Last week.
August 11th, 2003
Today is the first day of the last week of my vacation. I start work in exactly a week. I did find out that the office I will be sharing is primarily my office, with 3 other people sharing on average one day a week in the space, so maybe this won't be so bad after all. I have a window that opens, which is a huge plus, and they are ordering me a computer, so things might be ok.
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I know I kind of disappeared for a few days but we decided on the spur of the moment to pop down to Almonte to visit my Mum and pick up the TV bench for the living room. On Friday, Chief came over to play Battlefield 1942 with Chris, so I was locked out of computer access for the night. Chris went out and bought a new video card for the old computer, so it's basically on par with this new one, which is cool.
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Highlights from our trip to Almonte:
- Chris actually got to sleep in a little on Saturday morning, and he had waffles and icecream and whipping cream and cherries and chocolate syrup for breakfast. I ate the other half of an olive boule loaf.
- The ride down was quick and painless. No accidents on 7, and most of the traffic seemed to be coming towards Ptbo and not going to Ottawa like we were.
- We stopped at Chapters before we left and bought a serious amount of holiday reading material.
- We barbecued filet mignon and corn for supper, and I ate entirely too much but it was so good. I had a small piece of filet, sauteed mushrooms, steamed fresh wax beans, cold beets, sliced tomato, barbecued corn, and several slices of baguette. Mmmm.
- Like in that entry I wrote so long ago, the blueberry stands were out in force so Chris and I made up stories about each one and its clientele. It was hilarious.
- Mum gave me a whole bunch of hostas for my garden! And a green enamelled skillet! And lots of other things. She's the best.
Lowlights from our trip to Almonte:
- We were almost in 2 car accidents. One was on my mum's street when we were coming back from the Co-op (looking for rose mix) and a lady in a SUV ran through a stop sign and was driving on our side of the road right toward us. She saw us, hastily jerked the wheel and went on her merry way. Mum and I were kind of freaked out about that. The second one was when Chris and I were on the way home and a truck pulled out of a sideroad onto 7 right in front of someone who was passing a line of cars. The truck went off on the shoulder and the passing car somehow slipped back into the stream of traffic without smashing into the car in front of us.
- The rain opened up on the way home and for several stretches we couldn't see a thing while we were driving. It was scary.
- I had one of the worst night's sleep I have ever had on Saturday night. I was up about 4 times, I couldn't get comfortable, I was too hot, I had a headache. Bleah. It sucked.
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So after we got home on Sunday, I put together the TV bench and then moved the bookcases to flank it. It looks so much better now. The next step is to buy a proper rug, get the coffee table set up, and recover the couch and chair. No problem!
I am not feeling all that well today. Instead of my usual summer migraines, this summer they have just turned into episodes of fuzzy-headedness and my eyes, no matter what my optometrist says feel like my glasses aren't strong enough. I can't focus on anything properly and I feel like I am thinking through cotton wool. It's not fun. I don't think it is any surprise that I have spent most of my time lost in good, not so good, and mediocre books.
On the Plate:
Last night I made Beef Stroganoff. It was alright, but my paprika was old so it was kind of bland.
Books I have Read Lately:
- Angelmass by Timothy Zahn. This book is a bunch of different genres crammed into one book. On the surface it is a straight sci-fi book, but really that is just the setting. It's also a spy book, a space opera, and leavened with a touch of horror/thriller. Zahn has written a lot of Star Wars books, and this one has a lot of the same touches, and you can almost imagine it in that universe. I quite liked it, but not as much as The Icarus Hunt.
- Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, and Winning Colors by Elizabeth Moon (as the Heris Serrano omnibus). These books deal with the life of Heris Serrano, an ex-Regular Space Servicewoman who is trying to carve out a civilian life as the captain of a rich old lady's space yacht, the Sweet Delight. Of this trology, I liked the second book the best. There is a wandering focus in these novels, and the third one I would say is the weakest, but Moon does have a way of creating interesting likeable characters. I would say that David Weber's Honor Harrington could kick Heris Serrano's ass, but they both are entertaining in their own right.
(All links go through Amazon.ca because of the affiliate program with The Usual Suspects. I spend so much time on there, that this is the least I can do.)