Exactly what you want to find in your mailbox

A few weeks ago Jeannette and I were entering her apartment when we noticed that she had something in her mailbox. Upon further inspection we found that she had a notice from one of her neighbours.

I guess it was at least nice that this guy gave his neighbours advance notice, but, man, this is definitely not the type of notice that you would want to find in your mailbox on a regular basis.

Score
Cameron 20
Neil 0

A Few Quick Notes 379

-It seems that for the past few days it has been hovering around, or just above, zero celsius. One of the most noticeable results is that much of the snow that was on the ground when we arrived has now melted and been replaced with greenish grass. The unpleasant side of this is that it has been quite grey and overcast since we returned home. There has certainly not been a day that I would consider calling nice.

-My uncle flew in from Newark last night. Unfortunately, his flight was delayed by about three hours and one of his bags lost in transit. Sadly it seems that this is pretty standard for this airline on this flight. My father said that he recently read that this particular flight had a 0 out of 5 rating in terms of being on time.

The only good news is that given my Uncle's familiarity with the flight he was able to pack so that his carry-on bag had many of his essentials.

-It seems that Neil, Rebecca, and I will be going to a Christmas party/Housewarming at a childhood friend's new house. Other parties thrown by this friend and his wife have tended to be quite incredible. Unfortunately, I feel a little out of the partying mood, so I am looking forward to attending less than I should be.

-My sister and Uncle, with a little help from me, placed the Christmas tree in the Christmas tree stand. As of right now it is still undecorated. I presume that decorating won't happen until tomorrow afternoon, though it is possible that some could take place in the morning.

-I should probably get going. There are a few things I should attend to before I head out to the aforementioned party.

A Few Quick Notes 358

-My recollection is that today (Saturday) was pretty nice, though I think that there may have been at least a few overcast periods. I am a little less certain of today's weather conditions than normal as I haven't really spent much time outside today and my desk window is now relatively obstructed by my plants.

-For dinner tonight we had a some chicken noodle soup that I made. The broth was based on some chicken breast bones that I boiled while I was making dinner yesterday. We also had some nice rolls that Neil and Rebecca purchased this afternoon. While I don't normally consume bread products with my meals, these really complemented the soup nicely.

-I have quite a bit of reading to do this week, and every week until the end of the term. Though I haven't done as much reading as I might have hoped today, I have managed to put at least some time in. Though not exactly reading, I also managed to put some time in to locate a few articles and then print these articles.

-This afternoon I spent about an hour, or maybe a little more, catching up on some filing that I had allowed to accumulate over the summer as I worked on my thesis. Not only are things organized again, but I have managed to eliminate a few stacks of paper that had been on my bedroom floor for a few months. Sadly, I am almost out of room in my two-drawer filing cabinet. I think that it is quite likely that I might have to buy another one in the not too distant future.

-For the past few months there have been a number of incidents in the South End of women waking up to find a man watching them while they sleep, not surprisingly this individual has been referred to as a 'night watcher.' Shortly after a police sketch was issued a few days ago an arrest was made and a general sigh of relief breathed by residents of the South End. It now seems that the suspect has been released, presumably putting us back to square one in terms of night watcher issues in the South End.

-For some reason, a recent announcement that in Nova Scotia schools will have to play the national anthem every day really upset me. Though I can't quite articulate why this frustrates me, I think part of it is that such a scheme just seems hokey and low-class (kind of like plastering images of a country's leader on street corners). Maybe part of the issue I have with this policy is that the whole thing seems to really skirt the real issue, which is encouraging some sense of national pride among Canadian/Nova Scotian students. If this is the goal it seems to me that it would be more appropriate to teach students why such pride is merited rather than just try to get them to learn the words to the national anthem. Furthermore, such a program, by associating the national anthem with the start of the school day, could have the opposite effect and actually cause students to associate the national anthem with something that is almost universally understood to be unpleasant, the start of the school day. Anyway, if I can figure out what I really find frustrating about this decision I will try to let you know.

-As I believe I mentioned recently, a number of the pepper plants are now bearing fruit. At the moment the peppers are purple, though they are supposed to turn red when they are ripe, which seems like a helpful indicator. The downside is that we are likely to end up with more hot peppers than we need in a few weeks instead of getting a more tapered ripening period.



-I think that I also mentioned that one of the tomatoes is showing signs of redness. I guess it will still be another few weeks before it ripens.



-The plants in my bedroom window are really starting to obstruct my view. Each day the tobacco leaves grow larger and more numerous, working their way towards completely obstructing my view. If things keep going like this I will no longer be able to see whether my neighbour is still taking her dog to defecate on the grass in front of my window.



(Edit: In the two days since this photo was taken some of the tobacco plants have grown a number of inches. The tallest of the plants is now just a little taller than the middle tier of the hanging plant shelf.)

