only positively rad bear-related portion part of this blog post:

Me:	@danawhite I had a dream where I was being attacked by bears and you came in and were all "I'll handle this" and fought them off, saving me.
Me:	@danawhite Long story short -- you're sort of my hero.
	*No reply for many days*
Me:	No reply from @danawhite in response to my msg about dreaming that he saved me from a bear. I think I may have made him uncomfortable.
Me:	Or perhaps @danawhite was in fact in real life bear battle and was brutally mauled? Bear fighting prowess does not exist beyond dreams?
Dana White:	I didn't see it. Glad I could help :)
Me:	@danawhite Huzzuh! Glad to hear you were not in fact mauled by angry bears. Rock on.
Dana White:	lol

\o/

I am having serious doubts about this mountain camping trip. I was having doubts before, but after reading Fairfax Lake's far too convenient "Bear Smart e-Book" I feel like I'm mere moments away from a panic attack at the thought of driving four hours away tomorrow just to camp at some backwater mountain campground with a chance of bear encounters and "serious mauling" (the e-book's words, not mine) thrown in. There is something we have termed the "Brenna bubble" and bears are not a part of that bubble.

If you can't already tell, I have a pretty solid history -- which I believe I genetically inherited in some fashion from my mother -- of being terrified of bears. I have never seen one up close, but I positively, 100% sure, instinctively know that if I ever do I will end up dead. Watching The Edge when I was younger was like sitting through my own personal 2-hour nightmare.

If I end up actually going tomorrow I'm not even going to be able to walk to the bathroom alone. I will be a campsite Nazi. "DID YOU PUT AWAY ALL YOUR FOOD INTO THE CAR?!" "YOU CAN'T GO TO BED IN THE SAME CLOTHES YOU COOKED DINNER IN!!!" "IS THAT TOOTHPASTE I SEE IN YOUR TENT?!" Oh god. Hated and shunned by close friends, or hideous bear mauling? What do I do, what do I do, what do I do.

:x

As enjoyable a time that you always have on a camping trip, as relaxing, and stress free, and wonderfully lazy and refreshing as they are, there's always this little inner breath of relief let out when you walk back in the door of your house afterward. I love camping, but I forget sometimes how much more I love indoor plumbing. Especially spider-free indoor plumbing. And the complete lack of irrational fear of being eaten by bears on your way to pee during the night. And the added bonus of a cool basement in which you can finally escape the scorching heat -- a new plus that I particularly welcomed after sweating my proverbial balls off outside all weekend.

Despite my earlier worries that my cat would disown me when we returned home after leaving him on his own for the first time, Iroh was so relieved to see us walk in the door and was so constantly underfoot that I was more afraid of accidentally stepping on him as we unpacked. The one whole day he spent alone seemed to have left him a little distraught and under the impression that he'd been abandoned, and more importantly, that he'd never be fed again (as I'm sadly sure his love for his breakfasts and dinners takes priority over both Mason and I.) Knowing him, he probably greedily gobbled down all of the extra helpings I food rations we left for him before Saturday morning even came and then spent the next twenty-four hours moping that his food bowl wasn't being refilled. In comparison, Toby is a pro at weekends alone now, he just looks up when we come in the door and is all "Oh, you're back. Splendid. Dinner time yet?"

WARNING: HOUSE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!

Season finale of House on Monday was FABULOUS! XD For the last two minutes of the episode I was frozen in a position of wide-eyed, arm-raised, squealy triumphant rapture. It was like waiting for Josh and Donna through seven years of West Wing all over again. I'm as giddy as a school girl for the next season and what I hope will include lots of hot Huddy snogging (and oh yeah, probably some little side plot to do with Thirteen beginning her slow and sad decline with Huntington's disease as ambiguously implied at the end of the show, but I think we know which is the more enticing storyline. Or perhaps I'm just a horrible person...) In any event, depending on what they have planned it may end up being a fitting place to end the series, in my opinion.

...is not as good as I remember it.

I swear I remember it being really tasty when I used to bake it all the time years ago. Same recipe... new taste buds maybe? In any event, shamed by the idea of wastefully tossing an entire loaf into the garbage, I'm instead utilizing the left over buttercream frosting I made for a batch of cupcakes a couple of weeks ago and slathering a slice of unappetizing mocha loaf in confectionery sugar to make it remarkably more yummy. This is part of my effort in cutting back on the excess money I usually spend on fulfilling my daily chocolate fix, which reminds me that I should probably use some of my excessive, unemployed free time in the next couple of days to bake some more cookies before we go camping this weekend.

