PORT ALBERNI:

Monday night, after I blogged, I ordered the last of the Orient Expedition sets I needed to finish the collection from the Lego website. At 50% off, I kind of figured I had to. I stayed up kind of late getting packed, which was good because I was in a real rush tuesday. I came home from work, had some dinner, sold my gear, showered, loaded up the car, deposited my cash, came back for forgetten directions, all within an hour. Jenn and I wound up being early to the ferry, which was good. After the ferry, the drive was long, wet, and boring. We arrived around 1am, and I crashed pretty much immediately, having only been up for 20 hours. Despite this, the bed was so uncomfortable I was awake at 7:30 the next day, and that was that. Steve (Jenn's dad) gave us the grand tour, and we went into town to check stuff out. It was very much the typical small town. We went to the pub in the quay for lunch, where I was feeling bold enough to try eating a hamburger. It arrived, and the patty was really thick, so I had to ask for a steak knife. Even cutting off small pieces, it proved to be quite a task, and I think it took me around half an hour to eat it. That evening I took a stroll around the property, had some dinner, and Steve, Robin, Jenn and I played Creationary (see Jenn's blog for details). Thursday morning we left really quick so as to see my aunt in Nanaimo before boarding the ferry. We only got to visit for an hour, but it was nice to see her and she gave us some chicken salad sandwiches for the ferry that were quite delicious. We came home, and Jenn had plenty of time to prepare for work, ending our island oddysey.

AGAIN WITH THE CRACK:

So last night, I was woken up by my cell phone ringing. It was Kevin, from the A shift at work, obviously drunk out of his gord, and proclaiming it openly. I wasn't sure what he was after, but he started calling me an idiot, so I let him go and went back to sleep. Shortly thereafter, Carl, the lead hand, called me and told me Kevin had been murdered. "Oh no!" I said. Carl went on to explain Kevin had been murdered by his own mustache, as he was so blind drunk that he passed out and suffocated on it. In fact, Carl had been concerned for his safety, and had put Kevin up to calling me and insulting me so that I would go over to his apartment (as, unbeknownst to me, Kevin lives in the same building as I do!), seeking to pick a fight, but instead keeping him safe. Carl demanded to know what kind of coward I was that I wouldn't protect my honour, so I explained that while I was sorry Kevin was dead, I don't pick fights with people who don't know what they're saying, and if I had known he was in danger I would have gone only to help. That ended the conversation, but it was very difficult to get back to sleep, thinking that I could have just half an hour ago prevented the death of someone I knew. This morning I woke up not wanting to go to work and look Carl in the eye, then I wondered if I had dreamed it, because why on earth wouldn't Carl just ask me to look in on Kevin? Then I realized that there is no Kevin on the A shift, let alone one with a mustache, let alone one that lives in my building. Finally, I checked the call log on my cell. No calls last night. Definately a dream.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD SPIDERMAN:

I've been watching my brother's copy of the old Spiderman cartoons, just a couple to unwind before bed. Despite their crappiness, they make me want to do a supers roleplaying game, as does every other superhero show I watch. But I can't get plots together. People can't get together. Some of my friends are GURPophobic. Then I realized that if I formatted the game like a Silver Age superhero cartoon, with ridiculous villians, terrible dialogue, and predictable plots, I could use TOON to play a supers game, and details like what was actually happening and character continuity would be irrelevant! I'll pitch the idea to tea (through Jenn or a note) and see if anyone besides Rick bites.

