Dear Blog,

How I've missed you so. I know I've been away forEVER, but I haven't forgotten about you. I'm sorry I didn't even have time to swing by to wish you a Happy Holiday or anything. I hope you're not mad. I've just been THAT busy. 5 turkeys in 7 days...that's gotta be some kind of record or something. And just think, I'm still not sick of it. I must be obsessed with that bird or something. Especially when it's coated in Gung-gung's gravy. Mmmm-mmm good. Bring it on.

Boobie dinner was a success this year. We had two absentees, but they were excused--their gifts sent along afterwards. We missed them though. My Kris Kringle recipient was Boo. I dressed her in pink from head to toe. It's apparently her new "thing," and she seemed to like it so I was happy. Looks good on her as always. I was Boobin's Kris Kringle. A friendly mug full of chocolately warmth is what he sent my way. What a guy. You can never go wrong with chocolate. Squiggly was a big huge loser and bought each of us a ticket to see the Raptors play Boston in February. What a loser. What a GREAT big loser...in the most loving of ways, of course.

Santa was more than generous this year. I feel bad for Brodder though. I wish I'd had more money to spend on him earlier, though the homemade Domokun was worth the laugh. I'm making it a point to take him out shopping soon. That or figure out something awesome. Usually my gifts for him are kick-ass, but I seem to have experienced a major brain fart this year. That sucks. I swear to make it up to him. Brain fart or not.

I received my first piece of real jewellery this year. Outside of mommy and daddy that is...as in not from BBT (no, that's not BubbleTea...you'd have to have been there). From Hun-Gee (both of them), I got a VERY pretty necklace. On a dainty-fine silver chain there's a silver heart with sparklies in it. SOOOO pretty. I've never owned something so pretty and delicate, I'm afraid to wear it half the time. But SOOOO pretty. By the way, did I mention it was pretty?

Anyway, there's SO much more to write, but I'll have to get back to you later on that stuff. I'm trying to help Hun-Gee pack so that he and the guys can get on their way to spend the New Year in Montreal. Oh yeah, so have I mentioned yet that I'm spending the New Year Countdown at work and without a Hun-Gee to kiss at midnight. :p Ah the sacrifices...

Love,

melody xoxoxoxo

Dear Blog,

How are you doing? I'm doing alright. Been a little busy lately what with it being exam and Christmas time and all. I'm working on my shopping, but it's had to be pushed aside lately for study time. My second exam was today and it seemed to go alright, but then you never really know with these English exams. It may seem like you're making perfect sense, but sometimes if you don't see it the same way that your prof sees it, you're screwed. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is sometimes.

I'm sorry that I've been neglecting you but like I said I've been busy. Besides the studying and the shopping, I'm trying to spend time in a fun way so that I don't totally stress myself out. This weekend I played in another Outtahand tournament, went clubbing, and spent the usual JFC Sunday out. I've also been working like mad crazy, trying to stay out of debt. I'm cutting it a little close right now, but I figure that since it's Christmas, I can afford to do so.

Anyway, Blog, I just wanted to leave a quick note to say that I'll write again as soon as I can, but it might not be a while so I don't want you to get offended or worry about me. I'd never forget about you--in this short time, we've already shared so much. Please wait for me, and I swear I'll be back soon.

Love,

melody xoxoxoxo

Thank You For Making My Night

    Me - "So is your roommate hot?"
    TK - "Yeah, she's pretty hot,"
    Me - "Well, what does she look like?"
    TK - "Uh, well, I guess...well, she looks like you,"

Awww... Hehehe, I don't think TK realized the implications of what he was saying until Boo and I started to point them out for him--"So you think I'm hot, huh?" He was just trying to give an honest description that came out in an overly-flattering way for me. But you know what? That's okay. It put me on a high-horse for the whole 30 seconds that followed. After the 30 seconds, I realized that the 2 Heinekens he'd drank so far COULD constitute as beer-goggles--he IS asian, afterall. :p

When To Be Speechless

A common argument between Hun-Gee and I:
"I love you."
"I love you more."
"I love you the most."
"I love you more than words can describe."
"If I could love you any more, I'd explode..."

The argument as re-scripted by Boo tonight:
"I love you."
"I love you more."
"I love you the most."
"I love you more than words can describe."
"I..."

