HAPPY PRIDE DAY to everyone (except maybe Nick who made me feel the way I used to feel in grade four when I was constantly being excluded). Pride was great. Just Carrie, Rick and I. Super dancy fun, and not as corporate as it has been. Still corporate, but less so. It was bloody hot, though. I feel kind of wonky, despite the hat and sunblock. Waaa hot. I don't have a lot to say, just one more: HAPPY PRIDE !

I just got back from spending most of the day out at Rick's parents' place. It was a very nice day. The drive out was a little stifling since the blower on the air conditioner in Scarlette blew out last week. The air only works if she's moving faster than 50km (at the very least), so, when we hit the stop-and-go it was windows-down time. Very, very hot. The upside is that they have a pool out there, so the first thing we did was put on our suits and get in. It's amazing just how cold 84*F can feel, though, wow. I'm not so big a wimp at the cottage - I'll jump right into the half frigid lake without a second thought.

It was nice to just sort of hang out in the backyard with his parents, and Darlene made an amazing dinner that included devilled eggs (yum !) and lake trout caught by Rick's brother. Man, was it ever good. Even Anna, who has, more often than not, shown me the least pleasant side of her personality, was in good spirits. Heck, I even made her laugh. Shocking. It was very laid back and refreshing. We went to the other house that his parents have, a real, uh, handyman's specialty. They've put on a nice front to the place, but it's been completely gutted inside. I have never been in a house where only the basic frame remained. It's going to be lovely when they're done with it, sometime next year, or something. I think that this visit, more than any other, was the nicest visit I've ever had with his folks.

On the drive home, in Toronto, we got rear-ended at a red light. We pulled over, the offender pulled over, and we all (Rick and I, and the four guys in the other car) got out to see if there was damage. Nope, none ! So I said, "Hurray for old cars... no crumple zones !" And we all cheered. Then we went on our merry way. It's true, had either of our cars been a few years younger, one or both would have folded up at the impact. As it was, neither of us exhibited a scratch, despite it being a hard enough hit to lurch us forward almost into the car ahead of me even with my foot firmly pressed on the brake. It was exciting.

Yesterday at the store was excellent ! It was amazingly busy, with all these people in for Synth Pop Goes The World, a big electronica festival here in town, as well as all the Prideful out and about and being very gay. Tomorrow is, afterall, the Pride Parade. I will be there. Oh yes. Anyway, I had lots of things to say about work yesterday, but most of it has flown from my head. Probably for the best, it likely wasn't terribly interesting.

Man, I haven't updated this thing in a few days... things have happened. Well, not much, but some. I did see the Harry Potter stuff with Al and Carrie and it was MOST worthwhile. It was set up with some basic problem solving puzzles that unlock the deleted scenes. Carrie and I firmly agree that at least three of them should have been left intact as they added enormously to the story. It was worth it, especially for the scene in their first Potions class with Snape. That scene was halved, which was a big mistake. It sets Snape up as an even better character than he already is and is pretty much dead on for how it was in the book. Oh, Snape. So tasty.

Oh, and one final thing... I have a JOB INTERVIEW ! Yes, I actually got called for the ROM new media position. The interview, which I have to confirm on Wednesday (when the person comes back from holidays), will be on July 12. I am pretty excited. It's not an art job, or in games or film, but it is a creative job, and that counts for something. It really does look interesting (hence my application). Let's keep our fingers crossed.

So, Anhe, the Russian slash site owner, got back to me and was profusely appologetic for not having asked permission. It turns out the story was taken from the Official Russian Translation of the Sith Academy, so, theoretically, permission was sort of half-way granted. They said that they would take Emaul down if I asked them to. They also promised to link to my site, if I didn't. Anyway, I told them to go nuts and use my art from it, too, if they wanted. I'm still so dumb-founded as to have my fanfic slash translated into Russian. So wacky.

I'm going to Al & Carrie's for a while tonight to drop off some charcoal pencils I bought on request of Carrie (on behalf of someone at work, or something) and to show them my first invitation design. I don't know if it's appropriate, and I mean it when I say that I want to give them at least three distinct ideas to choose from. Also, maybe I'll get to see the Harry Potter special bits on the DVD. No hinting here, nosirree.

