these are not my walls

We officially have a contract with our contractor (how appropriate) and concrete plans for our renovations! Yaaaaay!

They're starting Feb. 18th, and anticipate taking about 3 weeks. That's three weeks with no kitchen. How do people ever get their bathrooms re-done???

I. Can't. Wait!

Wiimas was awesome. Except the right arm and shoulder pain that still lingers slightly today...methinks I should train more. Yeah, that's it: it's training!

Also, I may never eat again.

I was back at work yesterday and today. There are, I think, 14 lawyers and 5 support staff in that office normally, but there were only 2 of each of us this week. It's a fairly big, spread-out office, so it was kind of creepy. The head honcho had left strict instructions that we were all supposed to be gone by 4:30 every day, and today we decided that 3:10 was close enough.

I could get used to this "billable time" thing; it's way better than "face time". :)

Alex has a show all three nights this weekend. I didn't go tonight, the opening night, because he called to tell me they're not doing the skit which involves the costume I made for him. Last time I spent HOURS making him an octopus costume - a very cool octopus costume, thankyouverymuch! The arms moved!! - and I didn't get to see it AT ALL. So this time, I'm planning appropriately.

Plus, by going tomorrow, I can have someone to sit with, instead of hiding in a dark corner all by myself. And drinking. :)

Merry Wiimas to you and yours! Our friend Michelle is coming over today, and we are going to play wii ALL. DAY. Plus make with the eating and the drinking, of course. I smell a holiday tradition coming on! :)

I'm currently sitting on my balcony, watching the sun rise to the right and a big, full (or at least full-looking; I have a hard time telling sometimes) moon on my left. Awesome.

One of the things I like about Victoria is that I can sit on my balcony at night and see lots of stars; despite the fact that we live downtown, the lights aren't bright enough to block them out. Which is, of course, because Victoria is a small city, yo. I didn't figure we'd be here this long, even, but so far so good. We'll see.

Things I've done since I last posted here in the summer:

- drove from Sudbury to Victoria, partway with Anja and partway with my Mom. The part with Anja involved a lot more stopping and turning around to get hilarious pictures; the part with Mom involved a lot more of me actually being able to see things because I didn't have to drive the entire time. Both parts were pretty awesome, though, and I can highly recommend both as roadtrip partners.
- lived with my sister and family in Vancouver for 2 1/2 months, where I
- passed the bar exam.
- bought a new camera! Soon there will be pictures gracing this blog, which will hopefully be in better focus than with my cheapo point-and-shooter. Unless we discover that I am simply a crappy photographer. Don't worry, though; I have a day job.
- starting working at my articling job. It's been interesting so far - I'm in my second rotation, both solicitor (like, paper stuff, as opposed to barrister, which is court stuff. Yeah, that's the kind of precise language they teach you at law school!), and nothing has yet jumped out at me as what I want to do afterward. Which is probably good, because I don't think either department is hiring. :P
- re-financed our mortgage, and got my mom off title! Not that my mom has been a bad co-homeowner - thanks, Mom! - but hey, it's nice to be real adults again.
- found a contractor to re-do our kitchen! We think. He's supposed to be coming by today to sign the contract and pick up the deposit cheque, so keep your fingers crossed! If he asks why we picked him, I think we'll tell him we liked him, liked his BBB record, liked the price, and liked the start date. I think maybe we won't tell him that, despite my 15+ calls to contractors, 6 appointments with contractors to do estimates, and 3 actually showing up to our place, he was the only one who gave us an estimate. Man, this has *not* been fun. But the new kitchen will be! :)

Hm, I think that's it. Now, I have to go do some dishes, so the contractor doesn't think we're complete slobs.

So, if you go to that game I posted about yesterday? It has variations! Apparently I know nothing about flags, and my default guess of "the Netherlands" got me exactly nowhere.

There's also an option for more localized geographic areas; I did well in Canada right up until the Maritimes, though not as well as you might expect in the U.S.

Well, unless you're Anja, in which case you might expect me to do just about as poorly as I did. :P

Today was my last day of work before a 5-day break (for WIIMAS!!), then it's two short days and another weekend. The only sad part is that I have to work on Dec. 31st. I can't remember the last time that wasn't a holiday for me! I wish they'd let me trade something else - say, Xmas, or Boxing Day! - but it is sadly not allowed. Whatever!

The big news 'round our parts is that finally, at long last, after 4 months of wrangling and calling more than 15 contractors*, Alex and I have a contractor to re-do our kitchen!!! We're set to start Feb. 18th, so now comes the real big push to actually, uh, sort through our shit and get rid of some of it. I'm sure that won't be a problem...

*3 of the 4 contractors who actually deigned to show up at our house and check over the project declined to actually quote us an estimate for the job. Do you think we should be insulted???

Hello.

I realise I have not posted in quite a while. Because certain people keep making very snarky comments about it.

I'm sorry. So very, very sorry. Really, this hair shirt is becoming quite uncomfortable.

I will try to post more often. It's hard to get back in the habit, I find. Maybe if it was more like smoking. Or crack! Yeah, that's it. Or, uh, so I hear.

Anyway, everything is fine with us here in Vicky City. Once I think of more interesting things to say, I will post them.

In the meantime, to reward you for your perseverance, may I introduce you to an awesome game? If you've ever played Globetrotters, it'll help!