Very correctly re-written Boo. Very true...

"Baby Boy You Stay On My Phbbbb Mind..."

Señorita and I are on a roll this week. So far we've seen each other twice in two days. Yesterday she came over to cram with me before my exam and then dropped me off at school. Today she picked me up and we went grocery shopping for her mom. We actually went grocery shopping, (free) ice cream eating, mall walking, accessory shopping, more grocery shopping, and cruising to music today, but who's keeping track--her fridge is now stocked with food, isn't it? :p

This is why Señorita is my Señorita and sister in one; she BOUGHT (as in went to the store and paid for) this CD for me, knowing full well my addiction to both Boyz II Men and to Christmas music during Christmas time. She ROCKS. It's apparently the first part of my Christmas gifts, but she wanted me to have it now cuz if I opened it on Christmas, I would have only the rest of that day to listen to it as the season would be already drawing to a close. She's so smart. SS4EVR. That said, now I can go on and rant about her car's crappy-ass speaker!!! (I so told you this was coming, chicka...)

Okay, so on our way home from grocery shopping, we put in the Beyoncé CD and were beginning to jam away when all of a sudden, her front right speaker utters this disgustingly rude "Phbbbb" farting sound! Apparently Señorita blew the speaker a while back and it hasn't been able to handle any bass since. Instead of the low thumping bass beats, we were instead left with semi-low pitched farting sounds. omg there were giggles. Now the speaker could handle some bass, but there were certain notes that for sure it couldn't, and by listening for a bit, I could tell that they were coming, and everytime, I would (via raspberrying) make the farting sounds along with the song/speaker. Mad laughs. I kept it up until she smacked me to get me to cut it out as she was "trying to DRIVE!!!" Whatever. She liked it. I loved it. Fun was had by all... ;)

Blogrings, Blogrings Everywhere

I finished my first of four exams today. ENGB25H3F - The Canadian Short Story. I studied a total of...maybe one day for it, if I round up to the nearest day, much like cell phone companies round up to the next minute, even if you've used half a second. Yeah, so I studied about 20 hours than my above guess-timate. But that's okay. It's a B-level course that I'm not extravagantly worried about. I'm a Canadian who's already studied The Short Story - ENGB41H3F; how different could it have been? (Now just wait and watch and in a few weeks time I'll be posting my regrets for not having taken ths exam more seriously. :p)

As a reward for this accomplishment, I rewarded myself by doing NOTHING all night. I still have three more exams coming up sometime next week, but still, I decided that my poor eyes needed a break from reading the equivalent of a novel a night for four nights running (though these novels weren't related to this exam, they were for the other three coming up). So how did I spend my night then? Reading blogs!!! Alright, so my eyes didn't get the break I wanted to give them, but I DID stumble upon some very interesting blogs, one of which I added to my sidebar o' links.

Al the Shouter is the author of Shouting into the Void and I accidentally stumbled onto his blog and was hooked instantly. His Hallowe'en post called Candy Samples totally cracked me up--and I think all should read it. If I could at my sarcastic best all the time, he'd be me only at least 5 times moreso. Good stuff I tell you, good stuff.

Once I stumbled onto Al's blog, I found myself suddenly sucked into a huge vortex of blogs in which I'd read about 3 posts from each before skipping off that person's recommended links and onto the next blog. It was a enthralling experience I tell you. I totally have respect for those that write and write well. I can only aspire to be as accomplished one day...

An Outtahand Side Note
(I keep forgetting that I want to mention this. Not that it has any significant relevance to anything, but I thought it was fun.)

At the tourney yesterday (or rather, I guess the day before yesterday now), there was this awesome volleyball player dude that my teammates were wary of as soon as he stepped onto the court for warm-up. (Wolfgang: "If that guy's teammates are anywhere close to as good as he is, we're so dead...") Anyway, point is this guy looked SO much like the lead singer from Coldplay, I swear! I mentioned it to Wolfgang and we had a good gawk. I'm sure that this volleyball dude was at least a foot taller than the Coldplay lead singer (named Chris Martin, btw--that's the Coldplay lead singer, not the volleyball dude) and though the resemblance was slight, it was pretty significant. Enough to make me wish I'd brought a camera of sorts.

