my fast likes the windows down (down, down!)

I was reminded tonight of how fantastic those Volkswagen fast commercials were, and for a few blissful moments I was carried back to the 2006 Winter Olympics, watched in the comfort of my gorgeous corporate apartment with a key cadre of individuals (namely Tammy and Claudia, with a few guest appearances by Oniel). Ah, the memories.

Today was great, albeit a bit stressful at first; I had people over for a barbecue since Emily is visiting this week, but I woke up late and took too long to get ready, and so I only had a couple of hours before people arrived to buy groceries, make food, and put my apartment in some vague semblance of order. My family will be happy to know that I've gotten much faster at turning out foodstuffs than I was during that marathon potato-salad endeavor (which took me about five hours longer than it should of because I was such a slow and meticulous chopper). I threw together a batch of chocolate chip chewies, made a Greek salad (which I knew didn't look right, and I didn't realise until ten hours later that I had forgotten to add feta cheese), cooked up some delicious spinach artichoke dip, washed dishes, and gave an abbreviated scrub-down to my bathroom before my guests arrived. All that was left after they showed up was to cook sausages and steaks on my absurdly-small George Foreman grill.

In some ways, I was rather unlucky today; case in point, I was in danger of dropping the (closed, plastic) ketchup bottle, and saved it by sacrificing the (open, glass) relish jar, which then shattered on the kitchen floor, spreading glass and relish everywhere. There was glass between two of my toes, and so I just stood still while my friends found my broom and cleaned up around me. Nice of them, eh? I had visions of them leaving me trapped and then pillaging my apartment Viking-style, but they refrained from the burning and stealing tendencies that are so ingrained into the human psyche. Since this was the second time in two days that I've dropped something that shattered, I think I need to start being a bit more careful with dishes of food.

In other ways, though, I was completely lucky; my friends put together my patio table, which would have been extremely difficult for me to do by myself. This allowed us to sit outside and enjoy the late-afternoon sunshine, and all in all it was quite lovely. The barbecue crowd was rather small, since many of our friends were out of town, but I saw Garry for the first time in a couple of years, which was great. Shedletsky also came over, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The arrival of Claudia, Victor, Laura, and later Oniel ensured that we would spend a significant amount of time reminiscing about the past, but that's always nice because our collective past is rather amusing. And, of course, it was wonderful to see Emily--it's been over eighteen months since the last time I saw her, which seems impossible, so hopefully I'll see her more in the v. near future.

The immediate future, however, contains my bed and my pillow and no alarm clock. When I do get around to waking up tomorrow, I'd like to organise my closet, clean up my kitchen (including a thorough mopping of the area contaminated by the relish before it begins to reek), and perhaps meet up with Claude for some coffee if she's available. Then, it's just four days in the office next week, and I leave for India on Friday! I can't freaking wait.