and now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

...The First Annual Huminbean Pie Chart Awards!

The judges have made their decisions, after a long deliberation in which Bernard Lord and Benoit Lapierre resorted to speaking French so that pesky God fella couldn't understand. Then God came back with some nasty comeback in Aramaic that really pissed the others off. When I finally got them all to calm down and have a few Wildcats, they were ready to deliver their verdict.

We'll start with the runners-up...

In the category of "You Can't Enter, Silly, But Don't Feel Bad!", the winner is.... Leah Noble! And she wins a fantastic CBC mug.



In the category of "Keep Digging, Honey", the winner is...Chris! And he wins this fantastic golden shovel award, for his entertaining vision of women's views towards him.



In the category of "Best Entry to Mention Bernard Lord" (and I'm not saying who wanted this category put in, ahem), the winner is...Marlo! And she wins a date with Bernard Lord and all his friends.



Now for the legitimate categories!

The "Most Crass" inevitably goes to ...Kevin Lionais! And the award is a plaster cast of a baby's bum! Good on you, Kevin. And please, never tell me which parts make up the 18% that has waded through.. your own.. poo.



The "Most Intelligent" goes to... Laura! For dealing with her upstairs neighbours in a calm and constructive fashion, rather than bringing them a big stick and showing them just how to walk softly with it. For her rationality and presence of mind, she wins a big thumbs-up from .. this guy!



The Golden Gumboot is awarded to Andrew, for best mention of gumboots in an entry, because not only is the idea of him wearing only this item of clothing oddly enticing, but also ... gross. We invite him to try eating KD out of THIS gumboot!



And Best Overall... drum roll please...
Janice Fuller!
For her witty and conclusive sociological analysis of the Huminbean readership. I have seen those angry apes in my dreams and it is not pretty! And for her to track down a professor at St. Ehwha University is truly dedicated scholarship. It is for this that the judges gave her points... plus Bernard Lord thinks she's cute.

The award for this category is pretty sweet. Not only do you get a Mr. Bean Pez toy:



...but you also get a visit from me wearing the bean costume:



AND a year's supply of whoopie pies!



I invite all the winners to put on their best gown/tuxedo and make a speech--it's not like the Oscars, we don't have to go to a commercial break. Get drunk! Thank your Mom and Dad! The floor is yours...

whooping it up

Well, Halloween IS over, but I thought I would scare November away by appearing as my true self my Halloween costume. As Janice reminds us, November is actually the cruellest month, not April, and it needs some scaring away. It is, after all, the month of bare branches, cold rainy days and nights, and long assignments and hours spent in front of the computer completing these assignments, energy ebbing as a result.

In order to fend off the November blahs, I...

• drink ginger tea. So spicy, so delicious!
• buy a nice hand-cream or oil of some kind (I haven't done this yet, but I'm thinking I will, and it will smell of nutmeg or cinnamon)
• go to Sue Lawrence with my ladyfriend, the aforementioned Janice
• send silly sailor photos to said sailors
• use crayons, often and without moderation
• put on my devil horns, all glittery and awesome, and hang out with my room-mates pretending not to notice and see how long they give me funny looks.
• take lots of naps--you can't hate a month if you spend half of it sleeping!
  

What do you do? And do you want to come over and bring your own crayons?

Also, I think the following ladyfriend needs a solid round of blog applause: Miss Laura "runs with hotdogs" Nelson-Hamilton. Miss Laura not only put on the wildly successful Trick Or Eat (read all about it! extra, extra!)
but she is also humble about it. I think any whoopie pies consumed in this city, from this day forward, should be consumed in the name of Laura. We drink to Gill, we clap for Nigeria, and from today on we eat whoopie pies for Laura. Any complaints?

So, hip hip hurray for Lozza! And boo to November. Tell me about it.

why fridays rock

NEW BE GOOD TANYAS ALBUM!!!

Actually, I should reveal I'm not exactly the kind of indie/music nut who waits for CDs to come out, unless they are by Jill Scott (and seriously, she's got to release something new soon or I think I might have to just go to her house and ask her to sing for me). But it's kinda cool that the one I got is so new that it isn't even on their website yet. And as you can tell, it's good. Just look at that smile on my face! (This webcam stuff is awesome, Laura. I have to say. 100 whoopy pies for you, stat.)

Also why this Friday rocked: Laura and I poked around the shops! I held a baby! (Alphonsus, 7 mos. Big kid! And he held my hair in his little hand and tried to get into my mouth--a little fresh, in my opinion--and we played stare-eyes and he definitely won.) We befriended the record-store guy! I was remembered as "Peanut Butter Girl" by someone who works at Aura!

Enough exclamation points. The real point is that it's been a good day. The kind of weather where you don't want to go inside and do work, you want to wander around the leafy streets wearing a red hat and smiling at people with dogs.

Maybe I'll finally get my bicycle tire filled and go for a riverside ride. Or maybe not...that can be my winter project.

Today's question (because I love asking ya'll questions): if you could go to a record store and root around for an hour or so and come out with one CD, what are you in the mood for right now? If you've done this recently, what was the album?