Things at the Carlson residence are not so great. They don’t totally suck though because we have each other. Let’s all barf now. But seriously, I was sick and had a cough and had allergies really bad and had leaky tampons and all that drama and now I’ve been very busy playing nurse because Adam has been sick for over a full week. Whatever I got he got a million times worse times a hundred. I’ve never seen him miss this many days of work or be taken down to this degree by something. AND then on Friday Gus started to limp. She is favouring her right paw and it is heart breaking I can’t take it I can’t stand to watch her walk. She is my baby. We have suspected she has been getting the arthritis in her front legs for a while now and we have been giving her treat-ish looking things called ‘Hip Action’ that have Glucosamine in them or we were and it seemed to help but now she is actually limping limping like LIMPING. Adam built her makeshift stairs to get up on the bed. I helped. He made the first level out of our guitar hero boxes and the PS2 box is the last level. Then we put cat nip on it to get her to use it. She is using it but not every time she gets up and down off the bed and we have started to give her the Hip Action every day and upped the dosage to two a day as we don’t know even after Adam doing some reconnaissance online how much exactly we can give her. It seems to be helping I THINK. There is really nothing we can do the vet will just overcharge us to tell us what we already know and make us get million dollar x-rays, she is just getting old she is in her 14th year now, it is just really hard to watch I’ve never watched anything get old and die or get sick and die and I always feel too old to have not have gone through that I’ve only suffered far away losses or sudden losses. I have moved things in the apartment as well to make jumping less of a strain on her wee legs pulled the chairs out from the table so she can get to the window more easily and other things that will make no sense unless you have been in here but will hopefully help her because we can’t stop her from jumping, for the last while if we see her about to jump off anything we’ve been grabbing her and placing her on the floor. But she is definitely slower which makes me sad. Both of my best buddies are ailing but I am doing my best to take care of them. Gus probably won’t get fully better I think I am just going to have to get used to her getting older and all the crap that comes with that. Adam is a mans man and he plays the martyr well but this virus has got him good and it sucks seeing him so ill. We have been watching movies though! That is about all Adam can do. I”ll only mention Pan’s Labyrinth because it rocked like Guitar Hero having a third game coming out [very soon] it rocked THAT HARD and it didn’t scare the crap out of me like David Bowie did.

Even though these videos are with a better camera I am still no guitar hero expert but I put some leg kicks and some good facial expressions in this for you and my foot is in it.

Strutter - Kiss Hard Level

Adam and I battle and he wins. - John the Fisherman- Primus Medium Level

Basically I’ve been feeling like shit this week. I wake up each day hoping I will feel better. Today there is hope. I’ve been napping and doing nothing and the apartment looks like shit and I’ve been avoiding my new short term goal list that has seemingly easy tasks like, ‘leave the house everyday for at least a half an hour’. Sweet goal, like I am five or some shit and need to be hand held through everything, but nope just can’t leave my house. I think I’ll pop back out of it for sure. It could just be the weather. But everything is still really green and flowers are blooming etc. but I don’t really care I notice it but does it really make me feel better, no.

Since I’ve started to ‘feel better’ I have been dreading bad days and the bad days make me feel guilty, which is fucking stupid because everyone has bad days. I am not really understanding where the guilty feeling is coming from I guess my last depression crash bullshit just lasted so long I feel like I should be making a real go of it. But I’m right now having multiple days in a row that are bad and I’m getting worried. It started on Monday, but I noticed it coming on late last week. I just haven’t felt like doing anything, nothing that is productive anyway. I’m going to have to force myself back into my to do lists. I’m falling asleep during hockey games. Seeing as we are losing I guess that isn’t an incredibly big deal but still it is the bloody PLAYOFFS.

Playing on Facebook and getting high scores in hard level on Guitar Hero 2 are pretty much the highlights of my life right now. I am stuck on level 7 of hard with only two songs to go before I open the encore and I am so frustrated I am ready to scream. But I’d be at the end of my rope with that whether depressed or not.

So with the Canucks moving on in the Stanley Cup Playoffs more teams’ players are off to work on their golf games and tomorrow we start playing Anaheim which means Adam and I get to wear our ‘helmets’ a little longer maybe even a lot longer. I really enjoy Marty Turco as a goalie but unfortunately he plays for the wrong team. I was first attracted to him as a player because his Dallas Stars Goalie Mask RULES. But now I actually like him as a goalie period. See you next season Turco.

