What I learned from Sex and the City Volume 4

I used screen capture for this post

I was watching season 6 of SATC last night, the episode called Perfect Present (commonly known as the double finger episode) where Carrie is having a bad reaction to Berger's bad reaction to a call from his ex.

This episode is all about the baggage we carry with us from past relationships. There is a line where Carrie says "I was hoping not to have the ex talk"

I was thinking as I sipped my java watching the show, that anyone reading this blog has already been given my ex talk, as all my baggage is here in type.

THAT'S WHEN IT HIT ME!

I started this blog right after my last break up. This blog is my dealing with my baggage.  Or "Biggage" as Carrie calls it in the episode.

I fully believe that everything happens for a reason to whom it happens when it happens. 

It's been 3 years.  This blog has been Fun, Frealed up and Fabulous.  But it's time to close the door on my EX files.

I will still be checking this for any stray comments, and using it as archives linking it from my NEW BLOG to old posts. 

I'd be remissed if I didn't add a little something to my favourite Spudguns right now though.

Now, I know Mr Shelley's birthday is this weekend so I'm closing this blog out with a birthday shout out to him.   

Happy Birthday Mr. Shelley

Now come join me on my new phase in life and remember Life should be filled with Food Laughter and Bad Camera Work always

-Ardeth Blood

How far are you willing to go?

Working on draft 3 of my novel, and am wondering... would a male masturbation scene be taking it too far?   Would that cross a line that just would destroy the core of the plot?
Hard to say.  Some people have already told me my novel is difficult to swallow.   Yeah, I threw good taste out the window the second I started working on the last draft. 

And what brought this thought on this raining morning over coffee?  

Well to be honest, I'm still waiting for this weeks TNA Impact to be available so I can do the weekly review, and decided to work on one of the main characters while I wait.  He needs to be given more personality.  That and I had a crazy conversation last night with a buddy about an old match from the Best of the X-Division vol 2.  (June 18th 2006 you can find it on iTunes even, 6 man contenders match)
 
My editor and my friend's mom who read the last draft both feel he's the strongest character in my novel. My Antagonist. My Heel.  So now I am just trying to get a better handle on this character, so to speak.

Blogging in the kitchen

Spudgun, I'll be working over on the cooking blog for the next while. Now that the weather is nice I am able to get out of the apartment to get to the grocery and mom's and such to make the recipes and all that fun stuff.

I'll also be posting all the rants I know are coming to do with my oven blowing up.... oh right I didn't tell you about that.... I posted it on the cooking blog.

So, hop over to My Newfie Kitchen for the next few days cause that's where I am going to be for a bit.

I hope to have finished reading My Life In France by Julia Childs this week too, where upon I'll post a review on that blog.
As well, I joined a bunch of internet food groups. So, I want to bring in some fresh readers from those sites.

Don't worry, this weeks TNA will still be posted here. Otherwise .... Bon Appetit

And what about the non-mommy bloggers?

I saw the article in the New York Times about the mommy bloggers meet up.
I saw some of the bad reactions from the angry mommy bloggers.

Dude, what about the rest of us?

The article made it seem like the only kind of blog out there is the mommy blog. It made it seem like the only women blogging were the ones who used to be CEO and are now just filling time talking about dippers and cashing in their ad-sense.

There is a whole untapped group of us non-mommy bloggers out there.
Don't get me wrong, if you are a stay at home mom who managed to make a name for yourself, great more power to you, like being Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, having it all. Only instead of a boardroom you're using a laptop.

But there are other women bloggers out there.
And I don't see why the mommies are getting all huffy. All press is good press right? Means someone is talking about you; you grabbed someone's attention.

Lighten up Bud

Time to add some laughter to the blog. I found this on youtube. It's one of my favourite scenes from the movie Blood and Donuts. The second half of it, the bathroom scene

Why Was Mr. Shelley....

I used a screen capture for this post

I was sitting here having a coffee, flipping through some old episodes of TNA Impact (cause this week's episode is still not available for download yet on iTunes Canada) and I stopped. Stopped in mid coffee gulp as I listened. And then I hit the rewind on my iTunes and listened again.
It was the episode from March 5th 2009 where Alex Shelley was in a match vs Kiyoshi (I spelled it right this time) Wondering why I had never noticed this before. Well okay I have always been too busy drooling over Mr. Shelley to pay attention to anything else. You know full well what I mean, when he is laying there on the mat sprawled like some half dead rag doll. Someone needs to give the cameraman a big tip for those camera angles.

