Now that it’s spring time, Timin likes to go out on the balcony and enjoy the cool night air.

Last night, I found him under the barbecue. Now the barbecue has this little tarp that shelters it from the rain, which makes it very comfortable. So comfortable, that some pigeons had built a nest. Not long after he'd crawled in there, I heard some cooing and a fluttering of wings.

I lifted the tarp to see Timin looking at a lone pigeon egg in the nest. I asked him, “are you going to eat it?”

In response, he rolled the egg off the edge of the balcony. Then he peered over the edge to watch it splatter below. Finally, he looked up at me expectantly and meowed.

I couldn’t stop laughing.

I am sitting on the couch eating apples, clementines and curd cheese. Delicious, squeaky curd cheese. This is my final push to eat the rest of the food in the fridge.

There are numerous shirts on the drying rack, waving in the artificial breeze of a fan. They're whites that I'm furiously trying to dry out. This is, of course, because they have to be packed for my week-long trip to the States.

I have to catch the 6:55 train to Kingston tomorrow, so I'd better not get distracted too much. There is an absurd amount of packing to get done and quite a few things I must do. For instance, I've discovered that the blacks have not come cleanly out of the wash. They're going through again right now.

The rest of the family is driving up from Toronto, to meet me halfway. They'll be picking me up in an action-packed sequence where they drive alongside the tracks and I leap from the train on to the roof of the car. Then we'll careen down a hill, jump over a cliff, and end up on the highway to the nearest border crossing. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get the house in some semblance of order. I've stacked the books in piles in the living room, put away most of my tools, and am staring at a pile of dishes. I'll probably get to those after I've eaten. Then it's cleaning out the fridge as best I can and scrubbing the accumulated stains off the stove.

Timin is snoozing on the couch, blissfully unaware of my activity. I think he's gotten pretty used to my crazy late-night packing. The plan for this week is to have cloquewerk and angorian come by every other day and fill the food dish. I have left them little gifts on the table, to make them feel better about trudging through what looks to be bizarre weather. I suppose that cuddling with a cute cat might also be a good reward, but I can never tell how charming Timin is when I'm away.

I never seem to be able to pack light, but by George, I'm going to try this time. I've limited myself to a camera bag, a messenger bag, and a small luggage on wheels. How I'm ever going to get around in style, I have no idea, but we shall see if we can be inventive with the outfits.

As you can plainly see, my mind has started wandering quite a bit. I've had a nap this afternoon, but I can tell that my plan to stay up all night is going to be interesting. scjody is staying over, in the hopes that Aslan can benefit from the same attention as Timin. I have just realized that I've forgotten to tell my wonderful, beautiful, generous volunteers about the extra kitty they'll be feeding. So I hope they don't get too upset upon reading this.

I have been surfing the Internet to find places to eat while we're across the border. Thankfully, the lovely people at …an endless banquet have reviews of New York pizza joints, which I will have to try. But first I have to finish this absurd amount of fruit.

Oh look, that alarm has rung. I'd better go down and fetch the laundry.

It's been such a long time since I've written anything to you, my faithful readers. Life became so hectic and hurried that I barely had time to use a computer. In fact, it's been about three months since I last wrote anything substantive on the Internet.

I think that a lot of this has been fall-out from working on computers too much. Really, I had a brief spat where I stopped using a computer completely. You should have seen the size of my inbox when I returned. As such, the writing bug has come less frequently and less passionately than before. I suspect a bit of my photography has suffered as well, but it's really starting to come back.

Since you all like looking at pictures, I think I'll pull out a bunch to show you.

Alexandre St-Onge
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

madamewoo and I went to see our friend Freida perform her experimental electronic musical composition.

I know nothing about electronic music but I do know something about pictures. Alexander, whom I don't know, put a distintegrating stuffed animal on his head, walked up to the front, and nodded so that stuffing fell all about him..

Whit Diffie and Bruce Schneier
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I did a small bit with this year's Computers Freedom and Privacy, held in Montréal. Mostly I did a little research on party planning and did a bit of the advertising. Since this was a privacy conference, there are no public pictures from our little soirée.

However, I am allowed to post photos of the fascinating open panel discussion.

Writing
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

This was actually a summer full of conferences, which is something I'm quite pleased about. Evan Prodromou helped organize RoCoCo Camp, which centres around wikis and other collaborate on-line spaces.

He also introduced me to OpenSpace, which was so successful I think the next BarCamp should employ it.

For ALL your glass needs
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Next, I flew to Edmonton to shoot a friend's wedding. My mom and I wandered the streets for the first few days, taking in the sights.

