The original cast recording starred Elaine Paige as Florence, Tommy Korberg as “the Russian”, Murray Head as “the American” (I don’t think they were named until later productions… i knew that, how much of a nerd am I?), and Barbara Dickson as Svetlana.

The Arbiter
So disco. “From square one I’ll be watching all sixty-four”

Nobody’s Side

Elaine Paige’s hair is pure 80’s. I kinda want it.

One Night in Bangkok

I know Him So Well

Pity the Child

This is probably one of my favourite songs from this play and I’ve never seen this video before. Murray Head is awesome.

Bonus video: “Someone Else’s Story”. This song wasn’t in the original concept, but made it to stage. The original recording of this song was by Judy Kuhn (Pocahontas) in the Broadway cast album.

I get better help from the Ikea website. Home Depot, you’re lucky you’re the only reno center I can walk to.  Otherwise, you suck.

I bought the house in winter, so that was obvious that I didn’t really care about the yard. There were these rickety wooden stairs that led from the back door in the kitchen (which was an addition on the house) to these dirty concrete slabs that were supposed to be the patio. My Dad’s since built a nice deck, and a shed out there, and I’ve planted cone flowers, daisies, ferns and lavendar. I’ve tried the green thumb out and though I suck at gardening, I admit I’ve had a lot of fun since (when things were working out that is), but back then I didn’t care.

Now the kitchen, as I said, was in an addition. It’s small and back then, I didn’t care. After all, I ate out a lot or ordered dinner in.  Nowadays I appreciate the value of space, storage and aesthetics. Hence my current dillemma.

We took down a cabinet in the corner that was nearly falling off. That was about two years ago, and I haven’t fixed the wall since. My dad’s been helping me with a lot of the repairs around the house, but he lives in a different city and his time is limited so he hasn’t gotten around to it. But that doesn’t excuse me from doing the necessary fixes. I’ve just been lazy. So I lived with the patched up unfinished wall and now I want to fix it.  I’ve gotten a little further. Yesterday, I sanded down the plaster and this morning I primed. I still have to finish priming behind the fridge, but I have to do a few more patching repairs.  The idea is to repaint the walls and recover the floors with a good quality vinyl flooring. Whoever installed the old laminate or whatever product is on the floors right now did a sucky job.  The whole thing would cost me just a couple of hundred dollars.

I’m now not sure if I should leave the ugly cabinet doors as it is, or splurge for new doors. This is why I’m at the mall right now, on a Starbucks stop while I debate going to Home Depot (which I probably will) and price cabinetry.  And while I do that, I might as well look at counter tops, right? (kaching!) How about a tiled backsplash (kaching kaching!).  I don’t like spending money, and I don’t want to turn this little project into a monster, to be honest.  That’s how ridiculous this project could get. And to be honest, the kitchen could very well move locations in the next year or so anyway, so why bother with all the effort?

I’m out of soy caramel machiato, my notebook battery is running out and i hate my backpack. That last bit of randomness ends this post.  And to the three people in St. Catharines that know me through my blog, here’s the official shout out.

That’s my fix up to-do list up on my chalk board. I need to include “put the bikes in the shed” up there. /cry

And now, scenes from the window! Happy drizzly snow day!

Ha! Those coneflowers are so dead.

I really should put that umbrella away.

I really should put my Hallowe’en decorations away.

In that time, I’ve also officially entered my mid-thirties. While birthdays don’t mean much to me, being 35 feels a little different. I do feel older now. More adult.  Time from now on, will be more significant, I think.  I’m not sure if I feel depressed or happy about it yet. Maybe I’ll just go with whatever I’m feeling right now.

More updates later. But don’t hold your breath.

If you want content, how about a story of a guy and a panda. Seriously, who here never thinks about hugging a cuddly looking panda bear?

My sleeve is less than perfect, as you can see. It fits the Vaio perfectly, and is thick enough to add some shock protection. All I need to do is figure out what kind of closure I’d like for it. Maybe a fancy button or a buckle.

Props to the SK Knit club for getting me into this.

I’m actually here to get more yarn for my laptop sleeve project.  It seems that the only place in this city to get this brand of yarn is at Michaels. At least, it’s the most convenient place to get this yarn. Unfortunately, I hate the bike ride here. They’re repairing the road along the way and rough asphalt and skinny road tires don’t like to get along.  And the most annoying part about this all is the distinct lack of bike racks. Oh, I know, these box malls cater to people who are stuck in their cars, even if they do live half a block away or whereever. It’s evident by the lack of bike lanes, racks and even consideration from drivers. This place is awful because there’s always too many cars. That’s why I’m waiting for the lunch time rush to be over to gather my belongings and remove myself from this location.

Anyway, I’m beginning to feel like I’ve lingered too long here, and I’m not even doing anything particularly important.  The Starbucks asian noodle salad was actually pretty yummy. The venti soy vanilla latte was typical.  I’m on vacation, but I don’t know if that means that I’m excused from domestic chores and grocery retrievals. I feel like I have a lot to do… but I don’t want to do it. The consequence of it is that I don’t get home prepared meals. Oh well, we’ll see how we do.

I’m out of here.

And this is also my first time using Vista. I was  okay with XP, and I’m still getting used to this. I’m not sure if I’ve found any of the new features useful or anything, and the interface is just pretty, but pointless. I guess I prefer what’s familiar and what’s simple (The Mac O/S interface didn’t impress me much either. Don’t tell the boyfriend i said that).

I have been having fun customizing my desktop.

Mmmm. Clean.

The desktop wallpaper “Africa” is by Evilhomer145 from DeviantArt. The icons are from the Bright Icon Suite by Klen70.

This is a neat project of mine. A bunch of us at work (ok, mostly of the female variety), have started a knitting club. I’m making a scarf (yay for simple!) and got it into my head to make a laptop sleeve. It’s coming along… I’m out of yarn though.

And why yes, I did post a picture of my Vaio with a bowl of kimchi ramen.

And the winner?

That’s right. I got a Sony Vaio NS model. It’s pretty much what I need, for the moment. And it’s not completely generic, and awful to look at, though I’m not sure about that texture. And Vista… well, we’ll see what the big deal is. I’ve spent all night customizing it and so far, I’m liking it.  I may regret not having a decent graphics card, but like i said, I don’t need it to game. I just need to be able to carry it around without it being a pain in the ass. Having said that, I already don’t like how graphics look here. It’s not awful, but the tech snob in me wishes for more.

It’s not a bad configuration.  It’s got a 15.4 LCD monitor and a pretty simple keyboard set up. It’s a lot lighter than my old 17″ HP Pavilion so I’m pleased with that.  It’s set up with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 @2.00GHZ processor, has 4.00gb of RAM and 250gb or harddrive space.  For about $850 + tax at Future Shop, I don’t think I did too badly.  There were definitely more sexier laptops, but in the end, I had to look at the bottom line.

So we’ll see how pleased I am in a few weeks time. I’ve spent all night setting my new toy up, I didn’t even get a chance to make dinner. I have a feeling it’ll be a late night anyway.

Now don’t fuck up.