Oh. Hi.

Whoa. My blog??? But this has been dormant for a year!

That's right its the now annual update.

Here are the top things that have happened in the last year or so....

1. Mikey and I went to Euroland last summer with Dad and Mark. We had an absolute riot, what a fun trip. Got to introduce Mikey to the whole family and we had a very good visit with everyone. We also became well acquainted with 7-11 beer.

,
2. Mikey and I got engaged on Halloween. It was pretty perfect, my band and his band were releasing a split cd together that night. My band played first and while his band played after he proposed in front of a very large number of our friends. I couldn't have done it better myself. I said "Yes"

3. I got a new truck this year after spending a few weeks getting stuck in the snow with the old one. The new one fits more people and doesn't get stuck anywhere. Trust me, I've tried. It has big tires and four wheel drive when I need it. It's also ridiculously good looking and will hopefully last me a long time.

4. I'm still not in school.

5. We're still living in the same place which has been aptly named "The House of Punk Rock" after our friends moved in to the place in the back yard. Between both sides of the duplex here are the bands that are represented.

The Rigormorticians
The Press Gang
The Regurgitones
The Conniving Cadavers
Dead Man's Hand
The Hormones (Ramones tribute)
The Broken Soldiers
Bantha Fodder
Mr. Torrance
__________ (yet to be named)
God Damned Sonofabitches (Misfits tribute)
Bitch Kryptonite

Granted not all of these bands are full time, some of them only play one off shows every couple of months, but its a lot of bands between four people.


6. Sadly Ducky passed away this year. It was pretty awful and I miss the little guy a lot, he was definitely part of our family.




7. Mikey and I are going on a road trip style vacation this year. We're going to spend about four days in Yellowstone checking out some geysers and stuff. Then we will head into B.C. to a little remote lake and hang out for a few days. Do some fishing, some sitting and reading. Vacation stuff. If I remember, I'll post some pictures and write a bit about it, but facebook has replaced blogs.

Oh Hi!

So we are all moved into the new place and most of the artwork .... er... posters are up on the wall. N.W.A made it into a prime spot in the living room right above the couch while the Iron Maiden flag was converted into a curtain for the dining room window. Somehow, despite our mutual love for him, Tom Waits was shoved into the hallway just outside the kitchen.

Quit my job two weeks ago, in time for Mark to come hang out for a week. We had fun, did some shopping and some skateboarding. I took him to some shows and some jams and I think he enjoyed himself. Now that he actually plays guitar he appreciates seeing other musicians a little more I think.

Now I'm in the process of actually looking for a new job, still probably in landscaping since I do enjoy the work and the money's not bad either. It may be a little more difficult this time around since I'll be in school part time come May and then after that I'll be out of the country for a month and then hopefully back in school in September.

We're hosting a bbq on Saturday for our housewarming/Mikey's birthday party so I've been cleaning the yard. It was in really really awful shape, there were leaves all over and the hedges and bushes were out of control. I now have a yard full of piles and piles of branches so I need to find a place to dispose them before I get fined for having an ugly yard and I'm not even close to being finished yet.

Moving!

Hi.

I caved in and bought a camera, my airmiles points are at 68, I did not use them to buy my camera. I'm saving my points to go to the zoo, two more points to go!

I am in the process of moving into a new place. Its a three bedroom two bathroom two kitchen two living room house. Except one bathroom does not have a door on the shower stall and one kitchen consists of a fridge from 1963 a two burner gas stove and a recipe for disaster.
Its kinda ... well its a rental and that should justify its condition.
I like it though, I will throw lavish dinner parties and all my guests will drink cans of the cheapest ale available and pass out on the unmowed front lawn.

So far some of the biggest issues have been with Mikey, he seems to think that his stupid NWA poster
<- stupid
will take up the main focal point in the house. I tend to disagree. He can hang the poster in a hallway or something.
I think that maybe the Tom Waits



or the Iron Maiden
should be the main posters. This debate could cause a huge problem in the future.
I will keep you updated on where each poster winds up.

