Well, I didn't manage to accomplish very much of what I had planned to this weekend. I had wanted to get my email down (which I did, from 138 to 82, but that's still quite a way to go), I had wanted to update my theatre site (only about half done, it'll have to wait until later this week), I had wanted to finish the photo album for this site (didn't get anything done!), and I had wanted to clean my apartment (again, about half done - still have to do the floors). I had also wanted to go to Urinetown one last time, to see Regan Thiel in the show, but I just didn't get to it. On the plus side, I did do all my laundry and packed my backpack in a test run, so I know exactly what I can bring on the trip.
Today I got very excited about the fact that next weekend I am seeing the world premiere of a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical from the front row! I mean, I have been excited about it, but there are so many other things going on, I haven't really been able to give it the buildup it deserves. So let's just pause for a moment to appreciate how really, really cool that is. I won't even have time that day to get excited about it, since it's the day we arrive in London, and we're planning on heading out to Hampton Court in the afternoon. So I won't really even have a chance to catch my breath until I'm sitting in the theatre, at which point I'll probably get a little hyper. :-)
What else did I do this weekend? Why, watch the Olympics, of course! Canada finally got a few more medals, including a gold in men's gymnastics! That's pretty crazy, since we've never won a medal in gymnastics before. The rowing was disappointing though.
The cruise on Thursday was a lot of fun, and so was last night for Michelle's birthday. The pub we went to had a piano bar, and the guy there was amazing! Susan asked him to play "Vincent" for me, but he didn't know it, so then she asked him to play anything by Elvis, so he did "Suspicious Minds", and it was great! I could have sat and listened to him all night.
The website for The 2005 World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow is up! Unfortunately, the tickets are more expensive than I was anticipating, but I don't think they're on sale yet, so hopefully I'll have a bit of time to save up for them still. I don't know if I'll go to the qualifying or not - part of me really wants to, but the other part of me wants to take that time to sight-see in Moscow. I definitely won't go to the practices.
It's going to be a busy week at work, but hopefully that means it will go quickly!
This week is going a little faster than last week, thankfully. Last week was the longest week of the year, I thought it was never going to end! But tomorrow's Wednesday already, so that's good. I just want this trip to come! We picked up our plane tickets today, and I got my glasses fixed (I lost a screw while my mom was here), and I'm running out of things to keep myself busy.
I did head up to Thornhill on the weekend to see Jeff Buttle, and I have to say that he is even more amazing in person than he is on TV. His blades are so quiet compared to the other men, and his positions are beautiful. His new program has some absolutely stunning moments, even though the jumps weren't there on this particular day. It was totally worth the trip! He actually walked right by me at the end of the day when I was leaving, and I thought about telling him how brilliant I thought the program was, but then decided that it would just sound like mindless gushing no matter what I said, so I didn't. :-) I think I'm losing my nerve a bit when it comes to the "stage-door" environment. Perhaps it's because I'm getting to be the same age (or older!) as a lot of the people that I'd like to talk to? I don't know. Anyway! I can't wait to cheer Jeff on in Moscow in March!
Other than his performance, the only one that really stood out for me in the day was Tessa Virtue and Scott Noir in the dance - wow! They can really skate. I would really love to see them come second in the senior dance this year, and then I could cheer for them at Worlds too!
Now that I'm done with the skating talk, I shall touch very briefly on the Olympics. The Opening Ceremony was so great! I really enjoyed it. Since then, I've watched a lot of swimming (yay for Ian Thorpe, and how amazing is Michael Phelps' butterfly?!), some gymnastics, diving and rowing, mostly. I can't believe that crazy casino guy from Worlds got up the diving platform without being stopped.
On Thursday we have our last vendor event of the summer, which is a cruise on Lake Ontario. I'm looking forward to it, since we managed to miss both cruises in June. Then this weekend is Michelle's birthday, and next week I'll be going to the Shakespeare in the Park again, and Laurie is coming down one day! So I guess there are still a few things to do before we leave. :-)
Yay, Olympics! As any long-time reader of this site will know, I am a bit of an Olympics junkie. The Winter Olympics are waaaay more intense, but I do enjoy the Summer ones too. So the next couple of weeks will be largely spent watching various sporting events.
But I'll be getting my winter sport fix as well, since I just found out the Thornhill Summer Skate is this weekend, and Jeff Buttle will be there! I haven't seen him skate live, so I'll have to go check it out. He's performing his new free skate for the first time on Sunday. It should be very cool! I'll have lots of thoughts to share on that later, I'm sure.
