House update: Friday, Saturday

Friday, my aunt reports:

Today for lunch Jen, John, David and I had frozen pizza. Brian the Tile was invited, said he had another job, but asked to be invited again.

John did wiring--smoke and CO 2 alarms. It was very noisy. He went to the dump.

Dan and David did plastic plumbing. Dan went driving.

Jen sorted chaotic piles of stuff, and bought/picked up beer (vital) pendant lights for Rob's stairway, green tile for her bathroom and plastic plumbing bits.

Cheers, Helen

Saturday I got to the house around 11:30 so wasn't wildly productive before lunch, which was quiche and salad. My parents ripped up many floorboards (my dad is determined that one area of my floor at least WILL NOT SQUEAK, DAMMIT). After lunch Jen and I put up vapour barrier in my kitchen using the cool stapler that runs off the air compressor. Also, black gunk. The black gunk was a pain in the ass, although having watched a similar operation on the 3rd floor I don't think we were using the gun correctly.

Then we made some project plans using Bristol board and Post-It notes, which nobody but us will use, but I found it helpful.

Then I helped my parents with the floorboards, which took forever.

Then I went to monkeycommando's birthday party and was very dull company. Did I mention that it rained all day Saturday?

It went on raining all day Sunday, when I went up to the cottage with John, Dan, and pariah_ink to put the dock away. I must say that the chest waders have been a wonderful addition to this process -- I don't mind wading around in the muck at all now, although I did nearly get stuck at one point. My parents did not come, but sent chili.

Then we drove back to the city and I had a shower and sneezed all evening. I'm not sure if it was allergies or a cold. Today will tell. Unless, of course, it's more spores. I really would have liked to stay in bed this morning, though.

House update: Monday

Oh dear. It sounds like my parents didn't get done with the floor yesterday.

Hello all,
Today for lunch, courtesy of Neil S's leftovers, we had Indian fish, potatoes and turnips. I really went to town and did rice.

Gill and Stuart, who opted to pass lunch, worked on Robin's floor.

Brian the Tile was there working on the third floor bathroom floor, I believe.

Dan put in a box for the gas fitting of Robin's stove.

John did vapour barrier.

Gary the Plumber will be coming to test the plastic plumbing, which is being finished.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I will answer if I can find answers.

Cheers all, Helen.

This is all very exciting, especially the "being finished" part. But I'm worried about my parents.

(no subject)

Thank you, slammerkinbabe and llnaughty, for the link to One-star reviews of the books on Time Magazine's Top 100 Books list. It's absolutely priceless.

The Great Gatsby

“It grieves me deeply that we Americans should take as our classic a book that is no more than a lengthy description of the doings of fops.”


The Lord of the Rings

“The book is not readable because of the overuse of adverbs.”


Mrs. Dalloway

“The only good thing to say about this “literary” drivel is that the person responsible, Virginia Woolf, has been dead for quite some time now. Let us pray to God she stays that way.”


And finally, for the Faulkner vs. Hemingway crowd (you know who you are):

The Sound and the Fury

“This book is like an ungrateful girlfriend. You do your best to understand her and get nothing back in return.”


The Sun Also Rises

“Here’s the first half of the book: ‘We had dinner and a few drinks. We went to a cafe and talked and had some drinks. We ate dinner and had a few drinks. Dinner. Drinks. More dinner. More drinks. We took a cab here (or there) in Paris and had some drinks, and maybe we danced and flirted and talked sh*t about somebody. More dinner. More drinks. I love you, I hate you, maybe you should come up to my room, no you can’t’… I flipped through the second half of the book a day or two later and saw the words ‘dinner’ and ‘drinks’ on nearly every page and figured it wasn’t worth the risk.”

I learn from wanderingaengus that

today is the 30th anniversary of the Icelandic Women's Strike.

That is so awesome.