Hey look, its Ducky.

Ducky is moving with me too but his kingdom will be downsized. We are limiting his reign to the living room.

Did you miss me?

Life's been busy, really busy. I like it even if I rarely have a spare minute to myself.
My truck got stolen a couple of weeks ago, along with my stereo, longboard, cd's, camping gear and my bass guitar amp. The truck was found last weekend though so I'm just waiting for it to get fixed. For now, I'm in a crappy rental car that is so damn small and zippy that I find myself driving a little faster than usual.

My band just finished two weekends in the studio recording our first EP so we're releasing it next weekend. Its pretty exciting, I'm buying five copies for my Mother! Actually, I'm not. She can have one of course, but I plan on handing out a number of copies to other people... like my Father!

Those are the two exciting things that have happened. I should have saved them for last so you could read this and be like "mmm hmmm, yup, oh really?, that's nice..... WHAT!!! WOW!!!!"
Instead, I'm telling you all my awesome stories first and then slowly telling less interesting things until you just stop reading and go to another site.

So, onto the boring stuff you don't care about:

I now am an avid collector of airmiles. I have 45 points, I checked this morning. That means, just 11755 points to go and I can get a free camera. I think I'll probably just end up buying a camera before that and maybe just use smaller amounts of airmiles points for less exciting things... like flying to vancouver. After last summer, Mikey and I decided that driving to the West coast and back in just four days once was enough. You only need like... 1800 points for a return ticket or something like that. The point of this particular paragraph is that now I collect airmiles so if you want my airmiles number I'll whore it out to anyone that will use it.

Ducky is cute, ridiculously amazingly cute. I just love him. Another reason I want a camera is so I can take pictures of Ducky. He's so friendly and used to people now, he chases me around the house when he wants attention sometimes. He also head butts you if you stop petting him and he doesn't want you to. Quite the demanding little guy, I'll give him anything he wants.... which is usually cilantro. I dont understand the appeal but if its cilantro he wants then its cilantro that he'll get.

I got some allergy testing done a while ago. I'm allergic to cats, trees and mold. Nothing surprising. Anyway, I was supposed to get some shots done that will help make me not allergic to trees and mold and I was pretty excited. Then the little form came in the mail that said the shots were $120 each for 11 shots per kind so 11 shots for trees and then 11 shots for mold. So... needless to say I am still allergic to cats, trees and mold. I've decided that doctors are useless and greedy.

It is family day and I don't have to work so I should probably do some laundry now.

Lisa Gets Recognized!!!!

Tonight I had a mission, fill my truck with gas and then jet to the car wash up the street to quickly rinse off the salt and dirt and then go home and eat. Stage one went fine, filling up with gas is pretty hard to fuck up. My petro points are at 6080. I don't know what that means but it sounds like a lot.

Stage two went horribly horribly wrong. I pulled into the car wash only to put my hard earned toonie in the wrong money taking in exchange for car washing box. It wouldn't let me have it back so I tried my credit card. It didn't work. So I said fuck you Husky and backed out of the car wash. I took the hose for the brush with me on the drivers side. I rolled down my window and unlatched it from my mirror. Then I took the rinse hose with me on the passenger side. I unrolled my other window and unlatched it from my other mirror. I shunned Husky forever for being douchbags with unproperly latched equipment and then went home.

I grabbed two dollars out of the "For Laundering Clothes Only You Smelly Bitch" fund and whined my way up to the car wash up north. Wasting hard earned gas and a load of laundry, I pulled into the car wash, hopped out and put money into the correct money taking in exchange for car washing box. The hose turned on and I was stopped short by someone.