-There is a rather noisy party that has been going on for some time on a property not to far from my apartment. While I normally don't mind a little light partying, this has been going on for some time and is definitely distracting me from my studies (hence the blogging). Though they are showing no signs of quieting down, I really do hope that it ends sooner rather than later.

Let's get this (thesis) party started

So Neil and Rebecca will be heading off to sunny Las Vegas for a week in a few hours. The main consequence for me is that I am now free to throw a week-long thesis party while I have the apartment to myself. For the most part I plan on hopping between a few quick shots of supplementary reading and some slow, sensuous editing. It is going to be a week-long thesis party like no other. I can't wait for the fun to start. Actually, in case I am being watched, I should acknowledge that I have actually already started the thesis party, though it isn't quite as happening as I would like it to be (maybe I should do a few a few quick lines of writing to speed things up).

To free me from my blogging obligations and responsibilities, which will allow me to focus all of my energies on the thesis party, I have asked that Neil try to make regular posts from Nevada. While he has suggested that this may be difficult as he doesn't expect to have regular internet access, I am hoping that Rebecca will be able to guilt him into at least a few posts (which will hopefully contain photos).

If he doesn't make the requested posts, I hope that he at least the legal limit of cheap American beer or a few bottles of MD 20/20 (or some Wild Irish Rose).

For those of you wondering, it seems unlikely that Neil and Rebecca will have the chance to engage in legal prostitution related activities, or even just see a brothel as, at least according to the Wiggy, prostitution appears to be illegal in the Las Vegas area.

A Few Quick Notes 169

-Today has be largely overcast, though with clear periods, and occasional periods of precipitation. This is quite a change from the weather of a few days ago, which was close to perfect. At least we are generally heading in the right direction.

-It seems that I am now about 14/79 for this year's Roll Up the Rim contest. I received a bit of a boost in my numbers yesterday when a new employee double cupped my coffee with context cups. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to convert this good fortune into further wins. Hopefully I can really kick it up in these next few days as places are starting to run out of cups, meaning that it is really now or never.

-It seems that with changes in weather we are also starting to get other signs of spring, most notably plant growth. Just today I noticed that leaves (or 'leafs' for our hockey fan readers) are starting to sprout on some of the trees outside of our windows. Not only with this be a pleasant sight, but it will provide Nithum with a degree of privacy that we haven't experienced since last Fall.

-Last night I attended the library school end of year party. The event was largely successful and people seem to have enjoyed themselves. I was particularly pleased that I was able to speak to a number of people to whom I hadn't really been able to speak with much these past few weeks. Also, the turnout seemed to be pretty good.

Though I missed much of the performance, we did have a male stripper who danced to "Another One Bites the Dust." Those who did see the show seem to have been quite pleased with what transpired.

-For about an hour and a half I have been trying to do laundry. Every time I head down to see if there are any empty machines I find people loading recently vacated washers. Hopefully I will find some empty ones tonight. It will be very disheartening to have to re-make my bed with a dirty duvet cover.

-In the past few days I have been making curry quite frequently. I am not really sure what explains this recent trend. As this seems to be working out relatively well I don't think that I will be doing all that much to try to break myself of the habit.

Weekend Socializing

About a week and a half ago Nithum and I came up with the idea that we could host a Purim party. Upon receiving support from a number of friends we decided to go ahead with the party, which we were originally thinking of hosting on a Friday evening.

Until about Tuesday evening nothing had really started to move, so I informed a friend that it was likely a no-go. Surprisingly, Liam, a friend present when the comment was made, immediately threw his support behind the idea of the party. Nithum confirmed his support for the party. So, again, the party was on, though this time for Thursday rather than Friday night.

Due to the short period of time between the final decision to host the party and the time of the party only limited planning was possible. A further problem was inviting people with such short notice, particularly before an amazingly long weekend (four days for the McGill community). Eventually a few invitations were distributed via email, though to a limited number of people as I blanked out under pressure.

On Wednesday night I decided to try and find some appropriate music for us to play during the party. Within a few minutes I found a site that listed klezmer bands with free samples online. Once I had visited all of the listed sites I had over 4 hours of such music in my possession, several of the pieces even had 'Purim' in their titles.

At about this time I learned that Nithum had come down with some kind of illness (of the cold variety) and would likely not be attending the party.

As the school day on Thursday drew to a close I hit took to the streets to pick up the needed supplies. I was able to hit the dollar store, the grocery store, and the liquor store and acquire pretty much everything that I needed. The only type of item that I was unable to find were special Purim noisemakers that are used to drown out the name of Haman during the reading of the book of Ester.

Upon returning to our apartment I did some work on cleaning, but much more work on food preparation. I baked some shortbread, made some humus, didn't make some bacon appetizers, and cleaned and chopped some vegetables, finishing only moment before the scheduled start time.

