, who were nice enough to provide me with an extra ticket. It was a very fast game, maybe 2.5 hours? The seats were great, in any case -- fourth row, right behind first base. A fun escape, but I could only watch maybe a game or two a year really -- my interest in baseball has fallen way down with age. That was Thursday, and on Friday I went to Bar Wellington to attend a co-worker's birthday gathering. Some drinks and lots of TVO and public television talk. Ah, Force Five, so deeply ingrained in my childhood memories! I love all those shows so much, dearly so.Saturday was the beginning of the long weekend, and I, well, I had a date during the day. More than that I shan't speak of here, but it went well -- a walk to Cloud Garden, through the downtown and to the water, the sun brilliant off the lake, listening to it lap against the docked boats. In the evening was karate, of which I remember little but I believe we did some sparring, the evidence of which still shows on my shins. Sunday I drove my sister and I to our parent's house for a meal before they go on their cruise around the Mediterranean, which they're on now. I've also been assigned house-sitting duty, so I'll be making the trek up a few more times in the coming weeks. After that I returned home and I Bixi'ed over to Bloor and Avenue to attend a karate anniversary party -- our 4th year together! Of course, I've only been to maybe 40 or something classes in that time, but I have been around since the early days. It was a pretty long night, with us ending up in a hotel room with several bottles of wine. When I finally did leave I was addressed by a homeless person on my way home, who'd suffered a stroke in their past and now walked and moved with difficulty. I took it upon myself to help them: buying them a hot chocolate, smokes, and a cab ride to somewhere (their sister's?). Hanan, she said her name was.
Monday was a full date that also went swimmingly -- a walk through the Distillery District (something I rarely do, amusingly), stopping to eat or drink or browse as we saw fit, as one might do on holiday. Found an unoccupied, unadvertised library. Drank some unpasteurized sake. Was given a tour of a condo being shown by its owners. Had an excellent meal at Pure Spirits restaurant. Walked to Cherry Beach, hung out at an outdoor rave, got rained on, watched a double-rainbow appear as the sun went down. Ok, it was a great date, I'll say no more!
Last week was a busy one for work as our new product, the one we'd been working on intensely since last October (?) was officially launched. It's a vast improvement over our previous offering, and I'm glad to have played some small part in that. What this holds for the future, well, we shall see! I mean, hopefully an increase in sales and back to more carefree and relaxed days at the office -- that would be nice.
Friday I played boardgames with some friends. I cannot remember all the names, but I do recall disliking "Apples to Apples" and enjoying the gameplay of "Ca$h 'n Gun$" despite my initial misgivings. Saturday I went to the Toronto Zoo. It'd been years, many years since I was there (and not including the time we rode there during the blackout) and, heck, I had a BLAST. The weather remained fair (well, fair enough) and we were able to take in pretty much the whole of the park, including the Canadian section. I bought myself a year's membership, and do plan to return. Oh, and we brought lunch and had a fine picnic under the trees -- sandwiches, salad, samosas.Finally, or nearly finally, Sunday I had afternoon tea at the Windsor Arms hotel
, which indeed is a bit of an old-lady thing to do but I'm glad to have tried it, even if the price stuck in my throat afterwards. Then I caught a ride to the AGO, bought a membership, and enjoyed their "Abstract Expressionist New York" show. Hopped onto the subway to meet up with Reg, Elena, Jenning, Margaret and Andrew for some burgers at The Yellow Griffin. I found the burger to be unimpressive, and the bun somewhat dry, though to be fair I was still full of scones and petit fours. Oh, and then back home, shower and change, then up the Downsview line to attend another friend's birthday, a musician who is also a black belt at my school. The highlight was when he and some friends started playing a random tune and everyone in the room picked up an instrument and jammed along. Good times!Yeah, so I've been busy, as you can see. Busy still I will be -- I bought a festival pass to the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival and will be attending showings every night this week! I'll likely tweet what I see. On Saturday I might be heading out to UW's Hagey Hall to listen to a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Barry Brummet, "Religion, as a literary value, is a force for good." Yup, pretty busy, sucking that marrow dry indeed.
