So I stayed at work pretty late last night (not work-related, more on that in a while) and then took the bus home as usual. City bus seats being what they are, and my leg being sensitive to pressure points, I was sore, hungry, and getting cranky by the time I got off the bus at about twenty after nine.

Before I started supper I figured I had better do my exercises, so I was down on the floor when the phone rang. It seemed late for a telemarketer, and I had missed a call from sagitare over the weekend, so I lurched (definitely the appropriate verb) to my feet, leg twanging, and limped over to the phone. Picked it up and said "hello."

Nothing for a second, then a young male voice said something like "Yo." And there was silence.

Me: (dangerously politely) "Can I help you?"
Young Male Voice: (slightly puzzled) "No, no help needed."
Me: (with vicious courtesy) "Well, then, you have a nice evening."

And I hung up and went back to my exercises.

About five minutes later the phone rang again, and I let the answering machine get it. Nobody spoke. I went about my business.

Five minutes after that it rang again, and I heard my sister's voice saying, "Sorry about a minute ago, your saucy nephew assumed you knew who it was!"

Yes, dear reader, I had hung up on my own nephew. The boy who, on any list of my ten favourite people in the world, would appear twice. He is, in fact, a major reason for my affinity for the young and spacey.

He is, in fact, a whole lot like me, and since he knew he was calling me, I think he assumed that I knew it was him calling.

Which, if his voice hadn't gotten so damned deep over the past year or so, I might have. Thank God I didn't say anything rude to him!

Anyway. Back to physio tonight, and I hope it helps my brain as well as my leg!!

... my last act as a houseguest was to use my most awesome librarian mojo to track down a set of audiobooks my sister-in-law used to love as a kid and wished she could find on CD for her own children. Tremble before my powers!

No, actually, I just entered the title in Google and discovered the books were released on CD just last month. They're available through Amazon UK and were easy to order. My SIL looked for them a few months ago and hadn't thought to check again.

Still. I feel as if I've earned my keep.

(The stories, for my UK friends, are Dorothy Edwards' My Naughty Little Sister, and they are charming.)

We took the kids to the movies this afternoon. Since they are aged eleven, five, and four, we figured a nice G-rated family movie was in order. So we went to The Water Horse, based on a novel by the same guy who wrote The Sheep Pig, which became Babe. It's the true story of the Loch Ness Monster.

(I was amused that we saw it in a theatre within shouting distance of Okanagan Lake, home of Ogopogo, but I digress.)

The movie was rated G, but it was rated G in the same way Sleeping Beauty was rated G--remember Malificent??? So if you intend to take small children, be aware the movie takes place during the Second World War and includes not only a few scenes of angry sea monsters (okay, lake monsters) but also a prolonged sequence of intense artillery fire. (Nobody actually gets hit, but considering the range and the size of the target I am still impressed with the standard of gunnery.)

Okay, I sniffled a little a few times.

Worth seeing, but make sure the little ones have a safe lap to climb into.

I must go looking for the book!

(Cookies to whoever identifies the source of the last two title posts.)

The nieces and nephew were remarkably patient this morning, waiting for the adults to surface and the other set of grandparents to arrive. There is now the largest pile of toy cars I have ever seen up in the living room. And that is just the nephew.

Speaking of cars, I had not until this point realized that if you put my dad and two brothers in the same room--or vehicle--together, all they talk about is cars. Interesting...

Quick update--chaos reigns upstairs, where the smallest Niece and nephew are being bathed. Eldest niece is having a shower, which will be followed by decorating gingerbread cookies for Santa. Should be great.

The kids have been in jammies most of the day in the hopes this will make it bedtime faster. I tell you what, the sliding session over on the hill behind the elementary school should make them sleep better. Including their mother--it turns out my sister-in-law is a sliding champ herself. The things you learn.

Okay, off to find out what the cookies look like.

Merry Christmas!

It's generally an evening with Joel Plaskett but this year the party features The Trews. I'll be on my way home from Survivor: Penticton when the event starts. (Honest to God, my sister-in-law is insane. The whole family is landing on them from December 22 to December 31, for Christmas and my brother's 40th birthday. I'm exhausted and stressed out just thinking about it but I certainly wasn't going to be the asshole who Ruined Christmas For Everyone, especially not after she and my brother bought my airline tickets and took away my one valid reason, which is that there's no way I could afford it.)

(Yes, I know I could have just said no. There are times you do. And then there are times when the desire to not spend ten days getting progressively more exhausted is not as strong as the desire to not Ruin Christmas For Everyone. And I can take a few days off right after New Year's so I will be able to get more or less back to normal before I return to work.)

Anyway. New Year's. I wasn't too upset about missing the Marquee until this evening I opened The Coast and found the ad for the show.

Who's opening?

I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count.

Damn. First show at the Marquee and everything.

According to my flight itinerary, though, I should get into Halifax at just after ten PM. You know, I might be able to make it.

And I might really need some dirty rock'n'roll to get my head back on right.