Downtown Edmonton is rather deserted for the May long weekend, we only saw the homeless walking around the deserted Chinatown district.

Speed
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

West Edmonton Mall fared a lot better. The shoppers were out in full force and couples were dragging each other into the various shops.

We snuck into the fairground and took some pictures of the rides. This rollercoaster seemed quite popular, though since I'm deathly afraid of heights, I knew better than to climb aboard.

Domed roof
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

After all that glitz and excitement, Mom decided that we should take in some of the cultural sights. The Alberta Legislature Building is actually quite gorgeous, with a surprising tropical garden at the top of its domed roof.

Breaking
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

For the stag party, I tagged along with the bride and groom as they went on a whirlwind tour in a white limousine. We managed to end up at a bar where the guests got rather hammered. After a few rounds of pool, people were getting tired so I called the driver and dropped people off at their hotels.

Eyes
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I returned home to a forlorn kitty cat.

He ignored me for a few hours but then decided that he was far happier posing in front of the camera.

Destruction
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Sadly, we noticed that the bathroom sink had clogged up while I was away. My efforts to clear the clog were futile, so the landlord called the plumber. Who used a drain snake, then disassembled the sink, then tore out the wall, before asking “is this floor made of wood?”

Madamewoo looked at me with horror as the workman got out his hacksaw. Well, that's how we started the bathroom renovation project and were forced to find alternate bathrooms for about two weeks.

madamewoo and I have some very interesting conversations around the apartment. But tonight, we noticed that we often fall into the same patterns about certain topics. Topics where we are at our wittiest.

Since she's been procrastinating about STAT 231, we justified drawing a pie chart. Statistically, it's completely and utterly valid, I assure you.

Apartment #8: a pie chart
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

If a reality television producer saw this, we'd make five-thousand easy!

Julie and Desirae
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I go to Waterloo once a school term to hang out with people. It's good to walk the halls of your alma mater, after senility has had time to replace your memories with something fonder. In September, this visit often coincides with halfwitted's birthday party.

Driving to Waterloo was a tad annoying, as it was the long weekend, so I spent a good two hours queueing up for my rental car. They gave me this huge station wagon, as they had nothing smaller, and I drove for hours upon hours. When I finally got there, I met up with elliptic_curve who is back in the country.

She made a Thai curry and I made tabbouleh before we picked up butterbee. There was some confusion as to how to put on a toga, which was the mandatory attire, and then we were off.

Elsa Ratz
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

The night involved lots of chatting, various tasty snacks, and a surprise engagement. Well, a surprise to me at least. As the night wore on, more and more people changed into non-toga clothing, as it's awfully difficult to wear a makeshift toga comfortably. You don't know how many times I was stabbed by safety pins.

The next morning, I lazied around the place a bit. Then I helped the lovely Elsa, who doesn't even live there, do some cleaning. She is the best party guest ever!

That evening, I crashed cypherpunk95's housewarming party with elliptic and butterbee. It just so happened that da_lj was at the previous affair, so I was happy and shocked to see him. It's a small, small world. We were shown around the house, I lounged about in a huge cast-iron bathtub, and made eyes at their new stove. Now we're cooking with gas!

I bumped into Justyna, who I chatted with for a while. And a few professors from Waterloo. Then I noticed some guy walking around with a Nikon F-series. It was only after some conversation that I realized that I just met tracer99 and Laura. I've been following their lovely photographs for a while, which made me very pleased to meet them.

We drove butterbee and her boyfriend back home, before going back to elliptic's place. I had to sleep on the floor, which was cold, but was snuggled my favourite kitty in the world. So I suppose everything turned out fine.

Elliptic and I drove to Montréal, avoiding one group of frosh to see another. We proceeded lazily, stopping at Arby's and Real's Truck Stop, making terrible time. But it didn't matter, we were going back to civilisation.

I'm going to Waterloo this weekend.

It's an opportunity to see Timin and try to make amends.

I have sixteen boxes of Julie's books stacked by my doorway. In the morning, I'll lug them into the van. After work, I shall drive to Toronto.

Saturday morning, I will pick up holdenk and we will drive to Waterloo. I'll stack the books in the basement and then find people to hang out with. I think we'll have a marvellous time. You should be one of us!

In the morning, I was pleased to discover an open access point close to Tor's window. I tried to contact halfwitted and since he didn't respond, I went back to sleep again. Oh sleep, glorious sleep. By noon, I was able to get in touch with him and brought my things over to his flat where I saw Mike again, the roommate with good kitchen equipment. We all piled into the car and went about town shopping for dishware and groceries.

They also made me stop at Starbucks, which is laid out like a temple to milk and coffee. It's stunningly bizarre with people rattling off the longest strings of meaningless words. We then made our way about town until we had a car full of food. I made myself busy in the kitchen setting out a five-course meal.

