So I guess I have a lot of updating to do.
Well, while my dad was here we drove to Toronto one afternoon to visit my sister Andrea and my nephew (her baby) Nathan. We sat on the patio outside and had a yummilicious dinner. The weather was perfect - warm and bright and not humid... The drive home was in the dark, but thankfully I had my laptop with me. I had to revise a paper I'd submitted to The Arbutus Review, and it had been reviewed and returned to me with critiques and comments. The revised version was due Monday (it was actually due Tuesday but I wanted to make sure I'd be done Monday... and this day I'm telling you about that we went to Toronto was Saturday). So, thanks to my beloved laptop, I sat in the car listening to Beatles music (from my laptop) and revising my paper, all the way home! I think if you really need to get some work done and you can do it on the road, sit in the passenger seat of a 2hr+ car ride in the middle of the night (so as not to have the outdoor view as a distraction), and do it on your laptop. On second thought, an empty room with maybe just a little bit of music but no windows or internet access would suffice, too... :)
Well when Daddy dropped me off at home that evening, he decided he would take the vacuum cleaner back to his hotel. Just in case you don't remember or haven't read earlier posts, the vacuum cleaner I mean is one that I'd bought from a lady - a mom at that - who had told me it worked excellently and to contact her if I ever needed anything, etc. Well, the vacuum didn't (and doesn't) work, and so I had emailed her right away (I didn't have her phone number), and she had emailed back saying they were going on vacation but that they would contact me when they got back. That was over a week before Daddy arrived, so I figured they were just not going to contact me and hope I'd give up on trying to contact them...
Anyhow, Daddy said he would inspect the vacuum when he got back to the hotel, which is on the opposite end of town (about 25min. drive away), and let me know if whatever was wrong with it was remediable. The next morning he called me and told me what was wrong with the vacuum: The bottom part of the attachment that is for carpets (with the roller) wasn't turning properly because of an elastic band that had snapped off and couldn't be snapped back on. He had had to take the vacuum apart. So he said I could still use all the other attachments but that one would have to be replaced. He was still at the hotel when he called and he said he'd be heading over to see me soon.
A little while after we hung up, I got a call from the vacuum lady. She told me I could return the vacuum and get my money back if I wanted, so I was very excited and arranged a tentative time frame for the exchange to occur. I tried to call Daddy to ask him to bring the vacuum but he'd already left. When he got to my apartment I asked him, "Do you have the vacuum?" and explained that I'd be able to return it and get my money back. He smiled in an oopsie-daisies sort of way and told me that he'd thrown out the bottom roller attachment that was broken... and told the cleaning lady to get rid of it for him. Well that was great... He also waltzed in with a new vacuum cleaner that he'd bought for me, but I rejected it because it was one of those big, heavy ones that are exhaustingly difficult to push around a carpeted floor and it had a big bag, which is also a disadvantage because then you not only keep all that dirt within your home, but you also have to replace it every few months, and that's added costs. Call me a princess, but I have strong reasoning behind my preferences.
So we had to go return that vacuum, and we got a bagless one which was only somewhat more expensive and so much better - thank you Daddy!! He also got me a printer -- thank you Daddy!!
So after we'd gotten some lunch downtown (very yummy!) we went back down to the hotel -- on the other side of town, as I've said -- to try and recover the piece of vacuum that had been discarded. Daddy ended up having to go plead to the cleaning ladies and got it out of the trash, covered in dust, so I could return it to get my cash back. Then we had to drive all the way back to my area of town (another 25-30min. in the heavy traffic of London) to return the vacuum to the lady. Then it took another long while just to find her address because she had two numbers (she lived in a kind of town-house-complex sort of thing) and I couldn't understand her directions properly! Anyhow, we finally got the vacuum back to her and she returned me the money, as planned. Success! What grief we had to go through, though. At least I don't have to figure out what to do with that non-working piece of plastic + suction technology anymore.
So that was basically it! My dad left early the next morning. We had a quick breakfast together and then he dropped me off at school. And now my home was just about entirely complete!
The rest of the week is basically as you can predict... classes, classes, classes, homework, homework, homework. I met my revised-paper submission deadline, and so if all goes well my past year's research in Statistics will be published in October for The Arbutus Review's (UVic's new interdisciplinary, online magazine) first volume!
This weekend I bought a few frames for putting up pictures that I've had lying around for too long (using my new computer I printed out a picture of me and Mosta- my beloved lovebird who passed away almost 2 months ago now). I also bought nails for putting them up on my all-too-bare walls. So then I got home, but I didn't have a hammer... Chelsea (my roommate) has one but she was away for the weekend. I was somewhat impatient about getting my pictures framed: The frameless walls were starting to look asylum-like. So I thought, "What can I use as a hammer?"
And voila! I spotted my hairbrush. So I went around my room hammering away at the nails and putting the pictures up, and I'm glad to say the hairbrush worked like a charm! My home is every day more homey!
Well, that is about all my news worth telling so far. School is still quite busy. I have a lot of homework. Thank goodness it's Labour Day weekend. I still have a lot of Macroeconomics homework to figure out, but I hope you've enjoyed the update! My apologies for having let so much time slip in between my entries lately. I hope even when the schooling gets very busy I can at least write a few lines!
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