Happy Birthday, Pickle!

My dear friend Pickle's birthday falls on December 30th. He was kind enough to celebrate on Friday, to give us all a day to recover before hitting the town for our New Year's Eve extravaganza (so excited, you guys).

We went to the Drum, and the night started off fairly calm....

... Having a few drinks and a few laughs....

...But everyone went from zero to drunk in a very short period of time (or maybe that was just Crystal, Pickle, and I?).

Usually, by the time group-photos are being taken, everyone's good and liquored. (thanks to Greg for driving last night)

You know the kids are a teeny bit tipsy when they start throwing gang signs in the back seat.

Happy 27th, Pickle!

~sarah p.

Sick TV.

Yesterday, I was violently ill (and this time, it wasn't due to my alcohol consumption). I was one of the last people in my entire family to end up with some sort of stomach bug, and it was not very pleasant. I am feeling a bit better today, and plan on being in top shape by the weekend, but it's pretty safe to say that I took it easy yesterday, caught up on a little TV, and puked my guts out.

I really don't watch enough TV on a day-to-day basis. I usually watch some cartoons at night, and that's about it. Sometimes, all it takes is a few tablets of gravol to force me to watch an entire day of TV. Let me tell you, beyond the whole 'being sick' part, it was actually a pretty good day. Here's some of the highlights of the day, TV-wise:

1. Have you seen this show called Rap School? Ice-T decides to go to this prep-school, where the kids all look like Conan O'Brien, and teach them how to rap. I don't really understand why he decided to do this, but I think I really, really like this show. When the one of the little Conans got on the decks, and totally fucked everything up, but then this other Conan with a speech impediment gets a turn, and scratched like a fucking pro, and Ice-T was all proud of him... Man, what a good TV moment.

2. MTV Cribs is always mildly entertaining, but the best episode ever was on last night. They went to Tommy Chong's house, and his wife was showing the cameras around, and every ten seconds, Tommy would cut off his wife to show the viewing audience another pipe from his collection. The wife would be in the bathroom, showing everyone their fancy toilets, and Tommy would bust into her conversation, and be all like "Let me just show them another pipe. I got this one in Mexico. It looks like a cross, but you can also smoke out of it", and then they'd go to look at their cats in the bedroom, and Tommy would bring out another pipe shaped like Jesus. Then Tommy's wife told this story about how their house got raided by police once, and they had a whole bunch of paraphernalia confiscated, but coincidentally, their housekeeper had taken some 'brownies' that they had in their freezer for a ride in her car on the day the cops came, so they still had them in their freezer, ready for consumption. I bet the Cribs crew had a great time at Tommy Chong's house after they turned off the camera.
The episode concluded with a tour of Brian Vollmer's (the lead singer of Helix) house. He was pretty awesome, because he kept doing a bunch of heavy-metal kicks and twirls around his house, and his wife kept her perfume in the fridge!
*Fun fact! When I was a little kid, my mom's childhood best friend married Paul Hackman (R.I.P.), guitarist for Helix, and I got to go to their wedding. I think that means I'm part of Canadian metal history or something.*

3. There was this episode of Made on MTV where there's this weird kid that wanted to become homecoming king. His 'coach' made him go on a bunch of dates, and kept blowing an airhorn at him when things went wrong. One of the creepiest parts was how he kept smelling the girls' hair when he was on the blind dates with them. By the end, after a makeover in New York, and a bunch more airhorn-dates, he got super smooth and asked one of the coolest girls to the dance. Then, he actually won homecoming king. I was pretty happy for him, until the end, when he went to hug his date goodbye, and he took a very obvious whiff of her hair. Dude, I thought you outgrew that.

Point is, being home sick wasn't that bad, but I think I really would like to be healthy for a while (and watch some more TV).

~sarah p.

Kids Stuck In Vending Machines...

... My favorite trend of 2006.


These were two of the 99 Strangest Photos of the Year..... Coincidence, or new fad sweeping the nation? You decide.

~sarah p.

Yeahbutnobutyeah...

Am I really getting that old? I took this test today on teen-slang, and I failed miserably. With all of the time I've spent around children, you'd think I'd be totally hip to their language (I am, however, lucky enough to know what Thunder Tag is). I'm worried that I'm starting to look like the creepy older lady that hangs out at the bar and makes all of the 18-year-olds feel a little uncomfortable. I haven't started to wear leather pants or animal prints yet, so I guess I'm still safe... For now. Do me (and the world) a favor and stop me from going out to the bar when I have false teeth and a pension. Thanks.

~sarah p.

Going out when I'm sick? Nothing short of genius.

I wasn't feeling good on Saturday, but I had things to do and people to see, so I sucked it up and headed out for a night on the town. After a fantastic meal at Ryan's Christmas party (and a few drinks... alcohol kills germs, you know), we headed over to the Drum to see Breanne for her 24th birthday!
Guess who was there? Yep, Trevor. I don't think I could have been any happier to see him, really.

