bad bad allegra

I did not mention before, and I should have, that one of my oldest and dearest family friends recently married off his firstborn.  It looks like it took place on a simply glorious day, and isn’t that a lovely dress?!  Anyway, congrats to Val and John and my sincere best wishes for a marriage at least as long, happy, fruitful and interesting as that of his parents’!  There, how’s that for an odd sounding blessing…..

In my defense, the email and link to the photo album went to an account I’m only checking once every week or two…. otherwise I would have been on the family news a bit faster.

Jeff and Keith are off to the PNE.  I am studying the BCIT syllabus.

Boom shaboom

I hear there are explosions in Toronto around Keele and Wilson. Hope nobody gets hurt. UPDATE: unbelievable images of the fireballs. Also, maps, eyewitness accounts, etc.

I hear the Wall Arch along the Devil’s Trail in Utah has succumbed to time and erosion, so another visual icon of the American West has fallen. I’m glad various photography friends had a chance to get pictures first.

Paul phoned yesterday and said, tersely, “Go look out your front door!” I did, and the biggest, brightest rainbow I’ve seen since I was in the DR was staring back at me.

Jeff’s back after a successful trip. It’s good to have him home.

Visit

Keith and Paul and Mike were over. We watched Coffee and Cigarettes. Somehow I’ve got to get off my duff and get this place looking like there weren’t drunken frat boys partying here last night. Supper was barbecued chicken breasts (with Paul taking the helm there), swiss chard of such exceptional wondrous tastiness that it bankrumpts my powers of description, garlic bread (of course), salad and European style cheesecake from the Austin Deli.

Paul has the daintiest snore of anybody I ever met. Coffee and Cigarettes, after he’s hauled a brace of midnights, was not enough to hold his attention, and he flaked out on the love seat. I like the Iggy Pop/Tom Waits and Steven Wright/Robert Benigni segments the best, although the ‘twins’ one is also pretty funny. Especially since those two men are actually cousins.

Sigh. Back to housework.

Family supper

It was so hot here yesterday that after an hour at the back clinic in the lovely air conditioning I thought I was going to melt when I went outside. Fortunately I didn’t have to go home on the bus; Katie and Paul texted me and invited me for dinner.  I picked up some Cutthroat and a singleton tequila cooler for Katie (there’s never anything she wants to drink in the fridge at her dad’s (or here either)). They cooked me pork chomps, fresh organic swiss chard (O my GOD it was good), tater salad, caesar salad, rice and gravy and there was fresh fruit and yogurt for dessert but I was too full at that point.  It was entirely yummy and flavoured with that “I didn’t cook it” sauce that makes everything taste so good.

I have not so great news; business is slow at the eyecare place so Keith’s hours have been cut back to zero.  Now he faces the choice of looking hard for another job in the field which he might not get or asking Superstore for more hours.

Came home and really I should have put the air conditioner on but I popped open both doors and got some – not a lot, but some – air going through here.

Look at the time.  Urk.  Must run.

Naughty, naughty mOm

She’s gone off to the wilds, the wilds I say, of Saskatchewan (although whether she’s off to be a Saskatchewan River Pirate remains to be seen) and in the time she’s been gone she’s neither phoned, nor emailed, nor in any matter indicated that she’s still in the land of the living.  pOp and I attribute this to a number of possibilities….

She forgot her own telephone number.  Hey, it happens.

She’s being held in an undisclosed location so that a bunch of well-meaning rellies can convert her to Christianity.  Hint.  Good luck, Chuck!  That’s one die hard mother of an atheist ya got there.

She’s just damned busy and has no internet access.

She’s killed her travelling companion in an attempt to get a little peace and quiet and is working on a suitable body disposal method.  Ontie Mary rocks the free world with her memory and her sense of humour, but the Energizer Bunny hides in terror from her mouth.  I say this as someone who occasionally makes with the pressured speech herself.  Okay, that is the polite way of describing it… I’m a motormouth, are you happy now?

