Since moving to Victoria, we haven’t had the chance to have many visitors. This is of course understandable–the majority of our friend base is a whole province away. This was not really much of an issue, we lived with Andrew, and being the somewhat social creature that he is, we always had people around.

Since getting our own place however, we hadn’t had any visitors. Again this is understandable. With Christmas, our trip to Edmonton and our hectic schedule, we really hadn’t had the chance to have anyone over. Of course this week that all changed.

Last Sunday we had our friend Sharron come and visit us from the mainland. She had the honour of being our first guest in our place. It was nice to finally have someone over to see where we live, and after being Sharron’s first overnight guest, it was nice to have her as our first guest. She missed out on being the first overnight guest though.

That distinction will get to go to Aaron and Christine. They will be coming in to visit us tomorrow evening. I have been looking forward to this for a while. Always good to have one of your best friends to come and visit, especially when you don’t get to see them often. We have arranged a bit of a larger get together on Saturday as well. An excuse to be huge geeks of course, but hey, that also means that they get to be here for our first party-like gathering.

~Dusk||

Victoria is so warm that if you try to skate outdoors, you have to have fake ice. I don’t know whether that’s funny or sad. The rink was little, was ontop of the Mayfair roof, and they had strung white lights across the top, which I’m sure would have looked lovely in the night. The view wasn’t bad, the sunset was all golden and lovely and we rented skates and they had good music, but the ice just wasn’t there. Literally. They made the rink look like ice, but it was like skating on a white cutting board with grease for glide. Couldn’t turn very well, couldn’t get up any speed-well, I could but then I went to turn the curve and then I have no speed. I had fun anyway, but it was just so ridiculous in the end. I never realized how much easier real ice is to skate on, I was expecting a grip and a smooth glide that just wasn’t there. Dev did much better than me, gliding round and round and round, and we stayed as long as we could but I mean really, it was just so weird after all. I’m definitely going to find a better rink for us, and I can’t believe I’ll be asking “so, do you have REAL ice?” when I call to ask when they’re open for public skating.

Sunday we watched some of the Olympics, mostly the skating competitions, and some of the skiing ones too. I was glad I wasn’t working on Valentine’s Day, for once. We got to relax and just enjoy the day, which was a wonderful treat. We went for coffee and ice cream later, and had a nice little walk.I thought it was just perfect.

I think working retail On Valentine’s Day has made me bitter towards the day. People get so greedy and fussy and they’re SO unbelievably rude I feel like being bitchy back, but of course you can’t. You just have to suck it up while they get in your face about the things you haven’t got because they came too late, and gee, we sold out, big surprise. They always think you’re holding out on them, that you’ve got a lot more product hiding under the counter and they think you’re secretly laughing at them. People think Valentine’s Day is a test they have to pass, and everyone fusses that “he doesn’t love me enough because he didn’t give me a big enough gesture,” or ” is it too soon to say I love you?” I can’t stand the crap people buy for each other; in a desperate attempt to “prove their love” they fling cheap ugly toys and uncomfortable lingerie, too much chocolate and expensive wilting flowers at their loved ones. It isn’t thoughtful, it isn’t romantic; and the gestures are meaningless when you start sticking a price tag onto the things you buy to show how much your love is worth. Sometimes I wonder if my customers ever asked their lovers what kind of flowers they really like, what colour is their favourite, what would be romantic to them? Valentine’s Day heaps on the stress, and I have seen so many people the day after St Valentine’s Day in tears or bitterly disappointed because “he just didn’t get it RIGHT, you know” and “how could he not know meeeeeeee?” I think, is that all you are doing? Holding up a metre stick to measure how successful your relationship is? Do you guys actually talk to each other? Do you know your lover at all or are you just thinking this is where you SHOULD be, and if you’re not there, why not? Do you reserve all your romance and sense of fun for one day only in the year and ignore your lover for the rest of the time? And you wonder why you’re breaking down and getting frustrated. Get real.

My Valentine’s Day was great: I didn’t have to deal with egomaniacs or fat greedy women or thin belligerent women or angry venomous men or any of the other myriad of people who hate everything and take it out on the girl behind the counter. I spent the day with my lover and it was a lot of fun, and very stress-free.

Had a good weekend. It is always nice to have a lazy day off. We didn’t do anything really big for Valentine’s Day this year.  Not having the car up and running made it difficult to do much. Instead we sat around and watched the Olympics and went for coffee. It may not sound the most romantic way to spend Valentine’s, but being the first Sunday we have had off together since our trip to Edmonton, it was exactly what we needed.

