Category: Domestic Life

Yes, yet more moving

Jeepers, you’d think moving a puny little two room apartment wouldn’t take the best part of two weeks, off and on, but Jeff and I hauled out two bags of trash, much recycling and two more boxes tonight (I FINALLY have my soap, my 15 bucks a bar hand milled French soap which represents my one self care gross indulgence – and I got the eggs out the fridge); I packed up about six more boxes in readiness for the truck tomorrow.  Still do not know what we’re going to do about the darned salmon in my freezer. I’m strongly inclined to just thaw them and cook both of them, ta hell with it.
Keith will be coming over tomorrow at 6 to learn “rudiments of cooking”, and then I’ll skate off to the truck rental, pick up Katie and move the rest of the boxes.  It’s closer.

I also talked to Lana, the gal who’s moving in on Monday night/Tuesday morning, and she’s agreed to take the three bookcases and the furniture.  The drafting table is unfortunately toast now due to some of the plastic bits self destructing – plastic does perish – and Jeff wants the little stand Alex gave me, so that accounts for the rest of it.  I’m also leaving her the ironing board.  Since I would have to pay to move all that stuff, I’m just as happy that she wants it.  And if she doesn’t, it won’t be my problem.

Sunday I’ll be cleaning the place.  Empty, I imagine it will be a lot easier!

Sundry

It had to happen.

I’m off to the US today.  I have to leave to go pick the car up in about an hour.  It used to be that you took your birth cert and off you went, and now it’s B1 letter and passport and be prepared for a lengthy wait.  I am glad I am going, but not glad that my back will be trashed by the time I crawl into bed tonight – and it’s been so good since Monday night – and not glad about some other things about which it would be impolitic and possibly career limiting to whinge.
Beef teriyaki stir fry last light, and an episode of Deadwood.  Managed to get my driver’s license address/care card address changed, and stopped off at Brentwood on the way home for ingredaments – what is it about pea pods that makes stir fries automatically better?  I’ve fired off the invite for the housewarming (April 4) and the first FNFD (April 11) and I’ve already gotten a couple of responses, which is great.  Ack, time for a shower.

Eddie was meowing at the back door at 4:22 this morning.   Pouring rain still.  Flurried briefly on the mountain yesterday, everybody in my department all looked up from their desks and gasped simultaneously.

More happy Easter

Deb sent this and I cannot resist posting it.

colouredchicks1.jpg

I dunno what kind of dyes they used but it’s certainly striking.

Yes, I have kind of fallen off the face of the earth of late. Let me see if I can make it up. As it turns out, it’s just as well the Luddite and I didn’t get together; he is feeling poorly and while I would love to quote the email he sent me I am not sure we all equally appreciate the humour of mild stomach flu. The Loonie Awards Show I am volunteering for is going fabulously well; hopefully I will be able to see it tonight as I was minding the door last night. Doug and Elly, the cast and the volunteers have all done an amazing job, and it’s always fun to go to the St James Hall.

The unpacking goes well. I know it seems sometimes that I have carted an unholy amount of paper junk with me over the last 30 years, but sometimes I find stuff that makes me smile. I hadn’t seen the promo for Puzzle Factory, one of Elly’s theatre projects in Toronto, for at least ten years, and the day I am helping her it turns up out of the great dusty pile. I volunteered and performed in that too, and god help us all, my performance is recorded somewhere on VHS.

I am sitting at the desk my grandfather studied at when he was upgrading his education and working for the Saskatoon waterworks. It’s a very pleasant feeling, and it’s a really nice desk. I’m glad Jeff hung on to it for me. I have promised him that he’ll never have to move my bureau again. Paul and I bought it from a second hand store in Toronto – it was solid wood junk then and it’s junk now. But it’s capacious and holds my folding clothes so I should just stfu. I can more or less fit everything except my books in my room. I don’t have an unreasonable amount of clothing but I do have too much for the closet. More dejunking? More dejunking.