I have now finished watching Seasons 1 and 2 of Smallville - yikes! That's about 40 hours of my life right there. :-) I did skip some of the Season 2 episodes that I've seen already, but the commentary on a couple of them were pretty interesting! I was especially amused when Kristin Kruek started talking about going to New York, and someone said, "You're going to see Wicked, aren't you??", and then they started talking about theatre. It made my day. :-)
Other than that, there's just been a lot of talking about the trip/researching for the trip/confirming for the trip going on. :-) It's only been 10 months since my last big trip, I don't know why I feel as anxious to get away as I do, but I just CAN'T WAIT. I'm so excited about all aspects of it.
I don't think I mentioned it in here on the day (I'm a terrible person!), but Tiger's birthday did come and go with our usual fanfare. He's 12 years old now! That's so crazy. But he's still in great health, and I expect to have him around for quite a while longer! For those who have expressed concern to me, he will be well taken care of while I'm away - a friend from work who lives in the area will be stopping in to check on him the whole time.
Alright, I'm gonna go make some supper and get ready for the Opening Ceremonies now!
I've updated the Scotland trip site! I can't wait!!
Okay, I changed the site around a little bit more - thanks to Zorana for her suggestions. :-) I've also added some of the photos to the photo album, but it will take me a little while to convert them all to the new album format!
Also, I got a couple of emails from people who don't know how the song goes that the site is named after (the one that I asked you to sing the title like), so now if you click on the title, you can hear part of it!
Jenn and I have decided to take a German course in the fall! I'm excited about this, because I've wanted to take one for years, but they were always too expensive. But we've just discovered that the Toronto School Board offers an adult beginner class, so we're going to do it together, starting in October. Add this to my two insurance courses, and (hopefully) my skating lessons, and I should have a pretty busy fall lined up!
Other than that, I have very little to say! The week was rather uneventful, and I don't have any real plans for the weekend either, other than going to Walmart with Zorana, and maybe finally updating my theatre site. I need to see Collateral, but probably not until Monday. My whole extended family on my mom's side is at a family reunion in B.C. this weekend, and I wish I could have gone, but it's simply too far to go for the weekend. Still, I hope they have a great time, and I'm looking forward to hearing about it.
Hope you all have a nice weekend too!
Well, I realized it was about time for a new site design, and since I've spent half my weekend watching my Smallville Season 1 DVDs, this is what we get. I spent about 45 minutes trying to come up with a good title, and eventually settled on this one, which I don't really like that much, so to make me happy, you have to sing it the way they do in the Smallville theme song. Then it will be slightly better.
Other than that, the design is not that exciting, but will function at least until we get back from Scotland. None of the links above are working yet, but I'll have those up in the next couple of days. At the very least, I'll get to look at Lex Luthor with a martini whenever I update! I wouldn't mind if I were sharing a martini with Lex right now. This is one of my purely character-related crushes - I don't know a thing about the actor who plays him ( Michael Rosenbaum), and don't really want to. I prefer to think of him as just Lex. Poor lonely Lex. He makes me think a little bit of Sark from Alias, but not quite so evil (yet). And Lex is actually better, 'cause he can quote any kind of literature or historical figure in exactly the right context.
Ahem. Anyway. The other half of my weekend (the half not spent watching Smallville and reading the Television Without Pity recaps after every episode and aching with laughter) was actually spent in grand style at a "cottage" north of the city. I use "cottage" in quotation marks because the "cottage" was actually a beautiful old home with nine bedrooms and a servant's quarters. We were there as guests of a girl from work, whose fiancé's family owns the place. It was a great time - we partied and drank, went exploring in the basement and attic, went swimming in the lake, played badminton, had a fire and roasted marshmallows, acted out some Romeo & Juliet in the living room with the balcony...you know, that sort of thing. :-) Tough to come back to reality!
So today, my muscles are aching, so I figured it would be a good day to work on that email buildup...only to find my email's not working. *sigh* And I tried to work on my theatre site, but just couldn't get motivated. I also didn't do the laundry or sweeping that I had intended to do. Hence, my apartment is still a mess, my site still needs to be updated, and I still need to respond to all my email. Not a very productive long weekend for me!
Anyway, I'm going to try to get a good night's sleep before heading back to work tomorrow. My apologies to everyone who views this site in a smaller (or is it larger?) resolution - one day I will design the site with you in mind!