She figures we’re all bloody grownups and we’ll hear about her travels soon enough.

Jeff is continuing to spit blood and yard trimmings over the computer he’s doing up for mOm (it’s not that bad, but it IS a Windows machine).

I had total flow with customer interactions on the phone today.  No nasties, all pleasant and/or funny and/or appreciative of me taking the time to answer the questions properly.  After the weekend, and that SIX count em SIX escalation calls day last week, I figured I deserved it.  I even threatened to kiss one guy when he said, point blank, “So is this marketing speak or what?” about one of the single most pernicious uh, LIES, LIES okay… did I make that clear enough??? that the Marketing wonks ever passed off on an increasingly weary and skeptical public, and I said, “Yup, that’s what it are; a more reasonable expectation of the product’s behaviour, life expectancy and usefulness to your application is….x”. And he thanked me.  He thanked me a lot.  Okay I just remembered, I got off the phone after one call and said “I tremble for my country when I reflect that we have Newfies,” and SalmonMan snickered over in his IT corner.  But the Newfie wasn’t evil, he was just not clear on the concept of a warranty period.

Mike has been phoning me and taunting me to convert my options and sell out.  I’m lazy, I’ll wait for the deal to close.  He lectures me about opportunity costs, blah blah blah.  This time he phoned from Wreck Beach, the bastard; I could practically smell the suntan oil and stray whiffs of reefer and there’s me on my way home from work thinking I should have just taken a mental health day and gone with him.  I’ll get him, dagnabit.  He keeps leaving massage oil here, maybe I’ll grease up the kitchen floor without telling him.

I just found out who one of my lurkers is, via email.  He says he loves my blog.  Hint… he loves musicals.  All the best people do, you know.  It’s a canonical law, in my universe.  Why I even had a dream one time, recounted in this blog, that included a giant insectoid alien singing in a musical.  He was having a gas pretending to be a railroad man in a musical set in the nineteen thirties. Johnny Depp was in it, too.  Can’t go wrong with a twist like that.
It was really weird having garlic bread tonight and nobody to share it with.

kids over

It was lovely to see the kids; we lazed around and ate takeout and watched CSI reruns and Scent of Green Papaya (Keith was bored).  It doesn’t sound too exciting but frankly I was still recovering from my day in the sun.  Jeff should be back either today or Friday. I miss him ferociously, and the cats do too; Eddie did the CUTEST thing I have ever seen a cat do.  When Jeff phoned day before yesterday, on a lark I held the phone up to him so he could hear daddy’s voice and his ears immediately perked up, he looked straight at the speaker on the phone, and then he started rubbing up against the receiver, all in less time than it takes to describe it.

For reasons best known to god and my volunteering spirit I will be orgalizing an X-1 company reunion. In otherwords, the company I joined when I moved to Vancouver, which morphed into the company I am now working for.  I am now racking my brains for a venue… there could be upwards of 100 people, if we crack open the invite list to spouses.  I’ve got to figure on a date, too.  I know we could do it in a restaurant but I would prefer a quieter venue.

Pride

I’m off to Pride for 11:30. Mike came over last night; we swapped bodywork and drank beer and my shoulders FINALLY feel good enough to hold a banner for however many hours we have to for the parade.  The rest of my back is also so much better, but I am very much hoping I don’t have to carry for the whole three hours.  Somewhere around here is the “Queen’s Fluffiest Pillow” t-shirt Keith designed and had made for me.  It’s amazing how good life can be when your kids grow up and get money and start buying you little gifties.  I am still stunned that he did that for me.

The new downstairs tenants didn’t stop running the dryer until midnight last night. The buzzer went off under my head just as I was dropping off to sleep.  I will have to go have a firm and pleasant chat.

Cryptic email and status report

Yesterday at work I got this massively cryptic email from the senior finance person who says check into your share situation.  Normally I have stuff neatly filed but I can’t find anything more recent than 2003.  I don’t think the phone number is even the same from back then for Computershare. Now I have to phone Computershare and find out what’s going on.  Needless to say, there have been public announcements about the company which may not be named and while I don’t imagine this actually means a lot of money I am mildly excited.

