Summer Time Blues

ok people lets talk music. because I cant decide on anything else.
Thomas's Top 10 Albums that he can not stop listening to. Starting from 10 and then working its way down till the best album aka oneness.

10. Taking Back Sunday's album New Again.
These dudes have been out on tour for far to long so its good to see some new tunes from the guys. If you liked Taking Back Sunday's last album Louder Now, you will have no problem eating up New Again. To be honest I was kind of hoping they would take a new direction and get more away from the pop punk but it is still a great album if you like memorizing the lyrics and singing along with friends.

9. Octahedron by The Mars Volta.
OK! The Mars Volta continues to amaze me with the depth of lyrics and unreal songs that they keep putting out. It seems like every song has a mind melting moment where you just have to stop what your doing and let that jaw drop to the floor as you listen to these psychedelic melodies of heart pounding chorus's filled with soft easy tunes that suddenly erupt into a dance off between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (Grease 1978). Everyone should have a song by The Mars Volta on their playlists!

8. Old Crows / Young Cardinals by Alexisonfire
Alexisonfire continues to build there sound better and better every album. Why I remember when Alexisonfire was young and Dallas was skinny.. they where the band you went to see if you wanted crazy riffs and head exploding screaming. Now you can expect to hear soft piano in the bridge followed by Dallas's soft voice... sigh... sooo dreamy!

7. A State of Trance 2009 by Armin Van Buuren
I dont know what it is but there is just something about turning on the dance tunes way up and dancing all night long! Armin Van Buuren pours out another compilation of tracks recorded for one purpose. The purpose of letting go of everything around you and just groovin to the music! Trance music is all about having a good time. And trust me, with A State of Trance 2009 you will have a great time relaxing to some beats that make your mojo flow.

6. The Glass Passenger by Jack's Mannequin
It seems that everytime I turn my ipod on to listen to some tunes, I always end up clicking on Jack's Mannequin. There is something in the music that makes me want to hit the replay button after each song. I love every moment when Jack and I meet in the speakers. Plus this is Laura and I's fav band! So it makes me think of her which always puts a smile on my face.

5. Redeemer by Norma Jean
Finally we get to the good ol sreaming makes you want to throw down, thrashing the floor with your jumping. Always hard, always fast, always gets you pumped on everything! Norma Jean will forever remain first on my hardcore playlist because you can never grow tired of the bang.

4. Geuro by Beck
Oh Beck! You continue to play in our heads and make us long to listen to your white rap/rock/folk/noise tunes that make us giggle with delight. E-pro will forever be cemented into my cranium for all round good times. Beck's lyrics and melodies are all fantastic. Oh Beck! You can do no harm when it comes to making music! You are and will remain one of the greats.

3. Fantasies by Metric
Metric is by far one of my favourite bands ever in the history of music, Metric constantly puts out dynamic tracks that just blow your mind. Live in concert they are brillant. Emily Hanes proves time and time again that she can write drool producing lyrics and along with the rest of the band they come together to create sheer bliss in music.

2. Forever the Sickest Kids album Underdog Alma Mater
Whether your dancing in the shower pretending your a star or bouncing along in your car to the tunes. FTSK will always provide the umffft to do anything. The catchy tunes produced by the band are complete with all the nessesary ingredients for life and fun. They can take anyone who is in a bad mood and make them smile with there girl drama filled songs. FTSK will always be playing in my house.

