Random Thoughts and Soap...I Mean Such

didn't do much this weekend in preparation for what will likely be a busy visit from my parents next weekend. i drove for about 40 minutes to find a famous bread bakery and while it was good, it wasn't worth 40 minutes of $4.40/gallon gas. i recently started watching prime suspect - a british detective series with helen mirren that first showed in the states on pbs as part of masterpiece theatre in the 90's. it's fantastic and i've quickly become addicted. i found the best video store i've ever seen - they arrange their videos by director in addition to country and genre, so if you're in the mood for a robert altman film, you just go to that section and choose from there. they claim to have over 52,000 titles, but what i love is that their series rentals (i.e. television shows) are altogether, meaning that you get all of season one at once, rather than season one, disc 1, etc. best part is it's only $3.50 per rental which is dirt cheap for T.O. it's called queen video on queen street west - definitely a must see place for any movie buff. i also rented the new roberto bernini called "the tiger in the snow" and an indie called "flannel pajamas".

on to my soapbox for the day...
i've been surprised at how quickly i've adjusted to the culture here and how i subsequently feel very protective of the people and the country. at least once a day, i'm surprised at the kindness and generosity of torontonians; in turn, it makes me realize how unkind and judgemental americans can be, yours truly included. over the weekend, a man in his mid-30's was killed here by 4 panhandlers. as he walked by, they asked him for money and when he said no, they attacked him and killed him. for a few fucking bucks. he was a banker for one of the large canadian banks and was engaged to be married. and, wait for it.....the 4 panhandlers were american. it makes me absolutely sick and it should make you sick too. does anyone realize what a violent society we live in? fear that something could happen any minute is plaguing our once great nation. when i first arrived, i found it strange when one of my co-workers asked me whether i was afraid to go outside in texas. i'm sure the look on my face gave away my frustration at that question. now i realize what she meant and have a different perspective as an "outsider" looking back/in. of course, while canada is not a violent society, they are not saints either - there is violence everywhere and i realize that. the difference is that in the states, the first 28 minutes of the news is about that day's random acts of violence and here, they wrap them up in the first 2. i can tell that each day i live in such a tolerant culture, i become more tolerant myself. and that's a good thing. i am NEVER afraid to walk in the city alone and while this may be a false sense of security, i am not fearful because i know that the probability that i'll be the victim of a random act of violence here is slim to none. it's more likely that someone would help me than hurt me. maybe i'm living in pleasantville, but i know this - the litigiousness, selfishness, greed, violence, health care systems, political processes - are all denigrading our once great society and it's up to each one of us to stand up and make a difference.

wishing you all a safe week (keep away Dean, you bastard!),
carm

More Fun Stuff! Bet You Can't Wait, Can You?

hi y'all.

i have seen so many license (spelled "licence" here) plates from the states and i love it. i get all giddy inside and give them the "nod" like we're old bro's or something. i've seen: michigan, new york, vermont, rhode island, virginia, florida, california, new jersey, pennsylvania, TEXAS (woo-hoo...okay, just mine), illinois, missouri and ohio. one day, there were 3 american cars in a row: michigan, texas and virginia! what fun! i wonder if their speedometers are also difficult to read since ours are in MPH instead of KPH? it's interesting not really knowing exactly how fast you're going - i know that 90 KPH is somewhere around 55 MPH but instead, i choose to just go with the flow. although, i do know an american who got a ticket because the speed sign said 60 (they don't actually say MPH or KPH here...it's just a number - i say technically you could argue that since it could be either) and she was going 60 MPH in her car which is actually about 100 KPH. the judge didn't let her off either. such hate! i've decided to see how long i can keep my texas plates. they've become a conversation piece - people a) can't believe you'd ever move to canada from the us and b) can't believe you'd drive all that way. every person who's commented on my plates ask me if i like canada - they are very interested in what we think of their country. oh, i've seen the majority of license plates from the provinces, too: newfoundland and labrador, nova scotia, quebec, ontario (obviously), manitoba, saskatchewan, alberta and british columbia. the only ones i haven't seen are prince edward island or any of the northern territories (like nunavut - pronounced "none of it" or yellowknife). i personally think alberta's are the prettiest.

my first best buy experience here was exactly like the states - slow. geez - even in canada it takes forever to return something (no comments, d) even though there were 974 employees standing around doing nothing.

the high today was 83 and a cool front is coming through so the high this saturday is going to be 69! nice!

