I get to vote

for the Prime Minister. Well, probably against him, as I'm not a fan of his.

Why is this exciting for me, you ask? Why is this different from any of the other federal elections I've voted in in the last 10 years? Because, for the first (and possibly only) time in my life, I live in the current PM's riding. For those not familiar with the Canadian federal government , we don't vote directly for the PM, or even for a party. The whole country's divided into political ridings. In each riding, you vote for the candidate you like best, fielded by various political parties; the usual choices are Conservative, Liberal, or New Democratic, with the occasional regional specialty like the Green Party or the Bloc Quebecois or the Marijuana Party. Whichever wins the most ridings, has the most members of parliament, and gets to have their party leader (who is also a member of parliament, at least if they're worth their salt) to be the Prime Minister. So, while i've voted in many federal elections (okay, three or four) this time I just happen to live in the current PM, Stephen Harper,'s riding. So for the first time I will actually get to vote for (or against) the actual PM! His name will be on my ballot!

I won't vote for him, and of course he'll win by a landslide because a) he's Conservative and b) the party leader always wins in their riding... they'd be awfully embarrassed if they didn't. Alberta wants to be Texas and Calgary wants to be Dallas (or that's my impression, based entirely on mass media... I've never been to Texas). Cowboy hats, ranches, oil money, oversize trucks (with testicles). There was a provincial election just after we moved here which was also won by the provincial Conservatives, by a landslide, which I didn't vote in... but this time, I'm going to cast my little, useless protest vote! Because I can! and just to get to see Stephen Harper's name on the ballot...

Well, it makes me happy, anyway.

I have house envy.

I am reaching That Age. 30 is looming. Many of my friends have Careers, and many are buying houses.

I want one.

I want a home that's mine---that I can paint any damn colour I want, put up any damn lightfixture I want, and FIX the things which are crummy because it's MINE and it's worth it.

I want somewhere with a front door and a backdoor, and upstairs and a basement. I want a little yard, just enough for the girls to run around in and Robin to have a fish-pond in. I want a patio to put a barbeque on. I want somewhere where I can have my cats, and maybe eventually a dog. I want somewhere we'll stay, not just for a year, or two, but five or ten or forever. I want to not have to put my kids into a new school every other year. I want to decorate. I might even want to renovate, altough Robin doesn't. I don't care if it's small or old or slightly shabby. It would be mine.

More complications...

I just realized (which shows how much I've been paying attention) that my "paycheque" (actually scholarship money, yay) has been about $400 short every month for the past three months. No wonder we've been coming up short all summer (why the hell didn't I catch this sooner?).

What seems to have happened (based on my own calculations) is that since I accepted the award starting in May, they gave me a reduced amount---for only eight months, until the end of the year. But the idjits at the university who pay it out then divided that reduced amount by 12, rather than eight, and have been giving me 12ths each month rather than 8ths. AAARgh!

And double argh that it took me three months to notice this... I just thought we were doing too much travelling.

Now, if they make good and pay me the back-money, that'd be sweet. But if it turns out I'm screwed... I'm gonna be pissed.

Oh crap.

We're moving.

In a week.

I found out about this... a week ago.

AAAAAARGH!

But, we got in to Student Family Housing, which means that if I can pull it off we'll be saving almost $500 a month in rent and I'll no longer have a 3 hour daily commute. The downside is living under the student housing nazis (who sound even worse, if possible, than the condo nazis I'm currently living under). Though I think we can maybe actually have real Christmas trees, which would make up for any number of iniquities. It will also be nice to live in a townhouse facing onto a little, grassed courtyard, rather than a fourth-floor apartment.

But I have no idea how I'm going to get myself through the next two weeks...

The thing that bothers me most...

About all the moves I've made in the last eight years or so, is losing my books.

Not all of them, by any means, my two big bookshelves are still lined double-deep and full to overflowing...

But enough. All my Witchworld books are gone. And I had most of that series---the major parts, anyway. I really liked the Crystal Gryphon ones. And I keep going to look for Discworld books and not finding them. I'm fairly sure I've owned them, some even in hardcover (how do you lose hardcovers, dammit?), but they're JUST NOT THERE. Dammit.

