Weekend Update

Well, it has been a bittersweet weekend.

Friday,. DW and I were able to enjoy some Chinese food from our favourite place in the city, Chinese Gallery on Eglinton West (between Spadina and Avenue roads). We have yet to find another place that does jardoo wings like this place does. We decided to stay home and treat ourselves instead of spending the money on a theatre movie. We watched Keeping the Faith (Jenna Elfman, Edward Norton and Ben Stiller), a fairly decent romantic comedy. We ended up just watching TV after that as we were no longer alone following the movie. :(

Saturday. A gloriously sunny and clear day, we made the trek to a little church in East Scarborough to say goodbye to a friend and colleague and to show support for a grieving family. Until Laura Flanagan's body is found, I suspect there will never be any true closure for anyone. The likelihood of this, if she fell in the deepest waters, is very low however. It was good to hear things about Laura we never knew (her travels, her education, her charity work), reminded of things we did know (her spirit, her compassion, her warmth) and being given a chance for a light-hearted moment or two (her teaching genes coming out with kids in Africa or her student calling her over with "hey, instructor babe") in the midst of this senseless tragedy.

I think the most chilling moment during the service (an overly long affair on the service side of things, not on the poignant people side of things) came when what was possibly her last land moments were described. She was reading a new book and after chapter one, she got into her canoe and went for a quiet ride on the lake, like she has done many times before. It is suspected that a sudden squall surprised her and, consequently, took her life. The church, too small for the many people wishing to pay their last respects and to comfort family and friends, overflowed into the parking lot with as many in earshot of the speakers as there was out of range. It was a fitting show of support for a classy lady.

It was good to reconnect with friends and colleagues of Seneca past. We did not go to the gathering afterwards because our group was too familiar with what that entailed (DW hates funerals as it reminds her of her father's, and another friend has enough to think about around this time). So, our little group headed up to Syogun on Woodbine for an all-you-can-eat for $15.20 (tax and tip included) sushi lunch. We were able to lighten the mood a little there with some closing talk and our general nuttiness. Some people like to wallow in the sorrow and misery; I, for one, like to move on and ensure that I get the most out of life while I still have a breath. These unfortunate events continue to remind one of what we have and how easy it can be lost. The lesson of the day is not to take things for granted.

The Saturday ended off on a high note (though not a HIGH note as I abstained from imbibing) with a surprise birthday party for none other than Ms. Penny Shagwell (shag very well). Mossy was actually able to fool her into thinking the WTs had simply conjured up a birthday surprise and I witnessed for myself the little hop she performed when the gathered group in her dining room yelled surprise. Having performed the near impossible feat of surprising DW on her 40th birthday (with the help of MsMittens), I know the stress-inducing process poor Mossy had to go through to get this done. If only PS knew how we planned around her and the various schemes in play to remove her from the house, get invitations out, etc.

It was a very enjoyable evening and, especially with relatively new friends, it is always good to find out new things and juicy tidbits that may be used later in some form. Meeting her assortment of old (not age, but, yeah sortof, uhm, nevermind) friends, was a treat too as your closest friends also help to show the kind of person that you are. I am happy to report, we have a confirmation that PS and MS are good people; twisted, but good. :)

Sunday. I had a shitload of bloody tickets come through in the 3AM to 6AM time-frame. Yep, I missed them all as I slept through them and through DW's nudging that something was vibrating on the bed that was not me. I forgot to put the beep back on the pager when I left the church so I missed S-I-X pages of the priority one and two variety. Oy Vey! Downstairs I went, picked up all the tickets, worked them as necessary in between drifting off to sleep on the couch. I finally got back upstairs around 10:40 and promptly passed out again.

I felt nudging around 1:30PM I think as DW informed that she had a finite time frame before the supermarkets closed so help her with the grocery list. OK, I got that she was saying this after about the fifth time because I was still partially asleep. I got up to have some leftover lunch (mmmmmmm Chinese Gallery) and pretty much stayed on the couch until her return. I then went outside to find that my expensive Teflon 20" wipers from Crappy Tire were the wrong size for TR. Great, another item for the garage sale (details to come soon). I then tried to put the plate protector I bought at the MTO onto TR; no such bloody luck due to the plate holder design of GMs.

DW returned from grocery shopping and I moved over to her car to try and get the fancy horns I bought for it installed. Why fancy horns you ask? Because the POS has the most anemic things ever assembled in a vehicle. Every time she blows the horn it sounds more like the POS is blowing its nose. So these nice two-tone jobbies from Italy will make her presence known in the big bad city of driving idiots. Unfortunately, there seems to be an issue in that the relay needed to make it work does not, so we have to take it back (or, if past the time, buy a new one and return it with the defective module).

So, being too late to change the relay, and too late to test the speaker and amp, I packed it all up and moved inside to finish enjoying the evening with DW. She was nice enough to cook a wonderful, lighter Sunday meal and we fiddle on the laptops and watched some TV till she inevitably drifted off shortly after 10PM. The weekend ended with DW going off to bed, me finishing up a 10000-27 (which I won) on Pokerstars, doing some overdue tech magazine reading and then some digital terminal watching as I was no longer feeling sleepy and my shoulder blade (pulled muscle or something) was killing me even after a nice heated rub from DW.

Overall, a typically busy, eventful but thoroughly enjoyable weekend for the clan.

Peace.