1. Yes! by K-OS
I bought the album as soon as it came out and I cant stop listening to it. K-OS again just blows my mind with his in depth lyrics and his spell bounding songs. I would even say that K-OS is one of the underground scenes best preformer in what he does. He has been blessed greatly with his musical skills and shows them all in his newest album Yes! Which captivates audiences and motivates them in all aspects. K-OS is my number one. And it seems I will keep him up here for a long time still.

thanks everyone
fist pump
thomas

Raccoons and their razor sharp claws

Last night I accompanied two of my lovely friends to an evening of Leslie Blodgett and QVC (Leslie being the famous face to our makeup brand/employer, and QVC being one of the many avenue of which they make millions of dollars... and by "they" I mean Leslie). The evening started out somewhat boring but exciting all at the same time because when you are watching Leslie and all these QVC nutties, you never know whats going to happen next that will cause you to break out in laughter. We laughed quite a bit... in between rants about how they do not do things correctly, and how the packaging they choose is obsurd, and how Sarah cannot stand when everything is not uniform... all the while Amanda did her part to dispense of a half a bottle of wine and I did what I could to stay comfortable on Gloria's (Sarah's grandma) wicker-like chair... Once we reached the 12:00 hour, we were ready to wrap things up... Now, let me explain where we were each sitting at this point.. Well, Sarah was down stair asleep, but Amanda was on the north side of the kitchen table, and there is a sliding glass door leading out to the small deck on the south side of the kitchen table. I am currently located on the west side of the table, facing the window outside. Amanda is going on about something that I don't remember, and I was staring aimlessly out the windown at the pitch blackness... and I noticed something on the deck, right along side the sliding glass door, heading east from the wester direction... and my initial thought (mind you, all of these thoughts took place in a matter of miliseconds) was that it was a cat, because random cats roam around neighborhoods, right? And so I didn't think anything of it... Amanda is talking and talking and I'm sitting and dazing, and all of a sudden I realize that the "cat" I see outside of the door has a cute little black stripe over it's eyes, and a pointy little nose and a round head, and just so happens to look NOTHING like a cat, but a LOT like a freaking raccoon! I didn't even have words.. I didn't know what to say but I didn't want Amanda to miss this, so I reached over and slapped her arm a few times and just pointed out the window. She stopped talking, looked out, and we both just had a stare down with this raccoon... He literally stared at us for at least 4 seconds... and all that stood between us whas a small pane of glass... out of fear and gut reaction, I pulled my legs up off the floor so it couldn't eat my feet (yep, even through the window... it's totally possible) and then we laughed so hard we could barely breath as this little death monster trotted away.

Needless to say, Amanda had to walk me to my car...

-Laura

facebook is gone like the chickens in the dream i had

well I did it! I got rid of facebook! I am now no longer trapt to the face of the books in the internet thing with the books... ok so now the dealio is that I, Thomas William Ferguson Esq, am going to start bloggering.

STORY TIME!

The time eludes me as my phone is stuck far in my pocket right next to my crotch and people are giving me weird looks while I try to get it out.. Stupid phone. I get into my car and crank up some melodies from the great master mind Elton John. I drive into winnipeg. Today is beach day and I am supposed to be meeting up with some friends to enjoy the sun and water and sand and the excuse to be half nude. I get to one of my buds houses. I walk in to notice that my friend is not ready to go but he is in fact waiting to watch himself on tv. Sooo predictable! We finally get to the beach. The sun was out. The heat was on. Who brought sunscreen? We all forgot. Crap. No worries we are men. We laugh at the sun because we can. We say to the sun, Do your worst you dumb fire star thing! We then spend the next few hours running around playing volleyball, swimming, fighting fire breathing sharks named Jack and Bary... not realizing that while doing all this the sun, that stupid fire star, had slowly started cooking us. I am a tomato. A red fruit.
You win this battle fire star! But I will prevail!

k. thats all.
fist pump
Thomas

Stupid

This is Laura...

I am super mad at North Korea... why do they have to threaten to send missiles over when myself and the love of my life have plans to honeymoon in the very place they plan to send them... what the crap! ahhh!

Don't plan a honeymoon.. they are too hard to plan.

This is Laura

Decided last night, in my restless efforts to get tired so I could go to sleep, to begin reading a book that was borrowed to me years ago (sorry to the borrow-ee). I've made my way to about chapter 5 already and have come to quite a few conclusions.  

