Being an uncreative soul -- I stole this from my cousin.

1) Where did you begin 2007?:
Heading to New York City for our first trip of the year!

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day?:
Married.

3) Were you in school anytime this year?:
No -- but I may be taking a class in 2008 -- we'll see.

4) How did you earn your money?:
Supply Teaching in York Region (it was a good year once I got hired...) and working part time at home for Nettrekker.

5) Did you have to go to the hospital?:
No, but there was a time I thought I had mono. Turns out, I was just really bored.

6) Did you have any encounters with the police?:
None that I recall.

7) Where did you go on holidays?:
New York City, Buffalo x2, camping in the Adirondacks (NY state), the Bruce Pennisula, Austria (Innsbruck, Schwaz, Salzburg), Germany(Munich with a few short stops throughout Bavaria), Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne, Bern and Zurich), Ottawa, Regina!

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000?:
Plane tickets home for Christmas!! Don't even get me started!

9) Do you know anybody who got married?:
Shannon & Jason, Brad & Stephanie

10) Do you know anybody who passed away?:
N's aunt.

11) Did you move anywhere?:
not this year!

12) What concerts/shows did you go to?:
I'd like to go to more shows... but then I always get annoyed at young punks who have to be so completely retarded and grope each other in public or mosh all over the place and can barely stand they are so smashed. Guess I'm getting old... still, I managed to see:
The New Pornographers, Cuff the Duke, Buck 65, Blue Rodeo, Amy Millan (twice), Ron Sexsmith, Sara Slean, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Jason Plumb & the Willing, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Rachel Van Zanten, Bruce Cockburn, Great Big Sea, Lowest of the Low. I also saw the theatre/musical presentation of Evil Dead -- and it was splatterrific! We also took in a taping of the Mercer Report and I got a picture with Rick Mercer!!

13) Are you registered to vote?:
yes.

14) Who did you want to win Big Brother?:
Who cares? Don't watch Big Brother. Did however watch Laguna Beach, Laguna Beach2, The Hills 1,2,3 and a couple of complete seasons of The Real World all thanks to Rogers on Demand -- so I think that I'm more than getting my fill of vapidly vain reality television.

15) Where do you live now?:
Toronto.

16) Describe your birthday:
I went out to La Bodega with my mom and sister and had a fantastic supper!! Then I spent it grooving to Michael Franti and Spearhead at the Regina Folk Festival -- he was awesome so it was a good night.

17) What's one thing you thought you'd never do but did in 2007?:
I had N videotape me singing Do Re Mi... in the Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg... just like Julie Andrews did in the Sound of Music. Usually, I have no shame about posting stupid videos of myself on the internet. This video was so bad that no one will ever witness this moment in MSK history (except N, who could hardly hold the camera steady he was laughing so hard at me).

18) What has been your favourite moment?:
Being at Grey Cup, watching the Riders win and partaking in the festivities with some awesome pals that were in town!!

Being at the soon to be infamous Rider Game where the power went out... here's a clip of the rain:

19) What's something you learned about yourself?:
That I'm getting older and that I have a low tolerance for out-of-control drunken boobery -- especially when it's old men who should know better as was the case at Grey Cup this year. Men (and I use the term loosely), there is nothing sexy about literally falling down drunk when trying to chat up pretty girls who could be your daughters.

20) Any new additions to your family?:
None. My cousin married Jason but he's been around for a while so he's hardly a "new" addition. So instead I will just post pictures of our niece and nephew.

21) What was your best month?:
September... we had a great time in Europe! There is very little bad about Prosecco being cheaper than water or drinking good beer non-stop at Oktoberfest!!

22) What music will you remember 2007 by?:
5 most listened to artists this year include (in no particular order):
Rilo Kiley, Matt Good, The New Pornographers, The Weakerthans, Cuff the Duke.

23) Who has been your best drinking buddy?:
N

24) Made new friends?:
a few.

25) Favourite night out?:
Maybe last night... we took the subway down to Queen Street and just wandered around looking at Christmas decorations. Ended up seeing the big tree at City Hall and watching people ice skate at Nathan Philips Square. Then we ventured through the Eaton Centre to briefly mock last minute shoppers before heading out to the Keg for a yummy steak dinner and a delightful bottle of red vino!

26) Something you're looking forward to in 2008?:
We've talked about going to Carnaval de Quebec in Feb. Our second Europe trip in March. The possibility that I may decide it's time to pro-create (this is always a possibility -- read: not a reality). We've talked about a big Eastern Canada camp trip next summer (heading up the Gaspe Penisula, then touring the Atlantic provinces, anyone else want to visit Green Gables??). Linda's wedding in July. Grey Cup in Montreal!! -- Hope we get to do it all!

27) Where will you start 2008?:
...in Vegas baby!! It's time for a little less conversation and a little more action!
We leave Jan. 1

I'll post more after we've found the shovel and dug out....

Neil came home from work a while back with this fantastically amusing/informative? pamphlet on escalator safety. I ask the question, "are people seriously this devoid of common sense that someone, somewhere felt the need to spend our hard-earned tax dollar to create and distribute this pamphlet?"

On second thought, don't answer that.

I am beyond tired with the subpar service that is thrown at you left, right and centre. I feel I could rant endlessly about a myriad or woes I've had with things that should have been straightforward and simple.

