the good, the bad, the ugly

the good:

the swimming pool experience yesterday was just excellent. he followed instructions, and i came up with some new exercise ideas, and his swimming dramatically improved in front of my eyes. not only is his crawl technique significantly better, but he figured out how to get himself to the bottom of the deep end and we generally enjoyed our time together.

we both had a great time.

i napped well in the afternoon. in the early evening, we spent some time discovering bird flight simulators (such as birdz and aquila) - while the intention is to learn how to code them, i ended up feeling a bit overwhelmed...

while we were doing that, i installed starcraft ii (we're not really using our windows machine, so i was pleased to learn that it runs on a silicon mac!) and war thunder. the latter i tried out while mr smear was in the shower, but the former? mr smear and i have completed the tutorials and begun the campaign, with him playing each level first (and me kibbitzing) and me playing through after, and we're both having a blast!

we finished watching the boy and the heron during and after dinner, it's absolutely gorgeous and i was pleased that we all enjoyed it together.

i slept pretty well last night (until i was woken up by imagining the work conversations i need to have) and i napped a fair amount after everyone else got up.

more starcraft ii today, and we finally continued watching fantastic fungi which we started a few months ago. my late coworker had recommended it to me, and i was caught completely by surprise by the sudden shift in direction, and now it's too late for me to ask him what it is that made him recommend it to me. did i mention my opinions on terrence mckenna's food of the gods? or timothy leary's writings? did it have to do with veganism? or did he just happen to have seen it recently?

the bad:

on our way out to the swimming pool, we discovered that something broke the valve on his bike's front tire, so in addition to having to take the bus, we're going to need to get it fixed soon. that sucks.

my new filling is super-sensitive to cold. and it feels like i've been eating a lot of things that are much harder than expected - like the raisins in my muesli which are unusually small-rock-like.

i think my ingrown toenail isn't healing.

gd and i have unfriended some recently-added friends because they've gone from protesting the government to blaming us for the supposed famine in gaza and dressing their daughter in watermelon shirts. WTAF.

our afternoon walk this evening should have been good, but i left the house in a bad mood and returned in a bad mood.

the ugly:

as if the office politics from thursday weren't enough - they woke me up in the middle of the night and i never quite made it back to bed - while mr smear and i were at the swimming pool yesterday i noticed some redness around his eye.

it's herpes again. this time, there's a blister right on the edge near his tear duct, and i'm freaking out. and to make things more interesting, the timing couldn't be worse because now taking him to the doctor tomorrow and giving him his meds really interferes with his summer camp experience, which in my opinion is critical for him in terms of being a corrective normal-israeli-kid experience. (not to mention how expensive it is)

baby rabies, coughs and game time

friday evening:

gd wasn't well enough to join us, but my mom, mr smear and i walked to the synagogue and back. it was hot, and it's not *that* far but it's definitely too far for gd even on a good day, so i guess if we're going to start going regularly we're going to be taking a taxi or something.

overall, it was a good experience, it's a nice shul and very familiar. having said that, mr smear has an issue with smaller kids and it was *really* hard to manage him in the moment. we've since sat him down and had a conversation, and we've talked about it again, and hopefully he'll calm the fuck down.

so that was friday night. otherwise, it was really nice to be able to make kiddush together for real, and not via whatsapp.

yesterday:

we had some good talks with mr smear, and we had some difficulties with mr smear. it was another "downtimey" day, reading / video games / not much. in the afternoon my mom, mr smear and i went for a walk to and through park hayarkon, then stopped at a really nice bar near basel for beers (or sprite), and then stopped for sandwiches and croissant desserts on the way home.

their cubed croissants blew my mind, and i had to get one just to try it. a croissant cube filled with pistachio and vanilla cream. it was pretty darned good.

the evening was a bit rough. mr smear needs to spend more time with kids his own age - but at the same time, he also needs a break from his schoolmates.

revelation of the day: disco elysium isn't just a great detective game, and it isn't just great eye-candy. it's a comedy, but a psycho-philosophical one deeply rooted in literature and with a deep sense of irony.

today:

first order of the day: gd gave me a haircut. i feel much, much better about it.

i rollerbladed to work, and made great progress on my current project. i took two breaks during the day: the first, to pick up a package from ali express; the second, to buy a new vacuum cleaner. now that we have the replacement, it seems like the warranty on the original is much longer than we were told...

gd's on antibiotics, my mom's started coughing too, and mr smear's cough has suddenly gotten dramatically worse. gd's given him something in the hopes it would help him sleep, but it doesn't seem to be helping and it has antihistamines in it so we're going to have to defer (again) his dairy allergy challenge that was scheduled for wednesday :/

after dinner all four of us played uno together, and it was lots of fun.

i suggested my mom watch the game changers this evening, and she did.

i played a whole lot of kaycee's mod this evening. that's a whole lot of excitement, followed by a whole lot of disappointment.

goddamn.

i'm going to bed.

winding down or winding up?

 we've just watched the shoshani riddle, which is amazing. i know its director from our rollerblading group, and watching his journey - and his incredible discovery - was fantastic. i'm a bit sad that we only had hebrew subtitles, so we're in for a re-watch as soon as english ones are available.

...

most of today was quiet, i did a lot of resting (i have a lot of catching up to do for the three nights of sleep i missed this last week) and i read through the bulletproof coffin collected edition. what an intriguing and fun read!

...

the end of the afternoon turned sour, mr smear railing against going out (as usual, and as usual after agreeing) becoming a continuation of last week's fight with gd. it was a very frustrating experience for both of us, but i feel like we got out of it in a relatively healthy way and we both have some homework to do.

i took him out for a walk, and we had what felt like a breakthrough which was rewarded (for both of us) with ice cream. then we stumbled across a large, mounted world map in good condition, and a hebrew-english dictionary that looks a lot better than the one we have.

...

i've just managed to get through a lot of the dishes, and i'm now getting ready for bed. my knee's definitely healing, but the fresh scab keeps cracking (the roastie's on the front) and i still have to sleep cautiously...

...

i'm nervous about reading the news. i was also nervously deliberating about whether to purchase a contentious graphic novel about the palestinians, but i think i need to put the money down to be able to share a review from an israeli perspective (which i wasn't able to find).

small miracles

 saturday:

i managed to drag mr smear out on the bike, which ended up awesome - he "remembered" that he actually enjoys riding his bicycle, and now that the puncture and gears have been repaired it was much more fun for him :)

we finished watching american splendor, and it's really as great as everyone said it was. what an inspirational film! and it answered a bunch of questions i had from reading our movie year.

yesterday:

one of ze germans decided to bring his family to tel aviv yesterday morning, so a whole bunch of us rocked up and had a great walk about! it's very rare to be able to get my family out of the house spontaneously and quickly, so that in itself was amazing, and when mr smear was being relatively antisocial (he was actually pretty cool most of the time) he found a quiet seat to read the copy of naruto that scrapper gave us years ago, and he's really digging it ^_^

we left the group in search of breakfast, and finding pesach-friendly vegan food was quite a mission. we eventually settled on hummus abu dabi, which was just fantastic. we all ate too much, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

the afternoon was pretty chilled, and although there was some unpleasantness surrounding mr smear getting his homework done he did eventually get through it before sundown. i had to re-learn long division in order to teach it to him, which i must admit was kinda fun :P

netflix's baking impossible is a really great show. after getting mr smear into bed, gd and i watched an episode of the boys to remind ourselves (the warmup to the 3rd season finale), and then the first episode of invincible because neither of us really remember much.