I don’t know if it is just because we have watched so many shit movies lately but we watched Blood Diamond on the weekend and I LOVED it. I was very worried because I knew it was long and I was worried about Leo, I am not a Jennifer Connelly fan unless I am watching Labyrinth but I love Djimon Hounsou. Leo believe it or not in my opinion pulled the South African accent off extremely well and I even forgot it was him a couple times. It didn’t seem as long as it was. I find Leo really touch and go in films sometimes I love him and sometimes I can�t stand him.

For the other movie we watched I made up a Jeopardy question.

This 1987 movie loosely based on a novel written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman stars both the 38th Governor of Minnesota Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura and the 38th Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What is�..

It was a RAD movie; I can’t believe I had never seen it. The dancing scenes were choreographed by Paula Abdul. Bloody Awesome. It is one of Adam’s favorite movies. A preview for some new movie I can’t remember the name of with ten prisoners on the run from whatever reminded Adam of his love for it and he went out and scored it at the local video shop.

I am happy to report that our Guitar Hero One set has arrived so we now have two guitars and both games. Life does not get much sweeter. I am jealous that the X-Box 360 version has more songs. THAT IS NOT FAIR! I was a little disappointed when I got 100% on a few of the Guitar Hero One songs and there was NOT FIVE GOLD STARS! Only five stars. I have not failed a song yet but there is no practice mode, I am very glad the new one has a practice mode because I LICK at hammer-ons and pull-offs and on the first one you pretty much have to be able to do them to five star them. Playing together, battling, playing in co-operative mode and each having our own guitars makes us so very happy. I can’t wait to have couples over for Guitar Hero parties.

Eww that sounds terrible like I’m old and married and only hang out with married or couplely people or something.

So basically last week ruled. RULED. Adam and I both had wicked fun, and good times were had by ALL.
C.J arrived with gifts and even Gus got one. I got a ‘Led Zeppelin’ t-shirt and slept in it every night until I did the wash. Adam got ‘The Who’ and was wearing it last night. These shirts are very special. Gus did not get a t-shirt. He was instantly easy to get along with and so bloody funny, a great story teller and a gentleman. And yes ladies he is single.

Here Gus demonstrates love for her new toy/gift.

I was a little nervous. But we’d been excited for weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeks. C.J had mentioned he was actually coming over to visit last year shortly after our wedding and he didn’t make it. Even we thought we might be going to England once or California and I had let the blogger clans in those areas know we were coming and that we wanted to meet them and then we never showed. We went to Mexico. Finally at New Years I met some local bloggers, Miss604 and John her wickedly nice husband. Rebecca and I had been talking for months on instant messenger, in fact I don’t even remember exactly how we ended up exchanging instant messenger addresses but we talked so frequently and discovered we lived so close I think it was inevitable we’d meet. But other than that in almost two years it has all been instant messaging, text messaging, snail mail and email, connecting with people and wanting to meet them but settling on electronic devices for contact.

Of course C.J, Adam and I had connected rather well over electronic devices but my nerves were driven by my ‘boring’ side, my issues [that are obviously getting better] with spending long periods of time with people and our lack of a car to take him EVERY WHERE. I warned him we�d be on foot for pretty much all of our missions. In therapy last Friday I mentioned to Dr. B that I had kept repeating to myself over and over: he has read your blog for almost two years he has a basic idea of what you are like it is not YOUR personal responsibility for him to have a good holiday. It must have worked because I didn’t spend time worrying about such things and we just went with the flow. Brilliant.

Going with the flow did include A LOT of walking. At the end of the first day my hips were killing me and my right ankle felt like I had twisted it. C.J was ribbing me because he wasn’t sore at all until he showed up the following morning apologizing because he’d woken up and been unable to move his legs at first. Adam and C.J went out to see some bands and do the male bonding thing where I think a lot of beer is involved. C.J rocked out Guitar Hero pretty hard, finishing the first level in only three goes at it. He also gave me a real guitar lesson so I know a power chord now. My specialty is still The Air Guitar and those skills are so tight right now, what with playing so much GH I am almost ready to compete nationally maybe even internationally, maybe I’ll even get a sponsor and go global. I don’t think they have air guitar sponsors so it would have to be you guys.

*

We also had two visits with fellow blogger and one of my best friends Rilah. He met the wee Zorro and fell under her charms. It is NOT HARD let me tell you. We also had a game night which was grand fun but I kept looking at C.J and thinking poor guy so young yet stuck with a married couple playing games in an apartment where we all have to keep it down as to not wake the other couple’s baby. Probably a wee bit different from hanging with pals over the pond but there were still drinks and it is mostly my voice that is the concern anyway, it is naturally a little on the loud side.