Food drink and bed assembly

After a danged slow start, I finally rearranged the furniture in my bedroom into its final configuration and assembled the bed which has supported so much reading, so much sleep, so much songwriting and so much transitory fun into shape.  I really tightened it down pretty hard in the reassembly – with any luck it’s going to stop its assortment of interesting noises.  Then I went to the dress rehearsal for the ticket taking.  I get to be lead hand for Saturday night as Peggy (the writer, not the doctor, and a former writing group colleague – wonderful wonderful prose stylist) won’t be there; I was a value add as I kept asking questions like what do we need for a float and what’s the dress code (I had, providentially given the general deshabille after the move, put aside an entirely black outfit).  Then home.  Too tired – jammed on the Luddite.  Okay, I just moved; I’m allowed to be bagged.  It’s pouring rain.

To quote Eric Frank Russell

I feel like a half stunned cripple, and Jeff collected a few bruises and scrapes as well, but the big furniture is in and I slept on at least a portion of my bed in the new place last night.  Yahoo, as they say.  I should have been pushing stuff into corners after we got here, but the lure of watching the first two episodes of Deadwood with Jeff was too great.  I slept with the door open and Eddie came to visit me sometime around four.  He makes as much noise as a person walking.

This guy will never be President.

Sigh.  We can dream about it.
Mind you, neither will these gents.

Phew.

Today, unpacking, bed assembly, and then over to St James Hall for the dress rehearsal of the show and then to visit the Luddite. I just wish I felt more like moving.

Finally, some packing.

I’ve managed to do some packing and I’m very happy about that.  I also dejunked a whole bunch of clothes including and through out a lot of the standard issue kitchen debris, and Jeff brought a whole bunch more boxes, so the packing will continue apace.  I’m going to sleep in town tonight and take the bus in to work tomorrow morning…. Oooo which reminds me, I should take something out to thaw!

More later….

Okay NOW I’ll go get my bike

I was hoping to get a lift yesterday with a car/bike rack, but that didn’t work out, so now with any luck I’ll be able to pick up my bike today.  I have moved a couple more items to the house including the rest of my computer stuff. Jeff, Keith and I had a friendly evening (Keith hadn’t seen the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven).

The Luddite will be stopping by later at the old place – it’ll be weird not having a computer there, as we are used to entertaining ourselves by watching classic Britcom set pieces and Muppet outtakes.  Tomorrow, more packing – Jeff will come by to help.  What I really need is boxes…. lots of boxes. I still haven’t hired a mover so I suppose I should get going on that too.  Now to change my address on line…

FINALLY SOME CLOSURE

I have been waiting for months for ‘a conversation’ with somebody so I can get over a really interesting and intense part of my life.  I had that conversation last night, and I am so relieved, I can’t believe it.  I even predicted to someone in the phone conversation immediately prior that it would be happening soon – ha!  I should hire myself out as a sibyl. (Thanks Kopper…) 

Now I can pack! I had been resisting packing, and now I can pack.  And I’m picking my bike up tonight.  I’ve decided I’m riding it back to East Van, which may be six kinds o’ insanity with a side of fries, but I don’t care.

I went home sick with a migraine yesterday and I’m still feeling a little queasy and a little ‘odd’ – almost but not quite dissociative – but frankly the emotional lightness I feel right now is making up for all of it.

Clichés so totally rock my world

I was horrified to read a list of clichés on gawker… and I’ve used almost every one.

I will try to “use my words” in future.  If I do any LOLcats stuff I’ll put in my Livejournal, how’s that?  And perhaps I will be more judicious in my use of italics.

I draw the line at my ‘Inertnests’ neologizm going away, though.  I thought it was a nice play on words, all those people in their little inert nests, smashing the stumble button, playing around with reddit, watching Noam Chomsky interviews on youtube….

Today I will do a bundle buggy shop.  I want to see how hard it is to shop locally…..

Oh my god.  I went to the Chinese greasy spoon at the corner of 22nd and Rupert yesterday am.  I ordered scrambled eggs and sausage and got scrambled eggs and fried wieners.  While I was contemplating this horkworthy attempt at breakfast, a trembling, staggering cockroach meandered down the far wall next to the kitchen.