...

gd and i both slept badly last night, for different reasons. i've now spent two nights on the couch again. this mattress topper is not doing the trick :(

...

my first on-call with my new employer is over, and it was fine. now i've got a proper day off for the holiday, and tomorrow's back to "normal".

...

oh, i tried to watch the mgmt - kids video with mr smear this morning, and that was a really bad idea. i don't know how i'd forgotten just how scary it is, and here i was trying to show him how scary it wasn't :(

continuation

 how does a saturday spent playing video games, watching movies and reading comics end with us feeling more exhausted than when it began?

while a lot of the day was nice (reading american splendor: our movie year, being mr smear's wingman in word factori, watching half of inu-oh, urchin's visit), it was constantly punctured by his suffering and it was capped off with him fighting with us about brushing his teeth.

*sigh*

gd and i managed to watch two more episodes of unchained before crashing, it's really, really good.

i'm the only one who got up "on time" this morning, i took out the trash and picked up some coffee and sat down to try and figure out how to get mr smear's PCR results, take care of a few little items, and watch some of the war on children. i've only managed to get through about twenty minutes of it, but so far it's all worrying stuff we're already aware of.

mr smear got up with an eye much more swollen, so we're now trying to get a referral to return the ER and it's proving really hard.

...

oh, and with everything else going on i just realized that neither of the recommended babysitters i reached out to responded to me, so between that and the eye situation we're going to have to cancel our tickets to watch my friend's documentary the shoshani riddle on tuesday :(

maintenance

 the mold situation seems to be at a stalemate for the moment. it seems like we always need our airconditioning to be one in the wrong ways to dehumidify, which is frustrating.

speaking of frustrating, we had a shitty morning this morning, but for a change it was gd and not mr smear. at least mr smear got off to a good start in spite of the noise around him.

related, we've been having an issue with mr smear picking at his lips. we've told him how bad it is and what the risks are, and we've tried threatening negative reinforcement, but i didn't feel like that was going to be a successful strategy so i turned to bribing him. his face lit up at the idea that i'll buy him minecraft tokens if he'll let his lips heal.

last night after posting, i crashed. and with all the chores that needed doing this morning, i didn't catch up. fortunately, the workday went well in spite of that, even if it did feel really long.

i freaked out about money this morning when i looked at my bank account, but now that i've looked again i think they're just showing the numbers in a really dumb way. and my "personal banker" is a buffoon. just like the other ones before him, so i've no idea if he knows what i'm asking him when he answers. and it's really not clear if we actually have money for rent this month or not.

the ra'anana attack today was shocking, but i'm not going to lie: i've been nervous about ramming attacks for weeks... every time i wait to cross a busy intersection i half expect to be run over...

this is just awful. and the hostage situation is awful. and our soldiers still in danger is awful. and our political shenanigans are awful. and the anc literally selling south africa to the devil is awful.

...

my neck's been griefing me since the weekend. 

...

we had a pleasant evening, watching our universe over a good dinner, and since bedtime (we resumed the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy) it's continued to be pretty chilled. i feel like i should be doing stuff. or maybe not. 

all over the place in the rains

(rains of water and rockets)

 i had a whole lot of urgent and important things to do today, but instead i wasted a good couple of hours running around trying to get security keys cut for our bomb shelter, with zero success. although the second mission did teach me a lesson - not to buy falafel from our "usual" place any more - and not to leave the house in closed shoes without an umbrella. i got caught in a massive downpour, and hid out in a coffee shop that shut its doors right in the middle of it :/

my first day of my last on-call was okay, i guess. the collaborative part went well. it was weird constantly missing the CTO who's (apparently) been trying to speak to me since i handed in my notice.

my employer sent a lego set for mr smear, he was really excited - that was awesome ^_^

gd says we were in the shelter four times today, but i'd lost track by the time she said it. one foot in front of the other. we were interrupted by the siren in the middle of dinner, and mr smear was visibly panicked - that broke my heart. even so, he enjoys going down to the shelter because i let him play games on my phone. that doesn't help when we're - for the second night in a row - interrupted while i'm reading to him in bed... $#@!

i'm also finding it very difficult to balance getting him to do things quickly and efficiently in case there's an attack, and not making him paranoid that there's going to be an attack any minute. this shit is hard.

gd's had two offers from very generous and concerned friends to help us get to montreal. she also managed to get in touch with the canadian authorities responsible for airlifting citizens out of the country. (not very far, but whatever). she hasn't been able to decide whether to actually go or not, though, and it's proving a tough call for her. i've told that i'm happy with whatever she chooses, and i really don't think that us being separated for a short while is too big a deal.

...

a while ago we watched j'accuse!, an incredible documentary about the efforts of my (half) sister's cousin (from the other half) and the granddaughter of one of the villains to get some kind of justice for some of the most brutal massacres my people (both sides of my family came escaped lithuania) have ever suffered. the description of what was done to us then by the lithuanians (before the nazis even arrived) was absolutely shocking. when trying to compare the pogrom of the 7th of october to anything, i find that comparisons to 9/11 just don't cut it, because they don't take into account the personal, vile, evil, perverse and brutal nature of the attacks. the lithuanian massacres, though? that's it. that's the comparison.

we've been persecuted before, we'll be persecuted again. we promised ourselves after the holocaust "never again". well, here we are. "again". the only difference is that this time we're not taking it lying down.

...

i just spoke to my mom for a while, and i'm concerned that south africa's become even more dangerous for jews than it was before - i mean, the whole world just exploded with antisemitism, but in south africa the goddamned president himself is in on it. i made my mother promise me that if things take a turn for the worse, she's to remember that i told her that i'd rather worry about the money to bring her and help than to lose her.

it's exactly what i've been saying the whole time, but i think the current situation is beginning to drive home just how dangerous south africa is.

quiet celebration

 very quiet. weirdly quiet. i'm not complaining.

we went out to pick up a bike chain and a shower head, on the way encountering a man behaving very strangely on the bus. when we got off he walked straight into gd, and it's really not clear if it was an intentional assault (which is what gd thinks) or just him being very high or somewhat brain-damaged. i literally don't know, and i watched things unfold right in front of me.

on the way back, we encountered a woman who was on the phone with the police while desperately trying to clear something from her eyes, some liquid which had been thrown two blocks down between a bunch of... i don't know who else, but we saw two arab men and one of them was also dealing with his eyes, so i expect that there were others involved that had disappeared already.

so it was a strange and tense there-and-back.

we spent the next couple of hours taking things easy, i messed around with unity while watching typescript origins: the documentary which was surprisingly interesting. my experience with trying to get a 2d mobile unity project to build? surprisingly frustrating:

My expectation was a project that would at least build out of the box for a mobile platform target. What I got was a missing configuration (no adaptive performance provider and frame timing stats not selected), a compilation warning of "unable to find player assembly" (with no suggestion of where to begin creating one, a tutorial / doc link would be nice), a very unclear build failure that appears to be related to my using an older version of Unity installed only a week ago, and then Gradle failures relating to version support in spite of the fact that I'm using the built-in SDKs.

