Well, despite my best efforts to NOT work at the cat kennel again this year, GUESS WHAT I'M DOING FOR THE REST OF AUGUST! Yup. That's right. Scooping poop and cleaning up puke. Again. It's actually not as bad as last time because there's two of us this time, so you've got someone to talk to (well, you can talk to cats, but they don't usually answer you back) and this way it'll go faster and I won't have to talk to people on the phone or in person as much. That was always the worst part. Calling people. Urg. And it's a REALLY good thing that there's gonna be two of us, because these next two weeks, there's gonna be 52 cats there. Insane I must say.
 
It's weird, the guy I'm working with, Mike, his voice sounds EXACTLY like this one guy Justin that I used to coach with. So everytime Mike talks, I think it's Justin, but then I turn around and it's not Justin, and I'm slightly confused for just a wee bit.
 
Anyway, I'm off now to get some toast and to watch some Cinderella with Hali. (We are amused by simple things we are..)

I was almost hit by one of those humassive construction scrapers today.
 
They decided that today would be a good day to start TEARING and RIPPING up my road, well, the end part of it anyway, nearer to 17th ave. So they've now made QUITE a good start and the road is now about 11 feet deep of nothing but loose dirt. Well, ok, not eleven, but at least a good foot of the top of the road it nothing but loose dirt. It's gonna be ridiculous if it rains. Oh man. I don't even really want to think about that. (Especially since I JUST washed my car. It's cleaner than it's been, well, probably since I bought it.)
 
Anyway, as I was heading out at some point in the day, a bulldozer (which are MUCH bigger than they look once you get real close to them) was stopped waiting for me, but the scraper on the other side of the dozer didn't seem to know what was going on, or thought that the dozer was waiting for HIM (possibly he was, but I couldn't see the scraper, nor he me). So I pull out in front and suddenly there is a VERY large, VERY close, VERY quickly approaching scraper to my right. He stopped in time and didn't plow me into the ground, but still. It was close.
 
I just don't have very good luck with these big machines.. I nearly got run over by a semi a couple weeks back before they'd moved the mailboxes off my street. I was walking back to my car and a semi was driving awfully close to my car, and therefore, me. Quite nerve wracking all this large machinery and people encounters I've been having. Sheesh.
 
So I've started working at the cat kennel again. (Same kennel, different management. Different address too, but it's only one house down. It's at the original location again now actually.) It won't be so bad this time though because there's gonna be two of us doing it. And last summer, I hadn't wanted a summer job, the summer was supposed to be just for fun and lazing about, so having to work there all the time was horrid. But this year, I kinda half wanted a summer job at least, so I won't mind spending time there. (I hope.) It's weird though, the other guy that's working there, Mike, has the EXACT same voice as someone I used to coach with. So everytime I hear him talking I always think it's the other guy, Justin, but then I turn around and it's Mike and it's a little confusing at first. (Mike doesn't look anything like Justin.)
 
I seem to have enjoyed using brackets for this rant. Perhaps I'm going through a phase. Like when parents say that their horribly behaved children are simply going through a "phase" when really, they're just lousy parents and don't want to admit it.

This morning I woke up to a tingling sensation in my left arm. I sometimes get these on my face or fingers or whatever, so I didn't think much of it, except that maybe it was more tingly than normal. So finally I look over and I find an ant crawling along my arm. Great. Then not two minutes later, there's a tickling on my neck. Turns out to be a very small beetle type bug crawling along my neck. Great. My room is infested. Grrr. At least the slightly larger beetle bug things aren't there now. I think they're a winter bug or something. I hate waking up with bugs on me, which surprisingly, happens quite often. I've even woken up with the slightly larger beetle thing on my eyelid. So very gross. And I used to have one of those water bottles with the folding straw things that are attached, anyway, one of the beetle things had gotten squished when I shut the waterbottle, and I hadn't noticed until sometime later after I was finished drinking and looked down and saw a squashed beetle thing on the straw. Yuck.

I just got back from seeing Quidam (Cirque du Soleil show) and it was sooooooo good! :> Although, I think that you should see a show live and THEN buy the movie of it, because otherwise you get used to the movie version, and then when you see the real thing, it's just a little bit different, especially if the movie is from a couple years ago. So then, it's not dissapointing, but just not quiiiiiiiite as good as you had hoped. I still loved it though. And, in getting with the spirit of the whole thing, I bought a ridiculously overpriced shirt which is all fancy and wonderful and I love it. It's got long sleeves though, so I won't be able to wear it for a while.
 
