Batgirl to the rescue

I got a cool picture sent to me today - *proof* that I'm known to the world (or at least the people I work for) as Batgirl!

Lemme explain...I work in labs in an old building where above the the 4th floor (where I happened to work) is the ventilation system for the whole building. Basically there's a whole floor of space full of fans and such above us for all the labs in the place. Where I live there are lots of bats living in the trees down by the river - you can sit and watch them hunt mosquitos at night by the wier if you feel so inclined - very cool. Where I work is also right by the river. Soooooo...when hibernation time comes a few of these little guys sometimes end up in the gap between the floors to sleep away the winter. Now once or twice a winter one of them will wake up and not be able to keep hibernating and set out to find food inside where it's warm. So they flut about the hall, classroom or lab all scared and people run around covering their head (especially one of my coworkers) and shriek and eventually try and catch it to release it. The problem is winters her can get down to -35 C..not good weather for *anybody* especially bats. The only option was to put them to sleep - I didn't like it. And so, after doing some investigation, I've worked out a deal at work to be able to safely catch them and take them to a lady I found in the city who takes in injured bats and birds and helps fatten them up and has a cold room for them to hibernate in until spring. So, last winter I managed to help out two little guys I ended up naming Zeus and Apollo (don't remember why). Unfortunately Apollo never made it, but Zeus survived and was healthy and I had the unique privilege of setting him free back in to the trees this spring, once the skeeters were back for him to eat.
Very cool experience.
The long and the short of it is that over time, it's become known around work that if you find a bat call me, the "batgirl" on the 4th floor. I've even cleared it all with my supervisors and made sure I'm officially trained to handle them - my supervisor keeps teasing me that he's going to get me a shirt with the batman symbol on it if I keep it up this winter...I can only hope!
Bwahahahaaa!
I am Batgirl!
Defender of critters!
Savior of all squeaky things!

I'd actually forgot about Zeus until I got a picture of him today that we took before he was set free.



....isn't he cute?
(for a bat :) )

Evil Bono

So I was watching Shaolin Soccer again yesterday (so help me I love asian films..the humor is different).
We were watching the final soccor match and J said "hey-the head guy of "Team evil" looks like Bono!" And so help me he does - an evil asian Bono.
Anyone else notice this or am I going crazy from winter isolation?
This movie is a howl...I mean seeing the various translations on the versions we've rented is even better..the Team Evil has "Special training" which in the version we first rented was "American Steroids" and later on PPV was just special training...the fact that Team Evil *is* called that and *1s* so Evil is fantastic. I hope this guy makes many more films.

Now I have to rent Kung Fu Hustle tonight...

Waiting for snow...

It just doesn't feel like winter yet. No snow. It's wierd...I like the not cold part, but I want to put up my Christmas lights soon (I'm crazy about christmas lights) and it seems wierd with no snow.
Well, as a sign of how exciting my day has been no far, I'll fill up a bit of it by filling this out again - it's been about a month since I pulled this out and dusted it off so here goes...

Current attire: Blue jeans. "happy" shirt. burgundy zip up bunny hug. black specs. superstars. rainbow glow in the dark belly ring.

Current mood: Happy. I have invoked the power of the shirt, and it appears to be working....

Current music: Nothing. None allowed where I'm currently sitting.

Current annoyance: Advertising in theatres. I went to see Goblet of Fire last night and was subjected to 20 minutes of ads (including a saladressing and Walmart ad) before the lights went down to...more ads before the trailers! I'd honestly pay more just to get this off the screen. It's like the theatres are rofiting off us as consumers cuz they know we are there...god forbid we'd want to talk or relax before a film....grrr. It's bad enough I have to look at ads when I pee in their bathrooms, but now my personal time before a film isn't safe....makes me very angry. The movie was good tho. :)

Current thing: Planning my ice castle that I'm going to make in my front yard...of course if it would snow I could get on with it. It'll have lights and everything. Just you wait and see....

Current desktop picture: the "No Cat Farts" international logo...should change it I suppose

Current song in head: Square One by Coldplay.

Current book: Nothing right now. Need to go to the library.

Current video in player: Dr. Who episodes taped off BBC kids last night (A set 7th doctor episodes...haven't seen them before-cool)

Current DVD in player: nada - I had to return it to the video store (it *was* Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - I loved it..)

Current refreshment: coffee

Current worry: How do I get my Christmas shopping done without actually going into a mall? And, more importantly, should I buy tickets to Coldplay in Vancouver? *And* can I afford to go even if I manage to get tickets?

Current thought: What if they had one night a week during the holiday season where all the stores played NO holiday music. Wouldn't that be cool? I'd go then. Heck I'd even pay admission...I was in a mall last week and just about went nuts with the endless Frosty the Snowman. Glad I never had to work retail...I'd have gone postal.
__________

Anyhoo...back to the lab.