The 2d platformer tutorial, on the other hand, built for Android and deployed to my phone with no hassle whatsoever.

and i'm still going on the attempts, and i still haven't figured out what's wrong...

i took mr smear out with his bike, we went to a park close by and this learning-to-ride-a-bike thing is a series of lessons for us both. i'm trying to keep things light and fun and it's difficult with a kid who gets angry easily when things aren't working how he expects. and i don't exactly know what i'm doing in getting him into it / supporting him while he gets the hang of it, even if i basically know how to ride a bike.

but that part of the experience was fine, overall. what killed the experience was that both of us were being bitten to shreds by mosquitoes, and we were harassed from the first park to a second, before being chased home.

sheesh.

we haven't made much progress with the yom kippur puzzle which is on the dining room table, so kiddush and dinner were on the coffee table and we finished the adventure time: stakes season with gd.

i've been continuing my attempts with unity since (mr smear went to bed after 10pm, i think) and i'm a bit shocked that it's midnight already...

three for three

 yesterday morning started off on a fantastic note - i disabled the linter and tested out my theory, and it worked beautifully! then i got some work done before taking a call from a recruiter for a company i'm not particularly thrilled about. i worked from home yesterday, and it was a long day but marginally successful.

mr smear and i got through most of his homework between last night and this morning, and we're currently trying to finish up the last two questions before shabbat begins. as frustrating as the experience can (and has) been, it's exceptionally rewarding to see him beginning to get comfortable and succeeding and taking pride in his successes.

last night i went out with sailor after putting mr smear to bed, and we ended up in château shuál, a really cool little place. by the time i got home, bathed, and had watched a bit of comedy before going to bed, it was 1am again...

this morning went pretty smoothly, and after i got home i took care of a few things while occasionally helping gd deal with the black mold (vinegar spray and elbow grease). then we did a huge grocery shopping (barely manageable, my back's better but still twitchy), started vetting the first gremlins movie, then i picked up mr smear and brought him home. we had a bit of a fight on the way home which resolved nicely - through the bad vibes i learned that he has grossly misunderstood my motivations as his dad, but once we aligned, we hugged and moved on.

i napped for about an hour, and woke up seriously groggy. now i'm just trying to breathe and relax into the weekend.

...

mr cat is making good progress on the next comic pages. they've taken forever, but i have a good feeling they'll be worth the wait.

...

we've been watching transcendent man in bits and pieces, and with that in mind some of the news i read today just blew me away:

• scientists build a working tractor beam
• a brain implant thinner than a human hair

weekend complete

and on the seventh day - and a fair amount of the sixth - i rested. sailor came over for gd's vegan sushi dinner last night, we had a good time and even spun gd having a particularly emotional moment into a positive (her spine injuries are far from trivial, she's still not used to feeling allowed to have emotions about it).

this morning mr smear and i got up together (erm - he got my up) and we worked together to solve a puzzle in dragon quest builders 2 that's been bothering him for a while. i then managed to convince him to walk with my to meet up with nystire and his family - i'm still feeling pleased and proud that i managed to manipulate him into coming out with a good attitude - and just as pleased that gd was able to meet us there.

nystire and i took longer than planned for our coffee mission and returned to a goodbye with some tensions, but overall it was a really nice way to spend the morning and the walk home was really cool as well. it was a beautiful day.

we spent the second half of it doing whatever, mr smear continuing his game ("it's WAY better than minecraft), me finally convincing cdk to publish a static website with both a domain and subdomain, watching the first half of back to the future while eating leftovers and oatmeal, reading to mr smear and both of us laughing hysterically (we're almost finished charlie and the chocolate factory, the book has some hilarious moments), and chatting with horseman.

...

that was the positive stuff.

gd and i then settled down to start watching j'accuse!, the documentary about the lithuanian holocaust. it's beyond horrifying. especially if you're of lithuanian descent (which i am).

the world needs to know that this happened to us, and the world needs to understand that the lithuanian government is *continuing* to cover this up.

the wrong conspiracy theory debunked

holy cow. we just watched ethos, hosted by woody harrelson and edited by members of the illiterati*.

this documentary, combined with hot coffee, fahrenheit 9/11, ungrip, the century of self and a couple of others, paints a phenomenally bleak picture of the united states, its motivations and its influences.

for the longest time i've found myself infuriated by 9/11 conspiracy theorists. i usually take a skeptical view of conspiracy theories because conspiracies are difficult to pull off and there aren't many organizations with that kind of intelligence, reach and discipline; in the case of the 9/11 conspiracies, the evidence supporting it was utterly refuted early on and there really wasn't any reason to go on and on about how the planes couldn't possibly have caused the amount of destruction that they did.

but what i never heard from 9/11 conspiracy theorists was how it was entirely plausible that the powers that be (presumably the wunch of bankers behind the federal reserve farce) arranged for the attacks in the first place: al qaeda could easily have been inspired and assisted in their attacks without involving so many people that someone would be able to spill the beans. i buy into occam's razor, and that's a fairly simple explanation that doesn't defy the evidence.

anyway, that's not really what ethos is about. i found the ending pleasantly surprising and warmly inspiring. there is hope! and as long as we don't let anyone limit the power that the internet has bestowed upon us, there are ways up out of this subterranean tunnel.

* the subtitles were surprisingly wrong a lot of the time and some of the quotes had spelling errors, one would expect a production like this to be slightly more serious about quality control

drained - part iii

[... continued]

when i walked into the gym a guy i'm friendly with was behind the counter, and he's taken it upon himself to right the wrong that is me having ordered a custom shirt when i moved to the advanced mat in jiu-jitsu and still not having received it. it turns out that the other guys were all blowing me off, and that the order had been cancelled. he was kind enough to use his employee discount and give me four shirts instead of the money back; he used his discount again later when i paid for my new fighting shorts. i'm really pleased with all that.

kickboxing was good, but i was breathing even worse than on tuesday! that was crazy :(

i ran into mti, and explained to her that the reason nothing's happening with the comic is because... nothing's happening with the comic. i've told her i'm hunting for new illustrators, and i really hope i find someone soon :/

badger gave me a ride to the supermarket and i bought some emergency supplies, i came home and ate while watching steve jobs: one last thing. the biography was way more in-depth but it's nice to actually see the footage.

---friday:

it was my second day of stomache troubles. otherwise, i enjoyed a good, relaxed wake-up. completely obsessed with the razors edge, total earworm.