Hmm...

Post title courtesy of my five-year-old niece, who is in kindergarten. Apparently her class went to the library and she was unable to find the book she wanted, but when she asked "the library teacher," all was revealed.

It's never too early to develop the library habit.

Also, it appears I am spending Christmas with that branch of the family, along with pretty well everyone else in my immediate family. Because apparently my sister-in-law is a crazy woman. I won't tell you what happened the last time that many representatives of my family got together for Christmas, because now that the brother she's married to has chilled out a little it's unlikely to happen again.

Should be quite the bash, however.

They have woods in BC. In case of emergency I can always run for the trees. Or take my niece and go to the library....

My sister sent out an update this morning. Apparently the new kidney is functioning perfectly. He'd had a bit of a temperature for the first day but the docs figured it was related to a cold he and my sister both had a few days ago. Obviously they've pumped him full of antibiotics as a prophylactic measure and the temp is gone. He's been up and around a lot and walks around with no pain. Yay!

He should be ready to come home over the weekend! My sis is taking a couple of weeks off to look after him--lots of visits back to the transplant unit for the first year, then things taper off. Still beats dialysis.

Prayers and all continue, but so far so good...

I just got an email from my sister, and so far so good. My brother-in-law's new kidney seems to be functioning pretty well and his vital signs are good. Fingers continue to be crossed.

My mother called me last night to let me know that my brother in law, who suffers from severe kidney disease, was at that moment in hospital having a transplant.

My sister will update her, and she will update my brother and me.

Fingers crossed.

Over the summer my parents moved into an apartment in town and sold their house to the young family who lived in it while they were in Africa last year. My mother has had some trouble with the transition. My dad has long since been ready to quit mowing lawns and clearing snow.

Their apartment is nice--not really big, but with a really nice living room and a great view out onto the river. They have it all very cozy.

Today, while the turkey was cooking my mother and I went up to have a look at the house. The family who bought it had heavy renovations done, which sort of freaked out my mother. She and Dad spent part of the summer living upriver of the place and they passed it every day on the way to town, and it was understandably tough for her to see cupboards being taken out and signs of, you know, walls coming down inside.

Me, I was glad I didn't have to see the evidence of the renovations, but a long time ago I saw a cartoon about a little car named Susie, who starte dout all bright and shiny and then got old and rusty and sad... until some college kid bought her and souped her up, and at the end of the cartoon she was buzzing around town as happy as could be.

The house did need some work done. And in theory, I liked the idea of the place being totally done over and starting out fresh with a new family.

The owners were around so we went inside, and you know, I didn't recognize the place. Outside it's been painted and there's a new window over the new front door, but inside... well, there are walls taken out, the floors are completely redone, everything has been painted, two bathrooms were knocked out and replaced with one big one...

It was like being in a house I had never seen before, under construction to be gorgeous.

I wasn't as attached to that house as my mother was, but even she was kind of okay with the changes. It's somebody else's house now. And it's certainly not going to be sad and neglected.

I didn't know if I'd feel bad when I got in there and saw the changes, but actually, I'm all right. I hope my mother is too. The house has definitely moved on, though.

We got a new chair over the weekend from my parents. (Well, new to us.) Coney loves the new chair.



Bojo loves the new chair too, and also Coney. Who is beginning to love him too. Really.

So my parents came up over the weekend, which was fun. I didn't know they were thinking about coming until Tuesday, but that gave me time to get the place cleaned up a little. I now have a ginormous television and cabinet sitting in my living room, since it doesn't fit into their new place and I have a little more room. I'm thinking I may actually have to move furniture around to accomodate it.

We went to the barbecue at the barn on Saturday afternoon, which was nice--we arrived over an hour later than I planned on but luckily it was slow to get started. The card for the mare's owner was really nice--everyone was signing it. I don't know if we'll see much of her now, which is really too bad.

We didn't make it to the do on the Bedford Waterfront--we stopped to tell my brother and his friend where we were going and the folks got chatting and we just never did leave. I was disappointed because once we'd made the plan I sort of started to look forward to it, but stuff happens. I also didn't go out to the Seahorse to check out Faded Blue--I'd slept really badly on Friday for some reason and I was just played out. No way I wanted to go back downtown to check out a band I wasn't sure I'd like. I'm sure I'll have another chance to hear them.

I did most of the driving over the weekend, though we were in my folks' CR-V (and may I add, I am embarrassed how hard I find it to drive an automatic) so I stuck the Christopher Denny CD in the player. I may have to get my parents a copy. They really liked him.

Anyway, nice weekend overall. And now, back to work!

My parents are coming to visit for the weekend (and incidentally bringing me their old large TV, so when I watch the CFL I can see what's going on.) They may come to the barn barbecue, I'll have to check with them when they arrive tonight. We may also hit the Bedford Waterfront cancer benefit thing.

