(no subject)

March, man. Good things have happened (house, etc.), but mostly? Bad things. To wit:

- my officemate's father died (she's back for the first time today)
- another colleague's mother died (she's still in Iran)
- my cousins' aunt was operated on for breast cancer (so far it seems to have gone well). Also, the family's dog died (but they have a new puppy -- the old dog was a Newf and the new puppy is a Yorkie, i.e. will be about 1/60th the size when fully grown)
- another family friend had a heart attack
- I just learned last night that an old friend's granddaughter committed suicide. I met her a couple of times, years ago -- I was about 16 and she would have been a few years younger.

Time March was over.

Anyway, weekend was good. My family is not especially religious but we like Easter as it is a holiday filled with roast lamb, spring flowers, and chocolate. I fully intended to clean up my pit of an apartment this weekend, but failed. As usual. Maybe tomorrow.

Thursday night: dinner with monkeycommando, S and J.

Friday: Met crankygrrl for coffee and to walk her parents' dog. Bought 2 CDs, both of which are really good (which assuages my guilt at spending the money a little bit). Then made cornmeal muffins and went to the traditional Good Friday picnic out near Whitby. Hid Easter eggs, ate lots of food, played a little badminton with a small red-haired child who kept moving the invisible net. Then came back to my parents' place and fiddled with the DVD and the satellite TV until somehow it did what I wanted it to do, except I'm really not clear how it happened. Whether they'll be able to replicate this on their own remains to be seen.

Saturday: Finished Dark Age Ahead (recommended: very thought-provoking, and not nearly as depressing as I was expecting -- thoughts to come). Gym, coffee, dishes, showered and hied myself over to my parents' for Lamb Dinner Part 1. Then went a little further west to meet themusesbitch, crankygrrl, lostvoice and sundry others for drinks. I didn't know you could buy Guinness in pitchers, and I'm still not sure it was a good idea...

Sunday: Lay around reading Engine Summer (thank you again, jenlev!). I liked it very much, but think I need to read it again to take it in properly -- expect more thoughts once that happens. At noon precisely, was blasted out of bed by loud music on Queen Street; peered outside to discover they'd already started marshalling the parade. Dressed, phoned people, bought coffee, gazed critically at all the dour-looking cops, dropped into Beadworks to get help finishing a necklace, wandered over to my aunt and uncle's, said hi to my parents, ate a strawberry, put on a pair of flashing fluffy bunny ears and wandered down to Queen with a blanket to meet crankygrrl and stake out territory. stilldeepwater and monkeycommando joined us and we watched the parade next to a pair of obnoxious small boys who were demanding chocolate from all and sundry. (My favourite part, though, was when one of the martial arts schools came by; a few [I assume] kendo practitioners were in the parade. Small boy yells "Hey! Give me your sword!" at one of them, a particularly tall and healthy-looking guy with dreads. He looked over and said "No!" I was amused.)

Then lunch with stilldeepwater, swung by the new house to have a look at it, went home, showered, changed, trekked uptown to my grandmother's for Lamb Dinner Part 2. Was yummy.

[Aside: I see that preordering the Kirsty box set has saved me $8.* Want it to arrive NOW NOW NOW but it hasn't shipped yet, apparently...]

Now, to work...

*Or, possibly, cost me $1. Amazon, are you just messing with my head?