I dropped by Planet Bachelor where the boys had a full house – Jessica W and Katie were there for brekky.  Christ, I should have gone there first.  I hung around long enough to suck back some coffee and pick up some more tax return stuff and then went home, where I stared at the walls and did zero packing for about six hours.  To intersperse with staring at the walls I re-read Curse of Chalion and read Oryx and Crake, which is like holy crap, how many dystopian novels does the world actually require?
Then I came back here on the bus… which only runs every half hour after supper on weekends.  Gizmo and Eddie are starting to get used to me and they are certainly handsome cats.  Eddie will walk right up to you and give you a shove when he’s hungry, with his paw.  It was quite funny.  Both of the cats snore; Giz is wheezing quietly right now.

I’m contemplating the pile of remotes and wondering if I dare try to turn something on.  I need coffee.

Off to the Ferry

I’ll be taking Jeff to the Ferry this morning and probably picking up some veg and hanging around the new place for an hour or so before heading back to the old place to pack.  Daughter Katie is supposed to turn up to help in the afternoon.  I haven’t arranged a mover yet, but hope to do that today as well.

Then I’ll head back here and commune with the kitties until Jeff gets back, and then go home and pack some more.  Life is pretty consistent these days!

I got an email from the Cassini folks.  There’s going to be a within-30k fly-by of Enceladus this upcoming week, so there’s that to look forward to.

All this time we’ve been worried about global warming and with the solar minimum coming on we’re all going straight into the deep freeze.  Why do human beings worry so much about the wrong things?  I still think the global economy’s perched on the edge of collapse.

Douglas squirrel

I got within a metre of one this morning.  They are so cute!

 

Slept at the new place last night. Keith was there as well. Man, the faucets in the bathroom squeak like a b*st*rd.  Other than that, and leaving my cell phone there, I had a good nights’ sleep; tonight, more packing.  The commute takes a little under an hour door to door – that includes the ten minute walk down from the SFU bus loop.  I’m thinking of packing my bed up if I can figure out how to get the mattresses there; I’ve already got some clothes and a toothbrush over there….I’m also working on how to do the commute without the Skytrain in the middle, given that it quits working from time to time.

There was a pile of pussy willow trimmings in the back yard – I absconded with some.

Watched 23.  Meh.

 

 

Geeking out

Honest to god, Kung Fu Mike wasn’t through the door at the new place an inch before he and Jeff were geeking out.  Mike and I hung around for a Few Days in September and a single beer, and then I got a lift home.  A pleasant evening hanging around and watching a movie and shooting the breeze.

Earlier Mike and I went to Kathmandu Cafe.  Small menu but everything we ate was delicious.

We got to the new place and Jeff had already set up the tvs. He described how he got everything moved – I was stunned because that stuff is super awkward when you’re by yourself.  Mike drooled so hard on the tv (and why not) and examined it closely for burnt out pixels. Then they geeked out some more (Jeff moved through part of a scenario in Assassin’s Creed.)  Happy sigh. All in all a thoroughly satisfying evening, and I even got enough sleep!!  No packing, of course….
Oh, and Gizmo ran away earlier and came back while Mike and I were visiting. Then he demanded to be let out again, and I told Jeff to let him.  (He showed up, guzzled some food, and demanded to be let out again…. welcome to having a teenager, I said.)

Bad singing lesson

Kopper and I are still recovering from another singing lesson involving the most dirge like arrangement of “Down by the Riverside” you could possibly imagine. If this goes on I’m gonna bail on the rest of the lessons. I love the teacher and she’s awesome, but her music picks are not “what the people can hum” all the time. On the plus side we did some improvisational group singing last night.

After, I went over to the new place ostensibly to help Jeff move televisions but he declared himself too bagged; at least Kopper got to meet him even if he was far from being in his best shape. After all he’s been moving and driving large trucks around for four straight days, so exhaustion was not untoward.

My packing has slowed to a crawl, but I have set the moving day for the 19th of this month. Hopefully I will be able to get ‘er done by then.