Full, profitable weekend...

On Friday, Leigh and Sheldon booked a table at Don Cherry's to check out the game. And what a game! Congrats to Pittsburgh, even though I thought for sure Detroit would win. Even outside of the game, the night went very well -- good conversation, lotsa drinks. And then I went to get up to leave -- and suddenly the two pitchers I drank hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't remember paying the bill, nor the car ride home, nor anything -- until I woke up Saturday morning at 7:30 on my couch with the TV on and a pounding headache.

I suffered through it, and by 1:00 I was best kind again. Which is good, because I agreed to tutor Richard's cousin in Physics that afternoon. And they paid me for it -- sweet! That night I spent just painting some more of my floors (this project will take a while to complete) and more general housework. Myself and Geoff and his crew were supposed to have a karaoke night, but that got nixed. Fine by me; I don't think my noggin could have taken another thrashing that night. Instead I headed to bed early.

And consequently, got up early. I participated in the neighbourhood cleanup at 10, and in so doing, took advantage of the truck they had rented and dumped about 4 bags of garbage out of my yard. The sad thing is that it barely made a dent in the amount of work I have to do... ugh. That afternoon was more tutoring, and more painting. Then some supper and a coffee with Ginny to close out the weekend.

So it was a balanced weekend: drinking night, quiet night, house chores, tutoring, volunteer work. I'm ready for another one now.

Finally Friday

Good Lord, this week has been interminable. It's not that I'm bored at work, either, it just seems like time has crawled. Should have taken vacation this week. ;)

Next week will be busy: meeting Monday about the possible expansion of a project I finished a few months ago, performance review (dun, dun, DUNN!!) on Thursday, and a luncheon to receive my P. Eng. certificate. Speaking of the last, I got my stamp in the mail on Monday. Now I need to find a way to remove ink stains from the walls, furniture, floors, and the cat ;)

I'm afraid to say anything, but the project I'm working on seems to be showing signs of promise. That's made this extremely long week bearable. I'm hoping it means that I can stop (inadvertently) zapping myself with 30W of continuous wave UHF radiation. Can't be good for me.

I tried making a Hollandaise sauce last night. It totally didn't work out. I found out that one must remove the bowl from heat when adding the butter; otherwise one winds up with a egg and butter soup. Oh well, next time.

Yet Another Monday Recap

While this system does provide regular weekly updates, it does get a little monotonous. And it seems like many of these posts are about home improvement, which is also a bit monotonous, but I'm not changing that for this post :P

This weekend was very industrious. On Saturday, we (being myself and two fellas who know what they're doing) replaced the dodgy back door and dodgy back window. I'm very pleased with both of them now. I got a killer deal on the back door: a nice fibreglass affair with a fancy, but not girly-fancy, half-window. And I bought a huge window for my workshop. I can now jump through it in case of fire (I remember the insurance adjuster giving me grief about that very point). Most importantly: both are airtight. And the back door opens without a tug-of-war, and closes without a bodycheck.

So, that's two more items off my list. Three done, and a fourth (the floors) well on the way. I'm going to arrange a bulk garbage pickup date sometime over the next week to get some of the trash out of my back yard. I've decided that the patio table and chairs that were left behind are too dodgy to consider using. And there's a bunch of other stuff that's gotta go too.

The guys also have a good idea about the front windows. Unfortunately, it looks like they'll have to be popped out and then reinstalled -- properly, this time. The drip caps are missing, as it turns out, compliments of Johnny Cutcorners. And then we'll be able to properly insulate them (I noticed a residual draft coming from them this past winter). The really good news is that it shouldn't cost as much as I had feared. At this point, I don't even care; I just want them done. And if all goes according to plan, they should be done by the end of the month. That'll be fourth item off the list, or, if I get the rest of the floors painted by then, the fifth.

I also got a small shelf for under my kitchen mirror built. Just need to paint it white. I was delighted to see that the unorthodox mounting scheme I came up with did, in fact, work.

Anyways, enough about the productivity. Friday night, Leigh and Sheldon came over to my house for supper. They seemed pleased with the madras chicken I whipped up. And then we spent the evening with a few bottles of wine and a ton of conversation. What an awesome evening -- I'll definitely have to do that again.

Saturday night I was so exhausted that I just flaked out on the couch watching the hockey game. Twas glorious. Yesterday, I went out to brunch with Brad, who is back in town for a quick business trip, and Karen, who I haven't seen in years. That was a load of fun. And then that evening we popped out to the Grapevine for a few drinks and more catchup. Jenn got in that night too, ahead of schedule, so we picked her up at the airport and then came back to my place for a little late-night convo.

A very full weekend, and hence, a very full blog entry.

Recap

So the past week was busy as predicted with the French choir. We had about 5 hours of practice the past week, over Monday and Wednesday nights. Then Thursday was show time. They did a wonderful job -- we've really got some talented singers in this group. We had a fairly large audience this time, and I think it was very well received. Afterwards they surprised me with a card and a gift, which was very touching. *blushing here*

Tuesday night I helped Mike out with some EE stuff, and then headed to the Keg and Shamrock City for Jon and Lynn's PhD convocation -- congrats to both! It was shaping up to be a late night, but I had to duck out at 11:00 or so, what with work the next day and being exhausted and all.

By the time Friday rolled around I was pretty zonked, but Laura was kind enough to host a last-minute BBQ at her place. Myself and Ginny went up there to meet up with her, Blair, and Neil. Good food, drinks, and company. At around 11:30 we called it a night.

Saturday mostly involved cleaning up the frigging mess that accumulated during the week. I think I did about three loads of dishes that day. Between the indoor cleanup, and the shitty day outside, I was unable to do any yardwork. That evening we had a potluck at Jenn's place, where lots of great food was had.

Sunday I hardly did anything, and it was great. I went out to hit some shops for a mirror for my living room. The last destination was Kent, and still couldn't find anything with the right ratio of appearance-to-cost. I was about to pick up a few wall shelves there, as I had been looking for a bathroom shelf, a shelf for under the kitchen mirror, and a mantle-type shelf for above the woodstove. But I realized that I could probably make these shelves for much, much cheaper. In addition, I could then make a frame for a bare mirror and stain it the same colour as the mantle. We'll have to see how it goes; I'd want a darker stain for both, and dark stains are supposed to be difficult to apply to pine.

Seems like I just made more work for myself...

Of Floor Paint

So, continuing (somewhat) my productivity from last weekend, I managed to get my stairs, landings, and hallway floors upstairs painted. I think it turned out well. I'm pleased with the level of glossiness -- and consequently glad I didn't get the glossier, more-difficult-to-use epoxy paint. This was the tricky part, because doing the stairs and painting between spindles was a pain in the ass. Also, I had to keep Dorrie barred in a room for 4-5 hours at a time. I think she'll be happier barred out of rooms. The only pain now is moving furniture to get at the floors.

I also managed to get someone lined up to help replace the back door, which should be happening on this coming Saturday. At which time, he's also going to size up the dodgy workshop window and possibly replace it the week after. It is, I guess, conceivable that if I buckled down with the painting, I could have three more items crossed off my list in two weeks' time (making the total four).

But we'll see... none of it will happen this week, as the final performance for the French choir will be on Thursday night. This is going to involve two more longer-than-usual practices tonight and Wednesday night. And then Tuesday night I told a colleague that I'd give him a hand with a circuit he's having trouble with. On the upside, after this week, French choir is done for the summer. So it'll be nice to have Monday evenings back for a while.

This past weekend was pretty decent. Checked out Zack and Miri Make a Porno at C&A's on Friday night, which was a good flick. Saturday I headed up to Richard's cabin on Salmonier line to help him haul out some old junk, including a couch, fridge, and toilet. That night we just chilled and tossed back a few brews.

Yesterday was a little larger. I used the Kitchenaid to make pasta. It certainly helped, but it's still a wee bit labour-intensive. I guess the trick is to make a big batch once every week or two. I paired it with a pesto sauce compliments of the food processor -- most excellent.

That night, a bunch of us checked out the latest incarnation of wrestling. And it did not disappoint. Jon and Lynnette are back in town for Jon's convocation, so we introduced those folks to it -- Jon was a little overstimulated by the end of it, so it was clearly a hit. My voice is hoarse today from the amount of yelling I did.

