1459 - Bacon Cheddar Curly Fries

Yes, as you might have guessed, the best part of the week was a trip to Arby's - well, not really, but it made for a decent title. I suppose I should start with the end of last week. Last Sunday evening, the family gathered for my grandmother's 85th birthday. We sat around sucking back appetizers and chatting, while she read Frank - as Mum pointed out, apparently it was more interesting than us. After the appetizers, we had Jessy's pizza - a rather medoicre pizza with the works, and a much better one Mediterranean style (with feta cheese). After that, my grandmother opened her cards and presents.

We left around 7:30, and I went home to watch the rest of the golf that week. It was the first tournament of the year, and Vijay Singh won quite easily. I also watched an episode of Nature during the golf. It discussed the plight of the lion - apparently they used to exist all over the world, but now they're limited mostly to Africa. There are only about twenty thousand left. About half of these are relatively safe within sanctuaries, but the rest are trapped in increasingly-isolated pockets surrounded by human developments. These lions are being killed off because they often kill livestock - I mean, why not? Who wouldn't grab a cooked turkey with all the trimmings sitting out in a field somewhere? It really is that easy for the lions. The problem is that the people can't afford to erect fences to keep the lions out, and when the lions kill their livestock, their children starve. I guess it's okay for us to choose what lives and dies on this planet.

On Monday I spent a lot of the day thinking about a comment my grandmother had made at her birthday party - that I'm beginning to go bald. This fact has been on and off my mind all week. I guess it's the first sign of age, and I'm not taking it all that well. I had been doing well in the hair department, and I thought I was going to be in for a good ride. I'm still doing fine in the front, it's just the crown that's thinning. I've been looking at other men's heads all week, trying to see if I'm going bald before most other people. I see people younger than me who are far more bald, but I also see people older than me showing no signs of balding. I also looked at women somewhat jealously this week, until I remembered that they have to go through menopause - which made going bald suddenly seem very unimportant.

After work on Monday I didn't do a whole lot. I did some reading, and I organized a my music collection, as it's getting too hard to find things in one massive list of songs. I also talked to JW that night about my day, which turned a bad day into a decent one.

On Tuesday work went much better - I got a lot done. After work, I did more reading and more organizing. Exciting!

On Wednesday, work again went well, though I was quite busy with several projects. After work, I took the bus up to my parents' house to pick up the car, then I went down to JW's to pick her up. I took her out to pick up some orthodics - which she desperately needed. I had fun wondering around Sunnyside mall - I very slowly walked from one end to the other, then I sat quietly in a bench for a half hour or so, letting my imagination run wild about what the people around me might be thinking. Finally, JW emerged and we decided to head over to Arby's for dinner! I foolishly got some sort of western sandwich - it had Arby's BBQ sauce on it, and the flavour of the sauce really masked the flavour of the delicious beef. I also had curly fries and chocolate milk - no holds barred.

After Arby's, we headed back to JW's to relax a while before going to sleep. Naturally she was tired, as she's been working very hard since being hired on long term (well, longer term than one day at a time, anyway). I feel a bit sorry for her, as it's stressful when you're working that hard. You feel like nothing outside of work is being accomplished. The times you have to yourself or with your friends feel like times during which you're merely catching your breath, only to be thrust back to work before fully catching it. I remember those times well - grade 12 in high school and several terms in university were really bad. I would work all day every weekday (except Friday night - my favourite time of the week, and the time I refuse to work most), all day Saturday (except the evening) then all day Sunday, including the evening. So I really only had about 10 hours of free time a week - during exams, even less.

Working that way is good for me, in a way. I'm motivated by results - when I do well at something, I'm motivated to do better. When I work hard at something, I'm motivated to work longer and harder. This thinking got me through those tough times. Life is the same way. When I go on a diet, actually finding that I've lost weight is the biggest motivator. A good day at work can even motivate me to want to work overtime. Thursday was such a day - I got a lot done during the day, and I had no problem staying late. We had to get a lot done for a deadline Friday, so B-KY had asked a few of us to stay late if we could. He even ordered Donnini's pizza for us, and I got a free cab ride home around 8:30. I was EXTREMELY tired, as I hadn't slept well the night before. I felt sick to my stomach a bit from the fatigue. The last hour at work was pretty funny - I was having trouble typing - I couldn't type in ordinary things, like my computer password, without making mistakes. I had to go really slowly to get anything done - my brain was just shot. I couldn't help but laugh at myself.

