weekend update

[da]

[I wouldn't normally post during work, but about 2/3 of my brain is occupied with one task, and other tasks want to take more than 1/3 brain, so... lj it is!]

This weekend saw:

An excellent party chez halfwitted. I went a bit meta on the toga theme, but since I had the idea, it was making me much happier than wearing an actual toga or sarong. Also made me happy: halfwitted's strawberry daiquiri-making acumen, finally meeting whynotsteve after net-introductions a while back (I don't know why I didn't meet him along with mycrazyhair ages ago) and... an engagement, complete with bended-knee and ring. Congrats to joymoose & funos!

A housewarming chez Ian & Kat, which had a surprising amount of overlap with the toga party the prior night. Bits of surprise all 'round. Talked about security, networks, and other geeky things for quite a while, though it appears I was sleepy enough that not much of it seems to have stuck. Oh well. Welcome to the neighbourhood!

And... yesterday I was in Mississauga to see some family who are on their outgoing leg of a two-week train-trip across the continent. Their itinerary is: driving from upstate NY to Toronto; flying to Vancouver, taking a week and various train-legs and busses to go north to Kamloops, Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper; then a few days to take the train east from Jasper. (Something like this, though without the Niagara Falls / Toronto leg).

I like how they decided to take this trip. The two of them have never vacationed together, but my aunt is approaching retirement age and she's trying to vacation more, and my grandmother hasn't traveled much in the latter part of her life though she and her husband used to travel and camp fairly regularly. My aunt asked my grandmother this spring if she wanted to go to Greece. Grandma said, "Not really." Then a month later, out of the blue she said, "But I'd really love to see the Canadian Rockies." A few days later, they had a complete plan. :)

Our visit was good. Better than I expected. I think this was the first time I'd ever seen either of them outside the context of at least four other family members. The dynamics were so much better; and we had some neat conversation. I think all three of us do much better outside big family groups.

They were impressed with melted_snowball's summer travel. :)

Comments

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

One fewer 'a' in Kamloops, I think. :)

I loved your metatoga. And the laurel leaves were an inspired touch.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks, fixed. oddly enough, lj's spell-check didn't catch that. I'm hopeless with a fair number of Canadian place names, from Saskatchewan on down. :)