I have the car back up and running though. It felt really good to get behind the wheel after just over a month of not being able to drive. I missed it.

The next few weekends are going to be rather busy. We have friends coming to visit the Island both this weekend and next. Sharron will be coming in from Vancouver on the 21st, with Aaron and Christine coming the weekend after. the weekends will obviously be filled with good times.

On the 21st we will be attempting to go and see the festivities for Chinese New Year. Even though the 14th was officially the start of the new year, The parade and such was moved to this coming Sunday because of Valentine’s. I have never really been to one of the lion’s dances so I am looking forward to seeing it.

~Dusk||

We managed to make it out to Edmonton after all for the week. And we have finally managed to catch up on some sleep. Friday ended up being a fairly hectic day as we rushed to get our things packed for the trip. No one knew that we were coming out save my brother and Aaron. Our parents reactions were priceless. I do love it when surprises work out as planned.

Saturday was a day for family. We spent the day with my mother, and the evening with Kate’s family. Both families ended up having big meals that day, so we were stuffed by the end of it. Exhausted and full, we came back to my mother’s place and tried to sleep.

Sunday was Aaron’s birthday. We went to dinner at Chianti’s, a wonderful Italian restaurant on Whyte. There were a lot of friends, and many we had not met before. It was a good night, nice to see everyone again.

Our week is still mostly up in the air. But so far it is looking like good times.

Dusk//

I started a second job here with a company called GoodLiving Tech. it is a small company that does house to house computer repair. I had three calls to do yesterday that had me running all around town and I have some more work with him tomorrow. They are paying me $20/hr on a part time/on-call basis. The owner of the company thinks I am great there.

Basically the company has been around for a few years – there was him and 3 other part time technicians. He did a large marketing push this last week, and all but hired me on the spot. I seemed to prove myself to him so well that the only reason he is hiring another tech is to cover for me when I head out to Edmonton in January.

Overall, I think that I have a really good shot with this company. Things seem to be going really well.

Finished the day with Avatar screening in 3-D.

So busy weekend.

In the midst of packing and cleaning, I had to take Museless to the ferry so he can start his trek to Australia. It was hard saying good bye; I will miss him for sure. At least we got a good gaming session and coffee session in before he left.

I am working on almost no sleep. Between cleaning, packing and final hang out sessions sleep has fallen by the wayside. Tomorrow afternoon though we get our new place.

This is a big thing for me, I have never lived in a place with out roommates, and I couldn’t be happier about finally getting a place with Kate. We are both really excited.

Kate started her new job today. Should be good for her. It definitely is more her style.

~Dusk||

P.S. Magic Erasers ROCK

Everything is setup for the move now. We have utilities set up, a move in date ready and have access to a truck. Now it is just a matter of making the insane amount of trips from each place as we were basically given the furniture in the place we are currently in.

We have the majority of our stuff packed at this point. Maybe a couple of hours left of work. And then we get to clean…

Luckily it is not too bad – there are no carpets to steam clean so really it is just mopping and wiping the walls.  Granted we don’t have a time when all of us will be available to clean, so it will be piecemeal.

Again it has been a busy while, and our update schedule has slowed to — well a bit of a standstill. In reality we have been quite busy. Museless is about to head off to Australia, so we have been busy trying to find a new place to live. We got ourselves a nice 2 bedroom, close to both of our work.

Of course finding the place was a bit of an adventure.  the second place we looked at had everything we wanted; utilities were included and the place had a walk-in closet and plenty of kitchen space. So we rushed to get a damage deposit in 2 hours is what it took for us to do so.  Only to find out someone beat us to the apartment by all of an hour. We were crushed.

Luckily, the person at the rental office was fantastic. She agreed to hold the other apartments for a day. Long enough for us to have a look at them and say if we wanted it. We now have this beautiful apartment in a good location, though the kitchen really sucks. We get to move in on the 29th.

We still have some of the details to work out – such as getting services set up, but overall it is going well.

We will keep you updated

~Dusk

Yes, it has been a while since we updated last. Life has been keeping us busy.

We were unable to get out to Edmonton this time around; car troubles prevented us from doing so. We did however have a great time in Victoria. There were many wanders and photos taken.

Thanks giving is coming up this weekend, seems like it will be another busy weekend. I get to see my nephew again, which I am really looking forward to.