1. I do not talk to God.  I make requests and I being sentences but I don't talk to Him. I dont cry out to Him. I don't beg for the forgiveness I so don't deserve, and I sure as heck don't wrestle with Him over the things that plague me minute by minute, day by day.

2. Forgiveness is something I don't understand. I do but I don't.  I began to ask Him to show me who I even need to forgive.  First up... me.  Which brings me to...

3. How do you forgive when the person you need to forgive is yourself. It's easier, way way easier, to forgive another person because you may not see them again, or see them rarely, or whatever. But you are always with yourself. Always.  And maybe it's not necessarily yourself you have to forgive but Satan... but I feel like that doesn't work because he doesn't deserve forgiveness... so I think it's really just ourselves... it's forgiving myself for giving in so easily to his temptation to sin... temptation to say things to myself that contradict the truth of Christ.

So maybe this is why I don't talk to God... because it makes me feel things and makes me open up areas that seem to be nicer and neater when they are just kept shut.

Well, I guess the clutter is a comin and there is nothing to stop it.

Oh Jesus let this become a habit. I beg of You.

Ok ok ok... I'll post.

Here I (Laura) am... posting... because I recently heard that you don't blog for other people to read it but for yourself... so... self... how are you? Do you enjoy reading blogs? Not retarded ones like this? I totally understand.

Enough.

So I am presently trying to print out my bank statements for the past 3 months and my printer has become russian or something. I can pring a document that is, say, 4 pages, and the first one comes out in english, then the rest of them come out in like, russian or czech or something crazy like that... I think that my printer has gotten a travel bug just like me... to bad I can't start speaking another language to make myself feel better.

I decided yesterday that I would also love to receive gift cards to Patina for wedding presents... that would be lovely.. because lets face it, bed bath and beyond and Macy's don't have the things that Laura and Thomas like... definitely not our style.

And I am STILL waiting to hear where I will be come July as far as work goes. At first I was thinking I had a good chance of moving over to Rosedale as the Assistant Manager, and then I heard that that probably wouldn't happen, and so I was settled in that, and then I found out who the manager is and I can totally see her wanting me there because she is the one who hired me waaaaay back in '03... so now I really don't know... All I can say is that I am sooo thankful that God already knows whats up... and I am so thankful that I can actually find peace in that.

Gosh He is just so great.


Thats all.

Guten Tag

Sooo

A thought crept into my mind this morning and I sort of wish it hadn't because it has caused me a small amount of unrest...

I am pretty positive that I won't have the chance to ever be a maid of honor to someone.

I mean, this is not a big deal, but as I look around at all of the weddings going on around me, I got to thinking about how I am pretty much the only one who asks like 35 people to be in my wedding... and maybe I am not close enough with anyone to be one of the lucky few who get to share in that super awesome day.

I guess being a guest is equally as important.

Or at least I will keep telling myself that.


The lonely bride,

Laura

chickens have sharp teeth the size of walnuts

Captain's Log, 8:05 p.m.

Still snowing on the northern front. Its been like this ever since tuesday. Ever since those flipin polar bears seized control of that giant golf like ball from the snow watch in the North West Air, we havent been able to keep this snow at bay. I have been stuck in the camp, unable to get to the outpost to make me money. The only thing keeping me going is the gangsta rap poundin out the speakas in my rooma. And Chickens Have Sharp Teeth the Size of Walnuts.

Arbitrarily Pear... wonder if its true...

Thomas

Mmmm

I'm cooking myself dinner. Rosemary and garlic potatos, steamed broccolli and breaded lemon and garlic chicken... getting ready for my man...

LJ

Lily the Terror

So here's a funny story for ya...

Scene: Laura is talking on the phone to Thomas, catching up after a long day. She is walking downstairs while still on the phone and she comes across a terrible terrible mess left by her little dog, Lily.