One of the acts, the music to it was crazy. This guy came forwards on the stage from where the rest of the musicians were and started playing his guitar... with a violin bow! It was crazy. Or possibly it was a cello bow, but same thing!
 
And I remembered what I was going to write about in the last rant. I was going to write about going to see the grandstand show fireworks on the last day Stampede was going on. It was fun. I rather enjoyed it. We (Brandy, Rob, Leighton and Marina) went up onto Scotchman's hill and got ourselves all set up and then played Big 2 until it was time for the show to start. Scotchman's hill is definitely the best place to watch the fireworks because they set them off from the hill (not where everyone is sitting obviously) so when you're watching them, they're directly over your head and it almost feels like they're sprinkling on you. We weren't quite as close as everyone was last year, so the whole sprinkling effect wasn't quite the same (so I was told), but it was still awesome. I also had a good chat with Leighton about how to make napalm and his napalm adventures in Malaysia when him and a bunch of his friends burnt an anarchy sign into the ground and nearly exploded themselves (two of them came out of the ordeal with no eyebrows, eyelashes or hair on the front of their heads). Somewhere in the course of the evening I also seemed to decide that I like Leighton. Which was a very random decision and I have no idea where the idea came from, but there it is and it won't go away. And the problem is that I never see Leighton even though he goes to my church (he helps with one of the Chinese churches in Calgary because he speaks Chinese) and he's even less of a social butterfly than I am, so needless to say, he doesn't come to many of the events and various get togethers that are organized. Oh well.

Well VBS (vacation bible school) is over for the year and I was a successful "official" photographer. It was great, I was given a digital camera with the capacity to hold about 750 pictures, so I took about 470 pictures. Which was fine, except that I then had to go through and pick and choose the best ones to put into a slide show. It was quite difficult I must say. I did finally manage to get it down to 141 and now the slideshow is perfectly matched to the music and it's awesome and wonderful and all that whatnot. I won't be there to see it tonight because I'm going to the Folk Festival with Cait and Allan, GREAT BIG SEA, but I never really planned on going to the post VBS party anyway, so there ya go.
 
And I know there was something else I wanted to put down here, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Stupid shot memory. It's a wonder I don't suddenly look around me, entirely confused as to where I am and how I got there.
 
Either way I'm gonna go and read some more of my book. It's quite good, although a very easy read. It's called "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants". Surprisingly it's not really a comedy, although I thought so at first from the name. They're thinking of making it into a movie apparantely. Should be interesting.

Well yesterday was interesting. Here is a list of the things I did.
 
- Filled up the kiddy pool so that I could lie in it and tan in nice watery comfort.
- Plugged in a cd player so I could also have music.
- Electrocuted myself in so doing.
- Got all nice and comfy in the pool when the guy who was going to cut our lawn showed up and I had to get out. Grrr.
- Dumped out the pool to get rid of all the grass in it, filled it up again and sat in it until it was too cold to stay in any longer.
- Watched The Butterfly Effect and Big Fish with Hali (both good movies, although I liked The Butterfly Effect more than Big Fish).
- Went to bed in the nice cool basement while Hali had to sleep upstairs in the insane heat. Bahahaha.
 
So, I imagine you are all wondering about my electrocution. I've actually electrocuted myself quite a few times. Three to be exact, although I'm sure it's been more than that. Nope, I guess just three. Actually no, I've done it four times. The first was camping with Caitlin at one of her end of year campouts. She had one of those really bright lanterns, which was battery powered, and it had come apart, and so the connecting prongs were open, and I put my hand on one of them accidentally and ZAP. Then at my friend Rachel's house, we were having a waterfight and when we were done, I went to turn off the hose, but to get to the tap, you had to stick your hand in the middle of one of those gas moniter-dealies. And I'm not entirely sure WHY it decided to electrocute me, but I put my hand in there and suddenly there was a really weird sensation going through my hand. It was all buzzy and zappy and whatnot. Then I was editing a movie for some school project or whatever, and I had the camera cables in my hand and the camera plugged into the wall. I was dusting off the tv screen and every time I got a little static electricity shock from the tv screen, the camera cables I was holding would give me a little wall outlet shock. Great fun. Then when I was getting everything ready for my kiddy pool endeavour yeasterday, I was plugging an extension cord into the wall and the cord was a wee bit sketchy looking, but I'd used it before for cutting grass, so I thought it was ok. So I plugged it in no problem, but then when I reached for the other end to plug into the cd player, ZAP. It got my middle finger the worst, and for like a half hour afterwards, my finger kept buzzing and tingling.

