That weekend was so nice, I think I'll have another.

Happy belated Canada Day, fellow Canucks and Canadiophiles. Hope everyone had a nice long weekend. Us? Yeah, not bad at all, thanks for asking. There'd been some plans to go camping but we didn't get organized fast enough so they fell through. Instead, though, we got to go to the beach with our friend Krista, where we ran into her boss and his partner and their dog, Lola, the last of whom is really sweet and cute.





The weather was perfect, although the water was still a little too cold to get in unless you were an obliviously roly-poly toddler. But today we got to do some swimming in the pool of the sister of our other friend Keith.

We also spent a lot of time fixing up our new place — figuring out where things look best, lugging them around, finding out there aren't enough plug sockets there and so figuring out where they look second best... that kind of thing. It's starting to be a pretty sweet little abode, but we won't be satisfied until it is such a dream apartment that we never want to leave. Even if there is no food or toilet paper. Today I alphebetized all the cassettes and created my own Dewey decimal system for the non-fiction books. Yesterday was CDs, stereo, and television. We somehow have free cable in this place, which watch for that to be our eventual downfall. Is Friends ALWAYS on? I never realized. I'm sure when the police finally break down the door it will be either that, Seinfeld, or Everybody Loves Raymond entertaining the flies that are feeding on our comfortably seated bodies. Just please don't let it be Oprah.

Our other other friend Jill came by yesterday to check the place out and bring us some nice housewarming tea and candles. She was full of compliments on our painting job, and she's a professional painter, so we were glowing a little bit. We had some coffee in the backyard while she showed us how to "dead-head" a few flowers. It was pretty nice.

Oh yeah, and after the beach on Saturday our even other friend Sherry had the first event in her and our still other friend Jay's brand new store. It was an art opening and pretty much every hipster in town was there, all looking fabulous. The artist had rented a stretch limo and it went around picking up and dropping off po-mo bohos all night long, which never stopped amusing me as they crawled incongruously out of the back seat. Sherry's family were there too, so I got to meet them for the first time — what a bunch of sweethearts. Sherry herself looked incredible in some clothes she'd made herself, which is a large part of what they're going to be selling at the store. The store looked fantastic too. It's called "Lost & Found" and has a really nice round sign which will soon be made into a clock. That in itself will be great, because for some reason there are almost no public clocks in Halifax. Besides Sherry's creations, they'll be selling second hand clothes, records, objets d'art, and indescribable thingamajigs. I can't wait for the opening on the 7th.

But before that, my mom and grandfather are coming for a visit, on Wednesday. I'm taking Wednesday to Friday off work to pal around with them and show them the sights, including the Tattoo about which I'm actually kind of excited as I've never seen it. But which means I only work tomorrow this week. Which, together with the fact that Meg has gone to Japan for two weeks, means the rest of the creative department may be totally screwed. And which also means that I had to go into work for four hours today to get some work done that has to go out first thing tomorrow because I won't be around to look at the proofs from the printer otherwise. Which meant that I missed antiquing and beaching with Alison and Krista today. But that's OK because I got it all done with no distractions and now I'm ready for an extra-long weekend with Mom & Papa. Hwee! Hwat fun!

- Andrew