But there he was screaming like a banshee.

I blinked. Shook my skull. Blinked again. Then rewound again. Yes Mr. Shelley was screaming like a mad child having a fit over a broken toy. I was not hearing things.

Um okay why? What happened? What did I miss?
I think I ended up hitting the rewind on that iTunes a good five times and the only thing I can think of was about a minute before when Kiyoshi gave him a chop from the top turnbuckle.
But why was Mr. Shelley screaming like a banshee? Did the chop cut his air off? Was he injured during that match? Was he just tired of having someone leaning on him? Not sure. Only he can answer that one.

I just thought I would post about it because I felt that he needed a mention, as I haven't talked about him in a while. And it was just a strange thing to hear in the middle of an otherwise perfect X-Division match.

Lessons from the Kitchen

I just posted on my cooking blog My Newfie Kitchen about the broth that won't work.
It's bland.

Anyway, what got me in the mood to make the broth to begin with was actually a movie. As I sat there watching this film, there was a scene where the chief was talking about putting your soul into your food.
Your food becomes part of the people you give it to so therefore, you need to put you into it.
No soul no flavour.

And that is so true. I started thinking about that. You have to learn how to cook, but once you get the basics down if you think too much on it like anything creative, you can loose the point of things.
I have heard artists say sometimes one brush stroke too many on a painting will kill it. So true for food.

Grandma Perry was the best cook around but you never could ask her for a recipe. She didn't use measurements, just seemed to know how much of what ingredients to add. So a recipe from her never tasted the same as the way she made it cause she would guess what the measurements were when she wrote you the recipe. I managed to get a few of her original recipes from her collection, and not one of them has measurements, just the list of ingredients.

I find when I am making something, it becomes a meditative act. I could be meading dough and suddenly an answer to something that has been plaguing me for weeks will pop into my head. Or chopping veggies and I will get inspired to write something. Even this damned blog.

I find my recipes always taste better to me when I cook and don't think about the act of cooking.

So why was the broth bland?

3 playlists and it's only 10am

8:54 am Woke up after a not so restful night of 3 hours sleep. I seem to have twinged my back and I have no idea what I did.

9:07 am coffee and morning round of pills. Yay, after not having my acid reflux meds for two days and having a difficult time of vomiting, I have my meds. Which means coffee coffee coffee.

9:16 am iPod shuffle is geared up with Headstones, Matt Dusk, Twiztid, Backstreet Boys, Hugh Dillon and Billy Idol. Realize it's too early for BSB and shuffle til I find some Twiztid.

9:27 am put iPod down and have loaded Dark Lotus into dvd player scaring the neighbours

9:40 am check emails. Have gone searching through old home videos of friends from hundred years ago, and found 30th birthday party footage where VLHE made a comment about having been out the night before and having a bad taste in her mouth. She said maybe it was the tequila, or maybe the whiskey, or may the beer. I said or maybe the boy in the tie dyed shoes. She laughed cause she could not deny it.

10:00 am blogging and in very good mood even though I am still stuck in apartment cause the city is an ice rink and I desperately need to get to the grocery as am out of everything and down to last 5 packages of ramen noodles and half a dozen eggs.

I understand. I think

The more I know the less I understand.

Yes, I am sitting here listening to the Sex and the City movie soundtrack, and that one line from it was like a slap to the face.

I have been seeing a situation one way for the last 5 years and I was not willing to see it any other way.
Few days ago, I was in the process of a ritual and asked for a sign. I had a certain thing I wanted to happen if the choice was one direction and a certain thing if the choice was a second direction.
Within 24 hours I got my sign. And I realized I had been getting the sign for this choice for months I had just refused to see it.
The second I said okay this is the path the Fates want me to take, I felt this great wave of peace.

Sounds corny I know. But very true.
I had been fighting it for a long time.

It seems what I want and what I need in the situation are two very different things. And had I been paying more attention to the tarots, I would have understood that sooner.
The Lovers and the Twos are well love and relationship cards. They are also about choices, finding a balance with your emotional self and your physical needs. The day I asked for the sign, I had pulled the Lovers, the Two of Swords and the Two of Cups. All that was missing from that reading had been the Two of Pentacles and Two of Wands.
I also pulled the Ace of Cups and the Ace of Swords. The Ace of Cups is the true love and marriage card, the Ace of Swords is the warrior/champion card and the card of self esteem.

The Ace of Cups and the Ace of Swords have been popping up for months now in my readings. I had assigned them to people which can be good but when you get used to seeing them you start to forget what their real meanings are and only put them in context with the people.
I had been missing the message all these months because I had in my mind associated those two cards with two men. The message I was getting was not always about those two men, but something else all together.

Follow me.

The Book Dork Is In.

Last time on the Book Dork our heroine was standing lost in the middle of the book store unable to reach a copy of Vanity Fair that was perched very high on a top shelf and she had to find a sales person to help her reach it. Only, the sales people were just as short and no one could find a step ladder.
Now today on the Book Dork....

Book Dork : "So has the shipment of Bridget Jones's Diary Edge of Reason come in?"

Sales person: "No. Sorry it hasn't."

Book Dork : " But it's Tuesday. It's new release day. Thought you got them on Monday nights?"

Sales person : "Yes, but Bridget didn't come in. "

Book Dork: " You suck."

Sales person: "Better then you do honey."


Stay tuned for another episode of the Book Dork Adventures in Geekiness.

2009 the year of the blog

This was the most I've blogged in the whole 5 years I have been blogging. This was my busiest blog, better then ones I tried in the past.
And it's not even like I had more important things to say this year either, just more time on my hands with nothing else to keep my attention.
I was willing to get a little more intimate with some of the things going on in my life, and in my mind. I don't believe in holding back.

My weekly thoughts/review on TNA Impact was a hot topic. Brought in a steady flow of readers. I don't like to really call it a review as it was started out as my honest reactions to the week's show. I can't even point out when it became a weekly column so to speak, given I have been doing it for the last 4 years in one way or another on every blog I have had in the past. But this year, people took an interest in TNA more. Always a great thing. The real fans will always know the chocolate from the mud. If I have done nothing else this year, I hope I helped get the word out that TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) wrestling is where the talent is. I can't mark out for it enough. I am just a fan but I have been screaming my lungs out for you guys.

The few people who have shown some support in my writing career I have to give a big hug to. That has meant more then you will ever know. Not that I had much success this year with my writing, with two publishers frealing me around. That's what I get for not trusting my gut on it.

The misadventures in dating had alot of men shaking in their boxers. Nice to know I can still make men panic. Cause that is always a good affect on your ability to find a husband. Hey I don't call myself the Queen of Your Evil Dreams for nothing you know. I actually had one guy doing/saying things so that I would blog about him. Silly boy not like he deserved being blogged about, not like he's Shelley or Sabin or someone cool.

And the MotorCityMachine Guns! Of course my rants about Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley brought readers this past year. Some agreed with me, others did not. That's cool. It was never about being right or wrong, it was about finding a way to talk about Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley. Simple. Everyone has their heroes and their crushes. My crushes just happened to be the most amazing tag team out there. That's not lip service either. If you watch Global Impact 2, or the episode from Oct 22nd 2009 (that was the Ultimate X match) you will see what I mean. But then again, how can a million fans be wrong ? (96% of my blog readers are members of the MotorCityMachine Guns! fan groups)

We love the mycoffeepot.org

Oh my. I'm still laughing. I've got to send you over to mycoffeepot.org this morning. I just got my email updates for that site. Check out the Santa.
Mr. Taylor I worship your shadow.

Now that's a vampire

I used a screen capture for this post

Just in case you're not reading my vampire blog, letting you know you should be.

And that there is a vampire challenge still happening. Alucard's Rose

It's hard to believe the cult Canadian classic vampire film starring David Cronenberg, Blood and Donuts is almost 15 years old already.

I know I've talked about this film more then once on this blog and on my vampire review blog. Can't help it, it's one of my all time favourite vampire flicks. I think the fact it has so many Canadian icons in it, plus the fact Boya is fashioned so much after Lestat just gives it that cool factor.

Meanwhile at the Hoito

I can't frealing believe it either. I'm being dragged to the Hoito for lunch. 35 years in this city and I have escaped most of the crappy "Thunder Bay Landmarks" but I promised to help Stacey Voss put up flyers for her book signing. She'll be at the Waverly Library on the 17th of the month for a reading of her book and autograph signing. And well that's the area of town it's going to be on.
And I have learned from past times, if a pregnant lady says you are going someplace for lunch cause they are craving something you can only get at that place, you don't argue. I would have more of a chance of surviving a match against Awesome Kong then I do surviving saying no to a pregnant lady. Trust me on that.

Speaking of coffee which I have not had any of yet, I need to have coffee. Lots of coffee. Was up way too late being foolish talking on Skype with Cole Cash.

Here's hoping I don't get left on the other side of town for saying something uber stupid today.
Here's hoping this week's Impact is available somewhere on line before midnight. I like to have the reviews up in the morning, but it's been supper time last few weeks before I have been able to find it either on iTunes Canada or on youtube. Spike TV needs to start adding it to their website right after it airs on their channel. Oh and it will be a total miracle is someone uploads last night's special Global Impact 2 to the net. Totally didn't have any way to get anyone to tape it for me. Yes I suck.

Since the show's not on right now, I am going to go watch Grace which I rented last night. I am now doing a horror film count down on the women's site I am on. One horror movie a day till hallowe'en. Then posting about it. Much like I have been doing here. Why ? you ask. The owner of the site thought it would be a way to get the members to part take in something other then our sex chat group. Haha. Good luck. Think of we have over 1000 members on the site all women between 18-92 and all they do is post photos of their kids, dogs, write sappy poetry and talk about their sex lives. I heard a few things in there I didn't ever want to know about.

Speaking of drag queens. They love me. Gay men and Drag Queens follow me around town. Which is great, it means I have a fan base starting. It would be nice to have a few straight guys start to follow me around though.
Or you know my biggest fan who we all know lives in Detroit. Is that too much to ask? I didn't think so.

Anyways, I'll update everything later. Might even take a few photos today who knows. But we are talking the North side of Thunder Bay which is even more drenny then the side I live on.

Countray to Popular Believe My Mouth is not that Big

Or maybe it is.
My last challenge for the all Jane Austen Challenge is an essay on the men in the novels. No pressure That's just 6 novels, 10 movies, and roughly 20 characters to decode.
I know I have whined about it before. How do I get myself into dren like this? Or right, I open my damned mouth and speak without letting my zombie brain kick in first.

Well you know 35 years of bad habits are hard to break.
Well then let's see, Mr. Darcey, Mr. Knightly, Mr. Collins divide by 5 and carry the 7 equals Mr. Rushworth. I think?

This time around my quick wit and heavy handed sarcasm won't be enough to pull my ass out of the pit. I was never good at essays. Totally blew dog backwards on the whole five pages or more doubled space blah blah blah part of school.

Good thing I never became a teacher like everyone expected of me eh? God that would have killed me. Being a teacher. We have more then enough teachers in the family. Damn this is what happens when I haven't had any coffee yet, I babble ruthlessly about myself. But then again it is my blog so I am entitled. (what do you mean your blog I thought this blog was about the wrestlers Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley? You talk about them so much I thought it was dedicated to them or something)

Was so out of sorts last night about a bunch of stuff that when I went to watch Lost Boys, I didn't even notice I had grabbed the sequel and had it in the dvd player for a good five minutes before I came around. By that time I was just too damned lazy to get up and hunt for the proper movie that I ended up watching Lost Boys 2 the Tribe. yeah I'm loosing it big time. Worst of all, I found it funny. LB2Tribe that is, not the loosing my mind part.

Twitch City or How I am a Television Show Part 2

I first blogged about this show back here but damn it, I thought I should talk about it again.

I think the best episode of this show was #5 "I'm Fat and I'm Proud".
It's the one where Newbie moves in and Curtis starts having control issues. It's all about the remote.

Why I think it's fabulous is that it defines the whole show. That and I have totally done that.

Curtis is such a tv junkie he carries the remote around with him at all times. The character has Agoraphobia and becomes house bound through the course of the series. Which, I have to admit has happened to me few years ago, after I had surgery on my ankle.

And this is the episode with Hugh Dillon as the customer in the corner store.

Get a Life...even an Undead one

I used screen capture for this post

Oh my. I think I have something to do for the next few months other then ramble on about how sexy the MotorCityMachine Guns! are.

I mean, poor Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin I love you. Kiss Kiss Noise.

Seriously, I got to hang out tonight with a local author Stacey Voss, which you will be hearing alot about trust me on this, and she needs an Assistant.
It's a volunteer gig but hey, she's a published author who lives here in town. I work on her publicity tour, learn a few pointers that I am totally messing up on so far, get out of the apartment, get some free books, connect with others etc you get the picture.
The best part is she's very sweet. It's rare to meet strong women who are nice. And she writes vampire novels. Yay!
It was just so spiffy to meet another writer here in town who did not turn up their nose to vampires. There is maybe a short handful of writers here, most of whom write sci-fi or religious themes.

