the weekend...

More productivity! We have yet to finish the bathroom but we are well on our way. The purple rec room of the rock band photos from last weekend is now a healthy Oatmeal (colour) - the same as upstairs. We had one can left over and managed to squeeze the last drops and make it last for two coats. The trim is on and all is done - but no pictures for you! The bathroom door and trim and odds and ends are all over the room, so as soon as that's cleaned up I'll post some pics. We are dealing with some interesting-ness from the bathroom. After taking down fixtures and taking out the countertop and mirror (and brass shower sliders) we were left with remnants of previous wall paperings and such:

These are finally gone... ick and ick.

Flowery wallpaper bordered by purple dreaminess reflected off of a brass shower stall? Who orchestrated that?

A different wallpaper, less than three feet away. Sooooo pretty.

So, getting the bathroom done is on the agenda for the week and that just might conclude The Indoor Renovation Series of 2008. Pictures to come.

We had a good but low-key weekend and luckily didn't have to buy any gas: the price went up here by more than 15 cents on Friday (to $1.48... ridiculous). Though I'm aware that attempts to understand how pricing works are futile, I can't help it. Even though crude oil prices have come down more than $45 since July (per barrel: July 11th, $147.27; September 11th, $100.87), prices per litre have fluctuated and significantly increased. You'd think that with a 30% decrease in the price of a barrel of oil, the pump price wouldn't remain stable - shouldn't it decrease? Get this: For every one-cent rise in the price of gasoline, the industry in here in Canada reaps an extra $1 million every day in profits. Wowsa. And, according to an article in the Winnipeg Free Press, the industry has also "cleverly orchestrated"the closing of refineries in Canada and the US because of the threat posed by natural disasters... and then raised the price. Er, isn't there some sort of a regulatory body to control this? No? Though I'm aware that the environment doesn't benefit from lower gas prices, who benefits from the higher ones? Exxon-Mobil made over $40 billion last year, which translates to $4.6 million per hour. Right. Until we (that means they) can come up with some sort of system that reduces our dependence on oil (uh-huh) they can keep on gouging us. Wait, they will keep on gouging. Oil Watchdog, an internet-arm of Consumer Watchdog, looks like a good place to browse for information - but I should be studying. In Russia I took a geography course and, what feels like a year later, this Friday I'm finally taking the exam. So, it's cram time, since the books have been collecting dust. Oops.