...

örmagörd, i'm like a little kid - i was rocking out while brushing my teeth and ended up with swipes of toothpaste on my chest :$


...

having left my umbrella at work, i was forced to use my poncho. i'm very glad i have that poncho.

i made some progress towards transferring my apartment lease, and bought myself a keyboard for work because the ones the it department provides suck. i sat with one of the guys cooperatively debugging and had a hard time keeping my eyes open because i was so tired. after we were done, he spent an hour introducing me to the magic of twilio.

i briefly spoke with my toronto cousin, had an awkward moment in the elevator when i realized that i'd responded to a stranger's "have a good weekend!" with a "thank you", and ended the week with some hard work. i practiced role models on the metro - which seems a bit creepy - and met up with gd at p.m. for way more sake than i was ready for and a delicious, delicious meal.

we headed over to côte-des-neiges to a russian restaurant for kgb's surprise birthday party. we drank a lot and danced a lot and the borscht was brilliant after i scooped out the blob of cream to the waiter's dismay and disgust.

gd and i had a wonderful time. our tipsy revelrie felt sooooo good and i was sooooo grateful that it was weeekend and sooooo grateful for how the week had played out, but i wasn't so excited about chasing it all with a blood donation the next morning.

i fell into bed, absolutely wasted.

---yesterday:

i woke up with cotton wool in my head and mouth. it was a perfect cool, rainy morning and i was warm and toasty and foggy and sleepy and the belly discomfort from the previous days was gone and i was sooooo comfortable and i was enjoying my dreams and there's nothing i wanted less than to drag myself away from all that.

but i did. i clambered out of bed, got ready as fast as i could (not very fast) and left a little late for the slam team meeting. i arrived there and was met with a silent, empty room. i fired off messages to the rest of the team and eventually one of the flatmates appeared and reminded me that our usual host is away for the weekend.

i thought about that on my way back to the metro. since i've been at work i've been so overwhelmed that everything *not* work has been on autopilot. i knew my teammate was away, but didn't connect that piece of information to whether or not we'd be meeting.

wow :/

at least there was time to do the shopping i needed to do. it was inconvenient to be walking around with both a sweater and a poncho, the latter going on and off every time i left or entered a building, but i picked up a decent iphone case, and i found a good pair of under armor shoes to replace the ones that screw up my feet.

i would've picked up a lightning cable from the apple store if it hadn't been so pricey. i picked up a knock-off from walmart later instead.

i had a quick lunch / snack at home, which would have included baba ganouj had that not been taken over by a very serious mould, chatted briefly with my mother while setting up twilio (and forgetting my password, which would drive me nuts later), hunted down all the rental assignment forms and rushed out to get them printed.

...

a girl begging in the metro was particularly aggressive.
"sorry," i shrugged.
she took a step closer.
"how about two dollars?"
"sorry," i said as i shook my head.
she took another step closer.
"one dollar"?
now she was way too close for comfort.
"why are you sorry?"
i stared back at her.
"why are you sorry?"
"because i'm not interested in giving you any money."
"you could have just said 'no'" she snarled as she stalked off.

and you could have not bothered a total stranger, and not harassed him for trying to be polite in an uncomfortable situation.

...

printing the assignment forms was quick and painless. i stopped in at walmart to buy the cable, and by the time i got to my apartment there wasn't time for coffee and i'd only had my first cup in the morning. the guy i'm assigning to rocked up a little late with his girlfriend. nice kids, but *damn* they took a long time to fill out the forms!
by the time i walked out it was 6.30 and i was running late for the 7.30 movie and was exhausted and hungry and feeling bad for making gd meet me at the cinema after she'd had a hard day at work.

i then had to wait a ridiculously long time for my meal in the food court. then i sat down and the people at the table next to me were watching videos on their phones at top volume. then gd walked in, suffering real back pain.

[furious part i]

we went to see the movie anyway, clearing things up a bit on the way in. we'd missed the first few minutes, but it didn't matter too much. guardians of the galaxy is GORGEOUS. total sensory overload, funny and fun and we'll definitely be seeing it again.

[furious part ii]

---today:

after sorting things out we went to bed exhausted, i dreamed insane dreams and woke up with a stuffed nose.

[furious part iii]

we took a while to clean up, literally and figuratively, i was introduced to the pixies and getting a bit more sleep was good. we went to midi 6 for a desperately needed lunch, then headed downtown to brave the crowds and pick up an ipad to replace gd's computer. i mentioned my new iphone and the amount it's improved my quality of life - gd's pc has been driving her nuts and it's so old and dysfunctional that there's really not much we can do with it.

by the time we returned home it was 5.30pm and we still had tons to do. the evening has been spent setting up the ipad and introducing gd to its wonders, posting, grocery shopping, doing laundry, eating wonderful home-made vegan pizzas (groundless beef and daiya cheese), being admitted to a lone soldier's veteran club, and wondering where the time has been going while my task list hasn't been getting any shorter. and now it's almost 1am.

DAMN. i needed a restful weekend :(

drained - part ii

[... continued]

l'artère sent me an email that was distinctly lacking in professionalism, asking (months down the line) if i had paid up my event bill... which i had. not impressed.

i did some stretching, then joined gd in watching premium rush, which just seemed like a sorry excuse to put together cycling and new york city. not exactly mind-blowing.

trying to get to bed early became falling asleep after 1am.

---wednesday:

it was a rainy morning but a good one nonetheless. having forgotten my lunch, i walked into the supermarket across the road where i'd ordered commensal meals the week before. i get that the manager can't speak english, but when i asked in french for him to speak slower it really grated my cheese when he simply repeated himself at the same speed. it took me an awkward moment to figure out more or less what he was saying.

for lunch i decided to try a little indian restaurant nearby called "pushap". seriously? i just found my new favourite indian restaurant, and it's right next to my office. which means it's right next to where i *used* to live.

godsdammit.

their thali is insane. and it's only $5!

...

in the afternoon i discovered that i'd been attempting to solve the wrong problem... i'd been given the impression that the feature i was implementing had worked once and been broken, when in fact it had never been implemented. that meant that i'd been working in the wrong problem space, and my efforts moved from backend to mobile frontend. mobile frontend is a nightmare, and what remained of my week was spent trying to get ios and android phones to use html5 the way the standard is defined: when apple and google have specifically gone against the standard, the documentation becomes utterly useless and trying to work off it is a solid waste of time :(

i was stupidly tired after work, it was too warm for a sweater and too rainy to be outside and i was too slow for la panthère verte where i managed to offend the girl trying to be helpful because she switched from english to french and i misunderstood that she was actually explaining what i'd asked her to :(

it was a great poetry evening, though, and the only thing that wasn't cool had to do with team politics. that's something that really shouldn't be a thing :(

...

i was so excited to come home and find my syndicate scanner iphone case! and so very, very disappointed to discover that the iphone 5c's volume buttons are incompatible with iphone 5 cases. what kind of a design decision is that?! it's so absurd, why would nobody mention the difference when selling 5/5s accessories?! fortunately, my letter to vistaprint's support was responded to with a full refund, and that did a good job of reducing my frustration and relieving me from my sense of ignorance.