It is here that I want to point out that holding parties back-to-back is really confusing for your guests. Especially if there's overlap between the attendees. But no matter, small parties are just as fun as big ones.

Footprints
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I think Grahame was one of the first people to show up, but he left with Tim for a while to go see northbard, corbet and tormenta. I started entertaining people as they came through the door. Tor showed up again as did musicdieu. I have to say that Luke lives a life that's filled with stuff, he left after the borscht to go see a concert with Prof. Ragde. sailorfrag managed to sneak in the door without my noticing. Two of my guests, Rob and Justyna, realised that they actually went to high school together.

We ate, and chatted, and I gave myself a burn. It's just a small burn, more of a blister, because we had to handle some baking in the oven. I wound down the party gradually, and it ended with me crashing on the couch. I seem to see a trend developing here. A couch-surfing trend.

In the morning, I woke up and did some dishes. Then I decided that a bath would be nice, so I took one of those. I had padded out of the washroom when the telephone rang. Aha, 點心 was on. I packed up my things, said goodbye to Mike and thanked him, then off I went into the world. First to pick up libertinette and shader_boi before going to elliptic_curve's to retrieve her and James.

Emo book
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

We spent about two hours chatting in the restaurant as the tables filled up and emptied around us. We also ate prodigious amounts of food. "Slowly," I had to counsel them, but they just inhaled it all. Once we finished, we went to Starbucks again. Again!

I realise that I'm not vague enough for this journal to actually be hosted on LiveJournal, so let me do some of this here: It is safe to say that we mocked the Starbucks drinker furiously, which led to many innuendos, insults, and assorted quips throughout the afternoon. Good times? You bet. I also came up with a fabulous television show idea that I should totally try to get produced. Does anyone know a person with a steady hand who wants to film television?

With that over, we went to visit Timin. I brought him gifts of 蝦餃, but he was afraid of me for some reason. He was always running away and hiding from me. Oh no! I think he hates me now. Maybe it was because he thinks I exiled him or something. Will someone please tell Timin that I still love him every day?

Scenesters on the couch
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I was soon accused of becoming a scenester. Not only that, but a scenester band photographer. C'mon, do scenester photographers take over-saturated pictures of other scenesters in hoodies? Like this one on the left? Do they ask snarky rhetorical questions?

All too soon, it was time to leave for Toronto. I got in the car, dropped people off at home, and then headed for the highway. Once there, I dropped off the car, was given a box of food, and sent on my way to the train station. I caught the train with a little time to spare and slept on my way back.

I don't know if it was a relaxing weekend, but I'm sure glad I saw all of you.

So later this morning, pphaneuf will stop by my place and pick up Timin. They'll be travelling to Waterloo, where Timin will be reunited with Julie. I think she's looking forward to that. Meanwhile, Timin is still oblivious.

Timin on the couch
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I'm going to spoil him tonight. Wild salmon, fresh cream, and hugs. I've taken care of him for so hard and so long that I've grown accustomed to his face.

Goodbye, Timin. I'll miss you.

Edit at 12:28: Pierre showed up, we loaded the Linux-mobile, and now they are riding west together. Safe journey.

Cat from #7
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

"Hey Konstantin," I said as I walked in the front door, "did you know there's a cat in the hallway?"

He was busy hacking on the sofa, so I grabbed my camera and went up the stairs to where the cat was. "Hello minou," I said as I snapped some photos. Just then, a man showed up at the bottom of the stairs. He introduced himself as a friend of the residents in flat #7, across the hall. Somehow, the cat escaped, and gave him a nasty bite. I herded the cat back down to the third floor, and watched it go inside.

Then, it caught sight of Timin through my open door! It turned, charged, and bolted into my flat. Suddenly, there was a massive ball of hissing fury. Fur flew all over the place as they hurtled themselves into the living room.

The neighbour's cat was flailing away at Timin. Timin got in some good hooks, which would drive the other cat to back off. But that cat was so aggressive that it would charge Timin again and again. I think, however, that the other cat was declawed so this was mostly ineffective. Whereas I have been slightly lax with trimming Timin's.

I was trying to pick up the neighbour's cat, but Konstantin took the opportunity to nudge it towards the door with his foot. I'm pretty sure he didn't kick it, but it's hard to tell because it was really angry. After we drove it back into its apartment, Timin sat there looking at us in bewilderment. A sort of disbelief. Here he was, minding his own business, when he gets charged by this other cat. How uncivilised!