Do or do not - do be do be do

Well... I can now cross a few thing off my list of things to do in life...some I'd only dreamt of and even a few I didn't even think of until they happened.
This weekend Jay and I went to an event with incredible PsyTrance and Breaks spun all night by live DJ's and get this - it was a Star Wars theme party - costumes encouraged! My exact words when Jay told me about it were "holy crap - well I guess we're going then". I would have settled for just the music, but luckily for J and I there are other people out there who love live electronic music *and* Darth Vader! Kindred spirits indeed...
All night long we got to dance in Dagobah, Jabba's palace and Endor. Three different rooms and DJ areas - and some crazy costumes.
I even got to dance in full costume to a break remix of the Cantina song from the original Star Wars...joy of all geeky joys. Black light added to the absolutely fantastic decorations. You could tell the GOMP crew (the self titled "grumpy old men" that put it on) that put it on were all Star Wars geeks...the attention to detail was staggering.
Downstairs in Jabbas Palace there were robots, a big lounge area with a stuffed Jabba you could hang out with while watching the films (without sound they're much better!) and a huge area to dance, with the walls and ceilings all decorated up. Princess Leia spun discs for a few hours (among others) and the music was fantastic. My favorite tunes were in Dagobah - some of the best were spun by a guy named Kevin who was dressed as Han Solo. There were Psy Trance and Breaks all night and the decor was great - they actually built a crashed X-wing into a blue lit pool with clouds coming off it and Yoda's hut in the corner where you could go and relax and take a break from dancing. Then in the main area of Endor the walls were painted like space with a image of Endor on the wall and the Death Star and Star Destroyers flying from the ceiling and mostly house played off the decks. Over the bar was the perfect finishing touch - Jar Jar's head mounted on the wall!
Even the stairwell downstairs was decorated with hanging asteroids and the mellinium Falcon flying through them. Last but definitely not least, someone had welded a fullsize replica of a speederbike outside in the smoking area with two working flames coming out the back. About half the people were in costume (a mix of vaders, lukes, darth mauls, leias, jedis and even Lando from his hippie years - even one other twylek!)
Man - I had a fantatic time - one of the best nights of my life. Fantastic music that made you dance *and* all the Star Wars stuff I could imagine. A few people even had an official replica of a lightsaber there (Jay had an older superbright one he'd "modified" himself to be superbright with some LEDs). The guy was cool enough to let me play with it a bit and take a pic or two.
I even won best costume! I didn't know there was a contest - I just had a great time making my costume...and a great time wearing it too - I spent a few days making our costumes the week before. J was a sort of Jawa happy alien character - I made him a black jedi robe and he made a mesh face mask with blinky green eyes...he looked great! I decided to be a Twylek - you know, like Oola in Jabba's palace and the Jedi woman in the 2nd and 3rd films. I was rather proud of my work - I danced like a monkey all night and it stayed on! Plus, near the end of the night one of the GOMP came up and handed me a few prizes and said "Cool - I found you! You've won best constume - thanks for coming to our party!"
I was blown away - I mean *I* thought I looked cool, but now I am officially cool and not just one of the biggest geeks around!! :) Jay even got an X-wing model as a runner up - we're gonna hang it in a place of honor!
Can't recall having such a great time for a long time...Man...the whole night was *Shiny*!

From the mouth of babes...

Soooo... I had a birthday over the weekend. It was a good one - having a birthday near halloween has always been great. I spent the day with my husband (our first day off together for a long while - very nice) and the night before we went out into the woods with some friends and lit a fire and toasted mashmallows and drank coffee and watched the moon. It was great, although I ate enough sugar to keep me up all night! It was a beautiful night with so much natural light and not that cold. A friend of mine was dressed up in full fireman costume for the halloween party he was going to later that night and it just made the evening better - he does firebreathing as a hobby and he brought his gear with him. He shot off quite a few fireballs in to the sky...very cool! I'm amused noone came to check it out or called the police...rural Saskatchewan can be cool that way. Our firebreathing friend ended up going to the party smalling of smoke and kerosene - so authentic. I still think it's great that the old uniform he got at a surplus store had a badge that said Sgt. Cox...heh heh heh :) I know, I know. Beavis & Butthead would be proud :P. Nothing like a great evening with friends to make you remember why life is so great - a good birthday over all. One of my faves in fact. My lovely hubby got me the ubercoffeemaker of my dreams...it grinds the beans and boils the water before brewing and keeps it warm in a steel carafe all day...joy! Jittertown here I come!

Anyways...I wasn't feeling old (I *am* only 32 after all) until I was back at work a few days ago and a coworker had me fill out a survey for her daughter's school project. In the age category part of the sheet there was 10-20, 21-30, 31-55 and 55+. I stopped and blinked "Thirty one to fifty five??"
*sigh*
I'm now officially really old to all kids everywhere. One step away from senior citizen in fact. Man what a blow to the ego...:)