Could you just imagine how awesome that would be though? To be such an awesome volleyball player AND an international singing superstar?! I don't think there could be anything more that one could want in terms of skills/talent! I lead the happiest life if I could do that...sing and play volleyball all the time. swEEEEt. Wolfgang dared me to go up to him and ask him if he was often mistaken for Chris Martin by others. I was going, to but didn't cuz I forgot all about it after watching a bit more of his hitting practice. I think Wolfgang forgot too.

AVD (Awesome Volleyball Dude) was a pretty cool and modest guy too; no smack-talk on the court, no hard feelings, no showing off the fact that he could totally smash a hole in the floor if he wanted to. How do I know? Cuz I got a personal comment from him, almost accidentally. There was one hit that I saw him going for while I was in middle. I somehow managed to read where he was going to hit it, it was only a matter of timing my block right and jumping high enough. To my greatest surprise, he brought the hit down low to the net where I could reach it, and I totally managed to stuffed his ass! I don't know who was more surprised, me or him:
    AVD - "Wow, you totally stuffed me! Nice block!"
    Me - (nervous laughter) "Whoa."
    AVD - (smiling) "Whoa, yeah, I think you just threw off my whole game!"
    Me - (more nervous laughter) "Sorry?"
    AVD - (kinda chuckling at my stunned-ness) "No, that was nice."
Apparently I did throw him off a bit as he totally shanked the next serve (AVD - "See? You did!"), but he got right back on top of things by the next serve, as any awesome volleyball player would do. I was so relieved that to discover that he was a good sport--for a while there (as indicated by the nervous laughter), I was seriously afraid of losing my fingers on his next hit in order to earn revenge on my block. Whew. Go Chris Martin!

You know someone's in love when they seem to inhale the very essence of the one they love. When he smells her hair; when she sniffs his neck.

You smell so good to me...

No, There Weren't Any Explosions

Pretty much everything that I had planned for today bombed. First thing this morning, I had a volleyball game with the Tri-Campus team out at Brother Andre at 9am. I got there and it turned out that I was the third of the "tri"-campus team members to show up. By start time of the first game, we had a grand total turn out of 5 players. Whoo-hoo. We defaulted our whole day. Boo. But on the plus side, we got to scrimmage with two of the other teams for a bit and that was a lot of fun. There was no pressure so there were a lot of laughs--especially at each other during a successful (or not) scramble--and everyone was on her game so had we kept score, we would've ROCKED the other teams. Coach Young stepped in as our setter and you could so see he had it in for this one girl on the first team we played cuz she thought she was all that on court. Every single one of his serves was right to her, but a little short, so she was on the floor for all of them, flopping about like a fish out of water. Good times, good times. Despite our good performance on the court, Coach Old wasn't impressed with out poor turn-out and was a little grouchy on the sidelines, but other than that, I'd say it was a good time. As a re-quote: "Because it's volleyball."

Next plan to bomb on me was an electronics sale with Tuna. I called him up after my non-volleyball games and he told me that he'd slept at 8pm after our tourney yesterday, then woke at 7am to do marking until just then (just after noon). In short, he was too tired to go to the sale for an aimless wander since neither of us really needed anything electronic and super expensive (despite the sale) at the moment. So we ditched that idea. But on the plus side this time, I got to veg on the couch for a while, enjoying the use of the heat packs on my super sore shoulders. *sigh* That felt SO good.

While lying on the couch there with the heat packs, I was ready to doze off, listening to Hun-Gee's soft, soothing voice on the phone. I nearly did, and even hung up with Hun-Gee in order to do so, but not 30 seconds into my fall into sleep, Boo called me and woke me up. She was calling to confirm our movie date for later that day. I was grouchy for a little while after that, having caught a second wind after her call and finding it hard to get back to my previously sleepy state. But again, on the plus side of that, I ended up off the couch and out shopping with mom--she bought me a sweater and one of my Christmas gifts for someone else--swEEEEt!

Back to that movie date with Boo, I made arrangements with her and Squiggly to see the 2:30pm show of Honey today, out east--a 20 minute drive east, actually. So they were to be ready to go by 2pm so we could get started on our journey to the theatre. AT 2pm, I called Squiggly to see if we could get underway, and he told me he still needed a shower!!! And then I called Boo and she admitted to not be ready either!!! The movie date didn't end up bombing though--the plus side was that it was an exciting drive (a 20 minute drive to be done in 10), we didn't have to watch too many previews nor feel pressured to buy any theatre food, and I got to ride shot-gun. :D (As a short "bomb"/"but the plus side": Honey was your typical "overcomes all odds in the ghetto" flick, but there was BOOTY!!!)

