The beaver is a proud and noble animal

Last night was maaaavelous. Spent two hours yesterday in the McGIll Network Op Center, surrounded by shiny and expensive toys, then met Katy at Indigo for some book shopping goodness before going to Hurleys to meet Sara. Lots of laughter ensued. Notable quotes:

Q: I was on my back, what did you expect?
A: sex.

“I have trouble standing up straight at the best of times”

“- The difference between your dad and I is that I fight back.
– My dad's too scared to fight back cause I start crying and run to my mom. Then again, he's started doing that as well. We're both afraid of my mom.”

We went to see Lemony Snickett movie, which I give a 7/10. I'm not a big fan of Jim Carey at the best of times, but the movie had redeeming features. We headed back to my place afterwards for dinner. Note to self, sage and oregano go well with chicken. Other note to self, I need to get coriander.

Fell asleep watching CSI and headed off to bed shortly. I had a good night's sleep, yay! Woke up indecently late, got up even later. I'm ashamed to say that I left for the office at 10:30. This will not do. It was worth it, but still, I can't keep on doing this. I took a cab to the office to mitigate the lateness. Other bit of good news, after a week of faffing, I got my business cards, woot!

In celebration of this event, I give you a new LJ icon for your mooching pleasure:

I have horrible short-term memory. Many people can attest to this, and my pockets are always full of little bits of paper with notes on them.

*yawn*

I enjoyed this weekend. Drove down with my sister on friday afternoon and spent a quiet night with the parents. Saturday was more of the same. I took a walk with my dad to see the cabin he'd built in the woods. It's amusing and weird to see a cat run to follow my dad in deep snow :)

I discovered that our dog can climb up the stairs that lead up to the sleeping loft in the cabin. It's funny to see her jump up those stairs one rung at a time. It's even funnier to see her tumble down them – something like a controlled fall :)

Later that evening, my mother and I drove to Ottawa airport to pick up Katy. Poor thing, apparently she was grilled a bit by customs, moreso than usual. I think it's because been in and out of the country in a brief interval. She's now officially “in the system” and there's an official looking sheet of paper stapled in her passport :) Got her home safe and sound. She was well prepared to the -40 with about a dozen layers of clothing.

It was my mom's birthday on sunday, so we had a big brunch and all of us trekked out to the cabin again. It was a gloriously sunny day, and the snow was crunchy under our feet.

We left on sunday afternoon and mooched a lift with my sister back to Montreal. Nat and I were our usual weird self with songs on the radio – translating as we were singing, car dancing and generally grooving to the oldies. Finally got home 'round 6:30 on sunday, with everybody being generally traveled out. I'm indirectly feeling Katy's jetlag. I can only imagine what it is for her (well, not really, cause I lived it only a few weeks ago, but it's still a pain in the ass). We had a slow night, having some pasta goodness and falling asleep (well, she did) on a movie.

It took me a bit longer than usual to get to the office this morning, as it was hard to get out of bed and leave the warm body that inhabits it. She's here for a month *happy sigh*.

I went to see the cabin in the woods my parents built last summer. It has been a long time since I've walked in the woods with snow crunching under my feet.

I understand what my dad says about his pets. The dog was bouncing along ahead of us while we were walking to the cabin, which is normal for a dog. The weirdness comes in when I realize that the cat is also running along behind us, following us across the snow. So friggin' cute! I've never seen a cat roll around in the snow and apparently enjoying it.

Took a bunch of pictures, but sadly, I don't have my camera cable with me so you'll have to wait a bit before you can see them (MJ, you've been a bad influence with your random picture posts, bad, bad artist!)

For those of you who don't know it yet, Katy's flight arrives in Ottawa in about 3 and a half hours. I can't wait. Yay!

I was reading on somebody else's blog that said person had a goal of reading 50 books in 2004. I wondered if I could have achieved that. I went through my bookshelves and noted all the books I was sure I'd bought last year. This list therefore much shorter than the books I read in 2004, cause there are tons of books I've re-read and I can't really be sure if it was last year or the year before, so I just didn't count them in.

Books I've read in 2004

• Andre Norton, Beast Master's Circus
• Carl Hiaasen, Lucky You
• Carl Hiaasen, Skin Tight
• Carl Hiaasen, Skinny Dip
• Carl Hiaasen, Strip Tease
• Chris Moriarty, Spin State
• Christopher Moore – Coyote Blue
• Christopher Moore – The stupidest angel
• Ian Pears, An instance of the fingerpost
• Laurell K. Hamilton, Incubus Dreams
• Laurell K. Hamilton, Seduced by Moonlight
• Peter Hamilton, The Naked God : Part 2 – Faith
• Peter Hamilton, The Naked God : Part I – Flight
• Peter Hamilton, The Neutronium Alchemist : Part 2 – Conflict
• Peter Hamilton, The Neutronium Alchemist : Part I – Consolidation
• Richard Morgan, Altered Carbon
• Richard Morgan, Broken Angels
• Richard Morgan, Market Forces
• Roger Zelazny, Changelling
• Roger Zelazny, Madwand
• Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
• Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment
• Tom Clancy – Teeth of the tiger

Books I've read in 2005

• Dan Brown – Angels and Demons
• Dan Brown – Digital Fortress
• Dan Brown – The Da Vinci code

Books I want to read in 2005

• Brown, Eric – The Extraordinary Voyage of Jules Verne
• Card, Orson Scott – Magic Street
• Card, Orson Scott – Shadow of the Giant
• Hamilton, Laurell K. – A Stroke of Midnight
• Hendrix, Howard V. – The Labyrinth Key
• Morgan, Richard – Woken Furies

Networking is love! My friggin' switch finally came in, so I now don't need to go to the cafeteria to have a network connection. JOY!

http://english.montrealplus.ca/portal/profile.do?sectionID=80&categoryID=15&contentType=1&profileID=1017782
http://www.fetedesneiges.com/en/
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http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/B2C/13/events_details.asp/SKU/5995%5FEvents/selCategory/Attraction%2FMuseum
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/B2C/13/events_details.asp/SKU/6020%5FEvents/selCategory/Attraction%2FMuseum
http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/B2C/13/events_details.asp?SKU=5543%5FEvents&SectionName=B2C

Old men who wear full-length fur coats scare me.