Housemate News

Interesting weekend... I got home on Friday to hear from both Dan and a note left in my room, that the girl I'm subletting from, B, had been by to start getting her things in order as she has signed another lease and is not moving back in. She also wanted to let me know that she would be by at 9am Saturday morning and could I please be around to move my stuff out of the room so she could get her furniture out. How nice of her to give me, oh, 14 hours' notice. Luckily I don't have that much stuff and I didn't need to pack it carefully, but still. So I threw it all into my bags and put them out in the living room, since I already had plans for Saturday morning.

I was a little annoyed and therefore grateful that I already had an excuse not to be there when she was there. The book group met for breakfast at a little restaurant, so unobtrusive in the tiniest strip of stores I've ever seen that they all looked closed and I walked right by without seeing the sign for the restaurant. I eventually found it and we had a delightful meal. After we ate, we realized we hadn't really talked about the book at all, despite its physical presence on the table, so we adjourned to a nearby park to discuss it without having to shout at each other over the din of the restaurant. It was a good time, and here is a photo of my fellow bookworms (minus Lauren, who had to leave early): l-r Meg, Megan, Damien, Haidee - pronounced Heidi - and me.

Then a bunch of us wanted to go on to the farmer's market, so I walked over there with Haidee and her sister (who took the photo) who then had to leave, and then met up with the Megs. Later, Meg called to invite me out for a beer, and I pointed out to her that usually we get to catch up with each other on the bus or car ride to wherever we're meeting, but we met in our neighborhood this time, so I walked and we didn't get to catch up. It was nice to get out and about, especially since I live right off the main road here.

B came back today for her bed and my room was quite sad and lonely-looking for a while with no furniture and just my stuff piled in a corner, till Ray helped me drag in the spare (twin) mattress. Alex said he might soon have a superfluous dresser, which would be very helpful! Turns out the person Dan is subletting from also is not coming back, so he can stay in the house as long as he wants.

Today being Alex's birthday, I made chocolate chip cookies. (Please see entry from Sept. 17, 2007 called "Australian cooking measurements" for a detailed description of why this was kind of an ordeal...) I basically ended up guesstimating on a bunch of stuff, but it seems to have worked out, except that they're flatter than usual, but still good. I also had to guess on the oven temperature, since my conversion chart gave temperatures for electric in Celcius, and gas ovens in numbers 1-9, but we have a gas stove that has Celcius on its knobs. But they taste pretty good (well, Dan and I had to try one, to make sure they were okay...), so I'm just waiting for Alex to come home from his birthday celebration with his parents so we can eat them!

He also had big plans last night, going from dinner to karaoke to a club with a group of his friends, and in preparation he had Mia shave his head in a funny pattern, so I will leave you with that image: