With my favourite co-worker and the director on vacation for the past couple of weeks at my job, work has been pretty slow. The regular staff are booking their summer vacation time (up to three weeks!), so I have lots of free time in between my normal duties + my co-worker's share. This includes fun tasks such as watering plants, finding the coffee, searching the extensive filing system for letters and opening the mail.

One of my friends moved earlier this week from his house to an apartment (temporarily; this is his mother's new one, while he is still renovating his own). Lots of open space, providing an ambience similar to that at the Citadel Theatre. We managed to cram all of the belongings from his home into a 26-foot U-Haul. My friend Jer and I lost the use of our arms after that night. Luckily, Karl's girlfriend knows a construction worker who helped lift the super-heavy stuff (accompanied by his girlfriend?). We worked past midnight. The highlight of the evening was looking for my fleece which Jer buried under a pile of stuff when he was trying to make space in the living room. I couldn't go home without it because it contained my work ID and my bus pass.

During my lunch break today, I was sitting in a quiet section of the Stanley A. Milner library reading the daily newspapers when a man approached me and asked: "Excuse me, may I read you two quotes from the Bible?" I asked why. He said: "Because the Lord loves you." Now, I used to be shy about declining when people like this approach me. But now that I'm a little older and realize that listening to other people spread the Good News is not a requirement for being a good citizen, I told him no, thanks. He walked away, a little disgruntled.

...the nerds on Slashdot were discussing a topic near and dear to my heart today.

I was at Second Cup today for an Italian Soda. I chose the watermelon flavour. The cashier said: "Because I care about my customers, I don't recommend watermelon. It's our least popular flavour. I've had people tell me it doesn't taste really good." I went for it anyway. She put more squirts of syrup than I can remember, so the beginning was actually quite sweet. After that, it tasted like soda water. I guess I didn't mix well enough, but it's not as bad as she made it out to be.

Today I woke up a little tired after a full day's worth of activities yesterday.

In the morning, I was removing the carpet from the stairs. This was a task I decided to apprehend without gloves. Bad idea. I had those carpet grippers (wooden strips with nails punctured through them) scratch my hands and wrists, giving the impression that I've been attacked by cats.

During the late afternoon, I met my friend John, who was my 4th year education buddy and came up all the way from his camp at Crowsnest Pass (with his wife Lauranne) for a friend's wedding. He's a past counsellor and current administrator at the camp. We went to a little acreage where a friend of Lauranne's is spending the summer. John and I were responsible for the barbecue, which was a bad idea, because we didn't let the skewers sit on the flame long enough. The meat was soft and pink! I hope nobody got Salmonella. (I avoided the meat.)

In the evening, we went to Dairy Queen for a Dilly Bar and then played hacky-sack until the mosquitoes became overly irritating.

An interview with the Devil

Joyce NAPIER [interviewer, Radio-Canada]:
Are you going to work?

Karla HOMOLKA:
Yes, I'd like to.

JN:
What kind of work would you like to do?

KH:
I'm ready to do anything, except the only things important to me are first that it be legal. Second that it is moral. And third that it doesn't go against my conditions.

So, if you are an organization in Quebec, and receive a resumé from an applicant who has a BA from Queen's and has no work history for the past 12 years, guess who it is?