"LILY! What did you do!" Laura shouts, unfortunately a little too close to her phone, and into the delicate ears of her lovely fiance.
Lily cowers and begins to back up, revealing the exact splendor of her recent project. She had infact been working quite hard and pulling all of the nature-like stuffing out of her mother's fake plant. Laura quickly apologizes to Thomas for yelling, and informs him that she must leave, because their lovely little girl made a huge mess. "Sometimes I really just don't know what to do with her..." Laura said in slight desperation. Hanging up the phone, she ran to the kitchen to grab the bottle of crushed red pepper from the spice drawer. She remembered this technique from their previous dog, and hoped it would finally break through Lily's petite yet cement like skull and teach her a lesson once and for all. Grabbing Lily and forcing a feast of peppery goodness upon her, Lily scamered away, licking her chops like she had just eaten a steak dinner. Apparently red pepper sucks up all of your saliva, causing one to become rather dry in the mouth. Anyways, moving on. Laura puts Lily in the kennel for a time out, and then let's her out to go potty. Then grabbing the vaccum cleaner, she proceeds to vaccum every step and carpeted area where this little wonder had traveled. Deciding to do something nice for her mom, she begin to vaccum the rest of the upstairs, because after all, she had it out anyways. As she is finishing up in her parent's bedroom she hears the treacherous sound of ripping paper. Frantically running out of the bedroom and gazing down the stairs, there she saw it... The unforgettable scene of the world's worst puppy. The lovely melodic sound of the paper ripping was Lily, this cute little baby, ripping the wallpaper off of the wall in the stairway. A wave of complete shock washed over Laura as she could not believe what had just happened. How on earth could she ever fix this. How on earth could she ever convince her parent's not to take Lily out back and end their days of destroyed personal belongings. She ran downstairs and grabbed Lily. "WHAT DID YOU DO!" She yelled. To her dismay, Lily had no response for her behavior. Out came the red pepper once again, but this time the portion was doubled... quite possibly trippled. Lily was sent back to her kennel with prayers going up like crazy for her life to be spared. Laura then went over to inspect the scene. Three pieces of wallpaper lay on the step, nice and slimy from Lily's saliva. Trying frantically to think of what could be done to fix it, or what could be presented to her parent's as the best solution, she finally thought of it. "Modge Podge!" she thought as she ran upstairs to her art box. "Decopage glue is very similar to wallpaper glue. Maybe I can just piece it back together." So she proceeded to do so, all the while praying fervently that it would not be noticeable. A call from her dad to pick him and mom up rushed her to finish and off she went. "Oh Lord, pleeeeaaaaassssseeeeee soften their hearts towards Lily. Help them not want to give her away. Oh Lord please help them to be miraculously ok with this. Please Lord! When should I tell them? Right away? Or should I wait until they notice it? No, right away, I can't not tell them." As they jumped in the car, her heart pounded, wondering how much time she would have left with Lily after this one. Seeing as Lily had already ripped a part the cushion of mom's expensive chair, chewed the ear piece to mom's reading glasses, torn a part the fake plants multiple times, and pooped in the house on a regular basis, it wasn't hard to believe that this could maybe be the straw that broke the camel's back. After some small talk she told them what had happened. They responded in a way that could only have happened by the awesome grace of God. They were a little ticked, but upon getting home and inspecting the spot, her mom's words were, "oh, no one will be able to see it." Laura nearly dropped to her knees to praise Jesus! Only a God like her's could soften the hearts of naughty dog owners.

So the moral of this story is that God can truly do the impossible.

can i please get off of this stupid hampster wheel?

It's 1:10am and I (laura) am frustrated... I feel like the things that quite literally flood my brain non-stop all day are the same things that did that 2 years ago, and 5 years ago, and 12 years ago... ok, so some of them have changed, but there are a few that just never seem to go away... bondage, I do believe, is what it is more commonly referred to as. But the newest addition is, more often than not, more than I feel like I can bare. How do you deal with not knowing whats going to happen tomorrow.. or feeling like you literally have like 26 balls flying up in the air and have no clue how you are going to catch them in order as they fall, and not miss one... Thats basically exactly how I feel... You want to watch time stand still... wait for multiple things for weeks at a time... I feel like all I am doing is waiting for the next thing... and tonight upon arriving home from a wonderful evening, I am rudely awakened to the reality of my life... I have to wait. Wait for payday. Wait to see the man I love. Wait to move forward with much of anything. And because tomorrow is indeed Thursday and not Friday, I will not be doing much of anything tomorrow.