Of course it couldn't be the Mercedes Lackey or Anne McCaffery books, that I'm unlikely to re-read, that disappear. No, those ones seem to stick around. Not that that's a bad thing... the Anne McCafferies in particular I mostly stole, um, liberated, um, inherited from my father's collection, and I'd feel bad for losing them. I feel bad enough for reading half of those old paperbacks to tatters back when I was 12. I know at least one or two of the Discworlds are at my mom's, but there's more missing than I can account for. And there should be several Patricia C. Wrede books, too, now I think about it, that I don't think I've seen in half a decade or so.

What gets me the most is HOW do these things disappear? I mean, you move into a place, the stuff is there, you move out, you box EVERYTHING up, you do a last go over and you haven't left anything, the truck goes straight to the new place and all the boxes come out... yet still stuff disappears. /sigh.

But just misssing from the Discworld alone...
Hmm, I think one ex-roommate might still have the three-volume hardcover with Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic, and, was it Sourcery? in it. My mom still has Mort, somewhere or other. She might conceivably have Soul Music, as well. Wyrd Sisters I should have in hardcover, and it's missing. Guards! Guards!, a ratty old ex-public-library paperback, is missing. Small Gods is missing, again in hardcover, as is Witches Abroad. Others... well, I'm a little hazier on whether I should actually own them or had just borrowed them from a library. Definitely books I SHOULD own. The whole damn series is one I can read over, and over, and over again, and my kids are almost old enough I could even start reading it to them...

Yeah, just what I need... more books.

Vienna

is hot so far, which makes for crabby tourists. On the other hand, we caught the local Pride Parade, which was fun (in particular, two carriages drawn by people done up for pony-play, and a fair selection of goths). The hotel is a dorm, and so fairly abominable, especially after the last hotel, which was a 400-year-old Jesuit monastery... not overly lavish, but a helluva lot nicer. The dorm has internet, however, and a tub (though my room lacks a plug for the tub).

So far I'm not liking Vienna as much as I liked Prague, though I'm not quite sure why (cobbled streets, fabulous architecture, lots of statues). Vienna seems a little fancier, maybe?

I think mostly I'm just about ready to be home. Not that Europe hasn't been fabulous---I totally enjoyed the Czech Republic, especially the conference---but home would be nice. I miss my Robin. I miss my girls, and they won't even be home when I get there, which is going to rip me up but at least I'll be able to call them a little more easily.

Getting ready

to leave the Czech Republic; tomorrow we take the train to Vienna. Had a great time this week at the conference---about 30 people, so very close, and I found tetrapods on the field trip today, so I'm a happy palaeontologist. Though if I spend too much time in Europe I could definitely regret not going the archaeology route... but anyway.

When I get home I will have a million photos (Ok, 600 right now, but there's still Vienna!) I love large memory cards :). Alrighty, gotta go, but I will get a more sensible account one of these days.

I was doing all right for the homesickness until I got a facebook message from Domini tonight... that made me cry. Dammit! I miss my kids. And my Robin. A lot.

A few words from the old country

Prague:

lots of graffiti
nice buildings
ugly buildings
overgrown gardens
did I mention lots of graffiti?
low-flush toilets (that actually work just fine)
small doors.

The museum repository where we're working used to be the winter home of a circus. You can get an awesome meal at the nearest pub for 50 crowns (divide by about 14 to get the dollar price) or the same meal at a tourist trap downtown for almost 400. A lot of dumplings. A lot of stew/goulash/meat-in-sauce dishes. Nummy. A lot of beer (I'm told it's very good; can't comment myself).

Some truly beautiful buildings; my favourites are the ones that are run down. The better kept up ones all have candy-coloured stucco. Lots of tile rooves, which are very pretty.

It's thundering out right now but it was nice and hot up until now. I forgot and left my hotel room windows open today, so it's rather wet in there. The beds are hard but the pillows are huge and fluffy. I seem to have mostly overcome my jetlag.

Ok, gotta run, more later :) PIcs will have to wait until I get home, though.

Holy cow

Well, I'm in Prague.

I wasn't smart enough to sleep on the plane last night (I had a good book) so I'm so dizzy tired I can barely stand up, let alone think straight. Happy Canada Day everyone! Um, pictures when I have a chance to take some that aren't from a moving taxi. I'm hoping that pulling the equivalent of an all-nighter will allow me to snap into Czech time (it's 10:20 am at home and 6:20 pm here as I write this) fairly quickly. Anyway, so far so good... got on planes, passport worked, luggage arrived. Talk to you later!