...

hot coffee: you don't need to see more than half an hour to get a clear picture of how messed up things are and how bad it is that we all jumped on the "frivolous litigation" bandwagon. george w., you never cease to disappoint.

...

i wrote "unnecessary stress" but i haven't a clue what that was about.

---thursday:

dreams: day and night in a dive bar in the middle of nowhere, then festival fields with a three-ferrari grand prize and plenty more on display

it was cold and raining when we woke up and we were warm and cozy under the blankets. i finally cleared all the dishes and bought a couple of ac/dc albums: back in black (because i owned it) and the razors edge. i don't understand how it's possible that i've never heard the title song from the latter, because now that i have i understand why it's the title song. holy shit.

at the beginning of my lunch hour i walked in to the bell store where i got my phone intending to purchase a case with the store credit the salesman had promised me, but he wasn't there and the guy i dealt with gave me shit even before he looked up my information. he was a complete ass and i walked out in a bit of a rage. the perfect frame of mind to be calling my building manager in. those idiots couldn't grasp that i'm offering them a tenant and the money that goes with having a tenant in an apartment they're complaining is difficult to fill.

my code was fine but my machine was down. i noticed one of the guys playing counterstrike global: offensive, it looks just like i remember cs, and i guess that's the next gaming purchase...

i received a call from hema quebec, but because the french don't pronounce the "h" i thought the poor girl was saying "emma" and that made me make her repeat it for a while before giving up :/

after all that frustration, i figured out the html5 quirks and received a call back from the building manager to say that they were finally acquiescing to my (imo very reasonable) demands. i did some git wrangling until i finally tamed the beast and then took a bit of time out for myself.

[continued...]

sweaty in sheep's clothing

örmagörd.

it's soooooo hot. and we only have one fan, it's in the bedroom. i'm standing here with the window and door open to the night air and i'm sweating bullets.

after a great weekend, i went into work today and found myself very comfortable indeed. it's a great environment, the conditions are excellent and my team members? very smart, and very chilled. and even if they weren't i would be making the best of it, but i hope my first impression lasts. the funny thing is that one of the reasons i'm so at home is because it's just like the army: a big company with more bureaucracy than employees. very dilbert, without a very NOT-pointy-haired boss. very i-can-handle-this-shit.

---friday:

i performed my duties while gd watched half of american: the bill hicks story. we sat down to eat, all excited about watching the amazing spiderman 2 on crackle, but it was just the trailer. it should have said TRAILER, then. bastards!

so we watched bad boys instead, learning the ads by heart as they each repeat three or four times every twenty minutes.

---saturday:

waking up was tough, and "ghetto shaving" without water wasn't actually as bad as i thought it'd be. the craigslist guy delayed my exit because he woke up too late to meet at our appointed time and i had shit to do. after making me wait for ages the day before, he should have been too embarrassed to screw that up :/

i made my appointment just on time, the consultation was brief and not particularly enlightening. my neck was too tanned to get started with the treatment, though, so i made an appointment for three weeks' time and i'm supposed to be exceedingly careful about staying out of the sun. i've had more exposure with less protection in the two days since than in a long time, which is kinda embarrassing...

i picked up a coffee bodum to replace gd's nail-you-in-the-hand one, met the craigslist dude for a smooth handover and slumped on the couch for more ffix. that damned grotto is mean! but after a few attempts (and, i'm ashamed to admit, a quick glance at a walkthrough) i got through to the boss and he's waiting for me for next time.

i left home late to meet vfmp and his boyfriend, and arrived with about three minutes to spare - talk about cutting it close. half an hour later we were in the suburbs (west island), enjoying a beautiful afternoon with badger and co in the swimming pool, stuffing ourselves on a great vegan barbeque and then losing myself in the jacuzzi. i've got to get us a hot tub. i felt like i'd returned to the womb, i don't remember when last i relaxed so perfectly! high on a hot tub, i was.

badger's dogs (boxers) are wonderful, one of her friends broke the ice by farting loudly as she joined us poolside (she's pregnant), and all around everyone was nice and interesting. the music was good too, it turns out that badger's into good trance :)

i was disappointed when gd called to say she couldn't make it, but not surprised. her timing was excellent, though, because the guys were just leaving so we all went together. gd and i had an evening of bad boys and massages. not quite as good as a jacuzzi, but certainly nothing to complain about.

---yesterday:

there was a scary freak-out at 1am caused by a leg cramp, followed by deep dreaming and stunningly restful sleep. newk'd and his girlfriend came over for haircuts and i taught them both the basics of tekken, and it was gratifying to see them both get it and to see her beat him in a close round :D

we left for yoga in the park, and our exit was plagued by not-a-comedy of errors. our spirits and tensions bobbed up and down until we got to the park, where we met up with horseman and gd's best friend and did some really hard yoga that had at least two of us feeling all bubbly and good afterwards!

i tried really hard to avoid the sun but even my oversized hat couldn't protect me; we made our way to see great friends of gd's who i hadn't met yet and our first stop was a new vegan place that had just closed for the afternoon. fortunately they have a car, so we drove over to aux vivres which is always full of win.

the couple is fascinating, he's a writer and she's a producer / director / artist, and he's also slowly becoming a well-respected self-taught physicist. we all talked for hours, my brain was really flexing and being stretched and it was so nice to feel like it was mutual!

after they left, gd made delicious noodles, we watched about half of men in black 3 and then quickly passed out.

---today:

no snooze for you! gd was having none of it. i crawled out of bed, did the dishes and made breakfast, then climbed into an argument of gd's because a "friend" of hers kept attacking her for having a different view of what's happening in the middle east. i'd post here what i wrote but i've already said that i'm done for now, though it's a relief that instead of fueling the fire what i wrote managed to get her to back off.

...

dressing like a grown-up sucks, but i'm very fond of gd's drawing for the day which is of me dressed up as a capital letter.

[revenge exit difficulty]

i left a little later than i'd planned, and was horrified to see 18 minutes till the next metro written on the display! fortunately they'd gotten it wrong and just before i gave up and rushed off to find a cab the next one entered the station. i could NOT be late for my first day.

inside the metro and out, i was sweaty in my sheep's clothing. in spite of that, i felt good and confident with the orientation. i would spend the rest of the day setting up my dev station and learning the ropes. one of those ropes was finding lunch, and after a couple of failed searches i ended up walking all the way to my old supermarket. we have no freezers, so i'll have to pick up a frozen meal every day and the walk takes a good chunk of my lunch hour...

it's a nice excuse to walk outside, but there was a lot of sun and i was unprotected :(
and for some reason my liver was hurting me. i suspect dehydration. at least once i got back i learned where the coffee and purified water are located.

i returned sweaty after my walk and then proceeded to nuke my lunch; when i opened it and the steam hit my face things got even worse! once i got back upstairs, i made a point of going around my team and inspecting them for dress code. tomorrow, i'm going in wearing shorts and a t-shirt :)

i walked out feeling like i'd have to be a complete asshole to be fired. i mean, i'm competent and professional, they're easy-going people and i only have to do my job. which looks interesting and challenging enough.

