Seven Quick Takes Friday

Special welcome to Company Girls! Pull up a chair...how do you like your coffee?

--1--

Michael is home sick with a cold today.  It had been threatening for the past few days, but I thought he'd fought it off.  He's in Grade 9, and today is his "light day" (Art, Music, Gym. and French) so he's not missing much. And then he'll have the weekend to recover.  I"m heading over to babysit two of my niblings midday, but he'll be fine on his own for a few hours.

--2--

I've been helping my brother organize his office and systems in his new job as director of an institute at the university.  Yesterday, we met with the finance guy to go over the budget for next year and got some ideas on setting up his books.  The budget categories we came up with are fine, and so we can go ahead and prepare for the new fiscal year.  We also made decisions about some new office furniture...we popped down to King East to see some pieces in person and pick out colours.   We still need some chairs for his conference table, and a couple of small (read, tiny) end tables.  It would be great to find some used office furniture.  We also got some boxes of books and journals unpacked, so the office is starting to take shape.  He has an advisory board meeting in a couple of weeks that he would like to be able to host in his office, so it would be great to have the chairs by then.

--3--

I feel like I'm going through culture withdrawal!  We had so much stuff on in February, and nothing on the books this weekend.  I'd really like to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D, so I'm hoping Z and I will pop down to the Scotiabank Paramount on Saturday to catch that.  There is an open house at Regis College tomorrow, where my brother works, and he's doing a talk that I'd like to catch.  Maybe I'll meet Z in the afternoon for the movie.

--4--

I've been fooling around with foursquare, a new social-networking app that's about finding new ways to explore the city.  It integrates with twitter and facebook, and has some game attributes as well, awarding points and badges for doing stuff in the city, as well as the crown of "mayor" for being the most frequent visitor to certain spots.  I'd like to get connected with some friends in the city to try this out with, so if you're interested and have a smartphone, install the app and try it out.  

--5--

My favorite blog post (of my own) recently was this one on minimalism and focus.  I'm still thinking this through, and trying to work on implementing it in real life, but it has a lot of potential for me in terms of attaining some of my goals for myself and my family. It came out of reading this post by Everett Bogue....his stuff is really thought-provoking and I have been meditating on it regularly.

--6--

Apart from a half hour lapse last Sunday when we popped into a bar after the opera to watch the end of the gold-medal hockey game, I haven't watched any television since the beginning of Lent.  And I'm not really missing it for the most part.  I've been getting lots of reading done, as well as paperwork and more time to rest and just be with people.  That being said, I **will** be catching up on Lost after Easter! Probably the best thing is that Z doesn't turn the TV on when we're getting ready for bed and then leave it on 'til he falls asleep (while I"m trying to read).  I know that we should probably just ditch the TV from our room, but until both boys are gone, I need a sanctuary where I can watch something in peace.  Not to mention folding and ironing clothes.  Those two activities are suffering during my TV fast.

--7--

Further to my post on friend-of-the-show's Rob Teehan's Juno nomination, check out this photo from Urbanology Magazine!

That's him on the sousaphone, backing Saidah Baba Talibah in her SolRawkestra!

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Th-th-that's all, folks!

Check out other Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!