A shopping spree, houshold projects, and a death.

Okay, so been a while. I had to play a lot of catch-up at work after the Denver trip. In the meantime, spring finally showed up, the Avs got their asses handed to them by the Redwings, The new season of Doctor Who started, and a new Portishead album came out. One of these things is very good.
So this week-end, we took Jackson on a shopping spree. He shot up a few inches over the last two months, and everything he owned magically didn't fit any more. So we went to the Mall, and to Target, and made him try on a bunch of stuff, when he just wanted to look at the toys. It took all day, but I think we have sufficiently clothed him for the remainder of the summer. He got a Hunk and and Iron man shirt, so that's cool. I'm glad I'm allowed to pick things out every so often. ( I bought him his first comic book while in Denver, a Spider-Man one-off meant for a younger age group. I read it three times on the plane ride home.)
We also attended a graduation party for our friend Craig. It took him 6 years and three schools, but he finally did it. He got a degree in History, which he will now use to be a Carpenter. Go, Craig!
Sunday, we did a whole mess of projects around the house that have been building up since we moved in. We painted the living room, replaced the sink sprayer which was leaking, fixed the bedroom toilet, which had broken in the dead of night about two weeks ago, causing it to refill loudly, and take forever when it did. I also put up some shelves in the living room, which still need to be stained, and I fixed the two holes on our fence that we obtained during the last big storm. It is actually, technically our neighbor's fence. I would have just waited for him to fix it, but he's in a rental, so he doesn't give a shit. But since the dog from two houses down was getting into our yard through various holes in fences and picking fights with our dogs, I decided to just hop the fence and repair the holes with whatever that guy had lying around.
Also on Sunday, my ex-step dad David died. For those of you who know me well, you know that he was the reason I moved out when I was 15, and the source of most of my bad self-esteem and neurotic behaviour. I am having a hard time trying to figure out how I feel about that. He had been sick for quite some time. A fact that I was unaware of until my mom told me while I was in Denver. And now he's dead. I don't know if I really needed to talk to him about anything, or if going to the funeral will bring me any kind of closure. I'm pretty sure I made my peace with all that a long time ago. What I do know is that there is some sort of emotion there, I just can't lock it down. For good or ill, and even though I haven't had any contact with him for 17 years, he had a strong impact on my life. The funeral is on Friday, and I don't know if I'll go yet.
Okay, Debbie Downer. Lay off.

Everybody have a good week!

-JP