Shortly after changing into my costume the first guests started to arrive, causing me to open the first bottle of wine. As the time went on more and more people began to arrive, eventually peaking at about 20.

One thing that I noticed was that people tended to bring red wine with them but that the white wine went much more quickly. I know that this would be my preference, but I bought more white than red wine. Maybe it was just a quirk of the evening, or, as Neil hypothesized, that the white was more tempting in the context of an overheated apartment.

Anyway, as people arrived the seemed to quickly hope on to the drinking and feasting components of the evening, which was the intended outcome.

By about 4:00 AM most of the guests had departed, the exception being Mary, who crashed on the futon.

The next morning, upon waking, I surveyed the apartment. Much to my surprise, there wasn't all that much to clean up, aside from basically all of the glasses in our apartment. Within about 45 minutes I had returned the apartment to a more orderly state than when the party started the previous evening.

Shortly after finishing my clean up I returned to bed so that I could rest up for Friday night's events, which were to be plentiful, and which I hoped to take full advantage of as this was to be on of the few Friday nights I haven't had to work.

At about 6:30 a few of us from the Ghetto walked over to a bar on Crescent Street to celebrate a classmate's birthday. If I recall correctly, about 10 or 12 people showed up and we had a very enjoyable few hours of socializing. At one point we were even able to discuss local Newfoundland beers (as the celebrant is the only other person from Newfoundland in my class).

From the bar, a handful of us moved to a party on St. Laurent. Shortly after arriving at the party we ended up meeting the celebrant's former roommate, who, if my memory serves me correctly, is a friend of the host's, though I am not too sure about the connection.

After a brief, but pleasant stay at the party, we again were on the move, this time to a bar further North on St. Laurent.

The reason for visiting the bar was a party that they were hosting, which was called "Revenge of the Librarians." Though it was likely that my friends would be the only library community related individuals present, I did feel an intense desire to put on a cardigan and see what was going on. I should also note that it was a fundraiser for a feminist/gender neutrality cause (meaning that I knew that I would be one of the few males before I even entered the bar).

Upon entering the bar it was clear that the librarian stereotype is pretty easy to hit pretty accurately. There were plenty of cardigans and pairs of glasses (though I don't know if they were wearing comfortable shoes).

As the bar had only one bathroom playing the line was particularly important. As I have taken a management class and am familiar with the ins and out of strategic planning I hopped in the line shortly after buying my drink as I was sure to need to use the bath room my the time that I reached the front of the line.

One of the best aspects of the bathroom line was being between two or more people twenty minutes. I had some really fun conversations with my fellow patrons. It is likely that I wouldn't have really talked to anyone but my friends had it not be for the need to wait twenty minutes to use the can.

Eventually things started to slow down and people started to clear out. Soon enough a few of us were just about the last people there.

For some reason, we ended up visiting a local 24 hour bagel bakery shortly after departing. Somehow I ended up eating four of the six bagels, though I wasn't even the one with a particular inclination to get them.

Soon enough, after scrapping together bus fare, I was able to hope a south-bound Parc bus with Kyla. Upon making it back to the Ghetto we each headed home, drawing to a close my weekend of socializing.

A Few Quick Notes 147

-Today was a pretty nice day, though the weather was more of what one might expect in fall than the middle of winter. It was a nice surprise as yesterday turned out to be quite a messy day (as frequently occurs when snow and rain are mixed at near zero temperatures).

-Again last night we had a biggish party at Thomson House. This time the reason was the beginning of a new term.

Though slow to start, the party eventually picked up and proved to be quite successful. So successful that we ended up selling out of pizza well before the kitchen was scheduled to close. Another sign of success was that tips were quite good. One of the only problems was that as there were all kinds of people there at close we weren't able to complete many of the tasks involved with closing until everyone had left, delaying our departure.

-A few nights ago I played some Settlers and had a fairly good run. Unfortunately, in my second game I built a settlement for one point instead of a road for two, something that would have given me the win. After this mistake I wasn't able to turn things around and build a settlement or a city for my tenth point.

-While in the grocery store a few nights ago, I happened to stop by the discount DVD bin. As the prices seemed incredibly low, and as I didn't really want to rush home, I decided to look through the selection and see what they had in the under $5.00 category. After several minutes of searching I found a double feature that included "Shaft: Les Nuits Rouges de Harlem" and "Les Nouveaux Exploits de Shaft." The set did not include the third and final Shaft movie, "Shaft in Africa." Fortunately, while the packaging is in French, the movies are in English.

So far I have only managed to get through the first movie (just known as "Shaft" in English). While it was watchable, I did notice that I didn't really like the way the sound was mixed. It seems that the vocal levels are quite low while the soundtrack is quite high, meaning that one has to have the sound quite high to hear the dialogue and is then blasted by the Isaac Hayes for the rest of the time (a feature that may be intentional). Maybe in a few days I will get around to watching the second movie as it is sure to be more action packed than the first one.