So Friday I finally got all my wisdom teeth pulled. My mom drove me out to Richmond at 7:30 am. I wasn't supposed to be there untill 8:30, but we were worried about traffic. As it turned out, there was no traffic at all and we arrived around 7:45. So we hung out for a bit, and talked about my upcoming wedding, and decided to go upstairs around 8:00. The office was open, I went through all the paperwork, and started the procedure around 8:30, even though it was scheduled for 8:45. They tied a rubber thing around my arm, hooked up an IV drip to my hand, and strapped me into the chair. They opened my mouth, I started to feel them looking around, and then the surgeon told me we were done. Apparently I was unconcious for 20 minutes, but I don't remember going under or coming back up, there's just a gap with conciousness on both sides and no defining middle part. Oy. So, I felt relatively stable coming out, although it was really difficult to talk as a: my brain was still fuzzy from the anasthesia, b: my chin and tongue were still asleep from the freezing, and c: I had gauze wadded into my mouth to stop the bleeding. There's a London Drugs right beside where I had the procedure done, so my mother and I went upstairs and got my three prescriptions (T3's, an antibiotic and an anti-inflamitory), as well as soup, zoodles and juice. We then went to Imperial Hobbies, where they had giant SALE signs up (Yay!!!), but they weren't going to open for another hour (Boo!!!) and I was in no condition to hang around so I came home (Grr!!!). The general anasthetic was wearing off by then (10:30), and it really, really hurt. So I started taking my pills. The antibiotics gave me the hiccups. The anti-inflamatories gave me heartburn and kept me awake. I wanted to blog about the whole thing then, but my brain couldn't function that much, so I played Evil Dead on my Xbox (somehow ripping apart zombies with a chainsaw made me feel better about all the blood coming out of my mouth.) I eventually got bored with that, so I made my own user account on Jenn's computer, and made a couple of themes which I am quite proud of. My tongue came back to life around 1:00, my chin around 3:00, and so I doubled the amount of T3's I was taking (still in the realm of recommended dosage, don't worry). Saturday morning I got up and brushed my teeth, made more desktop themes, and downloaded LDraw, a very powerful freeware Lego CAD program. That actually took up most of my Saturday, (as well as showin my dive gear to a person who is going to buy it from me tomorrow.) Saturday night I went to the Mug for Mike's birthday, and all I could find to eat on the menu was french onion soup and stuffed mushroom caps, and they were all out of the soup (being at the Mug and not getting something meaty is unfair). Sunday was tea. Jenn and I bought a shoe rack and a mug tree for the apartment, as well as groceries. That was about it.

Today I worked, and used up the last of my antibiotics and anti-inflamatories (I haven't touched the T3's since saturday morning, I'll hang on to them for a little while longer in case I need them, but I think they'll wind up in the garbage). Tomorrow I work, and then I'm going to sell most of my gear, after which Jenn and I will drive up to Port Alberni to see her dad, which we just decided to do an hour ago. I still have to pack. Bloody August.

Finally got around to defrosting the icebox today. Everything's all dry now, I'm just going to let it sit for a bit before I plug it back in. I noticed that the icebox door doesn't actually seal at all, and considering that the edge of the icebox is just a lip of metal, it seems to me that somewhere along the line a gasket went missing. So I remembered a little trick I learned while working as an appliance repairman's aid with Manpower, and used the handyman's secret weapon to put a lip around the outside for a jury-rigged gasket, as well as sealing of little holes. We'll see if that slows down the buildup of frost.

During tea I was reminded of this site: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html I took the test again, and here are my top 5 matches:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (95%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (87%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (86%)
5. Neo-Pagan (84%)

The very bottom results were:

25. Jehovah's Witness (30%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (28%)
27. Roman Catholic (28%)

Jenn got Unitarian Universalism somewhere in her top three as well, and reading up on the little blurb on the site, it seemed like something we could get into, so it might be worth checking out.

I've also just placed an ad in the Buy & Sell for my old work dive gear. I won't be using it any time soon, and it could very well fall apart by the time I get back into diving, if ever. I'm asking 1200, but if I can get around 800 I'll be totally covered for my wisdom teeth, which would be nice. It feels kind of odd to think that it will be gone, but this is just the way my priorities are.

I've been incredibly busy for the last three weeks, thus there have been no updates on my blogs. As far as I can remember, here's the major stuff that happened:

June 15: After work I drove straight to Jenn's, stopping along the way for some groceries and a movie. We picked up some peach habanero barbecue sauce from the IGA, and rented The Guru. Both items were quite good.

