Never heard of it, actually, but Zip sent it to me (I don't even remember zipping it) and I really enjoyed it. Halle Berry is muted and kind of cold and hard throughout much of the film but strong, Benecio del Torro is fantastic as a heroin addict trying to get his life back on track. About loss, redemption, and recovery. The story chronicles a woman who loses her husband (David Duchovny) and tries to help her husband's best friend who she finds in a dumpy drug infested rathole in suburban Seattle.
for Christmas!!
A few weeks ago, I was a friend's house who had made this really good soup. She roughly outlined the recipe and a few days later, I tried it. It was great! Then yesterday, I was at lunch with some colleagues and mentioned the recipe and how easy and delicious it was. Today, when I popped into the office, two different people told me they had gone home and made the soup. Then they had brought some and shared it with the office. Everyone was raving about it.
Busy days! Been wrapping up two semesters, finishing up a big project and Thursday I start working at that new Quebec company. But after Friday, the next two weeks should be smooth sailing. Looking forward to it. All I have to do is work a bit, write a book review, and watch some movies.
This made me smile.
OK. Bad pictures (our digital camera broke a while back so we only have the iPhone camera), but this gives an idea of some progress our kitchen is making.
Union jobs: what a waste!
I have mixed feelings about unions. On the one hand, when workers were/are truly exploited, they save lives and prevent suffering. We wouldn't be where we are as a society (vacation time, five day work weeks, maternity leave options) without unions and all the work they have done in the past.
On the other hand, when one lives in a developed country, they spoil people rotten. They can make people lazy. And selfish. And unproductive. They take the competition out of many fields, I think.
Case in point: this college I work for. I have to come in today, bill for seven hours, though I have less than 40 minutes of actual work today. I mean, I can find SOMETHING to do, but since everyone's job title is very specific and clear, the union I belong to has very clear rules about what can and can't be done in the position I have. God forbid I accidentally do part of someone else's job.
So I surf the internet, read books for fun, write emails, text, make phone calls and annoy people I know (who wants to chat on the phone in the middle of the day on a Monday?). And get paid for it!
Basically, I was told that since they have this position budgeted until the middle of this month, I need to keep coming in, even if there are no students.
I'm not complaining. But it sure is a waste. Somehow doing work for another company (which I could easily do today) feels like crossing a line (and I'm sure it violates the union rules somehow anyway), so I don't dare do that.
So I write a blog post instead.
OK so we're having our first party tomorrow night. It kind of happened by accident: a good friend of ours is headed back to Tokyo for the holidays and will miss another mutual friend's Christmas party in two weeks, so I said "Oh, we should have a party for you before you go" and suddenly, that's what was happening. Then she invited some other mutual friends and I invited a couple of people and now it's a party. It's not dinner (we have no dining room table yet) but we're going to get some snacks, get a Christmas tree and some wine, and just decorate our tree, drink, snack and hang out. Should be fun, but I have to admit that I'm a little nervous. Our house is FAR from done but it's definitely coming along. We haven't ever had more than two people over to our place, even in our old place. So it will be a new experience.
This story shocked me.
So we finalized all of M's paperwork: now's he got his healthcare card on its way (thanks, Quebec), a Social Insurance Number, etc etc. We expected to stand in lines all day today but it actually went pretty fast and painlessly.