Scenario 1: our Grey Cup tickets.

• mother-in-law bought them for us for Christmas
• mother-in-law goes on trip to the USA
• Grey Cup organizers screw up printing of souvenir tickets thus requiring them to send them at the last minute by Purolator -- they should have been sent regular mail as is always the case with Ticketmaster tickets and then we would have had no problem as my sister-in-law was taking in the mail while my mother-in-law was on vacation.
• Purolator will only release tickets to purchaser (my mother-in-law) who is out of the country
• Wasted a night trying to sort out the problem with Ticketmaster (1 whole night I will never get back) -- had to get rather pushy and bitchy to even get close to a solution.
• End result: my sister-in-law has to "break into" (she had a key) my mother-in-laws house and open her mastercard bill so that we could get the "card number" used in the original purchase. Ticketmaster credits my mother-in-laws card and we charge the tickets to our card thus allowing us to pick up our tickets in TO... not the nice souvenir tickets, mind you -- reprinted Ticketmaster tickets. (we did eventually get our souvenir tickets after the game)

End result: Customer is seriously inconvenienced due to the stupidity of Grey Cup organizers.

Scenario 2: Ordering dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory Post Grey Cup.

• It should be noted that this restaurant was within easy walking distance of the game -- and this restaurant should have taken staffing on a game day into consideration -- they seriously should have known better.
• We wait for someone to take our order... we wait... we wait... we wait....
• When someone finally comes, he can barely speak English...
• It takes a longish wait for our drinks to come... Neil gets a Rickards's Red and the server brings him a glass of red wine -- again, he didn't understand English
• Turns out the restaurant was so strapped/short staffed our server is a dishwasher who is NEVER out front serving customers. We felt bad for him -- it's not his fault right?
• Overall -- our service was TERRIBLE. Yet, we felt compelled to tip?? Where is the justice in this?? You don't want to punish your server when it is not wholly their fault but -- terrible service is terrible service, no???

Scenario 3: Christmas shopping online -- I did a lot online in the last two weeks -- 4 online orders to be exact... all but one has arrived. Here is the correspondence I sent out to the CFL store -- date ordered: November 28.

• Sent yesterday:

• Subject: Re: Cflshop.ca/Jersey City Canada: Order receipt
  

  Hello,
  I was wondering if there was any way possible to find out if this order has shipped. There are some Christmas presents in this order and I would like to know an approximate arrival date. It would be great if your online shopping site had a track order feature as many other online merchants provide this service for their customers.

  Thanks,
  MSK
  

• Their reply:

• Hi,

  We have had well over 2000 orders in the past few weeks since Grey Cup and we are currently receiving product. The orders are being shipped as the items arrive. It has been impossible to update the status of the orders during this time.

  Thanks for your patience!

  Jersey City Canada

  www.jerseycity.ca

  1-888-537-2489

• My response:
• Hi,

  I find this response absolutely terrible. It is impossible to track an order? I am sorry but this is the Christmas season and I have ordered online with Futureshop, Chapters, Amazon, Landsend -- just to name a few -- all since ordering from you and I have received not only tracking information from them but I have also received all of my orders as well.

  When I purchased these items there was NO merchandise shortage/delayed shipping announcement on any of my items ordered (as there was on some other items like jerseys). Having paid $20 for express shipping I find it extremely unreasonable to have to wait more than a few business days for my order to be processed and shipped. If there were concerns of merchandise not being available and/or back-ordered that should have been made clear on an item by item basis - AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE. As a matter of fact -- I just checked and there still is no warning that shipping could be delayed on any of the merchandise in my order. Again, I order online often and in cases such as this there is almost always a warning that there is low stock on an item and that shipping could be delayed as a result.

  A lot of this order is gifts -- and I will be canceling this order if I do not receive it by next Thursday as I'm flying home for Christmas. That will have given you three weeks to get me my order -- extremely inefficient in light of receiving no shipping delay warning. I can receive merchandise from the US faster. I think a HUGE announcement on your site that you are experiencing shipping delays due to merchandise shortages would ease the flow of complaints. I tried to call this evening and your message mailbox is full.

  MSK

Overall -- why do I feel like you have to be extremely pushy and quite frankly a real bitch to get results and/or service that should be standard?? I'm tired of it!

Before this will make any sense you must read this article:
http://www.blogto.com/music/2007/12/wanted_bon_jovi_ticket_

buyers_dead_or_alive/

My take:
We all know the problem isn't just the 905ers... the rest of Canada is just a suburb of TO. TO being the most hip, cool, vibrant metropolis around - or "the centre of the universe". I say blame the 204ers and the 306ers (the further out suburbs of TO) for this hair teasing travesty! Everyone knows that everything east of Vancouver is a suburb of Toronto and that they are all lovers of cheesy 80's glam rock.

As a former 306er living in the uber trendy and pretentious 416, I feel I must represent (as best I can -- cause let's face it -- living in the centre for almost 2 years now I've been drawn to the pretentious side... I'd rather head down to the Horseshoe and see Lowest of the Low or enjoy Cuff the Duke at the Mod club) -- but for one afternoon, I'm going to go blow the dust off my New Jersey CD and dance around to some, "Lay your hands on me!"

K