Now, my guest room (read, "full of junk but you can sleep there") used to have an air bed in it. When Mum and Dad moved out of the house and into the apartment they gave me one of their guest beds, the three-quarter size one from my brother's room. So now I don't have to be afraid of the bed deflating under a guest, but I did have to put it together so I can sleep in it this weekend.

I just want to tell you that Coney is an excellent foreman, but Bojo was the one who really got in there and got his paws dirty putting the bed together. He's a really helpful cat. So much so that he nearly ended up made up into the bed, which he did not find one bit funny.

Anyway, we're set for the weekend. Tonight I'll swap out the duvet on my own bed because my mother has allergies, and put on a new clean one I have.

And the vacuuming job from last night will have to do.

My oldest niece is having a birthday this weekend. Because I am a bonehead, I couldn't think of exactly the right gift for her until it was too late to get it to her on time.

However, because I am awesome, I finally realized that the ideal gift for a kid with a thing about the Pirates of the Caribbean movies is: the 12-inch Captain Jack Sparrow action figure so realistic you feel like you should hide the rum 'n' raisin ice cream!

It went in the mail a minute ago, and if Canada Post does its part she should have it very shortly after her birthday. I only hope nobody else has had the same brainwave I have.

Mind you, as sagitare pointed out to me, if she gets more than one she can re-enact the hallucination scenes. So it's a win all the way around!

I didn't even get to the public library to check email this weekend. As I mentioned last week, my parents got home from the west on Thursday, and then latsyrk and her husband moved to Halifax over the weekend. They were supposed to come on Saturday, but had some trouble with the rental truck and had to get it fixed first. It's probably just as well, because it rained in torrents for much of Saturday and although they were localized storms, the new place is about two blocks away from me so they'd have gotten soaked.

Sunday, when they arrived, was a bright sunshiny day. My folks and I joined the crew helping to unload the truck, and we did help unpack--at least, we helped unpack some stuff. (My last moves were from Texas, when I got rid of practically everything I owned, and to Halifax, after having gotten rid of practically everything I owned. I haven't done a big-time full-household move in a years, and I'd forgotten what a pain they are!) latsyrk's husband had to start his new job this morning, so she's probably up to her neck in packing materials even as we speak.

All this gives me the urge to de-clutter my own home in case I ever move again!

The good part is, here they are! And also they figure by Tuesday they'll be in need of a break, and since latsryk reads this journal she is all excited to go to Tribeca for Gloryhound & the Skyhawks. Her husband has already seen them, and more or less remembers the incident, so we'll see how they feel on Tuesday.

If they're too tired on Tuesday, Friday night at the Seahorse is also a possibility. I'd like to put them together with thallid and deceptivelyevil, too. Since neither of them is a librarian, I think deceptivelyevil would appreciate it, too!

Anyway, it was a good weekend, and I'm really excited about the new neighbours!

My vacation cycle at work runs from July to June, and I had one vacation day to use up before the end of the month. So I took it today--my folks are coming in from an extended visit out west and I'm picking them up at the airport. As long as I was at it I figured I might as well take the whole day and do my housecleaning today as well. No point in giving the cat hair any more time to come back.

The place is now nice and clean, and I'm on my way to do something about the grocery situation now. The library being between my place and the groceries, here I am.

This is going to be a short visit, but since my folks are selling their house and the closing is in mid-July, I will probably take the first week or so of my new vacation cycle and go up to see if I can help with anything. We'll see.

.. the whole high-strung thing? I come by it honestly. As an illustration, my parents and I were watching the motorcycle movie The World's Fastest Indian (no, really, it's relevant) and there's this scene out on the Bonneville Salt Flats when the main character is speed-testing his motorcycle, and at a certain point they're going so fast the bike starts shivering and the hind end gets all shaky and he nearly loses it...

...and my mother says suddenly, "Is that a high-speed wobble? Like Western Brother" [who is sort of a biker dude] "always says I'm in whenever I freak out over something?"

A great many of Western Brother's stories used to include the line, "and then Mum went into a high-speed wobble."

And yeah, it was.

So I guess this past weekend and today were genetically predetermined.

Which does not mean I shouldn't watch myself for the tendency.

I'm beginning to be really excited about seeing Grindhouse and it's occurred to me that if I wasn't going with my brother, or didn't at least want to talk about it with him later, I probably wouldn't be going.

But I would never have gone near Syriana if it hadn't been for him, either. Left to my own devices I tend to stick to the middle of the road (or just go to anything featuring tall ships or airplanes.) Having the sidekick to push me off in other directions is definitely good for me.

Um, we won't get into whether I have ever done the same for my brother. At least I am a reliable designated driver!

No, wait--aside from the Gloryhound thing, which is obvious, I also talked him into coming with me to see The Trews, which he probably wouldn't have done on his own, and that's where we encountered Will Hoge. Whew! I'm holding up my end!

So I was talking to my brother last night. In the course of the conversation he mentioned doing something on Tuesday evening. Early. Because "I assume we're going to see Gloryhound, right?"

Apparently the band can congratulate themselves on attracting persistent fans. Or maybe it just runs in my family.