...

i stopped by walmart to finally pick up sunscreen, tried and failed to find a good sports bag and saw a sign that said $7 for badminton sets. gd wants to play, so i thought "how convenient!", picked up a set and went to pay. i was not pleasantly surprised when the bill came to $10 more than i was expecting, and after waiting for a manager for ages and then dragging him back to the source of the trouble we discovered that some asshole had thrown a completely different (much higher quality) badminton set in the wrong rack.

jolly good :/

...

i came home, went for a good run and sat down to a feast gd had prepared. neither of us had the energy to watch much, having to fold laundry and make the bed was a bit of a buzz-kill and i really shouldn't be drinking beers in the middle of the week. i had shit to do.

but at least i've written this, right?

gearing up - part i

it's friday afternoon, i'm still feeling a bit offline after my first cup of coffee. it's been a political day mostly, which i might mention in another post, and i've done all the dishes and i've got the weight of unfinished business on my back. i'm also quite nervous about monday, because that's when i'm going to go through the border for my permit. i'm a little bit nervous about getting back into an office and a routine, too. i feel like i need to shake some cobwebs out even though i'm sure i'll be fine.

i need to be 100% motivated, focused and ready for anything. i cannot afford to fail.

---sunday:

gd and i watched the source family, a wonderful documentary on a wonderfully strange cult, and that put me into a deep sleep from which i woke up in the morning feeling stuffy. fortunately that went away. i had things to do but gd was on a video call so i spent that time consuming (having fun). afterwards she attempted to make carrot-and-apple juice with the resurrected blender, but that attempt failed miserably and we won't be doing that again. blended ice, maybe. blended carrots, nuh-uh.

the high from my call to my point of contact was short-lived, as gd heard about something remarkably stupid, mean and unprofessional her boss had done almost immediately afterward. that's all referred to here.

we finally cleaned the floors and made the living room livable, and i walked out into a hot, muggy and rainy afternoon to make the boxing class. boxing was solid, although my right arm was hurting and i wasn't sure if it was muscle strain or a pinched nerve. yesterday i realized that it's just muscle strain, the pinched nerve hits other areas.

note to self: bring clean underwear to the gym. i'm not used to showering there; i had things to do (shopping and picking up mail) and i aside from the discomfort i was walking around looking like i'd wet myself where my sweaty boxers touched my shorts. add to that discomfort the realization that i'd left my brolly at the gym when i was more than five minutes away... at least i was still in the same neighbourhood...

after shopping i arrived at my apartment just after realizing that while i've kept the mailbox key, i've given up my entrance key so i can't get to the mailbox without assistance. nice one. to round out the evening, i just missed the metro with frozen goods in hand.

concern for the evening: why are my arms so weak lately? is it nerve damage?

a shower, a quick frozen dinner, a load of laundry and bed.

---tuesday:

i woke up to gd's nightmare pre-confrontation morning; there's little as difficult as telling someone to risk becoming dependent on you when you yourself are in a financial rut. so when things went well, and everyone was happy, you can imagine that there might have been a little post-drama celebrating.

...

i went to meet vfmp for coffee, the beatles - let it be being played by a busker as i left the metro felt quite appropriate. vfmp and i argued about the value of plush toys forgotten in the far reaches of musty cupboards and drew inspiration for a reboot of an old television series. after chatting we were considering going to get lunch somewhere when i realized that i didn't have house keys.

wtf?!?! how did that happen? i called gd to make sure she was there and hurried back, rather ashamed of myself and my ocd failure.

...

i spent some time installing emulators with the intention of playing chrono trigger some day, then rushed out to meet horseman. the metro was overly-warm and i had to wait a while for him to arrive, but once we cleared the surface it was beautiful weather and we walked around, ending up in griffintown visiting abyss. not only is it an awesome art gallery / studio / tattoo parlour, but the owner's prepared to discuss our slam team using the space for fundraising and her mother has aerospace contacts. nice!

i awkwardly called the woman subletting my apartment to ensure i'd be able to get in to the building. it was hot and packed in the metro, i was forced to stand while my blood sugar dropped and the half-hour ride took almost an hour due to service issues. i walked out clammy and unhappy. after making the new tenant feel uncomfortable, someone else let me in to get my mail so i hope she didn't rush home on my account :$

i didn't have time or energy to train so i went for a run along the canal. vfmp let me use his (virtual) library card to download an audiobook and i listened to the first chapters of suzanne collins - the hunger games in between zombies, run! pieces. it's a pretty good system, and i've since figured out how to add podcasts to an accessible playlist so i'll be combining running, zombies and french lessons in the future!

it rained for about half of my run, and i'm grateful that my arm strap is water-resistant enough to protect my phone. in addition to coming home soaked, the pinched nerve in the middle of my back was acting up :(

primary thought for the run?
which do you prefer, winter or summer?
whichever has less rain.

[continued...]

conserving energy - part ii

[... continued]

thursday:

we woke up to a cooler morning, which i spent studying, then napping, then studying again. in the afternoon i went to the gym to work on the bags because i wouldn't be able to make the class, and i spent about ten or fifteen minutes half-crazed hunting my wraps and certain that they were here somewhere and that i was just botching my search rolls. only it turned out that gd had accidentally taken them with to her gym, but fortunately she'd just finished there and we met at the station.

the hour or so that i spent at the gym was good, i worked hard and learned a thing or two from the guy who once made me paranoid about ringworm, who was pleased to learn a thing or two from me in return :)

it's the first time i've showered at the gym and the experience was pretty comfortable, even though i'd continue sweating for a while afterwards and needed to shower properly when i got home. note to self: don't go to the gym without a protein bar, especially when you're no longer living next door.

gd and i watched the end of reincarnated and i was left with the same complaint about the difference in quality between the music on the soundtrack and the actual album he released. we both agreed that while he comes across as a complete buffoon, snoop's at least honest. he really doesn't have much to say, but he's certainly entertaining.

gd received a gift of turkish coffee from one of her clients and it's the shit! a pity for her that she can't sleep after drinking it :P

we had a slam team meeting but i was the only one who showed up so two of us did some creative collaboration and we've had some interesting ideas. we were far more productive than we would have been with a full team, i suspect it'd be smarter for us all to meet in twos and threes separately.

i had serious munchies by the time i left, and being vegan with midnight munchies is a tragedy. i stopped in at a pizza joint where the guy's eyes popped out of his head as he yelled "pizza without cheese?!", and i eventually found a&w's végé burger which i could order without cheese. they still managed to surprise me by putting mayonnaise on it. mayonnaise?? without mentioning it? who the hell puts mayonnaise on a burger?!

i was still hungry when i got home, gd had made beets which i turned into a mess and she sorted me out with a grilled cheese before we started watching bad grampa. we finished watching the movie last night, and i have to say that watching bad grampa .5 first made the actual movie that much more interesting, shocking and clever.

