This is kinda weird. So far I've written a few pretty large emails, and I'm obviously in the mood to write, but when I thought about updating this site, I wasn't as eager. Weird muse.

Anyhow, the packing is finally seeming to come along. I started out with all of my entertainments earlier -- books, DVDs, VHS tapes -- although I kept my CDs out. I still had books left, and I'd probably still have books left if I burned the damn place down. But no matter. Over the course of the weekend, I put away the majority of my knickknacks, and that really helped to make it look as if I'd gotten somewhere. I packed up most of my bathroom, too, so all that really remains are some of my clothes (many of them also made it into boxes and one garbage bag), and my kitchenware.

Thena's been helping me out a great deal, as I think I've said; she pulls the old tape off the boxes, tests the boxes for potential dangerous chemicals by chewing on them, and ensures their stability when stacked by counter-balancing them with her hefty sleeping form. She does seem a little stressed about it at times, considering she gets wound up and attacks me -- not that that's new behaviour -- fairly aggressively when I'm packing, and she does seem to be sleeping a bit more, but as I keep telling her, just a few more days...

Anyhow, the weekend didn't just entail packing, oh no! Rather, this weekend was actually a pretty fun one. Friday I worked from 6:30 a.m - 2:00 p.m., and when I got home I was kind to the Demon Beast and took her outside on her leash for a good hour or more. The previous day, when I'd done the same, I actually had her walking back and forth a bit on the leash. I don't know how well she'd keep it up, but it was pretty cool in the meantime. It's fun having her out -- I sit on the threshold with the door open, reading, and she wanders about. When she gets freaked out, she runs right back into the house or hides under my legs, which I always praise. She's pretty fearless, though, especially when she's Thena, Queen of the Jungle (since the lawn hasn't been cut since it was installed).

Friday night I was due to go out on a pub crawl with a friend of mine, but wound up begging out due to exhaustion and some remaining unwellness. Instead, I wound up meeting up with Ben to get the money I was owed, which turned into dinner at his place, which turned into going to Stefan's house party for a drop-in visit, which turned into me not getting home until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. But let me back up.

As I was plotting the evening with Ben, Thena took great exception to being ignored or something, and decided to mount a full-frontal attack. I was standing, leaning against the couch, and she was about five feet away from me. Without warning, she ran right up me and was hanging onto my shirt at about boob level, ready to eat my face if I should be dumb enough to lean down. Poor Ben's conversation was interrupted by my exclamation of something along the lines of, "Holy fuck!"

After I filled him in on what was going on, I spent about the next five minutes cursing out the cat, including reminding her once again that I should've gotten her brother, and that she was evil and mean and so on. To be honest, I don't entirely remember what I said, but Ben seemed amused. I changed my shirt to one that was t-shirt material (and not the stretchy knit top I had on before), and before I left, she'd climbed me once again; not nearly as high, however, 'cause either the impetus was lost or the shirt wasn't as suitable, I'm not sure. For the record, the shirt I put on was my David and Goliath, "Don't put a cat on your head, it hurts real bad." It was the first shirt I picked up, and seemed appropriate.

Anyhow, I met up with Ben, got some money, ranted about a mutual friend/acquaintance for awhile, and then we caught a bus out to his place, where his brother fed us a wonderful meal of really tasty ribs, bread, salad and then my brownies for dessert. Ben's sister showed up and I got to say hi to her and hang out for a bit, and then we were off to Stefan's for an appearance at the party.

At least, we'd planned on just making an appearance.

I was tempted to just head home, but I always wanted to go and see people that I don't often get to see -- Angus, Matt D., Stefan, and so on. I had a good time chatting and shooting the shit with everyone, and I even spent some time trashing particular people and men in general, plus enhancing myself herbally.

A little before or after 3 a.m., I decided it was time to pack it in. I was amazed I'd lasted so long, actually, but my little half hour nap in the afternoon had probably helped me out somewhat (which may have been part of Thena's upset with me; I get home, hang out with her a little bit, then shut her out of the bedroom to stop her from attacking me while I nap). I took the futon in the basement, and I don't think I opened my eyes until the next morning.

Gradually everyone who'd crashed there woke up as well, and after much slow getting ready (which consisted of Stefan putting on real clothes and the rest of us doing nothing), we headed off to grab some expensive Cora's breakfast. Breakfast was really good -- I had strawberries and chocolate hazelnut spread wrapped in a crepe, with a side of potatoes. Oh yes, potatoes. I think all of the food on the table was consumed -- I know Ben and Stefan helped me out by eating some of my breakfast, and I snagged some fruit off of Ben's plate, too.

On the way out, I kept joking that I was going to put my receipt in the suggestion box and just leave, but I didn't. I did, however, snag a couple of kid's placemats, and then I punched out the various punch-outs and distributed them to the people in our group.

Stefan drove most of us home, and I spent the afternoon packing stuff up, as mentioned. That evening a small group of us headed out to catch I, Robot, and we quite enjoyed it. I was disappointed that Will Smith's peener wasn't shown, but we did still get to see him shirtless a few times, so that was nice. :) After the movie, I went home and stayed up for a little bit before going to bed.

Sunday was pretty dull; more packing, more lounging about and then work, where the trainee got to run the whole thing. This crazy old lady started calling constantly because I dared have an opinion and then I kept hanging up on her, but after about seven or eight calls, she gave up for the night.

After that, I went home, stayed up too late, then didn't sleep very well -- par for the course when I have to be up early, of course. Thena and I were cuddling at the time my alarm actually went off, so she jerked awake when I did and it could've gone horribly wrong. I got back in bed for our morning cuddle, and life was good again.

And now I'm here. Yippee. The weird thing is, I was asked to fill in for someone this week, and she's here right now. I've heard her telling people "she's not here today," which is what I'll be doing on Friday, but... she's still here. I'm confused.

Yeah, I'd booked Friday off so that I could move, and I've since been asked to fill in for two different people. Because they both work early morning hours (one starts at 6:30, and one has my old job, so I come in for 7 for that, even though she doesn't), I'm coming in and leaving after that role is done. Fie on being there any longer -- I booked the day off!

I also found out at the party on the weekend that Friday works better for Stefan's friend with the truck, so the three of us are going to spend Friday afternoon onwards moving. Since I'd already arranged to have Mom's car that day and Stefan's buddy won't be free until the afternoon, I get to spend the morning doing the cleaning and setup that I'd planned... and I have the rest of the weekend free to set up the apartment and make it liveable, plus I don't have to worry about Saturday when the cable guy is coming and my new bed's being delivered. It's all coming together nicely now... :)

Anyhow, this is long enough for now, I'm sure. I got DaVinci Code as an ebook, so I'm now on to the last Dan Brown book -- I read Digital Fortress over the weekend, and Angels and Demons before that. As I've said to a few people, even if the facts aren't 100% correct (as I've been told), he still writes well, in my opinion. Occasionally a little too cliff-hangery (more of a problem in Deception Point than any of the others), but I enjoy it, and I like that the technical and potentially dull material is written such that I can understand and enjoy it without tuning out large portions of the book. There are errors within the books (one that stood out to me in Deception Point involved the American seal), and sometimes the characters seem to move slower than the reader, and there's a bit of a pattern to the "villain" that I'd like to see broken, but otherwise, they're fun to read. Lighter than a lot of other books out there.

And now I'm so very very bored...