Mops and Brooms and Buckets and Star-Anise Braised Pork

I have realized why I don'tenjoy cleaning particularly, or why I put it off for so long.

It's because I turn it into an all day project. I don't do any of the half-assed vacuum the floor or clear the table. I move the furnitur and mop behind the fridge, scrub down my shower and clean out the drains, air out my futons and vacuum the tatami... Everything but the windows. 450 square feet of windows are a lot of windows. I did wash the mirrors and my shower doors though!

So I spent all day Saturday cleaning my apartment in preparation for Sunday when Sarah was going to be coming over for dinner and books, CDs, DVDs and conversation. Happy times were had -- an excellent guest as she immediately started helping me clean up. She frowned and made faces at being asked to chopp but seems compulsively enthusiastic about the cleaning. Much better than most guests (except Corinne and Sophie, as they also helped clean up).

Dinner was Chinese, quasi-dim-sum, but with only 3 dishes to choose from, so maybe it doesn't count. Desert was a no-go as we were too stuffed from the stuffed eggplants, the aforementioned pork, and the tofu and mushroom stir-fry. Not to mention the pitchers full of cocktails that accompany every good chef.

I imposed Canadian-ness on Sarah, even getting her to succumb to taking a test to find out if she would qualify (a test that involved questions like:
If you have ever curled, 1 point.
If you were the skip, 10 points.
If you remember where you were when Ben got caught, 1 point.
If you remember what you were doing when Wayne got traded, 1 point.
If you didn't need any last names for those question, 10 points. )

I received in trade season 4 of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, as well as a couple of books, while Sarah walked off with several different TV series, books, and CDs; more media than she knew what to do with.

All in all, mellow and good. Looking forward to the next one.