Jamie comes to town; athletics day

Day started off quite chilly, but warmed up as it went along. Around 10, I got an email from Ottawacker Jr.’s school saying they might cancel school on Monday because of extreme heat. I almost choked on my coffee. Apparently, they are calling for up to 48°C on Monday. WTAF?
 
Spend the morning clearing up in preparation for the arrival of a friend, who was in Ottawa for a conference and had manage to tack on a couple of days extra at the end to come and visit. Had the usual panic-stricken moments when I realised the bed needed stripping in the basement, the bathroom needed cleaning, the floors needed vacuuming and the laundry need putting away. Then I drove out to Navan to get some meat for dinner, and to see whether the vegetable stand opposite had opened up yet. For once, I was lucky: it was its first day open. There was basically nobody else around, so I stocked up on lettuce and other sundry greens, getting an artisanal fruit pie and a massive punnet of strawberries to boot. Laden with four big bags of veg, I realised in the car that I had only paid $38 for it all. The pie was $11 and the strawberries $13. Farm Boy really does rip you off at every visit.
 
Back home, I did as much of the splitting of the meat into smaller bags for freezing as I could, leaving out the necessary pork chops, chicken legs and merguez that I would need to season for the evening’s dinner (Jamie is also partial to couscous, so that is a win-win for me!)
 
Managed to get an appointment for Tuesday with my surgeon, who will send me for the requisite x-rays and see whether I have indeed knackered the hip and broken my foot. I’m no longer on crutches, which is a good thing, but it still hurts quite a bit. Oh, woe is me.
 
At around 3:15pm, Mrs. Ottawacker and I got into the car and drove down to the Mooney’s Bay athletics facility for the city intermediate schools’ track meet. Ottawacker Jr. was in one of the last races of the day, the 200m. It was a lovely afternoon – but the kids had been outside in the sun since 9pm, and so were visibly wilting. He did very well in his race – finishing third – which was higher than I expected and much higher than he thought. Just doesn’t quit.
 
Drove him home, where Mrs. Ottawacker dropped me off en route to meet Jamie. Because of the scheduling constraints we had arranged to meet in the pub. That’s the only reason, honestly. I barrelled into O’Briens to see him ensconced in a booth drinking a pale ale. A couple of pints later, Mrs. Ottawacker came to pick us up and drove us home. There, we chatted, had a few drinks, and I cooked the couscous. The evening was spent in revelry of various forms. Ottawacker Jr. stayed up very late (past 10) and I crawled into bed at about 1.30, where I endured a series of rather loud tuts from Mrs. Ottawacker.