---yesterday:

it was even cooler than the day before, i was sleeping wonderfully wrapped in blankets but i forced myself to wake up so that i could make gd her breakfast shake. i couldn't get back to sleep, so i played a lot of tekken and watched a bit of underworld, which i've been meaning to see since it came out. it's pretty cool.

i wasn't stressing until i spoke to my mother - who's stressing on my behalf - and made a call to the bank to discover that they haven't heard anything of the amount that my mother transferred to me at the beginning of the week. they've told me to wait patiently until tuesday before panicking, and seeing as my bank balance just went below zero i found that so very comforting :/

i spoke to copywriter for a bit, he made some absurd suggestions about what i can do to stay on the continent if my job doesn't materialize and it took a while to explain to him how immigration works. when you're born an american citizen, these are things you never really need to understand...

i lost an hour to running around looking for a supermarket or health store in the area where i could buy commensal frozen meals. apparently there's an actual restaurant location a few blocks in the other direction, so i'll have to check that out.

desperately hungry and feeling out of time, i stopped in at midi 6 for their vegan option, which of course i enjoyed. i came home to study but found my brain non-compliant, so i ended up doing chores instead. it's not like there's a lack of those at the moment :P

i wasn't up for boxing, so i ran again. quite well, and although my legs were sore when i returned they've settled since and i'm feeling pretty good at the moment.

gd and i shopped, i made dinner and we sank into the couch to finish bad grampa before going to bed.

---today:

i didn't fully wake up in order to make breakfast, and so i managed to get back to sleep and dream about renting out space i don't actually have, leaving me with a sense of disappointment when i got up. i'm glad i've finally posted this, i've tidied a little bit more and i'm about ready to face my day.

i've *just* received a request to rent my apartment... for one night. in the middle of september. *DAMN*, that's unhelpful!

---how far are we from a star trek reality?

smoothies and swimming pools

yesterday:

i woke up from dreaming of hanging out with serious fighters in an abandoned warzone, they began harmonizing and were seriously impressed by my singing voice.

i didn't feel like sleeping late; rather i was compelled to arrange things before heading out to bring over more stuff. the screen door gave us some shit, apparently we hadn't put it back correctly :/
we tried watching gintama over breakfast and coffee but gd wasn't up for subtitles. i decided to go, i was taking a large piece of her couch across and we had a fight about whether or not i would take a taxi... which she won. the taxi ride felt like it took forever.

my ps3 *was* there, as were some insects who'd moved in to the trash can and a whole lot of dirt under the carpet i was rolling up which indicates that maybe uncle hate isn't entirely wrong about the cleaning lady's work ethic. i took old meds to the pharmacy for disposal, stopped at the subway for a delicious avocado sub, then returned to fill my luggage with clothing and winter gear and return home.

of course, i packed it really well and forgot to close it, so as soon as i tried to drag it out it opened up and everything tumbled out. lovely.

obviously the first thing to do when i returned was set up the playstation. gd's tv has two hdmi inputs... but only one of them works, so we had to choose between apple tv and ps3. that wasn't too complicated a choice, fortunately. i switched out her superheated amplifier and speakers for my sound bar, which is great from an eco/bill-conscious point of view and the quality's better, but the damned thing doesn't remember volume settings so every time you turn it on you have to press the + button repeatedly until the max light flashes :(

a good friend of gd's arrived and drove us to the apartment for another mission, this time focusing on the carpet and couch cover. i don't think i mentioned the weekend's weather: it was HOT and HUMID. moving under these conditions was trying and damp.

---after her friend left we watched forks over knives. have you seen it? you should see it. seriously, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't.

i'm not saying you have to agree with it, i'm just saying that every single person on this planet needs to be exposed to it. all arguments (after watching it) welcome.

---i played a little tekken, we went heavy* shopping. after that i went alone to my apartment for some hot, sweaty-night-hating packing and struggling over priorities... and then just missing the metro with ice cream in hand and no spoon.

* my arms were already hurting after the previous day's labour.

it was late and i was tired, i showered, had a frozen meal, finished the ice cream and fell into bed.

---today:

i woke up from a long dream in which i didn't participate in an improv / karaoke event in a large concert hall, then found myself spending a night with buddies in jerusalem and was forced to resolve a hostage situation, frustrating the guy who tried to kill a whole bunch of us with our cellphones and obtaining the evidence we needed to put him away.

getting up was rather rough.

gd and i had enough time to finish packing the last of the important stuff and cleaning up before the woman arrived to inspect. she didn't need to inspect, she decided after a short while, but was absolutely stunned at the state of my apartment. she was shocked that it was so clean and that it hadn't been repainted. i'm always shocked by how people damage their apartments, because fucking things up takes effort.

an hour and a half after getting there we were outside with boxes and bags waiting for a taxi. we dropped everything off, relaxed for a bit with an awesome smoothy that i could make now that i've found the stupid tap attachment, watched yes man which is a surprisingly entertaining movie and then went to the municipal swimming pool.

i like that pool, and i love the fact that we live right next door ^_^

i'm currently playing housewife while gd trains (i'll go tomorrow and hope that the gym's not closed for canada day), then we're off to the movies.

*breathes deeply*
*sweats a little*

supertongue montreal introduction - part i

so we didn't get her montreal bagels or smoked meat. and the poutine apparently wasn't all that.

the itinerary:

friday the 13th

x 6.40am pickup
x home, shower, food
x keys for duplication
x underground downtown
x plateau / mont royal record stores
x boxing
x party

saturday

x blood donation
x brunch
- foufounes électriques
x the village

sunday

x atwater market
x old montreal
- parc la fontaine
x mont royal
x tam tams
x l'artère

the details

friday:

i knew it was going to be a rough weekend, but i'm pretty sure it didn't need to start with four hours of painful restlessness; my brain as much to blame as my restless legs.

the cruel, wet friday morning saw me yawning while i waited at the bus station, sitting with everything i needed to be productive except motivation.

introducing supertongue to my place, non-stop debating.

a phone call from revenu québec informing me that my file had been processed, which i already knew because they'd sent me the amount owed.

going to gd's work to pick up her keys, making copies for myself.

trying and failing to walk downtown because a horrible downpour forced us underground.

jugo juice shake fail. supertongue speaks french fluently, apparently the guy working there doesn't.

both exhausted, we headed back to my apartment to rest. and watch 20 years of ufc, so it was only a kind-of rest. it's a must-watch!

i was disappointed to see that instead of the weekend being a shitty day followed by two decent days, it would be two shitty days followed by a decent day. not cool.

i went to gd's apartment - now dubbed "home" - to test my new keys, and passed out on the couch. a nap becomes the deepest slumber when there's a time limit! i woke up still in dream-space, with reality seeming distorted and in a distinctly altered state of mind. so much so that i questioned my own sense of self as i made my way to the metro.

i was upset by my kickboxing coach posting the following:
"how a female dresses is her advertisement. if a female shows half of her body, she's asking to be disrespected."
really? if you think that, you're an asshole. what i really wanted to ask him was if his wearing fighting shorts is his way of asking to be disrespected... unfortunately, i can't say anything without messing with our instructor / student relationship so i have to keep my disrespecting his opinions to myself.

gd was going to join us at the fights, and she'd told me she'd be done in forty five minutes so supertongue and i went to her work to wait for her. forty five minutes turned into ninety minutes, and then gd became impatient with our impatience and it was supposed to be a fun evening. if i had known beforehand we would have gone straight there and asked gd to join us, and she probably would have bailed because until we were almost there she didn't actually realize that we were going to see live fights and not just watch something at a sports bar :S

we struggled to find dinner on the way, experienced taxi drama because the cab we ordered didn't arrive even though his gps signal said we were on the same intersection and eventually arrived after intermission, having missed three of my gym buddies in the ring.