I do not consider myself a good hostess, but I didn’t do too bad I made a lot of tea and caught on pretty quickly to when during the day to be sure and offer tea and sometimes just had the kettle on before I even asked. Our grocery store tea is pretty much crap but C.J found a specialty store and was able to find himself some ‘English Breakfast Tea’. [Product of Austria, Imported from Ontario]

I’d like to thank the weather for being great all week. We were also FINALLY able to golf the first round of the season on full greens. It was AWESOME. C.J got to see a Raccoon which he seemed to like more than our massive black killer squirrels.

*

It was without doubt a week to remember. By the end of it I was speaking in this horrible faux English accent, that and many other experiences over the week made me fantasize and dream of future kick ass blogger meet ups to come, how insane and awesome it was to have ‘met’ someone online from so far away and then to actually meet them ‘in real life’, it went well beyond any ideas I had of what it might be like. And while showing it off I was also reminded on many an occasion of just how beautiful of a city Adam and I live in.

Too see more photos from the ‘Blogger Meet Up’ you can view my Flickr Photos.

* Photos courtesy of C.J Hixon

The visit with C.J is awesome. You should all be jealous.
Blogger meet ups are fun! Hard to believe he is here ALL the way from England. He drinks a lot of tea.
Not much time to give details ‘cept even Gus likes him. AND he brought her a wee gift.
We all still have the weekend to go.
But these are important photos and they need to be shown to you now.

C.J as a Canuck.

C.J masters Guitar Hero.

Ps. We watched Stranger Than Fiction last night and not one of us liked it. It lagged, it dragged, and every scene that was any good was in the preview. It didn’t make me want to poke my eyes out, I did laugh at parts but I don’t remember C.J or Adam laughing in a good way at all.

Someone may have tried to commit fraud with my bank card and so when I was at the movie store trying to rent Jesus Camp my card wouldn’t work a million times in a row until it gave the final CALL THE BRANCH and I left with my head lowered in shame and embarrassment. I already felt like a hobo in my getting ready to do nothing miss-matched Saturday night garb and greasy hair that I hope each time I don will land me on What Not to Wear. When I got home I called the stupid bank and they took forever to figure out what was wrong and told me to go to a branch on Monday. I am going in today because today is Monday. Having no access to our money for the rest of the weekend made me feel naked and somewhat stranded and we did nothing but watch golf on TV. And wouldn’t you know, it was SUNNY yesterday and we COULD have golfed outside. Granted I wasn’t too upset seeing as it has been raining steadily for weeks, giving the course a day or two to dry out is not a bad idea, so I at least found a positive somewhat still bogus trying to make me feel better bull shit excuse because I normally just wear my rubber boots if it rains so I’m lying I guess. Stupid no access to any funds.

I played some Guitar Hero. I am so far ahead of Adam now he may never catch me. We ordered a second guitar but something has gone wrong with the order, BIG SURPRISE and it hasn’t been shipped and we’ve gotten no information in over a week. We wanted it here in time for C.J’svisit. He gets here today and NO NEW GUITAR. That SUCKS.

We also watched Æon Flux which was so bad I refuse to even talk about it. See, we have this friend who buys every movie on earth it seems and he just lends random ones to Adam at work so we never know what is coming unless we specifically ask for one. �on Flux had been sitting there forever because I didn’t want to watch it and I basically said get this OUT OF MY HOUSE when it ended. I appreciate all the movies D lends us though just the last two have made me want to poke my eyes out.

Last Friday I was supposed to go to my doctor for my regular physical - AKA: vag exposed, feet in stirrups, cold metal speculum inserted, enter swab. But I got my period the day before so I had to reschedule it and was only able to fill my prescriptions and ask about the slit in my nose from the dry air in the apartment that was making pain. My doctor is not close to where I live, I hate my period for not being ‘regular’ and making me have to rebook the vag exposed part, but obtained:

Flonase for my allergies they will start kicking in as soon as the weather clears up and we can actually get out and golf. Stupid torrential down pouring of rain is on repeat.

Mefenamic Acid for my cramps, it decreases uterine contractions and;

Naproxen for my headaches that aren’t bad enough to need Excedrin Migraine, but also for headaches that are really bad, so they need both at the same time. Those are fun.

She suggested an over the counter Lubricating Nasal Gel called Secaris for the slit in my nasal tissue that has been bugging me for MONTHS. It cost $5.99 for a 30g tube which is totally reasonable but the tube is HUGE and works so well I only needed to use it once and it sealed the problem area and it hasn’t reopened. Until August 2009 I can have as many dry nose issues as I want. I hope for lots because this shit works great.

My Psychiatrist prescribes the rest of my medications for my depression.