Oh, and I will officially be selling my artwork at the Sci-Fi expo taking place at the Metro Convention Centre on the weekend of August 23-25(my birthday, by the way). I'll be putting in some of the cost of Nicole's booth, and taking over a corner of it in order to sell miniatures and artwork. I have permission from Siubhan (of the SA) to make money off of my SA pieces, if I choose. Her policy is, "You did it, you own it." Yay ! I'm so excited. I've been trying to think of how much I can charge for what sort of things. I'll do some research at Toronto Trek and see what other artists are hawking their goods for.

The insanity ! Megs-in-Philly wrote me an email to tell me she couldn't find my website, but THAT isn't important... the other thing her email contained was... a link to my Sith Academy story, "Emaul".

Translated into Russian.

Imagine my surprise at being a translated author even before being published ! Anyway, sure enough, there it was. See it here, if you don't believe me. Unbelievable. The site owner was kind enough to supply the original title, in English, as well as my writing credit. So, while I jumped about in thrilled surprise, a little part of my brain said, "That's copyright infringement." Ah yes, indeed it is. But, since I have no real problem with having my work filtered around the web, I wasn't about to tell the owner (whose email took a bit of time to find as I surfed through the main site, highlighting intelligeable links to see what they were), so long as it goes un-altered (not sure how translation fits into that) and I get credit (which I did). I did ask that since no one had asked for my permission, it would only be fair to link to the original story at the SA as well as linking to my homepage. We'll see whether or not he (she?) listens. Also, because I am more dutiful than is healthy, I alerted the owner of the SA to the fact that there are a few other stories gleaned from her site.

Anyway, that's about all I feel the need to write about. I'm not managing to get much done tonight. I'm really tired. By the way, if you surf to the Sith Academy and click on the Art Gallery: Shockwave link, you will find two amusing animations. The bottom one is NOT something to be viewed at work, or at least not until your colleagues have gone home. :)

Okay, I'm getting complaints now for not updating my weblog. You know who you are. Yeesh. Anyway, my excuse is as follows: I didn't feel like it. Hah. Basically, I wasn't in the right head space to be writing and I was trying to use my time for more useful pursuits, such as doing the resume beat, seeing Rick, and working. Did I mention that I only got one day off between work weeks this time? Things at the store haven't been the greatest, and frankly, I have no intention of repeating the emotional crap. Suffice to say that Mark managed to say a log ot things that got me really upset and then the following day, Nicole made a special trip to the store to see if I was okay, and to find out if Mark's freaking out was warranted. Gah.

I ran into Sandra and John at Java House today, though, and they had a great time in New York, and Sandra got enough commission work to at the very least finance the trip. Good for them !

Here's a bit of news, I did some updating of my portfolio, fixing the broken stuff and whatnot, as well as getting an Elfwood site up and running. Elfwood is a massive repository of fantasy and sci-fi artwork that is used by both amateur and professional artists and is absolutely free. It's excellent. People are already commenting on my art ! Whee ! I look forward to the negative comments as well as the positive ones. I'm interested in improving, afterall. Anyway, this is it for the entry. Willi is yelling at me, even though it isn't snack time yet. Mostly, I think she feels she hasn't had enough quality time, which is probably true. I'm off again. I promise to write more soon.

I had such a lovely day yesterday once the residual migraine had cleared. That is, until I went down to Heretic where I was greeted with very sad news. It seems that August 15th, 2002 will mark the store's final day. That's right, the store will be closing. The climate (both weather and financial) has been very bad for business, and the last few months particularly so. Rather than making small gains and holding its own, the store has been slipping behind. Both Nicole and Sandra are burnt out, though Nicole, I think, moreso. Super sad. There is talk that Heretic will remain open as an internet boutique, but I'm not sure.

If I can't get another job before August, I'm taking the store's closing to be the basis for a long and much needed holiday. I'd very much like to go to the cottage for a full three weeks, as in the past, however; if I end up with a new job, I will probably have to be more pragmatic and bargain for a week, unpaid, or something.

On a different, but still work-related, note, I'll be helping Nicole work her booth at Toronto Trek 16 on the weekend of July 6th. This was supposed to be the weekend we (being Tanya, Carrie, Carrie's sister, and myself) were going to be girly down at Tanya's, but, frankly, I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to go to T-Trek - especially for free. Also, Nicole and I will be going to the Sci-Fi Expo at the end of August where I will hawk some art and she her clothes (and costumes !). I'm going to put in to the space we get, based on what I'll be selling and what I hope to earn. I would like to have some cards, prints and miniatures for sale. I've never done anything like this before, though. Hopefully, I will have the time at my cottage, so that I can get more art done.

