tomorrow, i am going to ottawa. i have no idea what i will be doing in ottawa, except leaving it on saturday to visit montreal. i will be returning to philly on monday.

why are you going to ottawa, borogoves? this... this is a very good question. basically, it boils down to me liking road trips, and liking karl (not necessarily in that order). he has to go to ottawa (well, he didn't originally have to go to ottawa, he could have gone to any city outside the US that had a US consolate or embassy) to renew his work visa. (recall: he's british) so i'm going with him. i wasn't going to, back when he was going to fly (because hello? i'm not going to PAY to go to ottawa), but then he was a dumbass and waited too long to buy a plane ticket and the price went from a reasonable $200 to an "oh no they di'int!" $900. so he was reduced to renting a car, at the still reasonable price of $220. so, since he's now driving, the trip is now free for me. so, i'm going. because i like karl and i like road trips.

we're staying with his friend k---- in ottawa. she's canadian, and works for the government, and met karl when they were both students at the university of manchester (england, england. across the atlantic sea!) she has a cat, so we can't bring the guinea pig. other than that, she sounds lovely.

we are leaving philly at 3pm, and hope to be in ottawa before midnight. karl will be doing all the driving, even though that's silly, because he didn't want to add $25 to the bill to add a second driver. he is concerned that his company, who is paying for the rental car, and agreed to the $220 price, would be less-than-pleased if the bill came back as $245. i tried to convince him that his company would not only not look twice at an extra $25 (dude, they don't even have to pay for hotel, since we're staying with k----), but the big boss who okayed the rental car price probably doesn't even remember the exact price that he agreed to. but he wouldn't be swayed, and then i thought BOROGOVES WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU ARE OFF THE HOOK WITH THE DRIVING! DON'T ARGUE, THIS IS GOOD! so now i get to spend the ride fiddling with the stereo and lying back with my feet on the dashboard, possibly painting my toenails, a la that scene in boys on the side.

in completely unrelated news, have i told you about the 3 siblings that came into karl's brother's wife's office (she's a social worker) as foster children? their last name is/was Allah. their first names are, get this, O'Master, Almighty, and Miracle. luckily, they're all very young (O'Master is only 3), so it won't be psychologically devastating when their names get changed.