Jay mentioned that it had been awhile since I updated my site, and I didn't think it was that long, and then I looked at the last update -- Thursday -- and realized that okay, yeah, it had been a little bit.

So... I've decided that I must look awfully skinny lately (hah!), or people must enjoy my company; the last several days have involved lots of invites out for meals, which is cool. Thursday night OFK took me out for a belated birthday dinner for some tasty pub food. Afterwards, we sat around and chatted for awhile, and were vaguely amused by the cats and their roaming.

Friday night I went out for dinner with JJ, after heading out to the folks' place to visit with the cats for a bit. Shadow was quite eager to go out, Digger just wanted to stay in, they were both fatter (the neighbour looking after them was doing some pretty significant overfeeding, it would seem), and that's about it. I changed the box, as I said I would, and then had to run off to buy cat litter -- the folks were out. But I got my revenge by not filling the tank on the car, which Mom never said anything about. I'd planned on refilling it, but gas jumped an *insane* amount over the weekend -- 65.5 on Friday to 85 something on Saturday. Fuck that!

So yeah, Friday JJ and I had some nice Italian, split a half-bottle of wine, and had some good conversation. I told him (and OFK the night before) the situation with E, and JJ's reaction to it was "big flashing bad idea light!" He got fairly tipsy, and I amused myself by laughing at him. After dinner, we met up with S and N over at their place, and sat around and chatted. There was massaging and flogging and N trying to get drunk off inhaling vodka fumes... weird times. These are my friends. :)

Saturday I went to the gym and had a good workout, and after I'd been home for a little bit, S and N called me and asked if I wanted to join them for lunch. So off we went for Vietnamese/Chinese food, and shared some good food. We hung out at my apartment afterwards, chatting and being amused by the nutjob cats that I own. After they left, I watched some more TV, then drove out to the folks' place to give them back the car. Rather than join with the group, since it was pretty late and I was pretty tired, I called up Big A and we had some late-night snacks and chatting; he, too, got the lowdown on the E situation, and I inquired about him and his girlfriend.

Sunday morning, Thena had little interest in letting me sleep in. She woke me up around 7, but couldn't rouse me completely; I remember doing some patting of her (requires little effort on my part when she more or less puts her head under my hand, or curls up with me), but I passed out again. It was around 9, 9:30 that she had greater success in waking me. Normally I feed her around 7 during the week, so it's understandable that she tends to want to be fed at the same time on weekends. Venus, the kitten, joined in on the assault, and I had two kitties that were alternating pacing, nuzzling, purring or meowing to get my attention. I couldn't win. I got up, gave them attention and so on, then headed off to R and N's place around noon for our pirates gaming session.

I notice that the difference between a primarily-girls session (minus our DM) and the other groups I've been in is that this group talks a *lot* more before doing anything. Maybe it's the different DM, maybe it's the size of the group (although I think we're only one more than the usual gaming group), I don't know... it just seemed awfully slow at times, and like I was observing more than participating. I tend not to be as forceful in gaming sessions, though, so who knows? It was fun, regardless, especially with one particular line that I can't seem to remember... dammit. Oh, yeah! Bear with me, this takes some geeky explanation:

We were trying to figure out what might happen to be in a pit of quicksand near us, and A suggested throwing a lizard into it and seeing if it would sink or swim, and if it died that would tell us the pit was deep or something (I don't quite remember), and so I came up with the line, "And if it weighs the same as a duck, it's a witch!" and that kinda cracked me up. Gawd, I'm a geek.

So yeah, I went from there to work, and work was dull... I wound up chatting with E a bit, whining that I was hungry and bored, and that the Rabbi had turned me to celibacy by managing to make talk about sex boring, and that I wanted to kill babies so I could be arrested and taken away from work... he suggested meeting for some food, so that we did, and there was much talking and laughing and I harrassed him hardcore. His refrain became, "I swear to *God*, woman," which just made me laugh harder, and I managed to get him flustered and even squeak at one point in the evening, which earned a celebratory dance.

We were sitting on a bench in a nearby park when two grody-looking guys approached us, one of whom was obviously drunk, and asked if we knew Andre (I think that was the name)... then mentioned he needed help, and said he had a problem with a cheque he deposited for $140 (that hadn't yet cleared or something), and he needed $120. That's a new one -- I've seen requests for a few dollars, a few cents, whatever, but $120... impressive.

I also talked to B for a bit, while I was still at work. I hadn't spoken to him in awhile, so I figured I'd poke him and see what was up. We didn't talk very long, but he made it known (or semi-known) during the conversation that if I decided I wanted to date him, he'd be open to it still; at least, that's how I read it. Surprising, a little, but guys have rarely, in my experience, made any kind of sense.

Anyhow, last night I was invited over to Greg and Mad's for dinner after my workout. My trainer is running a boxing class at the gym, and she's gotten me into that, which is pretty cool. It's only for 6 weeks, but I think it'll be fun to do -- and I can finally stop feeling like I have puny little hands and wrists, and I'll really be able to do some damage when people piss me off. Hah! *flex* Mad made some really awesome Indian food, and we ate and sat around for a large portion of the night and chatted and it was really fun. It's nice to spend time with people in a one-on-one or really small group situation when you don't normally get to... it made me realize that Madeleine and I are on the same side for a number of issues as they relate to the group, and that was nice to learn. Maybe she doesn't want to beat people up as much as I might, but... ;)

So tonight marks the first night in awhile that no one is taking me out for dinner, and that's okay. I need to log some time with the kitties, including She of the Boogies, who's still sneezing a fair bit, but seems to be less boogie-filled, actually. Thena also keeps going to the back door and meowing, especially in the mornings, so I know she wants to go out, it's just tough for me to let her out on her leash when I'm leaving for work for the day. :) Maybe it'll give me some more time to watch Six Feet Under, or work on the cross stitch that I've picked back up. I made E laugh at me when I said that I knit, but won't he be jealous when he sees the awesome sweater I'm making myself, eh! R wouldn't let me knit during our gaming situation. That made me sad.

What else? Well, yesterday I got to sit in on a speech meeting with the Minister, so that was pretty cool. I was ever so glad I'd worn jeans for that, too; I only found out about the meeting less than an hour before it was due to take place, so it wasn't entirely my fault. I at least was wearing a nice blouse. Woot. Actually, what's funny was that my blouse was a bit on the small side (part of a bunch I bought a year ago, when I first started here -- and I bought them a bit small, thinking that working out would shrink me into them), so if I brought my arms together in the classic male flexing pose in front, I felt like the Hulk. GRrr! I rip!

Today I had a quick meeting with the Minister's Director of Communications, who I really like -- this admin seems to be worlds ahead of the last one -- and he was mentioning the Minister wants to have involved speech meetings with the writer, myself, and assorted others when necessary, which makes me a slightly more important person than I previously was, and hopefully means that I will be kept around once my contract expires... whether it's just an extension of my contract, or it's a competition that would lead to me getting a term or indeterminate position. If nothing else, that would certainly set my mind at ease about my job and the world of me.

'Cause you know, it's all about me.

So yeah, now I feel the need to invest in some nice dress pants and so on. I'm okay for nice tops, especially now that we're heading into the fall/winter, it's just that all of my dress pants have either been outgrown or worn out, and it's about time to get some more. Life seems to be doing okay.

I also spoke with Mark briefly on Friday, then in a more extended conversation on Sunday, and we've agreed to just remain friends. I told him that I still wanted him to be a part of my life, because he's been an important person to me, and I didn't want to lose out on that like last time. There's more to the story than all of that, but I feel (hope) that things will work out okay -- or at least, better than last time. I could go into more detail, but... at the same time, not sure that I could.

Today has been one of those slow, boring days. Blaeah. No one on my reading lists is updating their sites anymore, so that doesn't give me anything to do during the day. Now that Venus has toasted my new keyboard, I'm stuck with my work access to the 'net, which means that I can't check any of my email accounts, aside from the other work one. Whoop-de-shit.

What's that? Venus toasted my new keyboard? Oh yes, that was lovely. I keep her shut up in my master bedroom when I'm not home, and I've had a glass of water on my desk, at the very back of it -- behind a water bottle, in fact -- since before I got her. Yesterday, I stopped at my place to get some coconut for Mad after dinner, and I discovered that she (the kitten, not Mad) had knocked over the water glass. I was more worried about my monitor, since the majority of the water was on the desk, and it looked as though the water was only on the edge of the keyboard. Well, when I went to go and use it this morning, I learned otherwise. Fuck. I know I got the replacement plan for my keyboard, but I'm not sure where my receipt is or anything like that, so I may have to shell out to buy a new one. It wasn't expensive, but it also means a trip out of the way to get it... annoying. And when I called the store, the girl wasn't a lot of help -- she mentioned I'd have to go in and talk to them, and that if I purchased the plan less than six months ago, I wouldn't even be in the computer, so I don't know what that means for me getting a new keyboard.

Never toasted electronic equipment before, and here I -- with the help of my sneezy-but-able-bodied assistant, Venus -- kill two keyboards in the space of what, a month? Maybe two? Urgh.

So, here's hoping I can get it replaced, even though it means heading out to the other end of town on a bus that isn't totally my friend. Otherwise, I'll just suck it up and buy a new one. Stupid.

Actually, stupid was buying two copies of the same MST DVD-set. I suck. But at least I can put it up and resell it.

Done and done.

Okay, so, I think this is enough of an update for now. Now it's time to write for me, and then maybe go home. Yay, home.