Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Bang! Bang! I shot you with my bubble gun!

In case you're wondering WTF I'm doing (besides getting clean), I'm participating in an avatar theme thingy going on in one of my Orkut communities, and it's currently "Fun in the Shower" Week II. Week I was so successful it spilled over into this week.

GMail Fairy Strikes Again

Google's upping their invites, so I've given more away, and currently have 6 invites left if anyone wants a GMail account. Ask nicely!

London with Georgie

George!

We're all... happy...

Another photo from the trip, this time my last night in London, meeting up with my friend George who I'd met in Vancouver, and hadn't seen since he'd moved to London a couple of years ago. He'd originally gone to Birmingham to attend acting school, then moved south for work.

I'd just flown in from France, and I was catching a flight the next day back to Vancouver. I'd arranged to meet George in central London, and the plan was we'd hang out in the city centre and stay at my old stomping ground, Hotel St. Simeon in South Kensington so he wouldn't have to trek back to his flat in East London.

'Twas a bit easier said than done, since I hadn't written down his mobile number, and it was still in an e-mail I couldn't retrieve because the terminals were down at the internet cafe. Meanwhile, he and a friend headed over to the hotel to find me, but I'd checked in already and was at an internet cafe a few tube stops away, trying to find a way to contact him! By the time the terminals were back up again, I'd gone looking round for another internet cafe, couldn't find one, then gave up. I should've just used the BT phonebox that had a browser, but I had run out of coins, I'd already paid for time at the cafe, and was not about to pay the ridiculous amounts BT charges to use the browser! So, I e-mailed until I could reach him, and we arranged to rendezvous at Oxford Circus.

I hadn't seen him for a while, so was happy to find him looking dapper and well. He was stationed with a friend and some of her friends at CVO, a fireplace showroom that had a restaurant. Yeah, a concept place. Rather chic with price tag to match -- a central London price tag, that is. By the time I got there, several people were already on their way to getting off their gourd, if not there already. One girl I never even saw, since she'd wandered off to the loo before I arrived, and had to be sent home in a taxi. The final bill came to a whopping several hundred pounds sterling -- yikes! Luckily, mine was only about 40 or so of that, but I'd only had a couple of glasses of wine, a couple bottles of water, and shared a plate of crudites and antipasto with George. But, to give you an idea, a bottle of Norwegian VOSS water was £2.50.

George and I stayed up super late, chatting and printing off photos, and morning came far too early. He had to get a tie for work and promised to return to accompany me on the tube to Zone 3 to Heathrow before he had to go. I waited as long as I could, but he was running late, so I headed off to Gloucester station, hoping to bump into him on the way. I caught up with George after going through the turnstiles, and we were able to get in more chat-time before he jumped out at the end of Zone 3, tie in hand...

It's so good to catch up with friends in this day and age when the only thing separating you from them is a flight. Now, if only those of us in North America had more holiday time, we could do it more often.

More GMail

Hilarious -- I got 3 more "Invite a Friend to GMail!" invitations today just after giving out my last one. I'm like the GMail fairy.

Gumpa

My dad with the bigger twinnie, Megan.

"Gumpa" is our nickname for my father, taken from when Melissa (or was it Michael?) started to speak and couldn't quite say "Grandpa" and it came out "Gumpa". Even though Melissa and Michael now both enunciate the word, we still stick with Gumpa. It just sounds cheerier. And, he's a cheerier fellow. He sees his grandchildren often, babysitting the older three munchkins every Friday and visiting them on other days as well. He's a very dedicated grandparent.

Earlier this evening I rounded us up at Allan and Cheryl's house for some pizza on disposable plates so nobody would have to do dishes before the busy-ness of tomorrow: Cheryl, Melissa, and the twins fly to Maine (from Seattle) for Allison's wedding. The other two bambinos are staying here, and Allan is going to work from home (ha!), while looking after the kids with some drop-in assistance from Gumpa. Of course, I'll take them off his hands sometime on the weekends.

Amidst the regular chaos of dinner at their house, we recited stories of our childhood and relived our naughtiness. Gumpa had a good ol' belly laugh and I wanted to capture it, but I was too busy coralling Maddy to take his photo, so this is what I managed to get after the older kids went to bed and the twins woke up for their regular evening feed.

Sahara Steve

My favourite pic of Steve thus far.
Reminds me a bit of Callum Keith Rennie.

Steve's now in the Saraha and it behooves you to check out his gorgeous, gorgeous desert photos. My favourites on this page are down on the bottom right, especially the one at the very bottom right.

I'm not a fan of the desert in the sense that I would entertain the thought of living in such a climate, but you cannot deny its romanticism, the way the sun dances across the dunes. Why do you think the "English Patient" did so well? (A tanned Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas lounging about in gauzy outfits, notwithstanding.)

The Savage Files (homepage)
Steve in the Sahara Desert

Thanks, Steve, for enlarging my favourite pic (on the bottom)! It's beautiful!

Why I Don't Have a Dog

He might go all funny on me.

More Paris

Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Paris

In the interests of tearing myself away from my computer in order to have a more productive (but hideously mundane) evening of overdue tasks such as laundry and cleaning and assigned reading, I offer up a photo I took of possibly the most famous landmark of Montmartre.

Me, Myself, and Eye

At around 3am something came over me to take black and white photos of myself. Here is one of the less-goofy ones.

Free Stuff???

Yesterday Telus Mobility sent me a Jabra EarBoom handsfree headset with microphone, garment clip, and EarGels, because I've been a "loyal customer" since 1999. You bet your sweet patootie I have, Telus! Gimme more stuff!