Thursday, September 30, 2010

In Real Estate News

Last Sunday I went to an Open House around the corner from my place. It was a lower duplex which included a separate basement apartment for rental income. As it was renovated, and not grungy and yucky like my place, I immediately fell in luv. Asking price: $429,000. For a lower duplex!! C'est unbelievable.

I told the agent if I could clear $300,000 for my current place, I would think about this lovely lower. He said "if you want $300,000 I can sell your place this afternoon". Which got me to thinking. I'd love to dump my shack, but I don't want to pay over $400,000 for anything.

I've spent more than a few hours looking at listings, and you know what you can get in Montreal in the $350-360 range? My current crappy house. Seriously. There are 4 rundown babies like mine currently listed and they range from $350 to $399. The market remains insanely overpriced.

$360 can get me a pretty funky place in Lasalle, but that means buying a car because the location is not great. Do I want a car? Not at this point.

The real estate agent has called me twice so far this week. he has two potential buyers for my house, i.e. my house that is not even on the market. Location really is everything. I called him back and said "I'd love to sell but there's nowhere to move to" so I guess I'm out of the market for now.

But that lower duplex around the corner is still calling to me...and my potential tenant is out there. Fancy Feast has already asked if he can move in with me to save on rent. Heh. Maybe not.

RIP Stoney Curtis

The first time I saw Tony Curtis was not in a movie, but in a t.v. show called The Persuaders. Does anyone remember this show besides me? I loved it. I was 10 at the time.

Reading his obit this morning, I realized how many of his movies I'd seen. Didn't remember that I was that big a fan. My favourite quote is from a movie I didn't even see. Don't know the title but the quote is "Yonder lies da castle of my fadder".

I've decided to take a sick day in his honour. Actually I decided last night to take today off sick, but only now have I found it appropriate to take it in Tony's honour.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

This week's Mad Men

When did Pete become a good guy? I think he is wrong for covering for Don. Really. At this stage, what does he owe Don? Nuthin'. Don is getting scummier, even if "love" redeems him, which I think it won't, judging from the way he stared at his (and my favourite) secretary. I can understand why Betty would lie for Don, her kids don't need their father in jail. But Pete?

What did I love this week? That a couple goes to a doctor about an unplanned pregnancy and the doctor give the MAN shit about his irresponsibility. I was not expecting that. I enjoyed that curveball.

Joan has class. Roger is and will always be a lovesick fool.

And just when you think they can't introduce a character who is an even nastier bastard, here comes Lane's father. I predict Lane comes to his senses in London and has to get rid of the chocolate bunny. But maybe not. Maybe New York is Lane's paradise and he's coming back a free man.

Tuesday is Diet Day

I officially started my Weight Watchers diet today. But, of course, I'm Miss Frugal so I am not paying them to attend meetings. I'm following the plan and paying myself for my efforts. hah.

I've just taken 20 minutes to eat my "snack", which is an orange. My tummy is grumbling. I am unhappy.

At least this morning, the funace cleaning guy showed up at 8:30 on the nose (see my complaints of September 15 in this regard).

BGTSmoothie (who is now fudging on his decision to start WW this morning, by the way) (fudging, ha ha, he's fat!) used to work for Sears where he was on the phone scheduling funace cleaning, vent cleaning, drape cleaning, etc. And he said that once an appointment has been screwed by the the company, there was a star next to the client's name that meant "we f**ked up once, don't f**k up again". I guess the furnace people had a star next to my name today because the guy didn't f**k up.

BGTSmoothie has had at least 30 jobs, so no matter what place you name, he says: I worked there. Even the venerable food co, Kraft. It is weird. He's been everywhere, man, he's been everywhere.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Saturday eat, Tuesday diet

Here is everything BGTSmoothie ate on Saturday: Wendy’s, plus popcorn plus a pogo (which he said today was undercooked) plus raisin glossettes.

We just had lunch and he told me he is starting Weight Watchers tomorrow. I was excited and told him we should go to the meetings together to be WW buddies. But he says he’s going to do it on his own because he’s been before and has all the books and gadgets. So he does not want to pay to go to meetings. Too bad.