Speaking of Mr. Shelley and Mr. Sabin, when will we see tag team belts around their waists again? Even though you know you have to take the belt in for Alex cause he needs to eat something. Really, would 5 pounds kill you? No it would not.
I wonder what they consider decent vampire movies?
Hey Mr. Shelley, Mr. Sabin, I know on the show last week (Sept 17th 2009 episode) you talked about .... mocked actually, vampire movies and romance novels, boys, what do you consider a good vampire movie?
And why do men hate romance novels? Guess I can't really say that, given - and brace yourself for this one- half the romance novels on the market in the last decade were written by men under pen names. I know I was as shocked as you are. So there are more men out there who like a good steamy seduction in their stories then are willing to admit.

Meanwhile in a messy room across town part 2

COFFEE!!!!!!!

Deep breath.
I have only been doing the cooking blog for 1 week and already I have gained 5 pounds. What the freal?
And October season is almost here.

Now we have had this chat before at some point, I am just too lazy to look for the post. October in Thunder Bay is not a month but a season. Thanksgiving in Canada comes a week and a half before Hallowe'en, the weather changes more then once and the leaves turn colour.
Stores here have already gotten their Thanksgiving and Hallowe'en decorations out.

And I am broke. Sucks to be me right now. All the Fall patterned materials, all the fake flowers and center piece decorations, all the spooky sounds cds. And I am broke.

Yes, me this time of year in the stores is like a junkie getting into a hospital cupboard. Yep Yep.

I also have been believe it or not getting hyper just a little about the release of the new Halloween 2 remake coming out next week. I hate the original Halloween movies. But this one looks good.

Know any good cooks?

I saw the trailer for this few months ago, and with it coming out next week, I wanted to read the book first.
Picked it up last night, am halfway through it. I stopped to make a coffee and check emails.

You know when you are just drawn to something and your not sure why?
That is what this story is for me. Something in the air nagged at me till I got off my fabulous middle aged ass and down to the book store. And I will drag my fabulous middle aged ass to the cinema this weekend too.

I used to love to cook. A million years ago when I was first moved out. Had this crazy idea that I was going to be the house everyone came to for Sunday dinners, and for the first year of so of living where I am at the moment, I was. I had little dinner parties all the time. Then my friends lives changed, they split up, had kids, etc. I got lazy, and then when I became a vegetarian, I no longer cared. Shame really, I have so many of Grandma Perry's recipes.

So of course, I had to look this chick up online. Juile Powell, whom I had heard of but never heard of till this movie has done what I have been trying to do. What I mean by that last statement, before I got rid of the evil cable, I used to watch those shows on WNetwork where you had stay at home mom's and the like talking about the best way to slice a mango or how to get a wardrobe that makes you look designer with a budget of only $200, those shows, mentioning her name here and there. I had thought she had done a biography on Julia Childs, didn't know she had done this year long project of cooking and blogging.
So she blogged about her life for a year, when blogging was fresh and shinny and no one did it yet, and had all these readers then got a book deal.

What I have been trying to do.

She also found her purpose. Which I am still trying to do.
All I can say is that if I am being pulled towards this story, there must be a reason for it. If I get a big "A-HA!" moment while reading this book, I will let you know. And when I am finished, I will blog a review. So far, I can't put it down.

MyCoffeePot.Org

mycoffeepot.org is where my buddy hangs out. It's his home on the web.

This weekend, he was in town and hanging out an his old home here. We painted it.
Yes, my buddy is the Gerald Taylor
from that interview I did not too long ago.

So as you can see we had a very red room that was hell in a bathtub to paint. And of course painting hell white was my job. The boys did all the heavy lifting and I got stuck in hell. There is my ruined clothes from painting hell. This house has a long terrible story to it, that I am sure, once Mr. Taylor gets back to Toronto will talk about on his website, mycoffeepot.org


















This is Mr. Taylor's other buddy Mr. Campbell. It was nice to see the guys from high school believe it or not. So now that I am hurting something horrible, and really to fall down dead for a few weeks, not that I did a whole lot, just some light cleaning and worked on hell. And off Mr. Taylor goes back to southern Ontario. But unlike me, he has a life and a very productive life too.