In an attempt to inject some fun into my life (some days I think I’m getting … old), I’ve decided to take some “fun” courses at our local college.

They fall roughly into three categories, with a few odd ones that can’t be classified:

Food: Although there are numerous cooking courses that sound scrumptious, since none of them mention whether they involve meat (and I suspect that they do), right now I am waffling between cheesecakes and truffles. Cheesecake is good, nice and creamy, very decadent, but truffles have that “chocolate” edge that seems to draw me to it. I have a feeling I might just take them both.

Writing: Since my muse seems to have left me (another thing in the long line of things I am currently blaming on my apartment), I was thinking that perhaps a writing course might give me the kick in the pants that I need. Unfortunately the writing course that I was interested in taking last term is not actually offered this term, so I am left feeling as if I have to “compromise” and take another one. Plus, some mention something along the lines of a “weekly assignment”, which, given my current lack of ideas, might prove to be more of a deterant than a stimulant. But time may tell …

“Crafts”: I’ve always liked the creative end of things. The problem with these is that they don’t show you a picture of what it’s going to look like in the end, and since I tend to lean away from the countrified look that goes along with many make-it-yourself kind of things, I’m reluctant to spend money on something that I may hate in the end.

The miscellanous ones include first aid for pets, belly dancing, and clutter control. Ever since I started thinking of moving, I’ve started thinking of moving all my crap and have realized it would be better to banish it all before I move so that I can actually accomplish the transition in a day. Of course, hiring movers to move the big stuff will help out too 🙂

I actually have a welt on my butt from my dragonboat practice tonight. A big, fat, raised, stings when you get in the shower, hurts to sit on this chair right now, welt the size of a toonie, with a nice wide strip of bruise cutting it in half down the centre.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a welt before.

Since part of my reason for wanting to move is that I don’t like my neighborhood, I decided it would probably be a good idea to look into the crime statistics in some of the neighborhoods I’m looking at.

Conveniently, our local police have a website and post biweekly reports about crime in Waterloo. They list some house burgleries, some car thefts, etc. So far, so good, nothing big, nothing directly in the neighbourhoods that I am looking at. Makes me think nothing is wrong with these neighbourhoods. Until I realize something. They don’t list the man who was beaten to death a few streets from me.

Makes me wonder what else they are not listing.

I got absolutely eaten by the mosquitos this weekend, but I got some interesting pictures from the hike. We also met a woman with her two young boys who had decided to follow us on our hike, thinking that we were returning to the place where she left her car, only to find out when she finally stopped us that we were walking in the completely opposite direction to where her car was. She had no map, she had just been driving by and decided to stop, and then for some unknown reason she had decided to follow my mother and I. And at that point she was “too afraid” to follow the trail back to her car so after several minutes of coversation (“If you follow this other path, it will take you back to your car.” “Why don’t I just follow you?” “We’re not going back to where you parked your car.”) my mother just consented and let her and her boys follow us back to our car, and then we proceeded to drive the three of them back to her car. It was just easier that continuing the conversation.

It’s obviously not a good idea for me to look at my investment account because every time I do, it seems my investments have gone down.

But it amuses me that I have 1,111.111 shares in one.

For some reason, I am hooked on getting a house.

i’ve been randomly perusing online listings for a few months now, just glancing at them once every two or three weeks, but then once day I got incredibly fed up over something or other in my apartment (I have no idea what it was now) and I actually surfed through a couple of financial sites to see what I could really afford as opposed to what I want (I was actually pretty close to my estimates) and now I’m checking them every day and even went to three, yes three open houses last weekend.

There’s that addictive personality showing through again.

The open houses were actually designed just so I could see what was out there, so I didn’t mind that they weren’t quite in the area that I really want to be in. The idea was just to get an idea of what I wanted in a house and didn’t want in a house and was indifferent about in a house.

But three days later there’s this house that I just can’t get out of my head, even though I think it is overpriced, it’s not in the area I want, it needs new carpets, and isn’t fully fenced in!

Not to mention that you should really have 25% for the downpayment of the house and I … do not. Yes, I could techically get a mortage without 25% down, but then I would have to pay an extra fee and that’s no fun.

But I still check the listings. And I have three houses that I would want to see if they ever had an open house and/or put pictures up of the insides of the houses.

(Coincidentally, the realtor who hosted the open house of the house I cannot stop thinking about actually emailed me today with a new listing. For one the houses I have on my “i’d go to an open house” list! Sneaky mind-reading realtor. All I need is about ten thousand dollars. Pocket change. Pocket change.)