It’s C-day today.  The ceilidh is this evening and in a few short minutes we’re going upstairs to put on a kilt and drive off to the Shrine hall for hours of fun and frivolity.  Since I was working on a psych paper that was due last night I wasn’t able to help set up the venue yesterday.  While band can be fun my classes and continual march towards getting the shiny piece of paper take precedence over anything else.  Course, that doesn’t mean that I won’t take time out for the ceilidh tonight.  Aside from playing our chanters with the other beginners we’ll be selling tickets and bidding on silent auction items.  It’s the band’s only fundraiser each year so enviro chem paper or not (due Sunday) we won’t be missing it.

Don’t get too excited. It may have been a strange dream but everyone was still wearing all their clothes. However, that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to analyze my psyche. Last night I dreamt that the hubby was in a chess match with an unknown foe, kicked his ass, and we celebrated by eating popcorn. Drew loathes popcorn.

I’m still locked in the basement trying to finish off my assignments for the week. While I’m busy trying to make sense of all the strange words and theories (anyone for cognitive dissonance?) you can visit a few of my favourite places:

• If you can get past Gregg’s donair-ophelia, you can check out Joy’s experience as a robbery witness.
• Take a few minutes to make cutsey faces and visit Amy’s Babies. She’s on a work hiatus at the moment but she’s an excellent source for cunning hats. If you’re fond of the colour brown and are in need of a fix Amy can help you out. Just don’t keep her too busy I’ve got plans to overwork her again soon!
• Visit Darcey and the broomers for your dose of politics with a Metis flavour. Make sure you take your antacids (or beer) beforehand or you may be in for a shock. To skip the politics and spend the evening with the best blues podcast in Canada, check out this site on a Friday night.
• While I’m slowly making my way through my degree at RMC. Take time to visit The Torch to learn about the Canadian Military.
• I have no idea how she manages to do all she does and still have time to work on her chicken coop. Visit Dawn for a glimpse at life as a homeschooling mom in Alberta. While you’re at it, drop by and say hi to Sirdar. I know, he’s mysteriously not posting again. Perhaps it has something to do with the Mac that’s still residing in my basement. We should be making arrangements for ye old switcheroo soon. But not Saturday. I have to make funny noises at a ceilidh. Sunday perhaps?
• If you haven’t discovered The Guild yet get your butt over to their site and watch all ten episodes NOW! The Guild is a hilarious web comedy starring Felicia Day and a cast of familiar characters to anyone who has spent time in a basement gaming…
• For those of you with a sense for the ridiculous and a hankering for the return of a certain canceled Joss Whedon show, check out Mosquito [movie] [web comic].
• Last, but certainly not least, drop in and try your hand at Carmi’s caption contest.

Since I’m still trying to figure out how to get to Vancouver for CSTS (bad Edmonton for not hosting a screening this year!), I guess I’ll just need to sit back and wait for my copy of Done the Impossible to arrive.

And do more homework.

I whined. I cried. I acted like a baby for most of the semester. The day of reckoning has arrived. My final grade is in for my History course last semester. I’m not sure how I pulled it off – but my final grade is a nice, respectable 3.7 (A-). Considering how much of a struggle it was to get through without pulling all my hair out I’ll happily take the grade and move on to the next course.

Oh. Wait. I already did move on to the next courses. And somehow, unbeknownst to me, between this past weekend and today I’ve managed to get behind on my papers. One minute you’re ahead and the next you’re desperately scrambling to keep up. Seems almost like work…

As for last semester’s Psych class – since writing the exam last month I haven’t heard anything from my prof. But I’m still going to remain confident that I did well in it. I actually had a clue what I was babbling about in that exam. Keep your fingers and toes crossed.

As for your question yesterday Joy – No, there is no end in sight in the foreseeable future. Once I’m finished this degree I’m off to beg and plead for admittance into grad school. However, I will be throwing a massive party once I’m finished at RMC.

As much as I’d like to, I can’t even pretend that I’m procrastinating today. Once again I have been locked in my basement and am diligently working away at my assignments. Today I’m tackling my Enviro Chem assignment that is due next week. Tomorrow I return to the Psych assignment I spent a good chunk of Saturday working on.

Despite my natural tendency to avoid anything school related to the last minute, I’m on track to get everything in on time this week. It’s a bit scary. Of course this new found dedication to working hard on my assignments actually means that – other than our short break out last evening – I really haven’t done anything fun over the long weekend. While everyone else is out camping, gardening or relaxing, I’m busy trying not to pull my hair out.

Too bad I can’t say the same about work. I’m still plodding through building my database and I’m not sure it’ll be ready for beta testing at the end of the day Tuesday. It’ll depend mostly on whether or not I can manage to avoid all interruptions and spend a solid 8 hours working on it.

Tonight Drew and I hosted dinner for our NO KIDDING! group.  It’s a social group for people who, for whatever reason, don’t have kids.  We have a standing get together on the first Friday’s and third Saturday’s of each month.  We can’t often make the Friday evening gathering due to work committments – it’s a drop in after work function – but we do try to make as many of the Saturday events as possible.  Each month’s event is hosted by a different member.  Usually they’re dinners at a favourite restaurant or a house party.  Occassionally we’ll try something different like visiting the race track, karaoke (great the first time, flopped the second) or nature walks.  Whatever we do always turns out to be a lot of fun.

After dinner at Japanese Village we walked over to Second Cup for yummy Vanilla Bean Hot Chocolate and then headed across the street to Churchill Square.  The city was hosting an outdoor movie (Alvin and the Chipmunks) for families.  People brought their own lawn chairs and there were vendors selling non-alcoholic drinks, popcorn and hotdogs.  Prior to the show organizers kept kids entertained with singing, dancing and limbo lines.  None of us had seen anything in the news about the event but it seemed like a neat way to get people out and using the square on a long weekend.

The screen the movie was shown on was pretty neat.  It was on a a giant blow-up frame.  The roads were blocked off so the screen could be anchored and cops and (what looked like) private security guards patrolled the area.

It appears that the city will be hosting another outdoor movie night for the August long weekend.  I know the city has been looking for new events to host in Churchill Square to bring more people downtown.  Considering how successful this event appeared to be, if it’s not too costly it may be a good idea to have family movie nights more often.