Crystal and I left the Drum, and went over to the Rhino for some $6.50 doubles. We danced it up for a little bit, but the douchebag factor was way too high for our liking, so off to Broken, where I'm pretty sure I've never had a bad time.

These two winners were there (as were Crystal's fingers). Happy Birthday, Breanne!

Jeff gets the camera, and the rest, as they say, is history.

...and Chris was all like "YEAH!"

...and Crystal was all like "YEAH!", but for a different reason (i.e. Jess's amazing shirt)

What goes better with getting disgustingly sauced than free pizza bread in the back of the pizza place? Not much.


Really, it's a wonder I'm feeling much worse this week, isn't it?

~sarah p.

It'd be even better if I wasn't actually sick.

There's nothing like cough syrup and cold tablets to take the edge off of an 11-hour shift.

~sarah p.

If leggings are back in style, then how long til dudes are rocking bike shorts again?

I don't know, that's why I'm asking you.

~sarah p.

p.s. At first I was just joking when I said I was getting back into New Edition and Shanice and Boyz II Men (however, I was never joking when I said that I was totally into Bel Biv Devoe), but now, more and more often, I'm finding myself wishing that they'd just throw some of my favorite late 80's/ early 90's jams at the bar. There's something so endearing about that era of shitty pop music... It's so frigging sincere. I don't know what's going on in my head, but I do know that I'm about to go all grade-6 and start putting up posters on my wall and shit. Someone stop me before it's too late, please.

T-Minus 6 Days....

Some people count down the days until Christmas, some people count down the days until New Year's... Me, I count down the days until I don't have to listen to the Singing Santa anymore. They parked him directly outside of my office door, and he rocks the shit out of the same four songs every two hours. Ask me how I feel about that.... Wait, don't. I may get violent.

He's also coming to see us on Monday for an eye exam, so I get to pretend that I don't want to strangle him while he sits in my office for half an hour, breathing like an athsmatic bull and making off-color remarks. Awesome.

Yes, it's cute to see the kids dance around him, but what ever happened to the quiet type of mall Santa that hands out candy canes, sips rum secretly, and bangs the lady-elves in the cardboard Santa castle? I liked that kind a lot better.

~sarah p.

A little T-preciation...

Those who know me know that I like to throw my palms up from time to time for those that make me smile a lil' bit.
There has never been anyone in this world who has unintentionally made me laugh more than Mr T.
It doesn't matter if he's buying milk at the Sever, or at the doctor getting his prostate checked, it's gonna be good.
I'm waiting patiently for his reality show to cross the border into the frozen tundra, but until then, here are some of my favorite T links:


Mr T Virtual Playset (holy fun)

Bring Back The A-Team (aka - The best documentary of all time)

Mr T vs Everything (This one's been around forever... Dude's done his research, I mean, T-search)

T gets Serious for a Damn Minute

T Tells His Secrets

Did you know you can carry Mr. T around in your pocket? You sure can.


Basically what I'm saying is, keep on doing your thing, T... I appreciate it a ton.

~sarah p.

25 Things (#s 9-5)

Well, I'm down to the final 10 things on the list. To be honest, the goals were stupid to begin with, and sometimes I regret ever beginning the list, but now that I've started, I'm not about to stop ('cause I'm stubborn like that).

Here's the list for this week:

9. Babysit my nephew.
I am a selfish bastard. I've already taken the initiative and told my stepsister I would take some time out of my "busy" schedule to watch Baby Cody on Friday evening for her... That way I can't back out and go get sauced.

8. Clean out my inbox(es).
If you've ever looked in any of my e-mail accounts, you'd see that they are a total mess. I have non-important e-mails from over three years ago just sitting there, because I'm too lazy to delete them. My e-mail accounts are filling up quickly, so I need to get rid of everything that isn't top-shelf material (that means all of my Jon Willams stories stay, as well as anything anyone's ever sent me while drunk).

7.Become an origami master.
While cleaning out a box the other day (goal #12), I found like eight packages of origami paper that was given to me for my 20th birthday in Victoria. I made one crane or something, and I haven't touched it since ('cept for the one time I used a sheet to wrap a jewelry box up).... Needless to say, it's on. You want an origami anteater? How about an origami carp? Aaa-ight, I'll see what I can do.

6. Start pranking again.
If you've ever spent any significant amounts of time in rural Connecticut, then you probably learned that the best way to say "I love you" to anyone is to prank them. You know, little things. Tires in beds (thank you ladies), fish in toilets.... Fun stuff. This is one of those "you had to be there" things, but some of you will know what I'm talking about. I'm going to pull some sort of prank before my birthday. Something awesome.

5. Clean out my closet.
Have you ever looked in my closet? How about my drawers? I wouldn't if I were you. I have the most clothes out of anyone I know. I do wear a lot of them, but there are tons that have sat there for a good year without being worn. Come one, come all, and raid my closet (just joking, my pants are all abnormally short, and most of the shirts have stains on them).


Once again, thanks to everyone that has helped me achieve my goals... No matter how stupid they are.