"Excuse me, but, did you play at the Castle pub about two weeks ago?" (Wasn't that last week? No... it was two weeks ago, he's right)
"Yeah," I said.
" You played bass?"
"Uh, yeah," I said again, dumbfounded. I held out my hand, "Hi, I'm Lisa"
He shook it, "Mitch"

I washed my truck.

its snowing

Banff still exists. Mikey and I checked it out at the end of October. It was a pretty swell little day trip, I hope we do more of them soon.



Thats myself and Tony playing with The Rigormorticians on Halloween. Don't let the costumes fool you though, we often look like that.

November flew by. I work for a strange little landscaping company now. Lots of snow removal around condo sites and when there's no snow to deal with I work in the shop fixing things and cleaning things or sometimes even helping out in the office. It keeps me busy and employed and happy.

Also notable in November: Karen came to visit and we adventured around Calgary. Mikey played a show on Friday night and I played a show on Saturday night and Karen being the good friend that she is, came to both shows.


December is crusing by at an alarming rate. This is quickly turning into a personal account of my own shows which makes me look pretty conceited. That being said. Last weekend's show was fun and this weekend's show is going to be even more fun. We're playing at the Castle Pub you see, and despite years of threats of the beloved punk rock dive bar shutting down or getting demolished, it's still up and running. So before the place really does get shut down, we're playing there. Next weekend. Castle Pub.

And if that show isn't enough, come down to the Distillery for the "bad santa party" where we'll be doing things a little bit like... zombies at christmas. Or come to Verns for the epic new years show to end all new years shows, because we'll be there, playing. And if you really feel adventurous come celebrate my birthday at Verns because I'm throwing myself a conceited birthday party and my band's going to play, because its my birthday and my band will play if I want to.

Oh. And Karen, since you're the only one who reads this, Happy Birthday!

Llisa's Fantastic List of What's New
That's Definitely Not in Chronological Order!



10. My childhood home is officially sold. Dad and Mark are living in a brand new place just around the corner. It's sad but good for the both of them. The old house was just too ridiculously big for only housing only two people.

9. I found a liquor store that sells Akavit even though its supposedly not exported to Canada anymore
.

8. I have a job interview tomorrow to work for Arena's. I'm hoping it goes well, I'd get to drive a zamboni if I get hired. I'm fairly certain you've made it in life when you get to drive a zamboni. I could be wrong though, I haven't checked the Making it in Life Handbook recently. That's probably why I'm not in school...

7. This weekend was Halloween, well, the big parties for Halloween. I was dead Peter Pan on Friday night, what a riot. I still hurt from the mosh pit. I have a bruised nose, puffy bottom lip, bruised elbows and knees, bruised feet. I hit my head pretty hard too (then I cried and went home) I still maintain that I had an absolute blast though.

6. The Unwanted were in town not too long ago. I saw them play in Innisfail of all places. It was a pretty great night despite the poor turnout.


5. Speaking of great shows, I went and saw Matt Good in Edmonton with Zac this fall too. Solo acoustic tour once again but still a fantastic show.


4. Ducky is still alive and well and freaking adorable. He's really come out of his shell and he's not nearly as shy as he used to be. Ducky will even tell me when he wants something (like if I forget his carrots or if I don't pet him long enough)

3. Today is my first day of being unemployed in probably.... three years. Mikey and I went to Banff for the afternoon and took pictures of waterfalls. It was a good random adventure. Not working is pretty nice, but I'll be happy when I have a nice steady flow of money coming into my life once again. My rent is far too high to get away with not having a job and Mikey is too smart so I can't con him into supporting me.

2. Holy segway!.... Mikey and I just had our six month anniversary, or so he tells me. I am pretty bad at keeping track of that kind of stuff.

1. I got in The Rigormorticians so I'm their new bass player. I should put the link to the site up here someday. Anyway, playing a couple shows before the New Year.
October 31 - Verns
November 17 - The Stetson (Rock for Tots Benefit)
December 7 - The Castle
December 22 - The Distillery (Bad Santa Party)
That means if you're in town, I'll give you candy if you come see us play.

Thus concludes the list of new stuff.