June 21: I bought a day pass and took transit out to vancouver to see the specialist about getting my wisdom teeth pulled. Getting all four at once will cost around $1600, but I have 80% coverage from work, so it's not too bad. So I'm scheduled for the 20th of August. In a way, I'm kind of excited, as the biggest surgery I've ever had was a wedge resection on my big toe. After that, I went to I Love Hats on broadway and picked up my tophat. Apparently I was undercharged, but the guy who owns the place said it was OK. The hat fits very nicely, so if anyone wants to pick up a hat, I give that place a high reccomendation.

June 22: Very busy day. Dropped my mom off at work in the van. Dropped Andrew off at a friend's house in my car. Took my stereo, cd's, cd tower, lava lamp, and a shelving unit over to Jenn's. Unloaded everything and set up the room for moving in the dresser. Went to CNL to pick up Lost Skeleton of Cadavera, Earth Girls are Easy, and a birthday present. Drove back to New West to cut the greens. Went to Zellers to get an extension cable, picked up Jenn and went home. Drove off in the van, picked up the dresser, picked up my mom from work, and went back home. Had dinner. My mom drove Jenn and the dresser to New West, and I followed in the car. The dresser was too heavy for Jenn to help me with, and no one we knew was home except Kim, who refused to help, but fortunately a good sameritan was passing by and offered to help carry the dresser upstairs. My mom visited for a little bit, and then Jenn and I rearranged the room and set up all the electronics. Then I went home.

June 25-26: I assembled my UCS TIE Interceptor while Jenn was at work. The next day we put together my UCS X-Wing.

June 30-July 1: We assembled the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer. The largest Lego set ever produced, over 3000 pieces. The two of us working together did it in about 10 hours, split up into 3 sessions.

July 2-3: Came home from work. Packed all my books, the last of my clothes, and the last of my stuff that I wanted to take with me to Jenn's and left home. I picked up Jenn from work at 4am, took her back to what is now our place, and she helped me unload everything. We slept untill about noon. We got up and went to the IHOP, picked up some gift certificates for Mason and Sam, got a card, got cleaned up, and drove out to the wedding. I was worried that we'd be late, but I had picked a good route and we were perfectly on time. The wedding was late, though, but only by ten minutes. The entire ceremony was about 7 minutes long, and we were told to clear out immediately after because another one was coming through. I'm glad that Jenn and I picked a location which we're able to have for the whole day. We left before the reception because Jenn had to work, so I dropped her off and went to vancouver for Sean's CD release party. Latin music isn't really my thing (although it's starting to grow on me now), but I knew Jenn would love it, so I bought a CD. It's really good to see Sean starting to make a career as a musician. Side note: good food at the Fox and Fiddle.

July 4: Brought out the Star Destroyer, Interceptor, and X-Wing. No one was boggled the way I hoped people would be, but they were all impressed nonetheless. The last of my junk was finally unpacked, and Jenn and I celebrated my moving in by seeing dodgeball at the cheapies and having dinner at the Keg.

Today: Just kind of hanging out, trying to get my head around the fact that this is my home now.

Tuesday at work I put in a vacation request for March 14-29 '05, and apparently I am now the record holding employee for most notice given for time off. It was approved that same day, so now I definately have the time around my wedding off.

Wednsday morning I saw the dentist, and he gave me a refferal note to see the specialist across the street for my wisdom teeth, so now I have to book an appointment for a consultation. I went back to New West and bought a new Lotto subscription (stupid higher price...), and picked up some groceries for dinner and a tin of chili for lunch. Then I played Aquaman. I'm really enjoying that game, so it's unfortunate that the disk is a little scratched and occasionally can't be read. If I didn't like it, or if there were more than one copy where I bought it, I would totally exchange or return it, so instead I'm going to try to find a CD repair kit. That night I made some italian cheese type hamburger helper and I threw in a can of mushrooms and a frozen pack of spinach while it was simmering, and it turned out pretty good. Jenn and I started to watch Monty Python... Grail with commentary by John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin, but we were cut short due to Jenn having a night shift.

Today I played more Aquaman, got my car insured for the road again, and cut the greens. I went to Mark's and bought two pairs of shorts, and checked out the Canadian Tire (small parts organizers on sale I must go back for), and bought work groceries at the Super Store. Now I'm about to cook some tacos.