Well, I went and opened up a tin of salmon for him while Konstantin swept up the fur that littered the dining room. What a mess! I looked at kitty and he seemed unhurt, which is probably better than the other guy.

Argh. I didn't go outside in time to save the laundry.

The cat was trying to tell me something this morning, but normally he is annoying, so I have learned to sleep through it. Now he is sitting beside me, looking slightly afraid that another peal of thunder might sound.

Dusk
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I bought some new bedclothes today for the guest bed. I realised that I didn't really have any decent ones, so I dropped off at the Bay and got some fresh white sheets.

After making the bed, I cleared most of my papers and junk out of that room and piled them into mine. Then I emptied out the dresser and pulled as much of the closet out as possible. It is still filled with boxes and boxes, however. I do wish I had the storage of the old NitiHouse.

Once the room was cleaned and ready for mricon, I closed the door. That's when Timin gave me this irritated look because he was going to sleep there. Oh no, kitty, you don't get to shed all over that bed unless you're invited.

He stormed off in a little fit and stood on the balcony for a while. I went to finish off the laundry and hack a bit more. After finding yet another segmentation fault, I wondered where Timin had gone. I poked my head out on the balcony and couldn't hear a sound. "Timin," I called. "Here kitty."

There was a soft meow and I looked at the windowsill. He had somehow climbed off the balcony onto the ledge and was trying to get in that way. I picked him up, he yelped, and I set him down inside. He gave me a look that said, "I meant to do that," before walking gracefully to his food bowl. What a strange cat.

Since Timin is going to stay with me for a length of time, and he won't be going outside, I decided to clip his claws.

This was surprisingly painless. He didn't make any fuss at all! He let me hold his paws, clip his nails, and then I gave him some tasty cat treats.

It was very warm today, as the weather forecast had predicted. I left my air-conditioner on this morning, a decision I was glad to make.

I live on the third floor of a four storey building. One that gets a lot of sun. So when I enter the front door and go up the stairs, the temperature and humidity rise significantly. Not only that, there's a foul smell that eminates from the flat across the hall. It is with great joy that I open my door to a blast of cold, clean air.

Timin also likes to see me come in, because it usually means he gets petted. And fed. And watered. It's very important for him to get food, or at least he thinks so. I've been giving him a little less to eat because he hasn't been very active lately. Poor little guy.

The rest of the week is supposed to be hot and muggy as well. Which will be uncomfortable because we've thrown all the windows open at the office. Why? Because of the strange fumes that seem to be making everyone feel dizzy. Why they've wafted up, I cannot tell. But I can certainly say a lot of people decided to work from home after we started noticing it.

Timin is hot
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

It's been very, very hot lately. Two weeks ago, the warmest it got was 15°C and we were worried that crops would frost overnight. Today, it's gone up to 32°C. I have been taking advantage, over the past week, of the fact that I live alone. Well, not technically alone, I guess. There are a couple of houseplants and Timin, but nobody who really cares whether I'm decent.

Over the last three days or so, the heat wave has really cranked up. I noticed that my computers were running exceptionally hot, I was running exceptionally hot, and Timin looked like he was wilting. No, I really mean it. Normally, he's an annoying little creature who makes constant demands for food and attention. But recently, he's only been meowing for cold water and spending most of his time stretched out in front of the window fan.

I did some sweeping today and noticed that I had enough fur to make a second white cat. I resolved to go and get a window-mounted air-conditioner. Looking online, I realised that I'd only be able to fit a vertical-window-mounted air-conditioner, as opposed to the more common horizontal.

I took the bus up St-Laurent to the Canadian Tire in Rosemont. There, I managed to completely miss all the air-conditioners they had displayed in the front window. After asking for some help, I managed to locate them. Yes, there in the corner was one of three vertical-mount units in the store. And the only one with enough amperage to cool my entire flat. Wicked.

I hefted it over to the cashier and she rung it through. Then I asked her about delivery and she pulled out a black binder full of prices. "You know," she remarked, "it's usually cheaper to take a taxi. Would you like me to call one for you?" I agreed, and she dialed up the taxi co-op for a van. Then she even helped me take the thing outside. Isn't that nice? I sat on the box for a while and soon the taxi-van arrived. The driver and I loaded the thing into the back. A quick drive and $10 later, I was standing at the front entrance with a huge box that weighed about as much as an obese child. Same size too, if you put the child in a cardboard box.

I managed to get it through the front door and up the first flight of stairs. Then, someone behind me asked if I'd like help. Retaining as much dignity as I could, I accepted his help and we both got it to the second floor with much less straining. I thanked him and he headed back downstairs. I must invite these neighbours over for food and drinks sometime.

Then I shoved the box into the flat and opened it up. Out came the instructions, which were confusing and mostly useless. I assembled the support frame until it fit, jerry-rigged some things, and put screwholes in the windowsill. Then I put down some protective cardboard and dragged the air-conditioner into its new home. I shoved some cloths into the cracks between the machine and the frame, cut a filler panel to fill the large gap at the top, and plugged the sucker in.

"Beep," it cried its first sound. I pushed the power button and off it went humming away. Ah, cool dry air. By now, I was sweating buckets and had completely dampened my handkerchief. So I just stood in front of the blast of cold, no doubt giving myself a chill, but enjoying the soothing relief. Timin noticed what was going on and climbed onto the bed, basking in the cool breeze. I've stood fans in the doorway to try to blow cool air into the rest of the place, but I think that I'll have to wait until morning before the kitchen has cooled down.

I was hoping to talk to call up some old friends in Toronto when I was there this weekend, but didn't get a chance to. I guess I'll have to do that some other time.

I do realise that I absolutely hate the train trip to and from Montréal and Toronto. There is always somebody ill there, so I've caught a cold when I arrive in Toronto, or it happens when I return to Montréal. This impending misery always nags me when I'm travelling, so it puts a damper on my desire to go places. I'll have to do something about this useless immune system of mine.

On Mother's Day, f_law made a reservation for us to eat out at Sushi on Bloor (515 Bloor Street W., Toronto, ON. 416-516-3456) where we ordered their lunch specials. The lunch combinations do not offer much variety, although they are good value. Thankfully, the fish was not frozen and the portions were quite generous.

After sushi, we hurried to Mountain Equipment Co-op where I bought shoes quicker than I've ever seen shoes bought before. We bundled my new purchases into my backpack, took the subway down to Union station, and got me on the train with minutes to spare. The trip back was rather uneventful though I did sleep fitfully. I was glad to get back to my apartment where Timin greeted me joyfully.

He ate some tinned salmon greedily and then nuzzled up to me to show his thanks.

Scratching an itch
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I spent three hours this morning doing sweeping, mopping, scrubbing and vacuuming. The NitiHouse is incredibly tidy now. I just hopped out of the shower and into my clothes when the doorbell rang. I hurried downstairs and let the landlady and some prospective renters in.

They seemed to be very nice people but I had trouble keeping up with their conversation in French. Mrs. Samimi took them around and then I added some comments about how I like the place. They seemed to be fairly pleased.

Damian and angorian haven't shown up yet, so I went outside to call Timin inside. This morning, I let him out to play in the backyard because I didn't want him to be spooked by the vacuum cleaner. Plus, he didn't shed on my nicely cleaned floors. He came running up the driveway at me and I got a chance to take some spuriously adorable photographs of him.

Posing at my door
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Oh! Now he's lounging in my doorway, in a perfect portrait pose. I think I'll do some glamour photography with him.

C'mon kitty.
—click—
Work it for me.
—click—
That's right.
—click—
Beautiful!
—click—
Very handsome.

In an attempt to overwhelm thebabynancy's self-portrait of amazing cuteness, I present to you some shockingly saccharine shots of Timin.

Eating
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Lying on the floor
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Out hunting
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

Timin looks outside
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I was sick today, so I spent most of my time lounging around at home. And by lounging, I really mean being unconscious in bed. I think Timin got a little upset that I was sleeping more than he was, because he kept on waking me up and trying to get me to watch him eat.

Eventually, I had to kick him out of my room. He's nice to sleep next to, but he sure is persistent when he wants something. Right now, he is sitting, very demurely I might add, next to the mouse in the hopes of some affection. I've trained him not to step on the keyboard or bat at the mouse, which causes me horrible grief when my window manager is set to sloppy-focus. He's being adorable, just like he was in the afternoon.

Timin tastes spring
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.

I keep on letting him outside in the day, because I think that makes him happy. He's sharpened his claws into tiny knives, which makes it painful whenever he tries to sit on me, or sleep on my stomach. I have yet to get it into his little head that clawing me makes me upset, but I try. All throughout his time here, I give yelps whenever he does it, as if I am hurt. I think he claws me less often than he used to, but sometimes he forgets and I have to toss him off.

However, those claws are formidable weapons and so I am sure he is glad to go outside and hunt again. It will only be a matter of time before he starts dragging wildlife into the house. I only hope that he doesn't go after things that are bigger than his head.

Does Timin love me?

He climbs into my lap, curls up and goes to sleep.

When I go to bed, he walks over to my pillow. Sometimes, we touch noses. Or if I'm petting him on the head, he reaches over and pats me. And sometimes he licks my hair clean.

Am I just anthropomorphising his behaviour?