MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
06 July 2007
What are you doing this weekend?→[More:]Me, I'm cooking. I have beans in the slow cooker for tonight, and tomorrow I'm making pasta alla vodka at Stynx's house, while we lay around and watch TiVo.
I took my car for its annual service and MoT test today (it passed) so I'm roadworthy for another year. But it meant that while I was waiting for the car to be ready I had to spend the WHOLE DAY in Romford, where there are lots of lovely shops and a market.
But this means that I'll have to work either tomorrow or Sunday (probably Sunday). Work from home I mean, not in the office. Tomorrow, no big plans. Gym, health food place, laundry, housework, maybe catch up with friends in the evening.
It's so cold here, I just put the central heating on. Seriously.
I cannot wait for the football season to start again. Saturdays are so empty without Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports.
tomorrow I'm taking my PS2, broken 14 months ago, to fix, then I'll go buy a CD I want, I'll move some stuff from my external hard drive to my iPod, and I'll pack. I'll spend most on Sunday on planes / sitting around in airports / being frisked -- or worse -- by airport security.
I am replacing a spark coil assembly on my '97 Dodge Intrepid tomorrow, and if that doesn't cure the intermittent miss it has developed that other tune-up parts have not cured, then the crankshaft and camshaft position sensors. And mowing. Yes, mowing for the second time since Monday.
Summer + Florida + Rain + Bermuda grass = Mow every 48 to 72 hours. It's raining again this afternoon, and I can hear that stuff out there, rustling and growing!
exogenous, who I met at the meetup picnic a month ago, is coming over Saturday night for a homemade wine and beer tasting. We hung out with his crew on the 4th, which was cool, too.
I spent the holiday finally making some progress on organizing and de-cluttering and cleaning, and it was good, so I think I'll do more of the same this weekend.
The Tour de France starts in the UK tomorrow and passes through my town on Sunday. As such, I'll be staying inside on Sunday as it's going to be absolute chaos. The streets will be lined with people straining to catch a glimpse of a thin man going passed them at 35 miles an hour on a bike. Woo.
- a hot date (woo!)
- cooking dinner for friends
- working (un-woo!)
- a trip to my dad's cabin in the woods
- a hike on the Salmon River
- sleeping
- beer
Oh goodness, you sound like my high school teacher, Ms. Mitchell. And you know what happened to her? She went crazy and got fired. Let it be a lesson to you.
Wait.
The Tour de France starts in the UK tomorrow
What?
Yes, yes, the TDF (hang on, that's my initials - bastards!) starts in London and goes through south east England. I don't know why! Apparently it's a once in a lifetime thing - I feel so privileged. All I know is that loads of shops have really crappy yellow T shi(r)ts with "Tour de France" written on them in Comic fucking Sans.
Sorting through my library books. Going to the gym. And nothing (I hope-- god, I hope) else. No helping out my diva-esque friend/neighbour with her broken ankle, no dealing with complicated family crises, no calls from jail from my crackhead ex-sister in law begging me to post bail for her, no uncomfortable "talks" with my brother about him abandoning his teenage daughters in a motel, nada, nothing, zip, zero.
Maybe a long bath. Walk the dog. Make a pot of tea.
This has been a test of the Emergency Whinging System.
Tonight I'm hanging out w/B and T, probably smoking and drinking and watching a movie or something. Tomorrow I'm working on my bicycle, and maybe my truck, though it'll probably be too hot. Unless someone calls in sick at my job, in which case I'll be working, goddammit. Either tomorrow night or Sunday, I'll probably watch some Adam Curtis documentaries w/M and J. And sometime over the weekend, I'm almost certain to be reading Infrastructure, playing Catan, eating donut peaches and listening to Cecil Taylor.
Nothing. Nothing at all. My few friends are out of town, so I'm ... sitting around the house, possibly contemplating whether I should eat this weekend or pay last month's bills.
replacing the grill that was shooting out huge flames that had to be put out with an extinguisher.
going to a wedding reception on saturday
playing at a wedding on sunday
Getting my bathroom all painted and decorated, the usual housekeeping stuff, working on a dress that's been sitting on my sewing table for weeks, writing, and hopefully watching a movie or two.
Going to mandarin class tomorrow morning, grocery shopping for the BBQ I'm having Sunday afternoon and thinking long and hard about what I want to be when I grow up.
I'd like to catch another Fringe show too since I bought a pass and my grand plan of watching 3 this afternoon was thwarted by a last-minute interview but I don't think I'm motivated enough to trek downtown to see something all by my lonesome.
What I do most weekends in the summer, get the house ready for the friends who are visiting. Think up some amazing dish they might not have tried before (Not easy these guys TRAVEL.
Sit in the sun before it disappears for another month and write up my diary. Listen to the latest band my daughter insists I will love (Morningwood anyone?)Do the chauffeur Mommy thing for the sprogs and just enjoy my friends. They're nearly here and I'm excited.
Today: Laundry, dusting (my God, this house is like a clothesdryer lint trap!), e-mailing someone in Latvia (really, Latvia!) about a job offer I hope to get. Nigella Lawson's Chocohotopots may get made, or we might just feast on an insane amount of Chinese food we have left over from last night.
