(Post 144 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

Today, I let myself pretend that life was normal, that it hadn’t had a nearly two-year pause, and that we are very much likely to end up in an Omicron lockdown after the holidays: I treated myself to a fancy lunch at an indoor restaurant, followed by a viewing at the cinema of Spider-Man: No Way Home. I realized with the much anticipated Black Widow movie, which I saw as a rental at home on a streaming service, that movies like these need to be seen at the theatre, where I’m forced to put on Do Not Disturb mode and let go of the real world for a few hours.

The posh cinema with recliners walking distance from my house is closed, so I chose to go to Galerías, which has an excellent sushi restaurant. I bought my ticket ahead of time, so I was able to pick a time when the theatre would be nearly empty (mid Saturday afternoon!) and also the seat I wanted.

At Sushi Roll, I sat in the same booth as I did last time, so many months ago, and there was a clue that time had sprung forward — the menu was accessible through a QR code. This technology makes sense — no worry about sanitizing a pile of menus — but when the server is slow, it’s a bit of a pain.

I decided to treat myself to a cocktail, choosing this mezcal and sake concoction with passion fruit and ancho chili, a sweet, spicy, and flavoursome choice. I was impressed that it looked exactly like the picture.

Lunch was my usual for Sushi Roll —- an eel roll with a piece of octopus nigiri. All delicious!

Some foods just taste better at the restaurant than at home…

There were only perhaps five or six of us spread out in the theatre, so I was really able to enjoy the movie without worrying about being in too close proximity to strangers. I’m not going to say anything about the movie!

I thought to maybe do some shopping after, but the crowds were a bit thick for my taste, so I headed home to a doggo who was very happy to see me.

Playing pretend today was a lot of fun. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it again for Dr. Strange 2!

(Post 143 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

I’m so happy with how this paint job turned out. You’ll have to take my word for it that it is not nearly as garish as the iPhone camera is making it out to be! I’m also thrilled with the amount of warranty work that was done on the exterior. The crew was fantastic, same folks as in March, so I never had a moment of worry that I’d be happy when they left.

I was going to do a huge chunk of this work myself or have my once-a-month maintenance guy tackled it bit by bit. I’m glad I just paid for a professional crew. They repaired all the plaster, something I wouldn’t have been able to do so well, and they got everything done in two and a half days with no disruption to my routine.

Now, to figure out “something” for the floors to get me through to when I redo them properly!

(Post 142 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

(Post 141 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

(Post 140 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)

I’m working on a post explaining what is going on with work and why my schedule has been in such upheaval this year. In the meantime, this video is about some warranty work that will be done on the exterior painting and some painting I’m having done inside at the same time. I’m really pleased with the painter’s professionalism. He told me in March, “Call me after the rainy season if you have any peeling and I’ll fix it at no charge.” So that’s what I did and what he’s doing, despite “some peeling” meaning having to touch up several complete walls. I remain thrilled with what a great list of handy people I have in my contacts.

A friend bought a house recently and asked if I could help him get a mover, ideally for the next day. Tall order? I called my favourite flete guy who helped me with the Poang chair to see if he might have a real moving truck, not just his little pickup, and some availability in the next few days Yep. He had my friend moved by midday the next day at a reasonable price! That made me feel like a magician!

Once the professional painting is all done, I have a looooong list of projects I am going to tackle myself! I think I’m done mourning all the tools I left behind in Canada and am ready to set up a workshop here!