Anyway, tonight I'm going to Red Rose with Rick for delicious Indian food and then he's spending the night. Yay ! Now I'm going home.

So, yes, it was a migraine. Big freakin' surprise. I left work at one o'clock in the afternoon. I just packed up my things and told Debbie that I had to go because of my head. She understands, she gets them too. I came home and lay down. I slept intermitantly from 1:30pm to 8pm. I missed going to Derek's for mod work, but he understands, too. I had the typical wacky dreams I have when I'm suffering, including one about Stacey at work, probably because she was the last person that I clearly laid eyes on. When I woke up, I wasn't well enough to clean my room or deal with the remaining boxes of shite, so, I thumbed through a book on the painter, Turner, which I bought for a ridiculously low price at City Books yesterday (also one on Art Deco, a book for Rick, and a Mercedes Lackey novel for me). I read about his early life and then got up to have some cereal. Nick's milk isn't exactly fresh, but it's not exactly sour yet, so I figured I wouldn't die from it. I didn't. It was that or chicken broth. I have no food. Following that, I listened to the radio and played with Willi, and then I turned on Natasha to play Dungeon Siege. I also called Rick to let him know I was okay.

Tanya took my challenge to heart and really only succeeded in proving that grad students have too much time on their hands by listing the whole Hi-Ho commercial in story order and with translations for various words. Okay, Tanya, you're nuts. But not as nuts as these guys. And, if you just need to see it again, without the figleaves, here you go.

Nick is away in Philadelphia, and I'm not sure when he comes home, but this weekend, I think. The house is bizarrely quiet. Well, usually it's bizarrely soundly. He left me his drawing palette to play with, but I haven't had the gumption (and tonight I couldn't drag about on the floor on my hands and knees thanks to my head) to hook it up. Maybe if I don't end up going to the movie with Ryan tomorrow, I'll do it after the ROM. I really want to play with it. It's exciting. It's also very pretty in warm grey and red. Uhg. I should go back to bed, I feel like I've been licking fuzzy caterpillars, partially because I'm woozy and they're toxic, and partially because my mouth feels like it's full of fluff. Bad tasting fluff. If I feel this way in the morning, I'm going to phone my boss. Hopefully I won't have to. I really need the money.

Today I have a headache. I have a bad feeling about it, as though it will evolve into a migraine. It's in my right temple and my eyes are getting sensitive. Damn. Oh well, on a positive note, I might get to leave work early. *frown* Oh, this is funny: I got a letter from HR today announcing that I was no longer on probation and would therefore be getting a 38 cent raise. Hello? Off probation? I worked my 420 hours or six months (whichever comes first) AGES ago. I might have to look into this, but in the mean time, 38 more cents an hour will add up over the course of a day. I might be able to afford a medium icecream with sprinkles instead of a small.

I went home to the Petes because Mom was running a garage sale, for which Suzanne had specifically flown up from New York. Suzanne is a garage sale maven. Anyway, it was very nice to see Suzanne, whom I had not seen since my trip to NY with Megan in May 1998. It's hard to believe that we went over four years ago. Surely time doesn't elapse so quickly, does it? Anyway, the garage sale went very well, the object of it not one of money, but one of getting rid of all the crap. At the end, there was very little left to throw away, so, that goal was met and the money made was pretty good too. It was amazing, though. The garage sale was scheduled to begin at 9am ("No earlybirds" it said in the ad), but we'd sold about half of the items by 9:30am because people turned up at a quarter past eight in the morning while we were still setting up. People are insane.

We watched a wonderful film called Smoke Signals. It's hard to express how it made me feel. It was tragic, but very funny, and the story resolves beautifully. I liked it very much and am happy that Suzanne recommended it.

Yesterday, I had to leave the Petes before 10am in order to get Willi back to the appartment and then me to Heretic. It was a quick and painless drive except for Willi who insisted on vocalising her discomfort for almost the entire trip. Work was pretty slow, and though Derek's friend, Badur dropped in and was his charming self, and some woman came in and told me about an interesting sounding event at Fort York in January (Queen Charlotte's Birthday Ball), overall, nothing much happened. I did a very queer drawing of a clown, perhaps he'll be the clown in the mod Derek and I are doing. He's in a thong. And you thought regular clowns were scary.

Oh man, does my head ever ache. My break is over and I think I'll get back to work. I hope to manage to last until 2pm, but frankly, it's not looking good.

Well, first, let me tell you about the union meeting that occured yesterday. The boss allowed me to go - I suppose he realised he couldn't really keep me from it. Anyway, I went with Stacey, Julie, Suzanne and Calvin down to the ROM theatre. We were all quite tense. Joane joined us down there and slowly (no ROM staff seem to move quickly) the theatre began to fill up - though certainly not to anything remotely resembling capacity, which is sad. They did a very good job of explaining what the Union is bargaining for and exactly what the full-timers would be voting on. They also emphasised that this was not a strike vote, exactly, but a strike mandate vote. This vote was to show solidarity with the bargaining unit, NOT about striking. Despite stressing this about three or four times, with great clarity and patience, I still know at least one person who opted not to vote (or vote no) because they don't believe in striking. I will NOT let it put a wedge in our friendship, though. People have different beliefs. Even if she IS wrong.

I played with Oboe last night, as usual, and also visited Jerzy who was in the hospital recovering from knee surgery. Julie was there too, but sound asleep on a cot beside him. Tania arrived and it was a merry old time, except Julie never quite woke up. *laugh* She missed my entire visit. It seems she was recovering from a wicked headache (sounded to me like a migraine when Tania described it) and was making up for the sleep she'd lost the night before. Jerzy is in good spirits, despite having his knee completely replaced with an amazing metal and plastic device that apparently has a life expectancy of 15 to 20 years or so. Anyway, he was quite pleased when I told him he was bionic. Back at my place, I cooked up an excellent dinner for Rick and I: asparagus with melted brie over it and a delicious beef stirfry with yellow peppers, mushrooms, and snow peas. While we ate, and following, we watched Legend, another fantasy film classic directed by Ridley Scott. My opinion of it has certainly improved. What I'd seen prior to last night I recalled as boring, though pretty. I've decided the movie is actually pretty damn good. Rick agreed. We had a good night.

Today I worked at Heretic and there's nothing much to say, it was slow. Following that, I went and visited Oboe. He needed all his things looked after, food, water, litter... and, today was Thursday, and Tempest was supposed to have watered the plants. She hadn't. So, I did. I was not pleased at how she's been looking after things... and I really wanted to feed the turtles. I have a bad feeling they're starving to death, but I couldn't find the turtle food. So, I left a note for her and a phone message. Silly fourteen year old girls. They think they're grown up, but they're really not. While I was there, I watched television and there was "Universal Soldier Two: Brothers in Arms" on the NewVR. I don't know if it was made for TV or what, but there were some excellent moments and the soundtrack was pretty damn good too. My favourite part (I didn't see all of it, and lots of it looked quite stupid) was when a little girl gets on a train and the conductor seats her across from this good looking fellow. He's all stoic-like, even robotic, which was my first guess. She says, "Hi, my name's Annie." He looks at her and offers this as an answer: "GR44." The little girl's eyebrows shoot up and she says, her face all lit up, "Cool !!! Are you a rapper?!"

Anyway, time to pack Willi into a box and take her home for a couple of days. Let me leave you something quite remarkable, though. Tanya left this in my email box, and it's bizarre and funny. Also, she has this crazy thing in her weblog, which I can now happily beat with this, this, and this ! Hah ! There are more, too. Crazy.

Last night with Oboe was alright, but he's clearly missing his people and I simply wasn't any decent substitute. He did eventually curl up by me on the couch as I dozed in front of the old "Spiderman" cartoon (I woke up shortly into the following show, which was "The Incredible Hulk"). We played, and I changed his water, which was a bit grubby, and then I left. He got about an hour and a half of nearly undivided attention from me, and I'll do the same tonight.

There was talk of going out with Megan, but she was supposed to phone me over the weekend to make plans and she never did, so as far as I'm concerned, we don't have a date. Christian, who I saw briefly after work yesterday, invited me to this very cool poetry book launch. The poet is Motion, a well-respected dub poet who's spoken word is riveting. Unfortunately, despite there being bits of food and a free book in the evening, the fifteen dollar cover is too much for me. I think I'll just go home, chill with Willi, visit Oboe, and fix the broken links on my webpage.

