I thought I’d feel guilty about being on holiday while other people on my team – clients and IBMers in the US – are working, but it’s been a weekend well spent, and the Civic Day holiday will be a much-welcome transition period (plus a chance for more awesomeness).

In addition to taking care of our usual chores, we spent Saturday volunteering at Free Geek Toronto. The idea behind Free Geek Toronto is simple: help people learn computer skills and reduce electronic waste by refurbishing or recycling old computers, which can then be sold at a low cost or donated. They really need people to teach classes on how to build computers, so W- and I will start a series of classes next week.

Sunday was a kitchen sort of day. We took the pots and food containers out of the cabinets, separating them into keep-donate-repurpose piles. We reorganized the salad fixings and the spices. We emptied the chest freezer and the fridge freezer, separating different kinds of items using cloth and plastic bags: vegetables in the green bag, meat in the red, and so on. Then a big batch of cooking: two roast chickens stuffed with couscous for lunches throughout the next few weeks, stir-fried rice to use up leftovers. I’ll try scalloped potatoes and oatmeal cookies again sometime – more practice needed. Now we’re staying up late for baked beans, which will finish cooking at around 2.

Tired, but it’s a great sort of tired.