October 26, 2007

• I really need to find the time to blog more often. I frequently think "I need to blog this" but then never get around to it.

  Zazu came home on Thanksgiving Monday, and he's been doing really well. However, he stopped eating a few days ago. I have given him four kinds of food, and he refuses it all, although he's drinking and will eat treats. He also seems happy enough, playing normally and allowing us to hug him so he's not in pain. I took him to the vet this afternoon and she's keeping him in over the weekend. She thinks he has a kidney infection since his immune system is so compromised, and he's a bit dehydrated. She's going to run some tests, give antibiotics and fluids and hopefully we can have him back on Sunday. She had originally said she'd keep him for one night, but since we're going camping this weekend she asked if she could keep an eye on him for us. I think that's a good idea.

  Thanksgiving itself was pretty good. At the last minute, Mom decided to allow us to bring dinner in and eat at the house. We cooked the roast beef at Austin's house and transported everything to Mom's. I made Yorkshire puddings and onion gravy and lots of veggies I had been planning to toast to Dad, and mom surprised me by beating me to it as soon as I poured her a glass of sherry. We had a pleasant enough conversation, and the whole evening Mom only made one nasty remark to me and I just ignored it. Once everything was cleaned up and we'd sat around and had a chat, we took Mom's van over to the mechanic's shop to have him look at it the next day. The van had been making these awful noises and was very stiff to steer, but since Grampa had told her it was just fine, she hadn't let us taken it to the shop earlier. That weekend we had driven the van and found it almost impossible to drive as the wheel would barely turn. It turned out Gilly and I were right. It cost $3500 to fix everything.

  Speaking of driving, I was visiting Mom a few days ago and she told me she's angry at the family doctor because he refused to sign the forms for the MTO saying she's OK to drive. She still hasn't made the connection that he's the one that wrote her up in the first place. I'm not touching it with a hundred-foot pole. If I told her the truth, Dorian would likely be outed as well, and Mom would just say that I'd brainwashed Dorian and the doctor. I just changed the subject.

  I spent a total of about five hours with Mom last weekend, in three different chunks.She was very nice and didn't say anything even remotely nasty. She was disappointed when she made the assumption I was spending the night with her at her new place, and I told her I was staying at Ellen's. I thanked her for the invitation and said when she's unpacked and settled maybe Gilly and I would visit overnight sometime. There's no way I'm spending the night alone with her. She could turn at any moment.

  Mom sent Gilly a cheque for $28000 to pay off her student loan and car loan. Gilly was amazed that Mom actually did it. I wasn't surprised. I'm pleased for Gilly, and it also takes a bit of pressure off me because if my finances get a whole lot worse, I'm not going to cause Gilly to go into the poorhouse. Not that I have any intention whatsoever of having her support me financially, but just in case the worst were to happen (knock wood) there's still wiggle room. The other night Mom asked me out of the blue what I'm living on. I said nothing, that my EI has run out, I'm waiting to be paid for the election (I got paid today), and beyond that there is zero income coming my way. I didn't tell her I'm about to apply for welfare, as it would just give her an angle of attack. That was the extent of our conversation about money. I didn't whine about my situation or mention my debt, but Mom was quiet for a minute after that as if perhaps she was considering something. I'll be shocked to shit if she actually gave me money, but if she did I'd certainly thank her for it. I'm not holding my breath, though. I do get the impression she's lonely now that she's in a building where she doesn't know the neighbours. She hasn't phoned us at all since the move last week. We only got invited to her new place when we showed up at church just for the sake of going to church while we were in town. We had to leave right after the service as we had opera tickets and had to be downtown shortly, and Mom seemed genuinely disappointed that we didn't go visit with her. I dropped in on her late that evening, when I got back from the city.

  Her new condo is nice, although it's a mess already and stinks from the cat litter. She's getting it repainted; yellow kitchen, mauve living room, peach bedroom. Her furniture layout plan is weird, but hey, it's her place so I don't really care. Apparently one 53" TV isn't enough for one person living alone. She bought herself a 27" LCD TV for the bedroom. When I said "Oh, it's an LCD TV," she asked if that was bad. I said no, it's a nice TV, and perhaps she should get it mounted on the wall so she doesn't knock it off the dresser. She also bought another cell phone, because she heard a lady's phone ring "meow meow meow". She went into a store and asked for a Rogers phone that goes "meow meow meow", and she got a "free" phone with a 3-year contract. She handed it to me and asked how it worked, and how to make it go "meow meow meow". Argh. The following night we went to a Rogers store with the contract as we couldn't find the receipt, and we spent ages looking for the stuff that came in the box with the phone as she'd thrown it all over the place, in multiple rooms. The Rogers guy noticed that the contract said "The Source" at the top, and Mom said she thought Rogers and the Source were the same thing. We had to drive across town and had the Source staff wait for us after the store closed so we could sort it all out. We cancelled the contract and mom bought the phone outright for $250. The salesman said he thought it was a lot of money for a ringtone, and I laughed and said I agreed but she wouldn't rest until her phone went "meow meow meow". He had tried to convince her to just buy the phone when she'd gone in before, but Mom got all confused and then insisted on the plan. In the aftermath, it took me 3 hours to make the "meow meow meow" ringtone work because Rogers doesn't offer one on its web site and my phone can't Bluetooth a ringtone to another phone. I had to bring the phone back to Kitchener with me and use the computer to create the ringtone after seeing out the mp3 file for it, then upload via the cable. Argh!

  Gilly and I have had some good laughs recently as we are both so overtired. We were doing dishes and I pointed out that we'd used loads of spoons and knives that week, but only two forks. We found this tremendously funny for some reason, and kept joking about playing "Knifey Spooney". I also mentioned that Gilly was my hobby (meaning, bugging her), and I quickly followed it up with "but not in the sex way." We both nearly peed ourselves when I said that. and since then everything we say is appended with "but not in the sex way."

  Two weekends ago we went to a huge swap meet in London and sold a lot of Dad's stuff. We took in $2200 in 5 hours. I'm still getting e-mails from guys from the swap meet, asking for things they saw that they decided they want to buy after all.

  Last weekend was Gilly's elementary class reunion, which she and a friend organised. I tagged along and went for lunch at Milestones with them, and fun was had by all. On Sunday we did church and the opera (The Marriage of Figaro by the COC), followed by joining the undead at the After Dark Film Festival at the Bloor Cinema. We saw a short film called Zombie Jesus, which was made in Toronto and was the funniest thing I've seen in quite some time. We're sitting there in fancy opera clothing, in a room full of zombies, laughing our asses off at "eat my body and drink my blood". I REALLY have to get a copy of that film, and I've already e-mailed the director to ask how I can get it.

  As I mentioned above, Gilly and I are going camping this weekend. There's a Moot in Niagara area that we've never been to. It should be fun, and hopefully I can stay awake for some of it. Lately I've been staying up really late (3AMish) and sleeping until noon, and never really gaining consciousness. I'm going to have to get really strict with myself and try to enforce a schedule on my weary body. This nocturnal thing is not good for me!

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