Where do all these crazy people come from?!?

I just had a very weird encounter. I was coming around the corner of a building, looking for a parking spot when I see this car start pulling through a parking spot. Thinking that she was leaving, (and that once she was gone I would have a nice pull-through parking spot) I stopped and gave the universal little “go ahead” wave. After a few seconds, she pulled ahead and I pulled through into the spot that had been behind her. I parked my car, got out and started walking to the store when I heard this voice behind me.

“EXCUSE ME, I WAS GOING TO PARK THERE.”

I turned around to see the same woman in her car.

“You were going to park … here?” (pointing to my car)

“NO. I WAS GOING TO PARK WHERE I WAS.”

Dumbfounded, all I could think of to say was “Sorry.”

Completely puzzled, I continued on my way to the store thinking, If you were going to stay there, why did you move? After much thought, the only conclusion I can possibly think of is that somehow she took my little “Go ahead” gesture as a “GET OUT OF MY WAY!” gesture. But even still, I’m not a very imposing person, and I was in my car, quite a bit back from her, so I don’t think I could have come across as aggressive in that sense. I just can’t figure out why she thought I would be “forcing” her out of the spot or why she would move. A simple, “turn off the car and get out” would have easily signaled to me that she was parking, and not leaving.

I had no idea I had so much power.

My only comfort is that as I was walking into the store, a man who had seen the whole thing gave me a sympathetic smile, and a shrug of the shoulders, confirming that it wasn’t just me who thought the whole thing was a little odd.

People are strange.

I’m sure you are all aware of the acronym RTFM.

Well, as part of our new responsibilities we have to create these monstrous guides that are somewhat of a pain to maintain and full of all sorts of the jargon that we normally go out of our way to purposefully avoid in our documentation. But it’s a requirement, so we do it, but we’re not overly happy about it.

Today, I realized the acronym for the guide is TFM. How apropos.

Today started out as one of those days …

I accidentally turned off my alarm clock when I got up to feed the cats this morning, so I was an hour late getting to my mom’s house and two hours late getting to my brother’s place. By then he was hungry so we stopped off and got lunch before hopping on the streetcar to go down to the National Trade Centre for the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo …

… which, not so conveniently, wasn’t actually at the National Trade Centre, but was instead at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, a fact that took us a while to determine since we only knew where it wasn’t, not where it was and no-one seemed to be answering their phones today.

We finally found the phone number for the MTCC and confirmed that we did want to be there instead of where we were, but streetcars don’t run to the Ex as often in the winter, so we had a little bit of a wait before we could hop on a streetcar back to the MTCC and the Wine and Food Expo.

Which was very fun BTW. Lots of wines from around the world, along with a few vendors of beers and spirits. Food was a little expensive so we skipped that part of it and used all our tickets on alcohol.

Then we pretty much had to go out for dinner because there was no way I could have driven home at that point. 😉

So while the day started as one of those days, it ended as one of those days.

I now have a wireless card in my loverly little laptop, but am missing the access point to make the experience complete. And since a little birdie told me that the computer systems of both Best Buy and Future Shop are kaput this afternoon, I have to wait until tomorrow to get my newest toy.

I think I just met the stupidest mouse in the world, which is saying alot considering we are talking about a mouse.

As I walked up to the door to my apartment building, I saw one of the neighbourhood cats sitting on the sidewalk, so I decided to take a short detour to say hello. As I got closer I realized it was intently watching something on the sidewalk in front of it, and as I got even closer I realized that, yes, it was a mouse. But it was quite alive and quite unharmed, and the cat was pretty much just watching it. As I stepped closer however, the mouse decided it was time to make a break for it and started to scuttle along the sidewalk, cat in tow.

I caught up to the two of them and picked up the cat so the mouse could make its escape, and what does it do? It stops. The mouse just sits there as the cat tries to wriggle out of my arms. So I blew on the mouse and it continued for another few inches and then stopped again. I bent down to hurry it along a bit more, and had to put the cat back on the ground, but (being a cat) it was distracted by the fact that I was scratching its head, so the mouse was still safe.

And what does the mouse do? It turns around and walks right back under the cat’s feet thereby attracting the cat’s attention again. The cat only made a feeble attempt at actually catching the mouse, opting instead to just watch it and swat near it every once in a while.

This was repeated two of three more times (me holding the cat and trying to get the mouse to run – without actually touching the mouse ’cause you know how germy they are – and the mouse just turning around and scurrying right back into the cat’s grasp) before I finally gave up and bid them good riddance – the mouse for being so dumb, and the cat for not knowing what to do with a mouse when it is under its paws.

While trying to figure out the bizarre behaviour of my fish, I came across this “informative” site: The Zebra Danio and its escape response. Who knew that pets could be so very educational?

I got inspired by the picture I took at the cottage and decided it was about time to refresh the look of the site a little. Logan was good to me, but she’s been up there for a while, and you know how I am with change 😉

Barely an hour has passed and already I have had to fish him out of the filter again.

I think my fish must think it is a salmon. Either that, or the thing keeps getting sucked up by the filter and therefore is freakin’ lucky.

(I’m assuming it’s the same one because, really, what are the chances of me having two fish that swim into filters?!?)

I shall call him Nemo, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Nemo.*

I came home to find only one of my newest additions swimming in the tank, where before there had been two. And, again, there was a lack of a body, even after a thorough cleaning of the tank, leading me to suspect that I might indeed have a carnivorous fish on the loose.

And to think, if I hadn’t cleaned my filter (I was lazy and didn’t want to but thought I really should) I never would have found him swimming happily in the filter.

First kittens that like to go in fridges, now fish that like to go in filters …

*For those who haven’t seen Finding Nemo, the “Nemo” reference is to when Nemo gets into the filter in a bid to escape. The rest of the line was a reference to one of my favourite lines from the movie where Dory finds a “squishy” to call her own.

Weekends are much, much too short.

We went up to Brad’s uncle’s cottage this weekend, and although the cottage really was gorgeous, I wish that I had be able to spend more than twenty-four hours there. And that it was warmer. The cottage was right on the water, there were various canoes and other water craft to try out, and the leaves would haveg been gorgeous had they not been covered in a light layer of snow.

So instead, I have decided that tonight will be my “weekend”. As soon as I get home, I’m going to change into my comfy clothes, throw up my feet and do absolutely jack-all.