End of an era....

I've finally given in and upgraded my eight-year-old cell phone handset.

Say goodbye to the brain-frying, two-tone Radiation King, and say hello to my sexy new Nokia slide phone, who I've lovingly named (*whispers*) Slider.

To protect the glass screen, I got a case the Telus guy recommended, since it was on sale for $10.
Sadly, it was made by Hummer.
I never thought I'd buy a Hummer...it was a moment of weakness....the shame of it all.....

I amz dead ppl?

On my way to work today, I looked up from my morning haze and suddenly realized that, waiting for the bus at York Mills Station, I was completely and utterly alone. Not a soul in site. The buses were emptied of passengers, the drivers nowhere in sight.

No one was waiting in line with me for the 122 Lesmill bus, a bus that is normally packed with workday communters. The driver eventually came, and for the entire trip I was the only passenger. As I sat there, staring around, wondering what parallel universe I'd woken up in, I started running through the possible scenarios in my head:

"I'm dead" theory: Just as Nicole Kidman in The Others realizes she is not alone in the house, so too did I conjecture the possibility that I was actually surrounded by hundreds of people I couldn't see, and that I was the ghost among them.

"I'm out of phase" theory: the space/time continuum has somehow been disrupted, and I've been caught in some anomaly that doesn't let me see other people. Like Beverly Crusher in that one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Abduction theory: Everyone else in the world has been abducted by aliens. Or Jesus. Whichever plot you subscribe to.

"I smell funny" theory: People are giving me a really, really wide berth today because I ate sushi last night. It's so bad, CP24 is running an on-going Vicki-radar scan to track where I am and where I'm headed so commuters can plan an alternate route. That would explain the helicopter that's been following me around...

Broken watch/sun theory: Did I wake up at the wrong time? Is today a holiday? Or a Sunday? Did the earth move? Has the sun shifted since I was asleep? Is it actually bright as day at 4:00 a.m. in the morning? You never know what those trick aliens will do while you're sleeping.

Subway delays theory: the most mundane but likely culprit. Even so, WTF? Empty bus platforms?

I've got a theory for you....

News today from Yahoo reports a Chilean lake has vanished.

They think geology did it.

But we all know it was much more sinister than that....

Thirsty megalomaniac evil terrorists, anyone?

Post 300!

THIS.
IS.
300!!

And what better way to celebrate my 300th post than by announcing that one of my fanfiction stories, The Game, previously thought to be some quaint and eccentric (excuse to be anti-social) nerd habit, has been nominated for a dotmoon.net 2006 UFO honorable mention award. Here's the badge to prove it:

Okay, so said like that, it doesn't mean much. Mind you, my story was the only Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic nominated this year, and I've never even heard of this Web site until today. So it was pretty cool to see the e-mail in my inbox this morning from some out-of-the-blue Web site saying "Hey, someone read your stuff and thinks you're cool."

Anyhow, I'm milking this for all it's worth. When I write my author profile for my Harlequin novel, you know that's going on there....

Meanwhile, yes, I have in fact finished my Harlequin novel, tentatively titled All in the Details. A host of lovely people I've met through fanfiction.net have kindly agreed to beta-read for me.

A teaser, if you will:

Lilah Mann had to grow up fast when her father abandoned their family while she was only 17. She had to drop out of high school and work to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. She'll do anything for her mother and sisters--it's what drives her to make sure her new event planning business succeeds. And she'll do anything to make it work, up to and including engaging in some questionable business practices with her newest client, the too-sexy-for-words Kent Sullivan.

But what the senior publisher of Sullivan Media doesn't know is that the spunky, elfin-haired "event engineer" is the same woman he met at a Halloween costume ball only a week ago...minus a stunning red dress and a blond wig. Can Cinderella keep her slippers under wraps, or will Lilah's Prince Charming insist on a fairytale ending?

...Admittedly, that does sound cheesetacular, but if you've read any Harlequin novels (and I insist that you do!) then you should be glad there are no nymphs, vampires, or time-travelling Highlanders in my book.

Wish me luck: I'm already starting a second book....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooo....!!!

Battlestar Galactica to end after season 4.

*SOB*

That's all I have to say. Now pardon me while I curl up in a corner and cry.
*SOB.*

English

Interrobang: a punctuation mark that incorporates a question mark and an exclamation point--it actually looks like the two are superimposed on top of each other. It's rarely used, but is sometimes seen in British usage.

Scrutator: one who investigates.

Testate: Having made a legally valid will.

Since we're talking about the English language, I'll just take this opportunity to mention that I'm off to England for a week starting Friday. I'll be with John's family, staying in a town called Lymington, so before you call flood me with comments about high terror alerts, let me just mention that Lymington is about 60 miles away, in the southwest part of the country near the Isle of Wight.