~sarah p.

p.s. As for the final 5.... I'm stumped. Not gonna lie. Have you noticed something missing in my life? Now's your chance to throw it in my face. It really doesn't matter if you know me or not, I'm open to your ideas. Leave suggestions in a comment, or e-mail them to sarahdianna@gmail.com

Children of India: Stop Raping Girls and Start Reading Books.

You know, I used to always say that going to India would be kinda neat, just to see what's going on.
However, if this is the way things are going down around there, then I don't know, dudes...

~sarah p.

p.s. Yes, yes, I'm not a total tard... I know that the babies didn't rape the girl, and that this is all over a land dispute, but still.... Harsh, no?

Sat-at-at-urday.

So, we're at the Rhino, and Crystal suggests that we get a photo or two taken before we got shitfaced. Here they are:

Okay, this one doesn't look very sober, but I assure you that it is (kind-of).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eventually, we'd had enough of being sober, and after drinking several $6.50 doubles and enjoying the company of DJ Disoriental (seriously, what a great guy), we packed up and moved over to Broken.

So, there Crystal was, kissing Steve like it's no big thing...

...and I'm over with Breanne dancing the night away.

You know Aaron was there....

... And it is always the best thing ever to go visit Marco.

How do you finish off such an intensive night? Umm.... How about the ultimate 80's dance-party sleepover? Yessssssss.

~sarah p.

Seeing green.

So, while I'm planning to spend my weekend doing a little shopping, eating a little Thai food, and going out for some casual beers, a certain blog-partner of mine is hanging out with members of Wu-Tang. Just thought you'd like to know.... More on this later, I've probably already said too much.

~sarah p.

p.s. I act like I'm jealous (which I am), but really I'm just totally stoked for him.... This is a pretty big deal.

25 Things (#s 14-10)

Things have been going better than expected with the list. I've stayed in for a weekend, drank dark booze for a whole evening, started on my new project (I promise it's going to be amazing), have quit blazing during the week (went easier than expected), have cut down to going out for lunch twice a week, am going shopping and dropping off some film on Saturday, and I will be venturing out on a quest to get some matzo-meal sometime during the week (and a whole chicken).

Here are this week's goals:

14. Clean out my I-Tunes.
I've been noticing lately that I've been skipping over more and more songs on my I-Pod when I'm out and about. I need to clear out some of the tracks on my harddrive to make room for more fantastic jams (new Nas is out soon, you guys).

13. Learn how to play poker... For real this time.
I've played a ton of poker in my day (and have won some nice sums of money), but it was all due to blind luck. I actually have no clue how to play... None.

12. Take out the trash.
I have these bins out in the garage full of old memories. However, they are not the type of old memories I actually want to remember... At all. I went through one of the bins in September, and threw out all of the stuff that didn't make me happy. I have four more bins to rifle through. This should be an easy one.

11. Be in two places at once.
This could be a tough one. Remember that time on the Flinstones where Fred had to go out to dinner with Wilma, and had to go bowling at the same time, so he ran back and forth between the two? One night, I will try my best to successfully pull of a Flinstone-night. It probably won't work, but it will be kind-of fun to try.

10. Write a message, put it in a bottle, and send it down the river.
Maybe I'll throw some cash in the bottle, too, because the only people that will find the bottle will be hobos. It'll be a good note, though. Promise.

~sarah p.

p.s. I don't know if you knew this, but I've been promoted to "Head of Keeping Decorations on the Wall" at work. How do you keep bows from falling off, and lights from falling down? I honestly haven't been able to figure it out yet. I've tried several types of tape, those little self-adhesive hooks, and even a glue-stick, and nothing works. Stresssssssful.

Shopping bags they weigh down my armmmmmmmmmms...

I promised myself that I'd try to do a some of my x-mas shopping after work today. Just a little bit, maybe an hour or so. Now, I've never been a dude, so I don't know the true feeling of getting kicked in the balls, but I'd assume it felt something like standing in line at the mall this evening. Painful.

I ended up leaving with nothing, so Saturday the hammer goes down. Mark my words: I am getting all of my shopping done in one day.
Let me know what you would like, or I may have to wing it (and as history has proven, it is not wise to let me 'wing' anything). Me? I want this pan, this book, a new camera (think I've got this one in the bag, because when I asked my parents for it, I gave them a really sly wink), an amazing nightlight, and for Britney to keep on the path she's been on for the past few weeks (holy entertaining).

In the scheme of things, I'll probably get a set of wooden spoons and a sweater in a color that I don't like, but I guess beggars can't be choosers, right?
Seriously, though, guys.... What do you want for Christmas? I'm frigging lost here.

~sarah p.

Guess what I think about whiskey now?

Well, another goal down.... I drank rye and bourbon all night, and I'm paying for it today.

We went to the Rhino again. The crowd was a little strange, and I wasn't really feeling it until like half the bar left, and we had room for a true dance-a-thon.

I have now completed (or started work on) five of my current ten goals. The true challenge is going to be thinking of fifteen more goals to complete before my 25th birthday. It could get a little interesting around here.

~sarah p.

p.s. Here's another mp3 blog I've been into lately. I am seriously running out of room on my harddrive.