Whoa. They all of a sudden have all sorts of fancyness to this now. Oooohhh.. Ahhhh.. Like, you can do this or this or even this! It's all just a little overwhelming at the moment. 
 
So today was an adventure! Yesterday was an adventure! I've had a very adventurous couple days.
 
So yesterday was our flash flood and near tornado and all that. I never thought there would actually be a tornado, so I wasn't too worried. Anyway, it rained SOOOO much that the rock garden-wall-dealy on one side of my house turned into a waterfall and the entire frontwalk was under about 2 or 3 inches of water. And so, of course, the basement flooded. Incredibly luckily there are some strategically placed steps in my basement, so the flooding is contained in one half of the house, the half that doesn't include my bedroom. Yay! So the outside wall of the guest room leaked water and MUD into the house, as usual. And the window to the tile room filled up with water. The pressure from the water was so great, that the outside pane of glass broke and since the inside window part opens... it leaked quite a bit. In fact, the water was actually SHOOTING out of the window!! Not just dribbling or pouring... SHOOTING! So that room was REEEEAAAALLLY muddy! Luckily though we have a wet vac, so I just went in there and sucked everything up. Also luckily, nothing on that half of the house has carpet. Well, the guest room does, but it's just put on the floor, it's not actually attached to the floor or anything. 
 
So I was up until midnight cleaning. Hurrah. Then I was up until like 1:40am trying to kill a STUPID MOSQUITO!!! Urg. I hate the stupid things. And it was a particularly lethargic one too, so it would only fly near enough so that I could see it every 20 minutes or so. But of course, the SECOND you turn off the light and decide you don't care, it flies RIGHT IN YOUR EAR. Then you've got to get up again and try to kill it again all over again. I finally got the stupid thing as it was sneakily trying to bite me on the arm.
 
So then today, Rochelle and Rochelle's friend, Janet, and I were going to STAMPEDE BABY! WHEEEEEE! And on the way out, I moved over to the side of the road so that the truck coming the other way could pass me (construction going on.. very narrow roadways) and suddenly the bit to the side of the road that I was pulling onto just sunk! And I don't mean in a small way! Both my right tires were more than half way into the mud. So I ran out and scooped the mud away from the one tire so I could lock the hub to put it in 4 wheel drive to try and get out. That didn't work (I later realized that while I'd locked the hubs, I had forgotten to actually PUT it in 4 wheel drive, so I probably could have gotten out that way if I hadn't been quite so dim). The guy that I was letting pass turned out to be a construction worker, who immediately got out a chain and attached it to my car to see if he could pull me out. That didn't work (he wasn't driving a Dodge.. didn't have enough engin power..). So then another construction worker came over and thought, hey, the water truck has lots of power.. So I got pulled out by one of those huge trucks that go around watering the roads when they get dusty.
 
My car is soooooo muddy now on the right side. So was Rochelle.. She got out of my car so that there wouldn't be as much weight on that side, but it was kind of difficult to do because of all the mud. So she tried to stay out of the mud, but her foot slipped right into the mud! She thought she was going to loose her shoe because it was so stuck in there. So when we got to Westbrook, before taking the bus to Stampede, we all went into the bathroom and cleaned ourselves off. But it was still fun. First time I've ever gotten stuck in that car. Although I still think I could have gotten out if it had actually been in 4 wheel drive. My little beastie is a tough little beastie. :>
 
So Stampede was awesome, but BLOODY HOT! At one point it was 42 degrees or something ridiculous like that. Still awesome though. LOTS of rides! Wheeee! I had fun. And I only burnt a teensy weensy bit, which is excellent because I only put sunscreen on once during the whole day, and that was at like 11:00 am. Take THAT UV rays... :>

I had a very productive day today. Or, so I think anyway. It went like this.