On Friday, after a good night's sleep, I got a lot done at work. We got everything done necessary for the deadline, and I got out of there around 5:30. I took the bus to my parents' to pick up the car again, and I headed back home soon after, as people were coming over at some point. I wound up watching golf for a while - they finally came around nine. AN, AD, RD, JP and eventually, TA, were there. We played poker - a single game of Texas Hold'Em that went on for four hours. We screwed around a lot - eating Donnini's pizza (again) and listening to music. It was a fun night, and I laughed more than I had in a while. Mostly I laughed at myself, which I like to do, as I was on fire that night. I also won the poker game, which is good because we can't have AN's head getting too big. As AN pointed out, it always comes down to the two of us in the end. Most of my friends are impatient, so they often do things they shouldn't to make the game more interesting. AN is probably the best player, so he always does well. I'm the most conservative player, so I can often wait for other players to knock each other out of the game. Of course, that's how you're supposed to play. You're supposed to be in on very few hands, especially with five people. It's just a little boring, and even I get tempted to go in on hands I shouldn't.

After everyone left, I went straight to bed. On Saturday morning, I cleaned the place up, then had breakfast and a shower. I finally decided to finish organizing my NES games to sell them, but I found it had been so long since I last worked on them that I'd forgotten what I was doing. I had to sort them all again from scratch, which took a couple of hours. I separated the boxes, manuals and carts out, alphabetizing all three. The implication here is that I now have to re-enter the games into the computer so I can list them on eBay. This is made much easier by them being in order though. After the game organizing, I decided to get a few minutes of music making in before heading over to JW's.

JW and I went to get our groceries. I desperately needed them - I even went so far as to have cereal with sour milk on Thursday. Okay, it wasn't that sour, but it tasted odd. I didn't get sick, though I won't be doing it again. We took my groceries home, then hers, and then we headed out to our favourite (Chinese or otherwise) restaurant in Bedford. We had Kun Pow Chicken and Almond Pork (which does not appear on the menu!), with lettuce wraps and hot and sour soups to start. It was all delicious - our only tiny complaint was that the two main dishes tasted too much alike - but that was our fault. The hot and sour soup was also a bit too hot, and it made everything else seem much hotter, including JW.

After dinner, we drove back to JW's place. After a bit of painful relaxing, we watched Aladdin. It was classic Disney. I absolutely loved the intro sequence for the Genie - lots of off-the-wall humour with brilliant music and animation. JW's roommates made a few token appearances, because two people clearly never want to be alone. The more the merrier, right? Am I right, or am I right? Or am I right? Or am I right? Or am I right? (Good old SM)

After the movie, we slept well, as I'd made sure to turn the heat down. Sunday morning, we ate breakfast and I drove her to church. I thought momentarily about joining her, as I hadn't really had my fill of her yet, but I didn't think I was going to get it by going to church with her. Plus, she wanted to see her friends, and I felt like she deserved to see them without having to modify her behaviour on my account - she deserved a reward after the long, hard week. Though the idea of doing something religiously positive was nice, I opted instead to come home and write this entry. I'll go with her to church again sometime - it would be interesting to actually try to get into what is going on my around me (instead of merely observing as I had last time), just to see what might happen, how I might feel. I expect nothing, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try. I have lots of weird ideas about things, so I can't trust that my thinking isn't distorted.

Anyway, I'm going to go work on my latest "song" now. The idea is for it to be more of a song than my other pieces of "work" - I normally find a catchy tune, then repeat it and modify it a bit, then I find another tune, play with it for a bit, then I merge the two for a grand finale - that's the LW method. I sometimes also find a neat technical trick that I play up. I'm hoping to do otherwise this time!

I'm currently listening to: "Rebellion (Lies)", from "White Session (Live)", by "Arcade Fire".

Movies watched this week: "Aladdin"