Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote. To be honest, I'm not sure what has really happened but it's certainly felt like a blur. Wednesday or Thursday we started looking for tickets to Brazil. We weren't expecting trouble at all. The last two times we've gone we've both booked at least a month or two later than we're booking this year and have had little to no trouble finding flights with air miles or cheap flights otherwise. This year was different. I called Air Canada to check about a flight with air miles. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No way to get from North America to Brazil in December or January with air miles. We figure that Air Canada, being bankrupt, has cut back on air miles seats and resign ourselves to having to pay for the ticket. Unfortunately, after calling half a dozen travel agents the cheapest thing we find is $1500 which is outrageous. Then, by freak chance, Roxana sees a place which advertises cheap flights to Brazil. We talk to them and find a ticket for $1085 which is fantastic.

By the time all of this has been sorted out it is Saturday so we walk to the agent to get the tickets. Throughout the walk and while we're getting the tickets Liv keeps saying "I love Nelson" and the like. Nelson, of course, being the travel agent. The poor guy, I don't think he knew how to respond. He was nice though. Anyway, on our way back we're hungry and decide to get some food. By chance we see a place that does all day breakfast and say what the hell. It turns out to be the most fantastic breakfast I've had in a while. Both plates came with garlic fries which were just amazing and it was all really reasonable. We're definitely going to be going there again.

Thursday we cleaned for no apparent reason. We organized our books and papers in the back room and just tried to make things look better.

Friday was Roxana's last full day in town before she heads to Montreal so she and Tatiana came over that night to hang out and spend the night (since Rox's apartment was in boxes and chaos). I wasn't certain they were coming over so I opened a bottle of Wolf Blass South Australia Merlot 2002 and did a bit of coding. Let me tell you, that is a spectacular merlot. It was fun (if not moderately unproductive) to sip at a nice red while hacking a bit. Anyway, eventually they came over and we hung out for a while. Rox passed out at around 1am or so but Liv, Tatiana and I stayed up chatting and finishing a bottle of Wolf Blass South Australia Shiraz 2001 until 5am. Sadly, I don't remember much of that one as I'd already had quite a bit of the merlot but what I do recall was quite pleasant. Not as smooth as the merlot but a little lighter. It was nice chatting with Tatiana. Liv and I are really looking forward to getting to know her and Adam (her boyfriend) better. They are likely to be good couple friends, although Tatiana is a little weird.

Now, back to Saturday. We woke up, went to get the tickets and then stopped to help finish Rox load the truck and see her off. It was a tearful event for both Rox and Liv. I hope everything makes it there alright, although I'm not entirely convinced. The one thing I definitely realized was that not everyone knows how to pack or move. I do. Rox doesn't. I really feel bad for the poor saps she recruited to help. They'd think they had everything and then she'd say, "oh, yeah, this mirror goes too." Or, "oh, and that plant, it has to come. I'll be so sad if it dies." Ah well. She got there and, as far as I know, there weren't any major disasters. Anyway, after she left we returned home (although we were up four plants, a frozen chicken, two tuna steaks and a marble pastry board which has been abused as a cutting board) hot, sweaty and with me getting a little sick from the heat and exertion. Of course, we had no time to relax, as Liv was to be at the studio preparing for her first belly dancing performance in an hour and a half. So we took a hurried shower and frantically gathered all the bits of costume that were around the house. I was feeling ill so I wasn't on top of things as I usually am and after getting on the subway we realized that neither of us knew where we were going. After much panicking we guessed and managed to find the place. The performance went great. You can see some pictures of it here. My Livvy was wonderful.

After that we got a bite to eat at Green Mango and we went to see Collateral which was alright. A bit better than I was expecting but still, more or less, an action for the sake of action flick. I don't know but I've been getting somewhat bored of action movies of late. Maybe I've seen too many or what but they're just dull these days. *shrug*

Sunday was a chilax day. We did a small amount of grocery shopping during the day, talked to my parents and just relaxed. In the evening I did some work and that was that.

Today I, hopefully, handed off the project that I've been doing for Sven off to an undergrad doing a project course in the fall. I wrote up a huge email talking about what's to be done, how to setup and build everything and that kind of thing. I'm hoping this will be, more or less, the last that I have to see of the project. After doing that I went out to Spring Rolls on Yonge (the one on Dundas, ironically enough) with Liv and some people from her work and then we (well, me and the three girls, the two other guys went to see Fahrenheit 9/11) went to see A Home at the End of the World which was just wonderful. I strongly recommend to to everyone. Honestly, compared with Collateral and a lot of the crap I've seen recently, it was a really nice change. It was a great story with wonderful characters played beautifully by some talented actors and actresses.

So that pretty much brings us up to now. Anyway, time to go fill out some loan paper work and have some coffee with Liv.