Tomorrow is the big general meeting for the ROM full-time union, including the manditory strike vote. Yes, that's right, things have ground to a halt and it's come to this. Of course, the turn-out will be pathetic, and then they'll never get a yes vote, but the fact that it's come to this is so stupid. If, by some miracle, they do vote to strike, I've promised myself that I WILL NOT cross the line. No way. I've asked my boss if I can attend the meeting tomorrow and he gave vaguely lame answer about if the part-timers aren't in this then I don't see why... blah blah. My response was that whatever affects the full-timers affects the part-timers to which he replied, "You have different collective agreements." I said, "Well, yes, but ours is based on the full-time agreement and in places it even refers to it." Anyway, I don't know if he'll let me attend, so I've just decided that I'll go on my lunch. I'll take an hour lunch in order to go since it's from noon to 2pm, and I'll leave before it's over. The employer wants to seriously withdraw any employee rights. Scary.

I forgot to mention the wonderful dream I had (other than having a horrible fever in it, thanks to the overzealous bedding at Kelly's) ! In my dream, I call out sick (that would be the fever) from the ROM and then have to go from where ever I am, to my house. It's my house that I lived in growing up, the one on Avenue Rd. To get there I had to walk through the downtown neighbourhood I used to live in on Manning, AND along the rotary trail in Peterborough (running behind Mom's house). I go inside and there are two cats, one the kitten that one of our tennants had owned, who's name escapes me, the other Placi, the wonderful little male tiger striped grey that was born in our backyard in Brooklyn. He died in the summer of 1999 from cancer at the ripe old age of 17. In my dream he runs to greet me at the door and dances all around my feet the way he used to, before leading me into the kitchen for dinner. I go into the frige, get out a can of cat food and gather up his plate (and apparently the one belonging to the kitten, who just seems to be there). I dish up the dinner and put the plates on the floor, somehow aware that, in the real world, Placi is dead. I give him new water (the kitten is now gone) and then just watch him eat. He's just like he was when he was about 13 years old, round, rotund even, and amazingly perky and cute. And then, all of a sudden, he looks up at me with his big bright eyes and mieus at me. I look at him, now more fully aware that he shouldn't be there and reach down to pet him and he sticks his bum in the air and his question-mark tail quivers excitely and then I woke up. I was both happy to have had the dream and sad because I remembered how much I loved him.

Well, heh, I'm turning into something of the Barbeque Queen - so long as it's steak. I haven't tried other things, yet. I will, but haven't yet, because, well, steak is so damn good. Uhg, real meat ! The best sort ! I had steak (t-bone), which I will state right now, was certainly not the most fabulous cut of meat I've ever had, and fiddleheads, only I need to figure out how my mom makes them, because mine were not so tasty, despite the butter stuff. I read for a little less than an hour on the porch, enjoying, more or less, the neighbourhood noises. Lots of street soccer. And loudly had barbeques with 10-people families. Then, I went in. In the kitchen, Nick ran the tap, a while later, after my delicious supper was had, and a stray squirt of water shot out of the side of the nozzle and hit me squarely in the bosom, causing me to shriek in a MOST girlish fashion. It was embarrassing and funny. And then, it happened again. More embarrassing, and even funnier. Then he fixed the nozzle. Good boy.

Yesterday, the beginning of the hotness (where the hell was spring? Cold to hot. Lovely.), true hotness, happened, although it wasn't humid. It was beautiful. After wasting several hours doing little of importance, I walked to Nicole's to pick up the keys to her place. I'm looking in on her cat, Oboe, while she's off with Mark at Wiccan Fest for the week. Or rather, I'll be looking in on him every day, until Friday, when I won't be in the city. He's a very fun cat, crazy like Willi was when she was his age. I am thankful that she's mostly settled down. She was ridiculously active. And insane. Now, she is less so. Thankfully. She is mostly just cute, but certainly, when she wakes me at 4am for breakfast, she is much LESS cute. Anyway, Oboe is being fed and watered and whatnot by Tempest, Mark's daughter, but my role is to go and amuse, and deal with whatever fourteen year old daughter might... overlook.

Rick came here around half past five yesterday, and we headed off to, what we thought was London, which turned out to be Kitchener-Waterloo, happily or we'd have been very late, a friend of ours from the MUD. It was Kelly's birthday, well, actually it's tomorrow, but anyway, she was celebrating it yesterday. In Kitchener, rather than London. Woo, good thing, because we hit a traffic jam that was so massive, an elephant could have bled to death from a pin-prick before it picked up again. For what? For two guys chipping at a bridge. In fact, when we actually hit the construction zone, half an hour later, traffic began to move faster. Go figure. There was good fun had at a bar/restaurant called Johnny Fiascos, and then more fun had at something of a bump-and-grind club called Revolution. Okay, I admit, I did enjoy dancing to the not wonderful bass-heavy music, but mostly because I just refused to hate it. I remedied the music with a lot of pool playing, though. Also, the lights at the club made me want to vomit. Bad effect.