Anyways, back at it I suppose. These long blog postings are indicative of my reduced workload...

Early returns

So, I actually managed to get an item crossed off the list this weekend. The shed roof is done. And by the looks of the forecast, it should get a minor test tonight.

This past weekend was all over the place. I'll just make a list -- it's easiest.

1. Spaghetti Squash at Ginny's. It actually does come out looking like spaghetti!
   
2. Coffee at Hava Java.
   
3. Jazz (!) at the Rose and Thistle. Those guys were good.
   
4. Early Saturday morning run. I'm still able to run for 20 minutes, which is encouraging. Not as good as some people I know, but it's a start ;)
   
5. A bit of yardwork, and sizing up the shed roof, which was not water damaged as I had feared since the fall.
   
6. Cape Spear with Ginny and Jenn (and Hendrix, Rob's dog).
   
7. Eurovision (?) at Bitter's Pub. We arrived a bit late, but caught the tail end of the rowdy. Got ourselves some Stella pint glasses!
   
8. Pool at West Side Charlies (ironically, the one in the east end)
   
9. Late night eatery at Rustler's.
   
10. Ushering at church Sunday morning.
    
11. More coffee at Hava Java with Ginny.
    
12. Kent/Canadian Tire/Chapter's run.
    
13. Baked chicken parmesan at my place.
    
14. Rock Band at C&A's.
    
15. Shed roof repairs on Monday morning.
    
16. Northern Bay Sands excursion. Guess what? The ocean is cold.
    
17. Moose burgers at the Guv'nor.
    
18. Chores (including prepping crème brulée) before crashing hard last night.
    

All in all, a great Victoria Day weekend. And the weather was awesome for all three days -- I can't remember the last May 24 when that was the case.

I'm thinking about investing in an outdoor fireplace. I had been thinking about it for a while, as it would actually be an outdoor furnishing of some sort. But now the potential aesthetic has been married to a practicality: I could burn all the loose spruce ends and dead branches in my back yard. This is the sort of stuff that's too much trouble to store in the shed and burn during the winter. And it'll certainly help with task #4 in the previous post.

Ah, fire. The biblical cleanser.

It's been a little while

Work was really busy the past couple of weeks, as we had to prepare for a lit review meeting yesterday. It went well, so now I'm back to a more relaxed state. Today we'll probably be connecting some power amps and maybe doing some radiating. Woo!

I finally used my Kitchenaid. I've noticed that cheesecakes pretty well make themselves with such a tool. I'll try it with pasta dough sometime soon, maybe over the weekend. So far, though, it's lived up to its billing. Also kitchen related, I did a mad fridge purge the other night. The vegetable drawer is now 99% less dodgy. And there's a lot more space. The only clutter in there now is an abundance of beer -- I'll try to take care of that "problem" this weekend

On a somewhat sadder note, I found out last week that my cat has a tumour. They know very little about its nature, other than it's inoperable and is next to her lungs and heart. They wanted to put her down on the spot, but she's still very active (try keeping up with her at 10:00pm), and Lord knows she still has an appetite. Apart from the odd wheeze, you'd never know there was anything wrong with her. So I'll take it a day at a time. I've been trying to dismiss it as little more than a heads-up.

Anyways, enough of that. The weather lately has been fantastic. We actually cracked 20°C for the first time this year. Today it's hella windy, but still sunny and warm. And it's actually not supposed to be shitty over the weekend. I might be able to get a few things done in the yard (gadzooks!)

On that subject, I'll going to make a list of things to get done before the fall. I don't hold a lot of hope in getting all of them done, but I won't get any done if I don't at least identify them:

1. Tar paper shed roof
   
2. Side shed
   
3. Make new shed door
   
4. Clean up back yard, for fuck's sakes
   
5. Install new back door
   
6. Replace shitty window in workshop
   
7. Dig out under house, put down vapour barrier & insulate (or least as much as possible)
   
8. Paint floors
   
9. Secure more firewood
   
10. Examine what the fuck is up with my front windows, and come up with yet another expensive, time-consuming leakproofing scheme that will undoubtedly be fruitless, because it seems like this goddamn problem will follow me to the grave
    

Yep, this summer will be buckets of fun. Any volunteers? :)