$%!@.

at least there were some good second-half bouts.

saturday:

supertongue and i went to hot sauce, a lesbian party, to introduce her to the scene. the bouncer was a short, dumpy angry girl who tried very hard to keep me out in spite of the fact that i was accompanied by a woman and had paid entrance. the music was eclectic and eardrum-damaging loud, but overall the party was good and we spent a fun hour or two on the dancefloor.

the nightbus was simple enough, we ran a stupid-a.m. poutine mission (i picked up deliciously greasy salt and vinegar fries) and we crashed at my apartment around 4.30am.

...

at 9am i got up half-asleep. i was excited to see the first pieces of work on my comics, then woke supertongue up and we took a long metro ride all the way to radisson. napping well along the way.

jesus, the toilets are badly situated! the designer of the mall should be seated on the sherbrooke end, fed fast-acting laxatives and kicked hard in the shins as he gets up to go.

my first canadian blood donation on behalf of vfmp was friendly and pleasant. and i was so pleased that i didn't pass out! the point of the donation was to be part of an effort to convince the canadian government that screening sexually active male homosexuals is stupid.

there was some awkwardness with supertongue and the guys, but not too much. we headed out before them to meet up at aux vivres, and we'd almost boarded the metro when i realized that i'd left my jacket behind. that was close!

we visited a record store on mont royal that gave me the wanna-buy blues.

aux vivres: the food was delicious as always, supertongue and i went halves on blueberry pancakes and chana "sandwiches". there was decadent overeating, funny chatter and a gorgeous blonde waitress who seemed quite into me; i wanted to wingman for supertongue and see if i couldn't refocus the waitress' attentions but i don't think i have what it takes :P

we went to jean talon market, milled around and then decided to split up and rest because we were both exhausted. i woke up just before gd's station with a start as the metro jolted sharply before stopping, otherwise i might have missed it :P

i didn't exactly rest, but i did end up feeling much better. hummus on top of chana on top of supertongue's mother's amazing home-made hummus seemed like a bad idea, but i only thought that through after eating :(

it took a while to wake supertongue up by phone, and we agreed to meet up at berri-uqam. when i left i realized just how tired i was and worried that my lightheadedness was caused by too much post-donation exercise. it was a gorgeous post-rain dark-blue dusk.

we visited a really cool little live acts pub across the road from the station, then walked around trying to find a cash machine. the village was disappointingly quiet, so that sucked, but we got to see a bit of a great performance that was part of les francofolies. we walked all the way up st laurent, seeing rory macdonald win his fight along the way, and arrived at mont royal quite late. plan b (the bar) really was our plan b.

and that was the end of our night.

*my* night ended with ice cream and chocolate before bed.

sunday:

in spite of sleeping well, i was still buggered. gd and i had a good, late morning while supertongue didn't answer her phone - i was just about to go over and check on her, worrying that she hadn't made it home or something, when she finally responded.

my mom and i had a fight over skype - i think it was over how i'm dealing with my employer's silence over my papers.

i carved up a watermelon but had to abandon it to pick supertongue up from the metro; it was a glorious day, and the spores kind of made it feel like it was snowing. we demolished the watermelon when we got back.

supertongue and i had an argument with gd's friend who'd come over for a haircut, who's an anti-vaxxer. gd kept to the sidelines and although things got pretty heated i think it went okay.

i took supertongue for a walk along the lachine canal and through atwater market before we headed to old montreal, where she decided that she does, in fact, want to move here. it was a great day to visit the old port, and we caught a bit of a science show for kids that was a lot of fun. and made us both feel good about our french :P

[continued...]

superheroes?

superheroes is like a cross between kick-ass, watchmen and community.

i think it's cool. i also think that there're a lot of things i'd do differently. i wonder if they have a superhero forum or something?

where gender wars end frisbeer begins part iii

[... continued]

---yesterday:

yesterday was all about ticking off checkboxes. it began with hearing seether's karma and effect, which, quite frankly, sucks. the music does nothing for me and the lyrics were disappointing to say the least. i listened to that while handling the immense mounds of dishes that had been steadily piling up - yesterday was the day that we decided that it's high time we actually move in together.

a good sign from work! my future boss sent me a list of technologies and frameworks that i need to familiarize myself with :)

we bought a couple of things i thought we needed and stopped for ice cream across from atwater market, taking the opportunity to evangelize the use of soya instead of dairy; the texture really is better! gd gave me a haircut, i dismantled a vacuum cleaner in order to remove a large rag, we hit walmart for a couple of things that saw us both exhausted and continually dropping whatever we were carrying, we slowly, slowly walked on sore legs towards an unhelpful cup of coffee on our way to the further supermarket to pick up daiya cheeses and spaghetti squash where a particularly kind cashier organized a discount on a box full of clif builder bars that had successfully held us up at the self-service counter effectively rendering it a not-self-service counter, then made the long mission home with gd becoming grumpy as we'd totally blown her two rest days by not actually resting.

in spite of her being tired, impatient and clumsy with exhaustion she made two dishes simultaneously while i did further damage to the contents of the sink, hers clam-based and mine tofu-and-bok-choy-based. mine was absolutely exquisite! we complemented that with more ice-cream and a couple of episodes of community and then went to bed.

---today:

i finally finished the dishes and resumed (and finished) the sandman comic. i paid my rent and got info on subletting my apartment, ran laundry and enjoyed a bloody good nap. i woke up, enjoyed *two* perfectly ripe kiwis* and finally got around to posting. my primary disturbances were lunch, watching birth of the living dead and myq kaplan: small, dork and handsome.

* my definition of a heavenly food

the former is excellent, and i found it so utterly validating to my proposed thesis! the latter didn't get a lot of laughs, but his humour is incredibly sophisticated and i thoroughly enjoyed most of it.

---uncharted play's products, soccket and pulse, are inspirational. i'm thinking of purchasing a pulse myself.

my gods: my unread mail counter is back up to 800, i keep accumulating you-have-to-read-these links i send to myself. maybe i should find another place to store them :S