luckily, as it makes it easier to dig.

Saturday: Polaris (the former Toronto Trek). Spent most of the day in the media office eavesdropping on press conferences, but did venture out to say Hi to a couple of people and buy a talking Tardis piggy bank. I had to. Haven't put the batteries in yet, but that will come.

The Doubletree is not actually all that painful to get to by TTC; it takes a bit over an hour and is mostly long. I had books so that was OK. Also brought healthy snacks, as I've finally realized it is not essential to exist on junk food at a con.

Sunday: In the intervals between downpours, helped dig the Giant Freaking Hole in the back yard which will eventually be the stairs to the basement and the foundation of the new deck. Even granted that the hole is about 6' by 6' and 3 to 4 feet deep, I was surprised by the amount of stuff (sand, bricks, concrete chunks, stones, rusty pots) that came out of it. We were perturbed to discover that the house doesn't seem to be sitting on a concrete pad; the bricks just start. Still, it's lasted getting on for 100 years and hasn't shifted particularly, so it can't be all that bad. On one side of the hole is a pretty extensive layer of ash; we can't quite figure out what's going on there, possibly the remains of an ash pit or an outdoor oven. It was annoyingly crumbly.

Jen and John and I took it in turns to dig, heave buckets of sand out of the Giant Freaking Hole, and carry the buckets to the back of the garden and dump them out. That weed problem is pretty much gone now. We also need a few more dump runs -- haven't got rid of the remains of the shed yet -- and a scrap metal run and several trips to the Leslie Street Spit to get rid of the concrete and bricks. It's complicated.

Then I had a bath, because I was filthy. Lush's Butterfly bath ballistic is perfectly delightful and my bathtub is now full of sand.

I'm not as sore as I expected to be. Maybe tomorrow.

Books read this week: The Smartest Guys in the Room (horrifying, fascinating), Melusine (reread, awesome, can't wait for The Mirador).

I am not getting sick, dammit. NOT. Stupid air conditioning anyway.

Back at work; many people have commented on how relaxed I look. Yay? Wonderful what a day at the cottage will do -- must find some nice copy editing that will take me a whole day so I can work on it up there.

Toronto Trek was fun although somewhat stressful and very tiring. I will have a massive report to write. Trying to focus on all the stuff that went well, instead of all the things where I thought "damn, why didn't we do X instead?" I got to a whole half a panel. One must start somewhere. Wandered around Saturday babysitting the TV crew that was making an episode at the con; they went away happy and at some point I'll be showing up on TV. Eeeeeek. At least it's digital cable.

Cranky, bless her, came and helped out. I've now linked up a few more faces with names and vice versa. *waves at ozreison and boywhocantsayno*

Caught the tail end of Denise Crosby's main-stage appearance in addition to her press conference that morning (spent a lot of time not saying to the assembled lazy-ass press "Well, if you had come by at 9:30 when the media office opened, you would have known when that was going to be"). And got a photo with her. She's awesome (which I figured out quite early in the morning when I spotted her hanging out with some fans at a table in Tim Horton's).

Bought some swag: buttons courtesy pretentiousgit, which are making me all happy (Cranky and I spent a lot of time in call-and-response thus:
"Gondor has no pants."
"Gondor NEEDS no pants!"), and a Rohirrim banner, which really I technically don't need but it was the only item that made me go "OH! WANT!" and I do have a house to furnish, after all. Oooh, and a T-shirt courtesy aprilsnark which says "inappropriate" on the front.

Seriously though, next time I'd like to actually have time to, oh, get to the odd panel.

Also, I want a nap.

Self, good job printing out the meeting agenda with the address on it. Next time, do us a favour and note the time as well, OK?

I am no longer peeved about the wait, and it didn't really change my day -- I could only get the one bus from Bradford anyway, and all I would've done differently would be to read in a coffee shop while I waited instead of the meeting room. Changes my whole perspective on things. *facepalm*

I can explain though: had I NOT been at the meeting I would have been doing this, which started at noon. Clearly the time got stuck in my head.

*sigh*

And at least I got to swim...

Strangely disjointed: pixel12's father's birthday party, then sinks and taps, then lake, then A&A's wedding shower, then dinner with aunt and uncle and friends, then bus down from Bradford, then FIVE-HOUR TORONTO TREK MEETING,* then pub, then Fantastic Four. Packed, no coherent theme. At least I got to swim.

*I was feeling all guilty about being 15 minutes late until I got there and there were 4 other people present. Which kind of annoyed me, 'cause the meeting was at noon and I was on a bus at 10 a.m. to be there. Oops. Apparently I was 40 minutes early -- had it confused with something else I might have been doing that day. That explains a lot.