Kelly and Brett were nice enough to put us up for the night, too, so that we could drink enough not to be legal to drive. Naturally, I was still not a lush... I dunno. I think I have lost my interest in drunkeness. It just seems sort of stupid. I'm drunk - whee... Oh, now I feel crappy - uhg. Yay? No, not cool. I was trying to remember the last time I was drunk... and it was in September, at Scott and Meg's wedding in Virginia. I've had drinks since, but... not to the point of inebriation. It just seems sort of dumb. Anyway, I forgot to buy Kelly her birthday drink, so I guess I'll get her at the RoD reunion in the summer - like she'll need one. *snicker* Anyway, we had to leave Kitchener this morning at 10:30am in order for me to get Rick to the bus depot to go home and for me to get to Heretic on time, where I got to dress and strip manequins all day and take photos of them. It was so hot that the air conditioner was absolutely imperrative. I would have plautzed (spelling? No idea with Yiddish.)

Bedtime now. I have a long ROM day tomorrow.

I'm shortly off to put my resume in at the Toronto Arts Council Foundation. Before I do, however; I thought I'd offer up a couple of interesting things from the most recent Star Wars Homing Beacon. Basically, they're running through a list of things you can notice that are either jokes, continuity bits, and bloopers.

It appears that Fett genes and low headroom don't mix. In an homage to the classic Star Wars misstep, wherein a stormtrooper bangs his head on a low-hanging door, Jango Fett also takes a wallop on the noggin -- complete with sound effect -- as he enters the Slave I after tangling with Obi-Wan. Now, Tanya noticed this, as did I, but I didn't think it actually brained him - apparently it did. Anyway, you were right, Tanya. *grumble*

"There's these big cow-like creatures called shaaks that Anakin rides on Naboo," explains Knoll. "The shaaks got to be a bit of a joke with the crew. I put one in the asteroid sequence, in a reference to Ken Ralston [visual effects artist in the classic trilogy] having put potatoes and tennis shoes in space battle scenes previously. So there's a shaak there, but it's got the asteroid shader on it with craters. You really can't see it unless you start to look at it and see the legs and snout." Now, I'm definitely going to have to watch for this. I once say the shoe - once, and never again - but a shaak? *laugh* People wonder why I want to work with these people? They're nuts.

I must go make myself clean now, in order to be presentable for turning up at the Arts Council. Right now, I'm wishing I had a computer printer at home, because first thing I have to do is go print out the resume and letter. *mutter* Maybe I'll ask for a really good one for my birthday... Maybe not. Maybe part of my tax return will go to a printer. I dunno. I'd use it so infrequently, I have to wonder if it's worth it, you know? Anyway, I'm stalling. I must go.

While I was walking home after work, living in the neighbourhood that I do, I was struck by a thought: I should have something hanging from the rear-view mirror in my car, namely, rosary beads (preferably with an attachable crucifix), or soccer colours. Maybe both.

On a different note, I went to Come As You are this evening after work, finding that it was open, mostly due to my not having stopped at Java for dinner, or driving home. Megan was working, which was good, because I haven't seen her in a gizillion years, which for us, is a really long time. She's looking good and we chatted for a bit. We've set a date for next Tuesday evening to get together, something we haven't done in months. I miss her. She's one of my closest girlfriends and we've been neglecting each other. While I was at the store she works at, it being a sex shop (but the nicest sex shop you will EVER visit), I checked out the new books and found, to my delight, a Taschen art book about erotic art in the 17th and 18th centuries. Well, though my pocket book is bare lately, I managed to put together the fourteen bucks I needed to buy the book. It's awesome ! Man, Rembrandt was a very colourful man. He drew a lot more than what we're used to seeing.

Derek came into the store today, as well, initially to find out if I wanted to have dinner with him, but also to show me his arm 'pocketing'. Uhg. It was fresh. While the steel bars implanted into his arm may look cool eventually, and sort of do now, from a distance, seeing them with the pen markings and dried blood only a few hours after having been done was DISGUSTING. It turned my stomach in the same way as seeing Mom get her IV changed when she was in the hospital a few years back. As I would have said in grade two, "Grody !" Definitely. We didn't end up dining, though, because the procedure had really wiped him out, so I encouraged him to go home and go to bed.