-For dinner tonight I plan on having a pot roast. As the piece of meat is on the large size I hope to have enough for left overs for a few days. The only problem is that I may have have included enough potatoes and carrots.

A Few Quick Notes 143

-Today has been a pretty traditional St. John's Christmas eve, cool, but not cold, and wet. As of late, the rain has been on the heavy side, something that doesn't mix particularly well with 18 inches of snow. If the rain keeps up there won't be enough snow for Santa to land on every one's roofs.

-Due to an unforeseen medical emergency the Christmas cooking and baking schedule has been a little modified for this year. Most notably, my cooking related duties have risen dramatically.

I rose to the occasion and prepared our traditional Christmas bread, with only a few minor hitches. Fortunately, in the end, everything seemed to work out in the end, and the nine loaves should be largely edible.

Tonight, I lead the way on the preparation of our Christmas Eve fondue meal. As this meal is cooked at the table the prep time wasn't too bad. The only hitch with this meal was that we forgot to buy bread yesterday meaning that I had to make a quick batch before dinner.

Tomorrow night, instead of the more traditional turkey, it seems that we will be having roast beef. Hopefully this won't be too complicated. I also presume that it will be a team effort.

On the 28th we will finally have our more traditional Christmas dinner with turkey and the rest of associated dishes. This is likely to also be the day on which we conduct our gift exchange, a slight detour from our typical practice.

-Neil and I attended a Christmas party last night. Not only was it great to see a few people that I haven't seen in years, there was some pretty awesome dancing. In particular, the break dancing (including the freezer door move) was pretty good.

-Though we are not doing our gift exchange until the 28th my father, uncle, and I did manage to head out this afternoon to hit the end of the Christmas rush. In all we must have visited about four or five stores between about 3:30 and 5:00. Surprisingly, the trip wasn't all that bad as it seems that most people had already finished their shopping or accepted defeat.

-Somehow I will have to managed to acquire a gift for my father between now and the 28th, though what I had hoped to purchase for him should have been ordered days ago. I am sure that things will work out in the end.

A Few Quick Notes 57

-Another winter day in Montreal today. There are a few flurries falling as I write, though nothing all that serious. It is also still about -10, though I must say that this seemed warm when I was walking around this morning. If it keeps snowing maybe I will go for a walk this afternoon.

-My father flew into Montreal this morning. He was on his way to Kingston. The original plan was that he would arrive yesterday and spend the night. Because of the “weather bomb” this did not happen, his flight was switched to this morning. The modified plan was that he would take the bus into town and we would meet for breakfast. Unfortunately, the plane was late leaving the airport, the gate was iced up on arrival, and then the luggage failed to arrive. With about 15 minutes before his train was to depart we met at the airport. Several items were quickly transferred to my bag, some hot drinks and a cinnamon roll were purchased, before we made our way to the gate.

If all goes according to plan, my father and uncle should be in Montreal as of this Wednesday evening. I am really hoping that things aren’t quite as rushed as they were on this trip. On the other hand, this is the fourth time that my father has been in Montreal since September.

-Last night Nithum and I went to a party. An open invitation was issued by one of my classmates so I asked Nithum if he was interested. After a little bit of vacillation he decided to go for it, his second party of St. Joseph in two days.

Though I was worried that we might be late, it turned out that we were really on the early side. It must have been about 30 to 45 minutes before anyone else showed up, and then another 20 before the first real group.

The heart of the party was made up of friends and classmates of my classmate’s roommates. As these people began to arrive Nithum started to recognize some of them as attendees of Friday night’s party.

It turned out that the party was infested with people that had connections to Newfoundland. Aside from Nithum and I, there were at least two and possibly four other people who grew up in Newfoundland. There was also a pretty large Nova Scotia contingent. Nithum actually seems to have wangled us an invite to the upcoming “East Coast Kitchen Party” that will be held in the same location in the coming weeks.

[Author's note: I forgot to say that I had an excellent time, sometimes I assume that everyone already knows the good things. I also forgot to thank Nicole for the invitation, it was nice to party with such a wide variety to attendees. It was also nice to hear those bawdy songs as sung by Oscar Brand.]

-As I arrived at McGill today I was reminded that today is the winter Open House. If I had a bit more energy I could probably manage to get a hold of some free stuff.

-Today needs to be a big study day. I have done most of the prep work already, I have the reading materials, the caffeine, part of the mental preparation, and the knowledge that it really needs to happen.

-Yesterday was the first day that I have not had ginseng in about four days. I am not sure I noticed much of a difference, but maybe the old stuff is not out of my system. Anyway, I definitely did not notice any downsides, and I feel as though I could even accept just a placebo affect right now.