Pressured speech commences:  Continue reading Cryptic email and status report

Came home from drinking with coworkers last night

And there’s a block for all the knives, a new toilet seat, and, in the freezer, chocolate ice cream. It’s like I live at Hogwarts and every time I turn my back the house-elves have done something. Go Jeff.

Said goodbye to Liz and Klaus last night. Liz is an Irish lass who was with us in HR very briefly but memorably and honorably (and if I say why she was memorable, that would be indiscreet) and Klaus is a German lad who was with the company for about the same length of time as me. Like everybody who’s been at BigCo for more than ten minutes, he has an Allegra anecdote; faithful readers of this blog will know that I write Valentine cards for coworkers every year. One year his read, “I love you as much as I love the company ERP” which is kinda like saying you love boils, plague, cedar splinters and popped collars. He sought me out afterwards and with a classic everyman WTF expression on his face BEGGED me to reveal what in God’s name he’d ever done to deserve such a card. Everybody in earshot hearing this for the first time burst out laughing…especially the people from Finance.

I spent 50 bucks on jugs of beer and nibblies, and some of the folks there coughed up some money, so I only ended up spending what I would have spent on myself, so it was more than satisfactory.

I am making chocolate waffles. My happiness is tempered somewhat by the knowledge that somewhere, lurking in the batter, is a piece of eggshell. I hope I get it and not Jeff.

Ooh, I just remembered. Ian M. gave me a lift home and he’s got a brand new Prius. Silver, of course. What a sweet ride that car is!

Off to the back doctor this afternoon

My life has basically become a very unpleasant place, and my sleep is getting worse and worse, so off I go.

Cousin Gerald is now a grampa times two. Hurrah! More deets as I get them.

Youtube Bingo last night was great… Jeff and I learned about Jon Lajoie. If you already know about him, great; if you don’t, well, let’s just say his ability to keep a straight face while singing lines that make you spew your beer in all directions (one of us, I won’t say who, actually did have a beercident) makes him an instant classic. Not safe for grandparents, sorry. Or anybody with pretensions to taste and decorum. Not.

Family here

Keith and Paul and Jeff and ScaryClown and I had a whole salmon and garlic bread and salad for dinner.  No dessert but blueberries.

It was really pleasant; we ate on the back deck in the dying sun and watched ScaryClown get along really well with Gizmo, and we played Youtube Bingo after supper, and that was loads of fun too.

A death and an incident involving lots of blood

I light a candle for my beloved worksibling Tanya’s grandmother, who passed at RCH today.  Go gentle across the rainbow bridge, elder.

Ahem.  So I get this cryptomundo text message from Katie saying that she’s been living in a horror movie.  OF COURSE I immediately assume that it’s Dax, and it very plainly turns out not to be, in fact, Dax behaved with more calmness and civility than anyone could credit him with, considering that a guy with a dirty great knife was alternately trying to stab him and kick his door and his HEAD in.  End result.  One of Dax’s roommates is homeless, with about 7 criminal charges pending, Katie is fine except for the strained muscles you always seem to get when some drunken animal is trying to kill you with a knife, Dax had to have stitches, the culprit had to have reconstructive surgery because he was so fecked he sliced himself across the tendons in three fingers. Katie is here, helping me cook spaghetti and vibrating gently.  Dax put his life on the line, literally, defending Katie, and has been the soul of gentlemanly courtesy since, so I am much obliged to him.

The perp is an ex drug addict (now just a drunk) who is normally a really sweet guy.  He also has brain damage from having been electrocuted and he was already on disability.  Oh yeah.

Katie and Dax cleaned up the house.  There were apparently torrents of blood… I’m debating whether to ask Dax for his cell phone footage, as he filmed what the place looked like afterwards.  Schadenfreude, anyone?