The weekend began early on Friday, not because of another surprise day off from the bosses, but because we had had a sleepless night thanks to a very loud cat. Dina was especially tired that morning, which made her as-yet-unresolved cold that much worse, so, rather than leave her to tend to Ben, I called in for a sick day.
Fortunately, Ben was pretty sleepy that day as well, so I was able to get some work done for the office thanks to Instant Messenger, and Dina was able to snooze. Later in the afternoon, I started on Buffy: Chaos Bleeds for the PS2.
Quick review: the animation is choppy like Wolverine’s Revenge, the ranged weapon controls don’t allow you to run and shoot, and there are a lot of unmotivated and poorly-displayed puzzles. Right from the second stage, I had to resort to walkthroughs to know what I was supposed to do. Why does that particular church open with a sundial? If Faith picks up a lighter, why would my first instinct be to look for a fireplace? One the positive side, the voice acting is great, the hand-to-hand combat mirrors the show – I love staking vamps in mid-air! – and I strongly suspect that the plot of the game has more internal consistency than the show’s seventh season.
All in all, a quiet evening.
Saturday was filled with football and fun. Dina went over the new apartment to continue patching and scraping the baseboards while the landlord and the electrician kept working on the holes in the hallway. I watched Ben took care of the usual chores, and waited for Dina’s folks to come back for another weekend of renovation assistance.
They showed up in the late afternoon, while Ben and I were watching the Rams-Panthers game. While the folks unpacked their stuff and played with Ben, I ran out to pick up the groceries. Much to my surprise, I found everyone in the TV room, watching the game. Dina was trying to feed Ben, but he wouldn’t settle down. He kept watching the TV. And he didn’t settle until the end of the game.
So, we’ve decided that Ben is a Panthers fan. Who knew?
I made up tacos for dinner, and we had another quiet evening, planning our tasks for the next day.
On Sunday, Tilly watched Ben, and Dina, Lou and I worked on the new apartment. I mostly lugged stuff downstairs, but I also helped lay down the new baseboards in the office, which involved cutting insulation, marking studs, and drilling into said studs without hitting the new electrical wires. Fun stuff!
After lunch, Kathy came by for an afternoon visit, which gave Dina’s folks a chance to catch their breath for more work in the afternoon, and gave us a chance to catch up.
In the evening, I broiled some tournedos steaks for dinner, which went over very well. Then, prepped some boxes and started packing up some of my books in the office. As with everything else, I’m making two piles of boxes: for moving, and for donation. (In fact, if anyone has any suggestions about where to donate books in Montreal, I’d appreciate hearing from you.)
Afterwards, everyone pretty much conked out earlier than we expected. Another busy weekend over, and many more to come until the move in late February. We’re getting there!
Posted by StephenI'm looking for libraries to donate a chunk of my library to as well, I'll let you know what I find out. There was that new library in Kahnesatake (sp?) that needed books, but that was last year, don't know if they're still interested in donations.
Posted by: Bill at January 12, 2004 01:05 PMI remember hearing that they were swamped with donations after the teenager who headed the project won a contest with one of those teen-girl mags in the States.
I'll cross-post if I find any other likely destinations for my books.
Posted by: steve at January 12, 2004 01:32 PMI don't know about libraries, but anything sold by Village des Valeurs finances various Quebec charities.
And, I might add, I have an entirely EMPTY bookcase and a half here in my new office. Hint, hint.