He used to go with his mother and his sister. He said he liked the social aspect of it. I can imagine. He talks to everybody about everything, so just imagine the three of them at WW. He says there’s not much point going to the meetings because there aren’t any younger women at them. I told him my niece was only about 21 when she went, so he is wrong about that. What a family he's got, everybody in therapy and everybody at WW.


He had a Chinese dish at the food court but it had shrimp in it, which he doesn’t eat for Jewish reasons, so I got all the shrimp. Yay.

Tomorrow the diets begin...

Life is weird, death can be weirder

The guy who owns the company that makes Segways died falling off a cliff on a Segway.

Let the jokes begin.

It still beats dying at your desk, and I'm sure Roger Sterling would agree with me. At least this guy was outside on a country road.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

My Weird Night

Last night I went to the Dollar Cinema which is wrongly named since the cost of admission is $2.26, but it was part of group thing and in fact was free for me, so who am I to complain.

The movie was quite good. Michael Douglas in A Solitary Man playing a mega-a**hole. Not a stretch. The weirdness was after the movie.

I was with BGTSmoothie, and he went to the bathroom. This is in a mall. So while waiting for him, I checked out the window in this Spa place. They had a lot of before-and-after photos of treatment, such as spotted liver-spot hands before/cleared-up hands after, etc. One of the photos was of a very pale older woman's face with a lot of brown spots before and clear skin after. There's nobody else in the hall of this part of the mall as I am waiting. Then this woman comes walking up to me. She has a Scandinavian/Dutch type accent. She says: "Look at this. I show you something." And she points at the pictures of the pale older woman. "She is dead! They use a dead woman! Why? Why? She is dead!" and she walks away.

Ten seconds after this Twin Peaks moment, BGTSmoothie emerges and I say lookit this picture. Now (as Ms Mushrooms may confirm) BGTSmoothie is a blabbermouth who will debate any subject with anybody. But was he there when I needed him? I wanted to see a face-off between him and crazy Swedish/Dutch lady. But no. What a moment lost.

So we start to leave and we pass by a bar that is pretty empty. But there are a couple of people waiting. It is clear they are friends of a waitress who is closing up. We stop because BGTSmoothie wants to buy raisin glossettes out of one of those 25-cent machines. (Aside: He eats a lot. A Lot. No wonder he is fat.)

He is getting his glossettes and I am waiting. And the waitress turns around and yells, YELLS, to her friend, "when you called, I was wiping my ass". The friend looks at me horrified, but I start to laugh, cover my mouth and walk away. BGTSmoothie joins me. The friend says to the waitress "those people heard you".

As we leave. BGTSmoothie says "This place is so sketchy". We walk ten paces... "Hey, there's a Pizza Hut!"

Fin

Friday, September 24, 2010

Mad Men, Dead Woman

Oh Miss Blankenship, I knew you couldn't be around forever. I will miss you.

You know, despite his total piggishness and misanthropy, Roger has always been one of my favourite characters. But only in this episode did I discover that we share an important fear: that of dying at the office.

I've often thought that croaking at my desk would be one of the most silly, ironic ways to go. I don't like to work, so to think that my final breath would be taken at my desk fills me with dread. It's not the death itself, it's the location!

I'm so with Roger on this one.

Summary of my week

Ever have one of those weeks where it feels like nothing happened? This was the case for me, apparently. I'm trying to think if anything happened, other than receiving the sad, eventful email from my old friend (and everybody's favourite Xmas letter writer) in Toronto.

Monday: Worked. Watched House. It was rather lame. Watched Hoarders. It was good in that the people on the show remain far messier than me and that is a good, good thing.

Tuesday: Worked. Went to gym. Watched Biggest Loser. It was good in that the people on the show remain far fatter than me and that is a good, good thing.

Wednesday: Worked. Visited a friend who broke her ankle. Highlight: she knocked over the white wine bottle with her wheelchair. Fortunately it was 2/3 empty at the time. Ate brownies (still remain not as fat as the contestants on the Biggest Loser).

