friday facts, figures and fluff

* tomorrow is my mom’s birthday, so YB and i are taking her out for the day. we’ll start with a Caravan of Free Things, where we go from store to store to redeem “free on your birthday” items – so, a dozen free bagels at What a Bagel!, free eye make-up at Sephora and a free lunch at Tucker’s (mom’s choice). then, we’ll do some shopping, stop at this bakery to pick up some cake and retire to trix’s house for coffee.

* the weather has been fantastically cool and crisp and sunny for the past few days, and i LOVE it. temperatures hovering around 18ºC daily, with overnight lows near 10ºC. uh-may-zing. i’m wearing socks and shoes and sweaters again. i pulled out my flannel pyjamas, added a blanket to the bed and have been having the most wonderful sleeps in recent nights. autumn is definitely in the air, and some of the trees have begun turning. i suspect a fall leaves outing will be in the cards within two weeks.

* with the end of summer comes the end of some of my favourite TV shows, like Big Brother and The Next Food Network Star. regarding the former, i kind of hope hayden wins (which is shocking given how much i disliked him three months ago); regarding the latter, i think aarti will be the most successful NFNS winner they’ve ever had... and i’m glad because i lurrrrrrrved her.

* in related news, i watched the premiere of Nikita last night and was surprised to see my favourite walking location (mount pleasant cemetery) featured prominently as an attempted-assassination spot.

* for some unknown reason, perhaps one related to the dramatic shifts in weather (from hot to cold to hot to cold), large chunks of plaster have bubbled up and fallen off the walls in some of the hallways in my building. there are two giant patches of broken wall in the hallway outside my door, and i suspect that the creep and/or the weirdo next door have been making it worse by picking at the “wounds” each time they pass. the super says she’s waiting for the temperatures to stabilize before she gets them repaired.

* i am absolutely terrified of bed bugs, and i have no idea why everyone else isn’t as scared or as vigilant about preventing their spread.

* last night, i had my recurring hell house dream again... the one where, for some reason, i’m living in my current apartment but realize i still have things stored in my old place that i then need to retrieve. i haven’t had that dream in a long time. in this version, the dream started with me already in the HH apartment, which was still fully furnished with all my stuff. but in the kitchen were boxes and boxes of “valuables” that i’d apparently decided to leave behind permanently – things i’ve never actually owned in real life, but that i’d amassed in my dreamlife. silver and gold goblets, ornate jewelry... boxes of the stuff. and, in the dream, two things were most prominent: 1. a deep feeling of “we need to get out of here, pronto!”, because i recognized that i’d moved out YEARS prior and didn’t belong there anymore; and 2. a sense of “WHY did i leave these things here??????”

* yesterday, i ordered more samples. i hope they make it through the postal system to get to me.