Sunday: Hanging out in LA with a friend from college! Perhaps we'll head to the beach - it'll be packed, though - so we might just make some food and sit on her patio and nibble and gossip like the old days. We're also going to attempt to get me an LA Public Library card so I can crawl through old journal articles and get access to their remote language learning software (!) online should I get the Latvian job and feel like a better teacher, but I don't have any ID with my current address printed on it save a dubious-looking but official voter registration card, so we'll see how that goes.
@Wilder: Morningwood is super fun. A little hipsterish, but eminently danceable. I accidentally speed when I listen to them in the car. You'll be fine.
*contented sigh* Friday evening, I walked through the rain to meet The Fella at work, then took him out for Indian food. Yum.
We walked home, had a beer together, then ice cream, and watched the last few episodes of Slings and Arrows, a hilarious and thoughtful CBC series.
Then the curtain is drawn modestly over our night and morning, only rising to find me here, drinking delicious coffee and watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents, gearing up to do my PT exercises.
Friday, I spend mostly sitting in a JFK gate waiting for an indecisive plane to arrive and take me. I have concluded, based on my recent travails, NY needs one more airport. Or maybe more. I cannot wait in a plane, "we are 35th in line for departure" after I have already waited 3 hours in the terminal itself.
Saturday, I ate a lot of chocolates in sprout city. Probably the best chocolates I have found in Europe. I miss you bunnies. It is scary how mischievously you turn up everywhere I go. In my thoughts. Another plane to my final destination. But I'll be back here for more chocolate (and work, sadly) in a few days.
Saturday night (it's almost 11pm here) I am in Athens in my mom's house. Taking turns in fighting the landline internet and my mom! I am not 12 years old anymore, you know. Tomorrow, I plan to eat and sleep a lot, and continue fighting, sigh.
ps. there are freaking mosquitos in here. weren't those extinct awhile ago?
You, too, cillit bang? Gah. I thought I was the only one.
okay, not really. But "Groping Morningwood" would be a good band name.
*waves at Carmina*
Hi, hi! I think I can hear you fighting with your mom from here. :) PS: There is some conversation about us going to Thessaloniki to take advantage of my sister-in-law's temporarily empty flat, which may mess up our meetup plans... will email when I know. Don't forget to send your mobile # if/when you get one... xxoo
My weekend is mostly a jumble of meeting different people to tie up loose odds and ends. There was also something about drinking too much alcohol this afternoon, which led to falling asleep at six in the evening and waking up at two in the morning to eat/drink 1) several asprins, 2) left-over crepe-something, 3) honeydew melon, 3) lots of water, 4) coffee.
yes, in this time zone there are two threes. not a mistake. if you ever have to do four things while you're in Greece, you'll have to do the third one twice.
Friday:
Went to Peter Greenaway movies and dozed off. Only cherries(which I don't like) at Union Square on Friday. Bought books. Silent DW Griffith movie at MOMA. Had goat balti (yeah, I KNOW it's the Anglo-Indian version of chop suey, but I'd never had it before) with lemon rice at Brick Lane on E 6th (NYC equivalent of London's Brick Lane). Still no response from kitchen designer.
Saturday: Went to another Griffith silent matinee. Found blueberries at Union Square. Was told that the script for Old Acquaintance wasn't reprinted despite the Broadway revival. Found bag of Elvis Miniature Reeses' at Hershey store. Had Indonesian food. Still coughing and desperately wishes were up in Cape Cod.
Can you get paracetamol/aspirin with codeine over the counter in Greece? Can't in Austria/Germany/Netherlands.
Not sure, actually. I've never specifically asked for anything with codeine. Pharmacists here do have a lot more latitude in what they can dispense, though, so it wouldn't really surprise me.
Well, it's early Sunday afternoon and I'm taking a break from lugging huge logs around. We decided that, as the guy who said he would take the massive tree trunks away seems to have vanished, we would roll them down to the back boundary and use them to hold up some fill we want to put there. When I say "roll", of course, I mean drag them out of the pile with our 4x4 and down to the back of the block, then manhandle them into precise place with a crowbar. They are about 2' - 3' in diamater and about 30' long, so they are very fucking heavy. I think I can feel my testicles floating around in my chest. That's my weekend so far. Oh, also I am waiting for the concrete guy to turn up so we can do the final haggling over the quote for our slab.
@brujita: Where did you go for Indonesian food in NYC? Having lived there (um, in Indonesia) for a year, I'm always on the prowl for my adopted people and their insanely awesome food.
Sorting through my library books. Going to the gym. And nothing (I hope-- god, I hope) else. No helping out my diva-esque friend/neighbour with her broken ankle, no dealing with complicated family crises, no calls from jail from my crackhead ex-sister in law begging me to post bail for her, no uncomfortable "talks" with my brother about him abandoning his teenage daughters in a motel, nada, nothing, zip, zero.
Maybe a long bath. Walk the dog. Make a pot of tea.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
*deep breath*
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. HA. HEH. Heh. Huh.
Erm.
*regards one niece sacked out on couch, other niece incommunicado, brother not answering pointed voice mail messages, stack of unsorted library books, mother close to emotional breakdown*
*goes back to hunting for affordable two bedroom apartments within city limits, making related calls and emails, leaves another voicemail for brother reminding him that btw his kids are his responsibility, not mine or his mother's*
Yeah, I'm blowing off steam to acquaintances on the internet. Whoo. Also, I seem to have forgotten how to spell.
And my son wants help with his essay on the Conventions of Gothic Fiction as related to the Cask of Amontillado.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
