I’m going to have to do this manually and I HATE using the technical side of my brain.

I also upgraded my desktop with a better graphics card and an extra gb of RAM. I feel all nerdy and proud of myself. So now, just in case i fuck up, I’m spending time backing everything up right now.

So in case this site goes down, or looks like ass, go check my Twitter.

Yeah, they look comfortable.  /sarcasm

President Obama made Canada his first foreign visit as head of state. Harper was a Bush fanboy, but I don’t think he’s adverse to kissing a Democrat’s butt if he was the US President.  And that’s all I have to say about that. :p

Well, over the weekend, I kinda liked them but as you know I do try to *avoid* leather. I say “avoid” because I don’t freak out if leather does find it’s way into my wardrobe and if there’s something I really, really, really like (and seriously, it’s got to be a lot of really’s) that I can’t find anything similar to in non-leather then I’ll buy it… maybe. Lately a lot of the leather I own is second hand.

Today, I gave them a second look and read the tag for one I liked. And here I quote:

The message is a path / it’s not random / it can represent different things to different people / to us it means many things including creating designs void of any animal by-products / choose life

So my way too expensive new bag that I absolutely love is made by vegan designers Matt & Nat. I was so happy, I nearly bought two, but they were kinda on the expensive side. I was looking for a new daily purse for a while that was more “grown up” I guess. Something that didn’t have skulls or Pucca or both. And of course, bonus if it wasn’t made with any leather.

Here’s a crappy picture of said new purse, with my old purse behind it. It’s crappy because my living room is all mood lighting right now and the pics where I used the flash just sort of washed it out.

Here’s the second purse I wanted to buy:

The deciding factor for the first one was that it was a messenger style bag, which is appropriate for my preferred transportation method (bike).

So there’s my slice of happiness, albeit expensive happiness, for the day. Also the Starbucks barista was really nice to me so it’s nice when people can make you smile.

Have some Fruit, Pamela, at least have a vitamin or some orange juice. Healthy? Ha, I scorn health. I’m drinking coffee with lots of cream and sugar.  That’s my breakfast. I bought bagels last night, but I’m not that hungry.

There are about two dozen birds hanging out on the tree in my neighbour’s backyard. I don’t know what they are, I think they’re doves.  They’re all puffed up and look so cold and helpless that I want to invite them all in to eat my bagels.

Taken at 4X zoom from my kitchen door. I didn’t want to scare them all away, and besides my deck is covered in snow. Open it up for the full sized version.

I’ve been cold. I walk half an hour each way to work and home in temperatures that have been lately -15°c (or 5°F, whatever works for you). I go home and keep the thermostat about 65-68° to save on energy bills and just bundle up in sweaters and track pants. I keep the blinds shut to help insulate the windows from the cold. So you can see how weeks of this has been getting to me.

On Sunday was the Chinese New Year. This year we will be celebrating the year of the Ox, which incidentally is my year. Apparently it’s Barack Obama’s year too, so it’s interesting for some that he begins his presidency in 2009. In any case, I hope the Ox, and Obama, and every other cosmic force, brings good stuff for me this year. Despite the SAD, I’m sort of feeling good about it.

Awhile ago, in the dead of winter, my furnace died on me. It didn’t take too long to get it fixed but I could appreciate how quickly the cold starts seeping in. Fortunately for me, I still had electricity so I was able to use a space heater in one room and keep myself and my kitties in there. I hope that power gets fixed (edit: i’ve been updated, it’s fixed) for those Torontonians because living in the cold sucks.

Stay warm!

In any case, I’ve been lately playing an unhealthy amount of Sims 2.  So much so, that here I am sharing bits of it with you.

I just picked up the Apartment Life expansion pack and so far it’s my ideal way to play the Sims. I’ve spent all weekend building apartments and characters to move in.

We all need a Sims avatar. Here’s mine, kinda. I moved her into the smallest of the apartments I built. Yes, I would totally live with that wallpaper.

Here’s my token gay Sims couple. I’m building a trendy gentrified urban neighbourhood.

My attempt at Brownstone homes. :p That’s my token gay Sims couple making out in the upstairs TV room.

This neighbourhood is so trendy, serving your trendy  neighbours lunchmeat sandwiches on plain white bread is retro hip.

Yeah, she’s not feeling it.

I’ve also been playing Sims University because I like letting them run while I’m doing house chores or chatting with the boyfriend.

Token goth Sims University student.  The coffee mug was a necessary accessory back in those days. /sigh

Anyway, recognizing the recession and other fun stuff like that, we made this pact to be cheap ass towards one another. I got him this cookbook (yes, let’s giggle at the title like I did when I initially saw it), and he got me personalized guitar lessons on DVD which made me soooo happy. Him living in another city makes it difficult to get him to teach me so learning to play the end lesson on this DVD is going to be my new resolution for the next little while.

Another lame, sappy thing we did is buy eachother Left 4 Dead for the Xbox 360. I know we could have bought the games ourselves, but yes we can be that cute. We’ve been killing zombies mindlessly all week and that’s a good thing. It’s a great way to bond.

I’m not going to review this game, because game reviews is not what I do. All I will say is that it’s not a difficult game to pick up on and I love the mindless factor of it, whether it’s single player or co-op. And you know, killing zombies can make for a hot date.

It has also been very cold which makes the above cartoon very appropriate.

Anyway, the description I’m giving everyone is fairly accurate so I’ll use it again here. My throat feels like it’s been sandpapered. My eyes are feeling pretty dry too. I’m not sniffly, nor feverish, but I feel like poop that’s been stepped on with sandpaper shoes.  Today will be about tea, (because I’m out of Timmy’s coffee), orange juice, soup and maybe spaghetti later.

To add to the fun, I didn’t realize that Aya was out of Fancy Feast and even though she’ll eat the dry food I leave out for them, she still wants her canned food at breakfast and dinner so she’s going to whine all day about that at me. And of course the weather’s shite outside. It was mushy snow and freezing rain earlier. Even if I wasn’t sick, I wouldn’t want to risk going out in that to get her her stupid Fancy Feast. She’s going to have to settle today for crappiness like me.

For the past two days I’ve been serving myself delicious Lugaw for dinner because comfort food is the best.  Tonight I’m going to experiment with fake soy meat and peanut sauce with stir fried frozen veggies. I hope it doesn’t taste as lame as that sounds.

Anyway, resolutions: I’m looking forward to this year. I think everything I’ve mentally prepared for from last year will be worth it, even though last year had been a mess of problems. And you know, I think resolutions are stupid, but every year we make them for the New Year’s anyway. The problem is sticking through them. I only succeeded in one of my resolutions last year… which was to save up a lot of money.  But that is life.

This year, the resolution to save up money continues, after all we are in an economic recession.  I’m also going to try to make a pact to start taking care of my over all appearance, but I don’t know when that will start.   This also includes the general physique area. I don’t have to worry at all about losing weight, but I should take care of my soggy bits a bit and tone up.  Yay for yoga!

And though this isn’t a resolution, I’m planning to buy a car soon.  I still don’t plan on using it every day… walking/biking to work is fine for me, but I’d just really like the convenience at this point.  I know environmentalists and cyclists may criticize me for this, but I never set out to be an ecomartyr and after like four years of not owning a car, I think I’ve done my part.

I’m also going to try to blog at least once a day. Ha! That’s a resolution that will end well.