Kit Fisto rules. You don't believe me? Check this out.

I had a nice, if emotionally charged night with Rick last night. We've been having a little tension of late, and last night, I decided we needed to talk about it. The talk went well, though it was about things preferably ignored, but to do so would have ground our relationship into the dirt. I love Rick. Whatever the future holds... for now, it's in the future. As my mother would say, we just have to take it one day at a time. It would be a shame to forfeit something so nice as what we have by simple non-communicative stupidity. I'm glad we're good.

This just in ! Scrambled eggs with brie and tuna is NOT delicious. I repeat, it is not delicious.

It's been a while since I last wrote anything, and you can chalk it up to my having other things to do. I packed up Willi on Thursday night and took her out to Mom's. I only came back late last night, and with one notable exception, the whole weekend was great.

Nothing remarkable happened on Thursday at the store, except that the Hare Krishna sang and danced their way up and down Queen St to the happy accompaniment of drums and tambours, etc. The drive out to Mom's was uneventful, but Willi was less than pleased.

Friday - a trip to the doctor (Dr. Flynn is back so no more of that nasty Dr. Knight - Yay !). Following that, I think I did some stuff. Not much, but I bet it was fun. Oh, right, there was much chatting in the hairdresser while Mom got her top cropped, but all in all, I was pretty antisocial.

Saturday was a little more interesting. Or at least active. I took out my bike and cleaned it up after most of a year gathering dust. I pumped up its tires and took it out for a ride. I didn't go very far, just up the rotary trail and along Armour Road, which worked out to about half an hour. Considering the horrible shape I'm in, that was enough ! I also cleaned Scarlette's windshields and applied my Sith Academy cling. She looks fancy now.

Naturally, when I was at my stinky, smelly best, Ryan turned up in my yard with my miniatures and paints... and with Colleen ! So, she saw me at my least attractive, but she handled it well, not that I gave her a choice when I hugged her. Hah ! She's tall ! And buxom ! Were we to wrestle, there'd be no easy winner. Ray came to supper that night, and we had delicious steaks and asparagus and lemon merangue pie. Yum, yum, yum. We watched "Midnight Cowboy" starring Dustin Hoffman and John Voight, and boy, are they ever young in it. The movie stands up very well over time, hardly dated at all. I also got to play on the MUD where I, playing my High Priestess, got to sacrifice Kharis ! It was gorey and everything, but such fun, though I'll miss Kharis, who is one of my favourite characters.

Sunday was another unstressful day. I spent a couple hours by Little Lake enjoying coffee and doughnuts with Adam (Tanya's ex), and we talked about the things that ail us. He seemed a little concerned over how things had been left with Tanya, but, well, somethings happen to us, and somethings we make happen. He knows which one is him. Mom and Ray came with me to see AotC (my third viewing), and that was bad. It seems, Mom prefered the incessant babble of Jar-Jar and terrible acting in Ep. I to the better acting and more violent Ep. II. Oh well, so that kind of sucked, but whatever. Prior to the movie, we went to Ray's studio to check out his new art, or more to the point, the manner in which he'd put it up and holy crap, was it ever amazing... and powerful.

Yesterday was another non-day, though laundry happened and was packed up, and Mom brought a fancy folding table for my appartment, and new pillows. My head thanks her. I also got some miniatures painted, which was a lovely way to kill the rest of my weekend. I so enjoyed it. I left the Petes super late, and tossed Ryan's keys, which he'd forgotten at his parents' house, through his mail slot (I'm a dutiful friend), and bundled Willi and all my shite up the stairs of my place.

I covered the couch in the living room with the cleaned wall-hanging that used to be in Justin's room, and put the pillows in their shams, and it looks excellent. I made up my bed and promptly fell into it. Willi joining me soon enough. Oh, and Nick came home a few minutes after me, and showed me things on Fee5 that looked cool, but I was so tired that I could not rightly absorb his talkings-at-me.

Today was a ROM day, and believe me when I say that my alarm was a VERY rude awakening. Uhg ! Stacey spent lots of time training me to do things, and finally, when it was all over, things didn't work so well, which are best left to tomorrow. And now, it's best that I left, too.