Ahhh. The weekend is nearly upon us. Although more school deadlines are approaching and I have to hit the books again, at least it's my own time on my terms. And in my pajamas.

I have been rediscovering the joy of staying at home and cooking a nice full meal, complete with dessert. Normally I love eating out; there is so much good food of all varieties out there, stuff that I'm not that great at making, like Vietnamese and Thai food for example. But I noticed recently that, probably in consequence of my 'three homes': Mom and Dad's, Manon's and Chris', the novelty is wearing off. I shuttle between these locations many times during the week, so it's hard for me to find the time and ingredients to make stuff. But right now I don't feel like eating an unknown chef's food, being served by an unknown waiter, while sitting in a place that doesn't feel like home. So this week, I decided to try and slowly change that. I started by making a nice meal at Chris' this week: Mustard Chili Salmon, with salad, baguette, camembert and havarti cheese, and a strawberry-rhubard pie (my current craving). The salmon fillets were a success, if I may allow myself to say so. It's a simple recipe and it tastes wonderful. I will post the recipe here this weekend for those who might be interested. Apart from that, I slacked off a bit and made a taco supper for Chris and I last night. Chris made kick-ass guacamole and bought beer to accompany everything, and we stuffed ourselves quite happily.

After supper Chris drew a bath for me, which was quite sweet. He had scrubbed the tub clean before I arrived for supper. This brought some temporary relief for my back - I wiped out again and fell down Chris' front steps early this week after all that hail and ice. Apparently my fall was quite spectacular, after which I fell directly on my lower back on the corner of the concrete steps. Ouch. If this continues I may develop an irrational fear of stairs. Actually, at this point it may be getting rational. It has been nearly a year exactly since I fell down a flight of stairs at a Christmas party last year. Everyone thought I must've been drunk to go flying like that, but in reality I stepped on someone's scarf that was left carelessly at the top of the already slippery stairs. I never bothered to tell the people at the party about the scarf; mainly because I didn't give a shit about these people and that's why I had decided to leave, but probably also because they wouldn't have believed me anyway. I ended up fracturing my tailbone and walking around like an old mémère for over a month... Sometimes I really feel like my body is starting to fall apart at the seams!

My weekend, as mentioned earlier, will revolve mainly around my studies and essay writing. However I will have a break on Saturday evening when I attend Chris' work Christmas party at a restaurant. Of course, he only announced yesterday that it's going to be a supremely cheesy affair - a murder mystery affair, to be exact. Man. I suppose it could be fun, but admittedly my initial reaction was a mix between a groan and a snicker. I don't know, I don't usually like hokey things like that. But I will of course make an effort to prevent my facial expressions from betraying my skepticism. Besides, it will be fun to accompany Chris and to meet the people I keep hearing about. I also get to see Chris dressed up in a spiffy outfit! In the end it was very cute of him to ask me to join him, and I'm looking forward to the change of pace.

Mark is also back from Halifax as of yesterday. Manon's best friend is in town and that makes me quite happy! I am also looking forward to seeing him and catching up on stuff. Manon is buying a Christmas tree and she and Mark will decorate it this weekend. I hope to be able to help out a bit if I can find a few hours to spare.

Christmas is slowly creeping back into my spirit and making me excited about the holidays. I'm looking forward to the time off, to spending time with my family, to seeing my parenté for the réveillon on Christmas eve, to making a big brunch on Christmas day, to eating good food, to spending more time with friends, to sleeping, etc.

My stomach is rumbling and I have a piece of pie in my backpack. I believe that's a pretty good reason to end this here for now!