I can't wait to get in our first camping trip of the year~ Other than the fact that I really enjoy camping (which really in essence makes no sense if you know me at all) and we got the chance to do so very little of it last year, I'm looking forward to this weekend in particular as I feel it will be a nice "break" from what has begun to feel like my never ending period of sitting around on my unemployed ass. Job search. Send out resumes and cover letters. Hear nothing. This has become my average day and it's becoming discouraging. I realize there is in fact little difference from sitting around a campfire for hours doing nothing but reading and eating junk food, than sitting on my couch and just reading and eating; but I feel at the very least the switch in scenery might be a refreshing change. Plus it will force me to upgrade from pajamas to grubby camping clothes.

Speaking of clothes, my god nothing makes you want to shop more than being unemployed with no growing income. I blame all of the episodes of What Not to Wear I've had the chance to watch recently. Luckily I've been stockpiling a small amount of guilt-free clothing funds for a while now in the form of mall gift cards from my birthday as well as two Winners gift cards I have on order from cashing in our left over Save-On More points, and when they come in I'm going to do some very light, feel good splurging~ X3

In the mean time I still have our monthly Value Village excursions, which despite the looks I still get from some people for shopping at, I adore wholeheartedly. I have brought home some amazing, practically brand new finds from that place for pocket change. My recent Value Village highlights have been a really cute black pencil skirt that'll look saucy with a pair of heels (good for any interviews *crosses fingers* I may get), several very pretty tops, and a sweet blueish white plaid fedora that I think I sort of pull off but I'm still trying to figure out what to wear it with. All pieces that I had to thumb through tirelessly through racks of crap to find, but that I believe my little Stacy London shoulder angel is happy with.

It has just only occurred to me that what with the way my allergies have been spasming out on me lately, this upcoming weekend of fresh air and the great outdoors may not be as refreshing as I'm hoping it to be and may in fact kill me. How many extra strength Reactine can you take per day while fueled on a diet of nothing but campfire hot dogs and nacho cheese Doritos?

PS. I'm excited for so many movies being released over the next couple of months, holy cow. Iron Man 2, Sex and the City 2, Robin Hood, The Last Airbender... typically I don't even know what's ever playing at the box office. Very exciting, and I still have movie money stockpiled from Christmas to boot! *Glee!*

Am I the only one who's glad the Olympics are finally over and no longer have to wade through all of the sport play-by-plays on my Twitter and Facebook feeds? I swear, I think my Twitter feed doubled while 80% of the rest of the country was watching the Canada/U.S. gold game.

These last few weeks while everyone else in Canada has been glued to their winter sports (and thus, as I'm been told, are apparently more "truly Canadian" than myself), I have had a lot more exciting wedding planning going on~ I've bought my dress *check!*; have a meeting set up next week to book our photographer *check!*; and both ceremony and reception venues should be chosen and booked by the end of the month *check!*. Here that, To-Do list? That's the sound of me kicking your ass! *Flex*

Also, exciting news -- as their wedding gift to us, Mason's parents are paying for us to go along on one of their family vacations next year, another cruise! Honeymoon + family vacation = double the cruising for 2011! XD (The two of us are going down a day early to check out the new Harry Potter world at Universal as well, it's going to be geektastic.) We're going to have to start saving up our vacation days.

We had the not-so-fun task of dealing with water leaking into our furnace room downstairs this week. D: The drainage we neglected to fix before winter came back and gave us a little nip in the ass to remind us, "Hey guys, I'm still here!"; turns out the majority of snowmelt from the roof was draining down one side of the house so much that it was flooding out from the "weeping tile" (which I learned, despite the name, is not actually tile shaped in any way. How very misleading.) We spent a couple days repeatedly mopping up water and running fans to dry up new spills we found until we could make a run to Home Depot to pick up some stuff to redirect the drainage temporarily. Ta da! No more leaking! YAY, disaster averted! We'll have to do a proper job with fixing our drainage in the spring after the snow's gone.

Speaking of... wow, next month is April and I'll be turning 25 and will officially be a quarter-century old. Craziness. Half the time I still don't even feel like an adult yet, and the other half of the time -- well I know it's too early to say I'm over the hill or even approaching something remotely hilltop-ish, but I feel old. I don't know, maybe it's because I work in the same building as a high school and work on a site filled with teenagers all day who wear skinny jeans so tight you can't breath in them and plastic aviator sunglasses you can't actually see out of. Seriously? WTF is wrong with this generation? (Look, I'm becoming a crotchety old lady already. The big 2-5 will do that do you.)