Got up, ate a teensy breakfast, (meant only to tide me over until I got to the pancake breakfast at Westhills) went to the pancake breakfast, went to Michael's to look for a specific kind of bead (which they didn't have) and buy some t-shirts for the day camp my church is putting on. Then on the way out of the store, I saw a sign that said Michael's is hiring ALL POSITIONS, so I applied there to be a cashier. I'm not entirely sure if I want them to call me back though... Then I got home and started organizing this one basket of random recipes. Then I spend the rest of the day until this point doing that. With a couple breaks for food and a small break to watch as Hali placed our cats in the kiddy pool. Now, don't worry, it only had about an inch of two of water in the bottom. It was actually kind of entertaining. You dump the cat in and the second they hit the water they bouce RIGHT back out. Almost as if they bounch off the water.

Anyway, organizing. I'm taking all the recipes and retyping most of them because they're either on little snippets from magazines or are on the inside of egg cartons or other such materials that don't really go well into a binder. I'm also going to sort them into 4 catagories, desserts, breads, (including muffins, cookies and homemade bisquick mix) drinks and main course & appetizers and whatnot.

So when it's all done it's gonna be great. There are a LOT of recipes in there that are REALLY good, but that have been in that yellow basket for sooooo long that no one knows we even have them.

I can't remember exactly what prompted this, but I was going to the bathroom the other day and I heard this voice, or, well, not really heard it, but sorta, heard it in my head, or felt it speak, or whatever. Anyway, I believe I was moping about not being able to see Aaron or something like that, and then this voice was like, Erin, get over Aaron NOW. And I asked it if I really had to, and it said yes. So, I gave myself over to that and all of a sudden, I'm actually started to get over Aaron. Mostly I'm just supressing any feelings for him soooooo far back that I won't be able to feel them, but it's working.

And I don't care how crazy you think I am for saying this, but I truly think it was God speaking to me that day, telling me to get over Aaron. Which would explain why I'm finally able to do just that. I think it's kinda funny though.. I found God in my bathroom..:>

This sucks. I was all excited that I was going to get to see Aaron again, and now Ender isn't staying at my house anymore. They're somewhat splitting up and staying at a couple relatives houses of the one guy. So now I probably won't get to see Aaron at all! It's like something's trying to keep us from ever seeing each other. First, he was going to come down with a bunch of other people from his church so he could help his old youth leader do some stuff here, then he couldn't do that, then I was going to see him when he was here for Warped Tour, now I'm not. Sigh.

Ender, one of the bands that Aaron is in, is playing at Warped Tour this year. They're driving out the night before and staying in my backyard. In a tent.

At first, Rochelle and I were planning on going to Warped Tour so we could see Ender play, (and Flogging Molly will be there too, which is always a good thing) but I was talking to Aaron on msn and he said that Warped Tour really isn't as great as they make it out to be and that Rochelle and I shouldn't bother. Especially since tickets are 40$ and Ender will more than likely be playing in Calgary some other time, but for 5$ or something.

So since I wouldn't be seeing Aaron at Warped Tour, he was gonna try and call me either before or after Ender was done playing and we were gonna hang out or something.

I don't know if we'll still be able to hang out before/after Ender plays, but at least I still get to see him! :> And the rest of the band for that matter. Maybe I'll even get to hear them a wee bit. :>

Today is not being a good day. So far this morning, we had our power cut off for two hours or so, then I was accused by Hali of being too violent. This didn't really surprise me, I am rather violent, but it's all in a teasing-type nature. But she didn't stop there. She went on to predict that I was going to be a child abuser in the future and would end up killing all my children. Thanks Hal.

Overalls are lovely. Although I feel REALLY young when I wear mine.

Cait and I went to see Shrek 2 last night, both donning our overalls. We're re-starting the overalls fashion. :>

Hmm. I thought I had more interesting things going on, but apparantely not.. I did fix the 30 something year old clock/radio in my kitchen.. It makes the most HORRIBLE noises. Or, used to, because now it's completely silent. It's great. Except now it's started loosing time for some odd reason that I can't entirely figure out. We'll have to see if it doesn't correct itself eventually. Or I may have to re-open the stupid thing. I also cleaned the glass in front of the number display. So now you can actually see the numbers. It's creepy... I'm so used to not really being able to see them very clearly, and now the glass is so clean it looks like there isn't even any glass at all.

Yesterday I went hiking with a bunch of my university chums. It was great fun, although at the end my poor little legses started rebelling. Particularly my knees and hips, which have a tendency to start feeling as if they're terribly arthritic if I walk around for too long. They've only ever done it once before this, so it's not a constant problem, but it really hurts. So now I'm ridiculously stiff and sore even though the hike really wasn't very hard at all.

We went to the ice cave just before Elbow falls. You used to be able to drive right up to the base of the ice cave, but because so many people went there, a lot of people were getting stuck in the cave and had to be rescued. So they closed the road off to cars and now it's about a 5km hike just to get to the cave, then you have to hike UP to the cave, then back. So most of the time was spent trudging the road.

Once we did get up to the cave we had lunch and then ventured inside. Laura and I climbed up a little ridge (one at a time) and ended up 5 feet below the ceiling of the cave, which is like 50 feet up. I could have gotten all the way up and touched the roof, but there weren't any really good places to put either hands or feet, and it would have been even harder to get down, so I decided against it. Then we went to the back of the cave, where if you don't have your flashlight on, it's so dark you can't tell if you have your eyes open or not. About halfway back into the dark part, there's a huge pillar of ice. It goes from the ceiling, which is about 8 feet here, right to the floor. It's just about a foot in diameter too! So we got some pictures of us right up to it. :>

The last time I went there, when I was 12 or so, there was a little pond all around the ice pillar, so we weren't able to get past it, but this time it was all dry there and so we went back even farther. Then, the ceiling slanted down to the right and the floor sorta came up to meet it, so you had to squish your way in between the floor and ceiling and then there was a little chamber type dealy on the other side. Right when you got through, there was a wicked draft and it was coming from another room that was even harder to get to. You had to shove yourself through a 6 inch crack in the rocks. Taryn went through first and we got a picture of his feet just as he was going through. It's an awesome picture! Becuase it looks like the rock is solid and there's no opening, but there's these feet sticking out the bottom. So then myself and another girl named Andrea went through. Then there was another hole in this room that Taryn explored, but there was nothing else there, so Andrea and I didn't bother going in and then we all smooshed ourselves back out to where everyone else was.

Then we decided that a good worship song was appropriate, so we all turned off our flashlights and sang "God of Wonders". It was really cool though, because after coming out of the smooshy passage, my hands were so cold I couldn't feel them at all, but when we were singing, I suddenly felt really warm and my hands went back to a normal temperature immediately. :> And then, on the way back down the mountain I was skreeing, (or, that's my term for it anyway) which is basically sitting down on your feet and sliding down the mountain on all the loose rock. At one point, I was standing and just sorta walking down because the rocks were too big and sharp to go skreeing on, but I lost my balance and fell backwards. And amazingly, there were two completely flat rocks exactly where my hands landed, instead of jagged, sharp ones which were EVERYWHERE else. It was awesome.

On the way back down to the path, we came across Fernando. Fernando is our butterfly. We were about halfway down the mountain when we stopped to wait for everyone else. Then this little blue butterfly (Fernando) landed on Amy's finger. And then proceeded to fly around all of us and land on everyone, except Taryn. We decided this was because Fernando was a boy. Then everyone headed out again, except for Amy because she was putting more sunscreen on. Then she started back down and Fernando followed her until she was 3/4 of the way down. It was cool. Anytime Fernando wasn't sitting on someone's finger, he'd be fluttering around everyone's heads.

So then we got back to Calgary and I went to a BBQ with all the young adult type peoples from my chuch. I had to have a nap there though because I was so tired from hiking. Then we went to watch the fireworks. We went up to Cougar Ridge and they had barricades set up because they didn't want Cougar Ridge to become a parking lot, but I decided I was going to go and see if I couldn't somehow get in because there was NOWHERE else to park. So I went up to the guy with the intention of telling him I lived there, but he just asked what address I was going to. So I said Cougar Ridge Drive (I was just blindly assuming there was a Cougar Ridge Drive) so he said to go on through. Then I did end up parking on Cougar Ridge Drive anyway. Or rather, a little street OFF of Cougar Ridge Drive called Cougarstone Cres., but anyway. Same thing. So then we sat down at the edge of the little lake there and had front row seats to the whole show. It was great.

On the way to the BBQ, I was stopped at a light and the car next to me had an Aaron look-alike in the backseat. It was crazy. He looked just liked Aaron. He even had the same glasses!! At first I had to make sure it wasn't actually Aaron, but this dude had longer sideburns and smaller guage earrings. Plus the guys parents, who were in the front seat, were not Aaron's parents. Apparantly, some guy came up with this theory that because there are so many people in the world, chances are that there's someone else who you aren't related to at all, but looks exactly like you. So I think I found Aaron's.

I can't believe I still haven't gotten over Aaron. It's nuts I tell you!! Neurg.