Afterwards we headed to the mall, just after picking up Squiggly's bro. Not too long into what we'd hoped to be a nice little early Christmas shopping trip, Squiggly and his bro decided to duck out and head to dinner with their fam downtown. Although it left me and Boo (and consequently the JFC) without Squiggly, we were relieved. Yet another bombed plan was rescued by the fact that we no longer had to be caught up in the family feud between the brothers. *whew* Trust me, that feud could've blown-up at any second...scary... :p

When I finally got home, I gave Vin a call to see if he was still interested in cramming with me for tomorrow's exams that we each had. Turns out that he'd headed out early to study with some classmates (a good move, for sure) and didn't think that he'd be heading back my way for a while to study with me. However, shortly after he gracefully declined my study date offer, Tuna called and wanted to know if I wanted to meet up with him at Tim's to hit the books. Done and done. So, I'm out to there in a bit.

Despite the fact that a lot of my plans didn't work out today the way that I thought they would, they DID end up working out in some way or another. I'd like to think that that's the way it usually is. Everything happens for a reason, right? Without the downs, there could be no ups. And people wonder why I'm such an optimistic person--every thing just always finds a way of working out for me. I guess you could call me Even Steven (even though my name is nowhere even REMOTELY close to Steven) like Seinfeld--it just always works!

Things A Little Outtahand...

Reverse 6s tourney at Outtahand today was fun. Sure we didn't win, but it was fun! (Finally, the FU back in FUN! -->that's such a great line, Shaky) Team: Wolfgang as setter, Schmoe in 6, Tuna in 5, me and O taking turns between power and middle, and Bev as offside. Besides being on court, the day was split between napping, shoelace tying, tickle attacks, Schmoe's talking (and us trying to tune that talking out...as "loud" as it could get), Simpsons/Seinfeld/FRIENDS quotations, eating and drinking (Gatorade, that is), and various other miscellaneous activities. A good day, despite the fact that most of us had underslept. I'd do it again anytime. Except right now. Right now I'm going to ice my finger (that's pronounced "FIN-jer"), heat-pack my shoulder, and bandage my hand--that way I'll be in tip-top shape to play again tomorrow at 9am!!! Whoo-hoo! As O said today after I asked her why she didn't just go home to sleep after her 6:30am shift at work: "Because it's volleyball." Well duh.

Quote of the Moment:
"On second thought, gum would be perfection!"
    --Chandler from FRIENDS, The One Where Chandler Gets Locked In An ATM

Quotes of the Moment:
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man something...something about fries..."
    --Homer Simpson, The Simpsons computer game

"I kind of Serendipity my way through these things."
    --Me, during an MSN session with Shaky on "Love"

Song of the Moment: "The Trouble With Love Is..." - Kelly Clarkson, from the Love Actually Soundtrack

Love can be a many splendid thing
Can't deny the joy it brings
A dozen roses
Diamond rings
Dreams for sale
And fairy tales
It’ll make you hear a symphony
And you’ll just want the world to see
But like a drunk that makes you blind
It’ll fool you every time

The trouble with love is
It can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie
It's stronger than your pride
The trouble with love is
It doesn’t care how fast you fall
And you can’t refuse the call
See you’ve got no say at all

Now I was once a fool it’s true
I played the game by all the rules
But now my world’s a deeper blue
I’m sadder but I’m wiser too
I swore I’d never love again
I swore my heart would never mend
Said love wasn’t worth the pain
But then I hear it call my name

The trouble with love is
It can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie
It's stronger than your pride
The trouble with love is
It doesn’t care how fast you fall
And you can’t refuse the call
See you’ve got no say at all

Every time I turn around
I think I’ve got it all figured out
My heart keeps callin and I keep on fallin
Over and over again
This sad story always ends the same
Me standin' in the pouring rain
It seems no matter what I do
It tears my heart in two

The trouble with love is (the trouble with love)
It can tear you up inside (it can tear you up inside)
Make your heart believe a lie (make your heart believe a lie)
It's stronger than your pride
(The trouble with love is) It's in your heart it's in your soul
(It doesn’t care how fast you fall) You won't get no control
(And you can’t refuse the call) See you’ve got no say at all
The trouble with love is
It can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie (the trouble with love..)
...

My new favourite Christmas/Special Moment song. What's a Special Moment? Well, you know when you watch movies and there's a couple that dances in their living room to whatever happens to be on the radio? Well, this would be that song on the radio. Or, also when you watch movies and there's a couple that's dancing at a party of some sort to a slow song for the first time and they finally admit they've been crazy over each other for the longest time? Well, this would be that slow song. Yeah, I'm a sentimental sap, but that's what this song was made for, I swear! Bring on the Special Christmas Moment!

Special Accessibility Indeed

This here's the story about how Vin and I found our private study space the other day...much by unbelievable fluke. We'd headed to UTSC to find cubicles somewhere, but just after getting there, he decided that he wanted a tour of the new ARC instead. So we headed off that way and we went past the library and its many group study areas, many of which were well occupied. We were running out of places in the ARC to study in when we walked past the huge new lecture hall. Vin peeked in and after being thoroughly impressed, suggested that we go study in there cuz it appeared to be empty. I figured that it was that way because it was locked up for the night, but decided to check anyway. Sure enough, when I tried the handle to the top left door it was locked. Disappointed, we continued on our way to see if the last study room down the hall would be open. That too was locked, so we started to turn back towards the unexciting and already occupied group study areas to find a spot.

The route we took back brought us past the upper right door of the huge lecture hall and just out of curiosity I tried that handle too--locked. Vin walked by it after me and decided to give the wheelchair access button a punch. He did, and then stood stock still staring at the results. As I was a little ahead of him, I couldn't see the door from where I'd stopped and from the perfectly astonished look on his face, I knew he must be shitting me.
    "You're shitting me--that didn't open the door."
    "I don't believe it. It's open." (chuckles to himself, shaking head in disbelief)
    "Don't shit me. It couldn't be that easy."
    "I don't believe it. It's that easy."
Still not believing him, I walked around to take a look at the door for myself so that we could get the joke over with and get on with our studying. But he wasn't shitting me. The door had swung wide open. It really was that easy.

Both of us in disbelief, we stepped cautiously into the lecture hall as the door quietly closed behind us on its automatic hinges. A few seconds later we finally caught each other's eye and burst into giggles.
    "I can't believe it was that easy."
And so, Vin and I had our own study space for the night. People saw us sitting in that huge lecture hall all by ourselves and tried to join us--we knew because we could hear them jiggling the door handles--but none of them thought to push the wheelchair access switches and so we were allowed to study in private. A few hours later, just as we were going to leave, we heard one last pair of people come by to try the doors. Just as it sounded like they were going to give up and leave like everyone else ahead of them, we heard the muffled click of the button, and the door swinging open to allow a voice through the doorway:
    "I don't believe it, it couldn't be that easy."
But of course as Vin and I already knew, yes, it really was.

Of All The Assets In The World...

Alright, the "Hello" story from my girly day on Friday. Acutually, it's probably more accurately named the "Helllll-lo" story from Friday. So Señorita and I went to STC after class that day so that she could get my opinion on a dress. We went into Le Château to take a peek, and while she was wandering around the dress section, I busied myself with the accessory racks. This awesome black necklace/choker caught my eye on one of the lowest set of hooks so I bent over to make a closer inspection. I wasn't down there for more than 3 seconds when I heard a "Helllll-lo" from behind me.

I bolted straight up and spun around to face my greeter. There stood a male sales associate, not two feet away, with this grin plastered on his face. I was still trying to get around the fact that he had just greeted my ass when he asked me,
    "Is there anything I can help you with?" with that same pervy grin on his face. I was still flustered and rather than the quick-witted, sharp-tongued remark that I would've normally doled out to a grin such as his, I only managed a:
    "No...no, I was just loooking...at stuff...that I want...but can't have...($25 for a necklace?!)..." How quick-witted of me...*groan*

Señorita found me and caught the last bit of mine and that sales associate's stand-off there (as well as his grin), and two seconds later she had dragged me away to hear the story and to gawk at him from a safer distance. Of course she laughed a bit at my expense, but then--as any good girlfriend would do--made a point to lip read over my shoulder and determined that he'd gotten his buddy in on his grin and were un-discreetly glancing my way. We left shortly after that; one, to escape their glances and grins, and two, so that Señorita could burst out laughing at my loss for words.

It wasn't the fact that a guy had made a pass at me that confused me. It wasn't even the fact that he'd been pervishly checking out my ass as I'd been bending over in front of him. It was the fact that of ALL things it was my ass that had caught his attention! Now, I'm not putting myself down or anything; I don't have issues with self-esteem in the least. But I DO know that of all my physical attributes, my ass is the one area in which I am DEFINITELY lacking. Why else would Boobin make me those "No-Ass™" cards every year? Getting down to it, if that guy was trying to flatter me by making a pass at my ass, he didn't--he only made me wonder..."What the hell's wrong with your eyesight?"

Although I wish I'd had something wittier to say to Mister Grin at that moment, that's not what I regret from that day. What I most regret is telling Squiggly and Boobin about the experience later that day. As they both know about my lack of ass, they found it hilariously funny to wander around behind me, calling out "Hellll-lo" every other step of the way to Yuk Yuks. Not funny guys. Not funny. That's okay though...by the time I'd ushered them into Hooters to have wings and catch the end of the Raps game, they'd forgotten about me and my lack-thereof. So easily distracted men are...

An Abbreviated Recap Of The Week

Thursday

• School and then intramural volleyball championships. We didn't win, but that's okay. I asked One-Of-The-Wills if he still had any pics from the oh so memorable athletic banquet earlier this year. He'll check...whatever. :(
  
• Conned Asked Tuna nicely if he'd drive Brodder to some sushi dinner up in Korea Town on the promise of our own sushi dinner. He drove. We ate. We didn't study.
  
• Filled out quiz upon ridiculous quiz on line with Brodder and Mom. Cheated for the answers we didn't know.
  
• Had a private viewing of Chong's short, "Like Rabbits." Had a good laugh--hehehe, Harry Wang, hehehe. Went for coffee with him and MJ. Renamed each other to Smudge, Crop, and Resize. Another good laugh.

Friday

• Impromptu girly day with Señorita. Coffee, the mall, the "Hello" episode (to be explained later). Spent a little too much time having fun, but bought ourselves 25% off sweaters for having our flu shot that day.
  
• Home to get ready and FLY downtown with Boobin to meet Squiggly for a night at Yuk-Yuks. The headliner? Stuart Francis--the one liner guy. "I was standing in the park the other day, wondering why Frisbees get bigger the closer they get to you...and then it hit me."
  
• Wings at HOOTERS afterwards--my choice, though the guys were wary--and then back up town to meet up with Boo and EBTek, as well as Hun-Gee at my place for some intense rounds of jitz. (Sorry Hun-Gee, I'm just THAT good...)
  
• Late night movie (Tomb Raider 2) and cuddle with the home-again Hun-Gee.

Saturday

• Worked. Got there a little late. C'est la vie.
  
• Mad dash to buy Mom and Dad's 22nd Anniversary present. Felt very under-dressed in the lobby of the Delta East. Wanted to harm the front desk lady...thank goodness for the restaurant manager!
  
• Out to Hun-Gee's for dinner, movie, and more cuddling before falling dead asleep until 5am...so sweet.

Sunday

• Was supposed to work again, but woke up to a UTI (ugh) so I called in sick. Spent the day with the boos instead.
  
• Of the JFC, Boo waited, I baked cookies, and Squiggly drove the distance. Boo also made pasta salad with an addictive dose of cocaine as well.
  
• Went shopping: ClubMo Outlet, GAP, Wal-Mart. Somehow Boo ending up softly shimmering after that...
  
• Dropped in on the 'rents to see how the anniversary brunch went. A huge hit with Dad, apparently-->all you can eat roast beef.
  
• Dinner at Swiss Chalet after dropping the Brodders off at their buffet. Visit to the bank. An aborted attempt at Tim's.
  
• Essaying until...wait, I essayed all night.

Monday

• Finished essay. Flew to school. Stayed at school to work.
  
• Came home to eat, then back to school with Vin for more studying. Accidentally found our own study space. Haha! (more on that later too.)
  
• Came home exhausted, but still managed to blog about it all!