Had a nice, relaxing weekend with my wife and cat. We finished our spring cleaning, raking all the leaves in our yard and the boulevard (we have a corner lot, so this was quite a bit of work), cleaning off the front and back deck, putting up my snazzy new wasp killer (basically it’s a glass jar with a hole in the bottom that traps wasps since they can’t fly down, apparently), and got the barbecue ready for its maiden voyage of the season.
Friday night we had friends over. Many margaritas and daiquiris were consumed, we watched Orgazmo, and then we played SingStar, which I suck at. Saturday we went out for breakfast, then to the Lakefield butcher for some meat, and spent the rest of the day lazing around on the back deck. We got Thor a harness and lead that lets him run around the back yard. He really digs it. Here’s a picture:

Later that night I ended up going over to my neighbour’s for beer (he has Alexander Keiths on tap!), many tall glasses were ingested, and Kathryn actually came over to join us. We both got pretty ripped, then stumbled home and watched Predator. I have to add that watching Predator when you’re drunk, with all the weird alien growls and tracking-laser sounds, is pretty freakin’ weird. I don’t recommend it.
Speaking of Predator, Kat and I also watched Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem which wasn’t very good at all, certainly not as good as the first one, which wasn’t very good either, especially when compared to either of the franchises from which it came. AVPR was particularly bad, though. Dumb characters, horrible dialogue, and all the action scenes were so dark you couldn’t tell what was going on. My favourite part was when the female army character, whom I called G.I. Jane, watches her husband get snacked on by an alien, and then about ten minutes later she’s shamelessly flirting with another character as if they were on a first date. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
As I was saying, we had our first barbecues of the season. Saturday night I made a nice ribeye steak for myself, a spicy buffalo chicken kabob for Kat, and tonight we splurged and got a nice big pork tenderloin stuffed with apples and other goodness. I barbecued while Kat made roasted sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar.

And to top off the weekend, I received an e-mail from Dark Recesses, one of the Canadian markets I’ve been trying to crack, saying that my story “Gone” has been short-listed for possible publication, and that I should get a final answer soon. It’s not an acceptance, and I’m not getting my hopes up, but it’s still nice to hear, just the same.
- Currently reading: Eleanor Rigby, by Douglas Coupland