Thursday. Worked. Went out for dinner with the girls from work. Ate. Ate. Drank a bit. (still remain not quite as fat as the contestants on the Biggest Loser but I seem to be gaining on them)

Today: Working. Watching Mad Men finally. Reading Mad Men blogs. Feed cats. Sleep.

Yep. It's been that kinda week. On the bright side, my car did not get broken into by crackheads.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Life in the Big City

I went to the Holy City over the weekend. I visited my niece's new apartment which is incredibly downtown. This is the kind of location that one dreams of in one's 20s and is horrified by in one's late 40s.

She is across the street from the Harbourfront (i.e. tourists!) and in 10 minutes you can walk to the Air Canada Centre where the Leafs are about to embark on another hapless, losing season. The amazing thing about Toronto is that the Sports section of the paper is all Leafs...as if they had a hope in hell of achieving something. Which they never do. And yet it's all Leafs.

The apt is also about 15 minutes walk from the CN Tower, skydome, etc. etc., i.e. everything.

Coolest thing is, we walked to the new theatre (I forget the name) that opened for the Toronto Film Festival. It is a super artsy complexe, like ExCentris here, and I saw a real live Oscar. I'd never seen one before. It was in a glass case in the lobby. It was the Foreign Language Oscar for Barbarian Invasions. Neat. My sis and I gazed upon it, while my niece could not care less.

Upstairs there were some film clips put together by Atom Egoyan and they were projected on bedsheets. My niece didn't know who he was. I said, of course, you do and was about to name his movies when she interrupted me, saying "You know I don't watch any intelligent movies!" End of Egoyan conversation. *sigh*

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Life is frustrating

Why do people who do service calls, i.e. cable or in my case this morning, furnace cleaning, assume that the customer has nothing to do with her life than sit around and wait for them?

I had made an appointment for the furnace guy to come between 8:30 and 9:00. Even if he arrived at 9:00, he would be done by 9:30 and I could be at work by 10:30. Which is the time I had given my boss as my late arrival today.

At 9:40, no technician, I called the company and cancelled. At 9:44 when I had my jacket on and my house key in my hand, the truck pulls up. The funace guy explains that he had 3 emergency calls this morning where people's furnaces did not start and those calls get priority of cleaning calls. Goody for them.

I said: you're too late. I have to go to work. He repeated that it was September and furnaces are being started up for the first time, and he had to do 3 of them this morning. Whoopee, I thought. I repeated: well, it's too late. I have a boss who is waiting for me.

I mean. Really.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

This week's Mad Men

Good riddance Joey, you narcissistic little fuck. May your whole gang follow you out the door. Your pal, Stan, can shoot his mouth off all he wants, but Peggy proved long ago that he is a pussy.

Peggy rules!

Joan, darling, I love you but it's time for you to update your wardrobe and enter the 1960's. You don't want to be the next Miss Blankenship, as wonderful as Miss B is. You don't want to become her.

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Unicorns

The mythical beasts known as my Crazy Polish Neighbours have returned from vacation.

Having not seen them during her visit, Ms Mushrooms is requesting photographic evidence of their existence.

Sorry, but I won't waste even one frame of digital camera memory on those a-holes. You just have to take my word for it. They are real. grrrr.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Pre-Vega$ prep

I got my hair cut today. My hairdresser is a serious, serious gambler. I told him I was going to Vegas next month. He asked me what I planned to play. I said blackjack because everybody says it's easy. He was appalled. He says blackjack is very tricky...if you want to win. He didn't have anyone scheduled after me, so he taught me blackjack for 1/2 hour.

He says I need 4 more hours training, and then I can go to Vegas and win. And not make a fool of myself by looking like an amateur.

Thus begins my beautiful career in casino gambling...

Thursday, September 09, 2010

This week's Mad Men

Roger and Miss Blankenship???

I am not a big fan of flashbacks, but dammit, that is one I demand to see.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Ms Mushrooms walks the city

It is sooo frickin' hot. And we are walking about town. Sweating, sweating, sweating.

Ms Mushrooms is taking lots o' photos.

Now we are watching the third news report on "porn-weightless-mustache" aka Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

He looks like shit for age 51. I guess that is what weightlessness and an ugly porny mustache do to a man. And a blue jumpsuit. How I hate him.