mall of america

tonight lief and i are having a sleep over at hoolie’s. we will be sleeping here tomorrow night as well, on account of our bedroom floor being refinished.

then, finally, we may be able to start unpacking some of our things at the new place. there is still some painting to do (the insides of the closets are now being ripped out and repainted in favour of erecting good-quality shelving/ storage units). the closet doors (to the storage room, hall closet, bedroom closet) all have to be painted as well.

in the meantime, lief finished the ungodly process of melamine-ing the cupboard doors and will be attaching *new* hinges and *new* pulls on them in the next two days. the kitchen is finally starting to look like a kitchen. i am nearly peeing my pants with anticipation of actually *cooking* things there.

today, chold, lief and i went on a road trip to the united states of america.

the highlights and lowlights:

- lief and i fail to realize to ‘fall back down’ and get up an hour early. i call chold at what i think is 10:10am saying “where are you, duder?” and he is all “chill, it is only 9:10am... i will be there in 45 minutes - as planned”.

- breakfast at mcdonald’s. don’t buy the horse shit that “supersize me” sells you. sometimes an egg mcmuffin with no meat is *exactly* what you need to do to maintain good health.

- dicknose at the border asks us where our passports are, when the canadian gov’t web site clearly indicates that you *do not* need your passport to cross the border by car - until january 2008. dude treats us like twats for 10 minutes and then tells us, vaguely, that we may enter his country.

- ‘bed, bath, and beyond’. chold finds sheets. lief and i find pant hangers. it’s not even noon and we have already spent $60 USD.

- we accidentally run into a hotrod show. in the very, very cold and rainy weather, we all ooh and aah over some deliciously pinstriped cars and trucks. chold takes pics. maybe i will post some.

- taco bell for lunch. run for the border. choke_hold eats two 7 layer burritos. apparently, my ridiculous appetite has not yet waned.

- more items purchased: tattooing magazines, hot rod magazines, crafting magazines, DIY magazines, *two* pairs of shoes for choke_hold, some hexmas prezies, boxes of ‘good and plenty’.

- lief tries on some tapered hipster pants at ‘hot topic’. laughter ensues.

- we try to find out what the store ‘lovers package’ actually is. we arrive 1 minute before closing and the woman reminds us three times as we enter “we are closing very, very soon”. for future reference, ‘lovers package’ is a cheesy, zellers-style store for crappy lingerie and sexually-related products. bet there would have been some cheap and predictable naughty-nurse and naughty-schoolgirl outfits there. too bad we didn’t have the chance to make chold try them on.

- more grease at an american red robin. jalepenos are consumed.

- oh god, you thought it would stop - - - but we go to krispy kreme and eat a free donut. then we buy 6 more. none of the donuts are eaten on the way home. we have all reached maximum united states of america food consumption levels.

- canadian border guy is so friendly and laid back that we all cheer silently as he waves us through onto canadian soil. i am pretty sure we all liked him so much at that point in the day that we would have gladly given him a handjob. separately or as a group.

okay - it’s late. me and miss missyfuss are going to bed.

why am i already thinking about hexmas? what the hell? i have already bought half my presents. i get so excited sometimes.

you should sleep late, it's just much easier on your constitution

what happens when one of the founders of wikipedia becomes a critic of the wildly popular open-source encyclopedia? well, he splits off and starts a new site - this time enlisting acacemic editors to keep the operation in line.

you heard it here first, kids.

the citizen's compendium, "Citizendium", is slated to be up in running in the next few months.

http://www.citizendium.org/

oh, beloved academics.

ch-ch-ch-changes

in a mere 8 hours the big move begins.

chold, sarah, dalia, jules, miikey, david, parween, lief and i will all be there. hope i haven't forgotten anyone.

there are still heaps of things to do at the apartment, but the time has come to haul our belongings in and claim our space.

i wish that we had taken better 'before' pictures, so that i could post a before + after in a few weeks (when the rest of the apartment has been brought up to speed).

it has been a long few weeks - and it is looking like the next couple of weeks will be jam packed too.

stop by and help me paint some baseboards, if you have time. the kettle is always on.

promise ring

i promised both myself and lief that i would be home tonight between 10 and 10:30pm so that i could get a decent night of sleep before literacy-tutoring class tomorrow. it is now 12:32am and i *just* got in the door.

the good news: i am a caulking ninja. no shit. i think it may be my calling. i am good at it and i love the work. i may become a tradesperson after all. tonight i finished caulking all of the baseboards. holy f*.

the other good news: tonight i spent !!! $2,000 !!! on a new king sized bed. it will be delivered on thursday. cross your fingers that they can actually get it *into* the apartment. by our reckoning, the only way to do it may be up and over the balcony (keep and mind we are on the 2nd floor). fuuuuuuuck. we'll see what happens. i look forward to having people over for sleepovers and not even noticing that they are there.

tomorrow i have an all day class and then i need to get down to some serious packing. good luck with that, eh?

do you realize?

lief and kevin did an absolutely *amazing* job of laying both the armstrong flooring in the kitchen + storage room and also the parquet flooring in the bedroom. i can't wait to come home to our new home.

as most of you know, the official move-in day has been set. so far, chold, dalia, parween, aki, and david have all replied to let me know that they will be there. it will be an all-day affair. october 15th is the big day. hooray.

with this many helping hands, it is bound to be more fun and less stress than previously anticipated. now all i have to do is actually pack up the 15 years worth of objects that inhabit my current home.

anyone need a shoebox filled with clothespins? a vhs copy of 'the titanic'? gothic goblets in tomato red? i thought not....

hallelujah

wonders never cease.

home depot called this morning. our parquet flooring has arrived. it is FOUR DAYS EARLY.

you guys must have been crossing your fingers on my behalf.

hallelujah.

wig in a box

shea is in town. if you want to see her, you’d better act fast. she leaves again in two days.

in other news, i have officially started my x-mas knitting. i am making an *adorable* and *tiny* scarf for sara and jason’s daughter. it is pink cotton and purple tweed. apparently, hadley is really into those colours right now - so i am hoping that remains true when winter arrives. the scarf is already an amazing 3 - 4 inches long, thanks to an evening spent with shea - watching ‘hedwig and the angry inch’ and knitting up a storm.

how can you tell that i am on vacation?

lief and i had been planning on going to san diego to visit sara, jason and hadley for the first two weeks in october - but because of the purchase of my home, we have too many things to work on and not enough money to allow us to take that trip. we hope that the san diego adventure will happen in springtime. hooray.

last weekend’s painting parties went amazingly well.

thank yous to:

~ dalia
~ yvonne
~ jules
~ parween

your helping hands are greatly appreciated.

it looks like sunday the 15th will be move-in day, regardless of whether or not every single thing is done.

please cross your fingers in hopes that the dolts at home depot actually manage to get our parquet flooring in time for installation on the 14th.

tomorrow i sleep in and then go to drool at things that i cannot afford at Gravity Pope. god speed.