When I was at the drug store I bought some black nail polish. It was the last one and I have always wanted to buy black nail polish, it felt meant to be. So now I wear black nail polish. I think maybe all the Guitar Hero went to my head and I think I’m all rock and roll for serious or something. What it has done for my air guitar skill alone is simply priceless. I could likely teach an air guitar class. PLUS now my nails match my glasses. Awesome.

I have had way too much coffee today and done nothing but talk on MSN. Very, very productive day. I have spent time reviewing Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org because I want to switch and both might as well be in fucking Hebrew. Once all my style sheets and upgrades etc. stopped working I forgot how to do everything with this here blog and am now STUCK. I need a new masthead, template, blog template provider, everything but I understand NOTHING. FUN. That is what you get for having someone else set up your blog have it stop running right- the other person who built it gave up so you give up and then you forget everything cept how to put up a post. I do much more than that and it fucks the template. It isn’t that I can’t or won’t learn how to move it and/or fix what I have now it is that I find it all extremely overwhelming and get frustrated very easily. Last week I was in my FTP file [which I don’t even know how to use] and deleted my whole template and had to call my host company to restore it. That is sad I don’t think they are even supposed to do that for me I think I just scare them a little with my eccentric side so they are extra good to me.

I’m sure that was the most exciting paragraph you have ever read on gus greeper.

I’d like to say that Borat is the funniest movie on the planet.

I’d like to say that ever since obtaining Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex / Love Sounds from Terra I can not stop listening to it and have decided it makes me feel old I used to watch him and Brit etc and etc and who I just found out was Ryan Gosling on The Mickey Mouse Club when I was in grade 10. Time people, it just flies.

I’d like to say that Guitar Hero is still ruling a major part of my existence. What happened is Hard level got really hard and I needed a break so I was like HEY I’ll go back to level Easy and try to max out my scores on all the songs. I get four songs in and achieve 100% on the song, thinking nothing of it I return to the main song menu to see that instead of the five stars I had before that look like they are drawn in pencil, I HAD FIVE GOLD STARS. Now, anyone who knows me knows that this meant an INSTANT GOLD STARRING ADDICTION and I had to gold star every song on easy. I am almost done and I have gold starred a song on Medium. Only problem is had I not discovered this I’d likely be onto Expert level by now. It is the game that simply will not stop giving.

I’d like to say that we got a new humidifier. It is a mammoth machine but works better than the one that broke both while it was working and while it was broke but still working sort of. I hate spending money on that kinda shit though you know?

And before I go I’d like to say HOORAY that the Stanley Park Par Three Pitch and Putt is now open with FULL greens but a wee f-you to last weekends weather because the greens were up on Sunday and it pissed rain all weekend so we could not go and I almost cried BUT we are coming for you course this is the year I�m going to Par the course man oh yes it is.

Almost everyone in British Columbia that I know is sick. These viruses are getting really insane. I have been sick since last Thursday evening when my throat got scratchy. Adam has been sick since last Wednesday. I picked it up from him fast. Normally I just get the beginnings of things take some Vitamin C and it’s gone, other than having almost daily headaches that can become debilitating with little or no notice, I hardly ever get SICK, sick.

THIS virus is SO FUN because it starts with the flu and NOW we have full blown head colds. AWESOME. My fever was so high Adam had to go out and get a thermometer so we could monitor it; it was into the 100’s. Even Gus is barfing. The other night I was so uncomfortable and my body hurt so badly I was convinced I had RLS [Restless Leg Syndrome] until I remembered that only people on TV get it and that I don’t have enough room in my life right now for anymore ’syndromes’ or ‘disorders’.

The worst thing about this stupid flu/cold other than the fever, sore joints and muscles, wet cough, then dry cough, sore throat, sore ears, ridiculous headache, and all the snot AND the watery red eyes [the watery eyes just set in today but they were already red and hurt to open] WE CAN’T SLEEP. Until the full head cold kicked in and the flu part started to get better neither of us could sleep. Talk about frustrating, all I want to do when I’m sick is sleep. Finally, last night I was able to sleep until I woke hacking up a lung at 5:30am and I get up around 7am so I was not complaining after the previous nights in hell. Not being able to play Guitar Hero is so lame I’m not even going to discuss it because I have 14 songs open on hard now. I am in awe of Riss who left a comment saying she battles on EXPERT. HOLY. [IF you are a 24 fan she writes the best after show comments EVER]

AND I get dinged $140.00 by my therapist for missing last Friday’s session because I didn’t cancel in time. SWEET.

As mentioned, coming Thursday: