We've been cleaning,  painting, vacuuming, shampooing the carpet, and fixing lots of dents, and cleaning some more the downstairs suite. Tenants suck. Amazingly filthy. And they break things without informing you. But what can you do if you want the extra income. I hope our next tenants will be decent. They're arriving from China in about 5 days. They better not smoke inside our house. And I hope all they'll understand is Mandarin, not Cantonese. I don't enjoy having tenants eavesdropping on our conversations (or more like hearing my parents berate me loudly for hours on end). During the process of preparing the suite, I was reminded of how different my dad's personality is to mine. He doesn't like to think too much about things; he just does them. And sometimes he makes mistakes in his haste. Like how he just went out to buy bone white paint just because it was the only colour he knew to say, even though it didn't match the colour on the walls before. And how he got latex instead of semi-gloss paint. And how he told me to just cover the electrical sockets with tape instead of unscrewing the lids before painting. He doesn't really do all things properly and well, but at least he does a lot. Me, I don't get too much accomplished because I like to think things over first - oftentimes I think too much.

*~*

Yeah, of course we've been paying attention to what happened with the US downing a Chinese jet. The US said they did nothing wrong? They were spying and eavesdropping on the Chinese. That's why they were in that part of the world. So of course, China had to temporarily seize the US plane in order to find out what secrets the US had gleaned first. I never believed for an instant that the Chinese government would harm those 24 Americans in any way. The US govt was just full of shit.

*~*

Partly inspired by the transit strike, I pulled out my old 10-speed bike from beneath lots of junk. I had ridden it once about 2.5 years ago. But prior to that it might have been even 10 years ago. So, not surprisingly, the bike's not in good shape. I kept pumping the rear tire for what seemed like half an hour to no avail. Plus, the brake pads seem to be rubbing the wheels even when the brakes aren't applied. This means I have to pedal harder than others. 

So what's been happening in the last while...

I went to get fingerprinted at the RCMP station yesterday. Apparently the RCMP headquarters in Ottawa ran my name during a criminal record check, as part of my enhanced reliability clearance for employment with the federal government, and there were several other people with the same name as me. Therefore, I had to submit 2 copies of my fingerprints for positive identification purposes. I don't understand why they can't differentiate me from the others since they already know personal info about me such as my birth date and social insurance number. 

I had expected there to be an ink pad for me to place my finger tips on. Don't they use ink pads on those TV cop shows? However, at the station the guy instead used these thin sheets of papers with ink on them. After the sheets are used once by someone, they're thrown away. Not only did the guy take prints of all of my digits separately, he also took prints of all of my digits together in order to verify that I'm not missing any digits. I've already sent the copies of my fingerprints back to the Vancouver office of where I'm going to work (whenever that is) and they'll send them on to the RCMP in Ottawa. It sort of feels like I'm signing away any future opportunities to commit crimes. Darn =)

*~*~*

I didn't go to basketball last week because my parents were lecturing me and I ended up crying and I was late anyway so I just wasn't in the mood to go, yada yada yada.

I went last night though, and it was lots of fun. I even scored more baskets than I probably did throughout my 2 years of playing during high school matches  (oh, but if you only knew how few I had scored). I had forgotten how exhausting playing b-ball is. After probably 15-20 minutes, I needed to take a major break. There were only about 6 of us and we were playing full court. I may play v-ball and do contemporary dance, but you don't really need to be in as good shape for those activities. While gasping for air during my b-ball breaks, it felt like there was blood coming from my lungs or something. I've never been fit aerobically, so I'm gonna have to start jogging again (I'm so dead considering that I haven't jogged in weeks and the Sun Run's coming up in 11 days!) in order to get in shape for b-ball. I hope there'll be more people who'll show up next time. What with the fact that there's an ongoing bus strike and that some of the women will start their other b-ball league on Tuesdays this season, I'm not sure if anyone will turn up next week. I guess I'll just shoot baskets by myself then if I'm the only one who shows up. Fun...not.

*~*~

The contemporary dance class is wonderful and fun. Even better than the modern dance class I took elsewhere last season. We do so many different things each class. We got to improvise a bit tonight and that's always good because we got to exercise our creative souls. And it's a bit of a workout too. Not as much as b-ball, but I'll have a lithe, limber body in no time (not that I'm fat or anything). Tonight's workout, combined with b-ball yesterday has made my quads really sore. I'm already having trouble walking down the stairs. Have I mentioned already that I have no idea how I'm going to beat last year's time in the Sun Run? Last year's time was not wonderful either, about 1 hour 24 (excluding the 10 minutes it took just to get to the start line from where I actually started).

After class tonight, I passed this other room and they were having square dancing for gay men. There's supposed to be an international convention for gay square dancing here for the next few days. Can you imagine this happening in the Deep South of the US of A?

*~*

Next week, I'm going to play v-ball over at that other place (if it's open on Easter Monday, that is). See, I can't dive into too many new experiences (well, new places and new people) all at once. Last week, I went to the contemporary dance class. I waited til this week to start up basketball. And next week, maybe I'll also play v-ball.

At any rate, on Sunday a group of us are gonna play beach v-ball and then have Easter Sunday dinner together, though I'm not sure that any of us are even religious. Hope it's not potluck. I don't know how to cook and I don't enjoy having people judge me on my cooking skills. I'd rather bring pop or vegetables or some other ingredients and that's it. 

*~*

Still have to do my taxes. My brother said that they'd like to claim me as a paid babysitter, as part of their childcare expenses in order to help with their tax deductions. I said, "Show me the money!" 

They just spent $1200 on a video camera purchase. If they invested that money on increasing what they're willing to pay a nanny, I'm sure there would be more takers. A Filipino woman showed up last week. Unfortunately, the sis-in-law worked her 12 hours that day. This Filipino woman, who had already become a landed immigrant and had successfully brought her husband over to Canada, not surprisingly didn't show up to work again.

*~*

Oh yeah, my uncle. He doesn't consider using lawyers as only the absolute last resort. Dangerous way of thinking. Remember: lawyers are not your best friends. In fact, they'll more likely want to socialize with your opponent's lawyer than with you.  They are antagonistic leeches who try to suck your money dry. Mediation is not their middle name. Neither is peace-making. Stay away from these people with all your might.

*~*

More Chinese stowaways have been caught on a ship headed to Vancouver. The media have been using the term 'human cargo' often. That term seems a tad demeaning. People are not cargo; they are people. Adding the word 'human' in front of the word 'cargo' does not dignify the term.

*~*

Oprah's thought of the day: What would you be doing right now if you were not afraid of what people thought of you?