So, I guess I have sympathy for those little hapmsters in their little colored plastic balls, running around, being slightly protected, but running into things, and ultimately getting nowhere... can I please get out now?

Friday, can you please be tomorrow. Ask Thursday to switch.

ducks have no feathers

So here I sit at home, its 7:23 am and I was supposed to go to work at 6:30 am...

Its kind of funny how life often throws things at you when you really dont need it to or want it to. Thoughts pass throughout your mind.. "Is God punishing me?" "Did I really drive over that animal the other day?" But then you quickly jump to other conclusions such as.. the reason that me car is being a dick today probably has something to do with this weather....Mother Nature... Actually I am almost convinced that if it where not as cold as a polar bears heiny up here in manitoba, I would actually be able to have a nice morning where nothing would go wrong. Its a nice thought indeed.

I got up this morning with good intent, showered, ate, pooped. Then I forced my way through the cold to the garage where I proceeded to start my car. Then realizing that the oil had not been changed in sometime, I decided that the correct option would be to pop the hood of my car and check the oil.. Wrong move Billy. (Billy is a fictional name) I popped the hood, took out the oil stick and then it happened. The holder for the oil stick decided that it had enough being in the position it was and moved itself in a downward direction thus the oil stick is out of a job. Because it no longer can fit in the hole. (please refrain from saying, "thats what she said") ((its not mature))

So here I sit. Waiting for the van to charge up so I can maybe drive into work with that beast. I dont like this morning and ducks have no feathers.

Thomas aka Manbat... Dr. Manbat

Questions.

I had a revelation the other day while watching, "Flight of the Conchords", which just turned into my new favourite show. (let me spell that again.. FavoUrite show.) ((correct spelling of the word favourite is with a U)) anyways.. if you want to look cool you have to make your hair stand up with tons of hair gel... it didnt work for me.. bummer

Happy Purim!

So tonight at sunset began the fantastic Jewish holiday called Purim. You might be saying to yourself. "Laura's not jewish", and you would be correct in saying that. Purim is the holiday celebrated in memory of Queen Esther and basically how she stopped Haman from carrying out his plot to destroy the jews. Anyways, Sarah Jean had asked me if I wanted to celebrate Purim with her, seeing as we are both doing the Esther bible study at church and I agreed, thinking it would be lots of fun. I must admit that earlier today I had to search "purim" on wikipedia because I really wasn't exactly sure what the holiday was. I knew it had to do with Esther, but I didn't know what. After searching I realized that it's not as deep and full of historical tradition as many other jewish holidays are, and thats what I was expecting to find. But I liked the fact that it was simple, straight forward, and really just a celebration of God once again delivering His people through a human who was really just like we are.
I find it so interesting to think of who Esther was before she was chosen to be the new Queen of Persia... She had no parents... both had died at some point (more than likely when she was really young, because when she became queen she is thought to be only a teenager). She was raised by her uncle, in a city where jews just sort of blended in with everyone else. Which would make sense why she was able to get away with not telling Xerxes exactly who she was. The beginning of Ester describes her as being, "lovely in form and features" and later says that, "the king was attracted to her more than and of the other women." I just have to believe that it was more than physical beauty that set Esther apart in the eyes of the king of all of Persia. I have to believe that there is something about someone who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ that makes them attractive. And oh how I wish that it was that type of attraction that the world wanted to see. Not women whose beauty is fading with the passing of each day.

Anyways, I had fun celebrating Purim with Sarah, and I look forward to a more properly executed celebration next year.

Peace, Love, and Haman's Pocket Cookies,

Laura