i met a famous canadian over the weekend. what's funny to me is how accessible things are in T.O. i guess it's equivalent to being in new york city in the states, but everything seems to happen right in my backyard. i've seen claire danes at muchmusic right around the corner from my house, david beckham and tara reid were at a club 4 blocks from me and rachel mcadams was evidently seen riding her bike on a street 2 blocks over. cool!

i met the leader of one of their 3 main political parties, jack layton of the new democratic party. he would run for prime minister if they were to call an election since their elections aren't at specific times. he was at "taste of the danforth" and the canadians we were with were like "go take your picture with him - he's famous! so, of course, i did. he's the equivalent to obama or hillary in the us. and lemme tell ya, he kissed many a baby that night.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Layton) the elections here aren't like ours - theirs here is like the british system so you don't necessarily vote for a person, you vote for a party here and whomever is the leader of that party becomes the prime minister. it's not my best photo, but you get the picture (ha!)


i found out today that the retirement age in canada is 69. ew. moral of the story - have a baby in canada to get a year off, then move to the us and retire at 55.

ooh, i found another great restaurant! boy, research sure pays off in a city as dense with places to eat as T.O. it's called epicure cafe on queen street west (my favorite street). everytime i eat out i get so angry about how slow the service is. then, when i get my food, i realize that it takes time because everything is prepared freshly here. you'll see workers at the fast food place in the mall cutting up fresh fruit and sandwiches being made freshly right in front of you. the food that is served in restaurants never seems to have come from a bag and i can tell it's fresher because my hands don't swell up here from the salt & preservatives like it used to when i'd eat out at home. so, i guess a trade off for speedy service and always being on the go at home is slow service but very fresh and yummy food. (http://www.theepicure.ca/home.html) they play a french jazz radio station inside so it's cozy, yummy and one of my favorite new places. plus, they give you a lot of coke - at most places, i'm basically parched after eating. how do these people not drink when they eat?

signing off with hugs,
carm

Weird Factoids of the Week

one more post today - here are some interesting and weird facts that i, and probably you, didn't know.

• it would take 1,200,000 mosquitoes (or "nippers", as newfoundlanders call them!), each sucking once, to completely drain the average human of blood. (discoverymagazine.com)
• if the sensory nerve to a female mosquito's abdomen is cut, she will keep sucking until she explodes. ewww! (science.howstuffworks.com)
• people named Paul have appeared on more no. 1 singles in the UK (57) than people with any other name. John is second (54), followed by David (53) and Brian (43). (news.bbc.co.uk)
• the odds of successfully quitting smoking for at least six months are about 2.5 times higher for spontaneous, umplanned attempts than for planned ones. (British medical journal)
• the air filling carnegie hall weighs about 31,750 kilograms (70,000 pounds)
• barn owls are about twice as proficient at tracking sounds that move horizontally than those that move vertically. (nature.com)
• here's a good one - the same ingredient that flavours salt-and-vinegar chips can be used to waterproof concrete. wow.
• the three TV bosses that most remind workers of their real-life bosses are: 1. Sam Malone from Cheers (fun), 2. Charlie from Charlie's Angels (absentee) and 3. Judge Judy (no nonsense). others mentioned in the top 10: Simon Cowell (judgmental), Miranda Bailey from Grey's (tough but fair) and disturbingly, The Simpsons' Mr. Burns (sinister). (careerbuilder.com)
• as a baby name, August ranked 618th in popularity last year. April was 319th. May hasn't been in the top 1,000 since the 1950's and June fell out in the 1990's.
• here's one for my left leaning friends - not counting the august break that he embarked on last thursday, President George W. Bush has taken 418 vacation days. The late Ronald Reagan holds the record for the most vacation time taken by a US president: 436 days. (the Houston Chronicle)
• worker performance declines about 1% for each degree that an office's temperature varies (hotter or cooler) from 22C (or about 74F).
• it a man's tie is too tight, his vision gets worse.
• today is International Left-Handers Day. the occasion is intended to raise awareness of "the challenges of living in a right-handed world". Their slogan? "Celebrate your right to be left-handed". dedicated to jennifer and jilly bean.
• lastly, yesterday was psychic sunday. but you probably already knew that. ha!

It's All About the Food

there are so many different cultures here, hence, many fantastic (and new to me) cuisines. they have tunisian restaurants, ethiopian restaurants, inuit restaurants and everything in between.

caribana, a two-week cultural explosion of caribbean music, cuisine, revelry as well as visual and performing arts, is in its 40th year it has become a major international event. apparently, it's the largest cultural festival of its kind in North America (http://www.caribanafestival.com/). the city has been packed with people going to caribana and i've heard that over 1 million people attended this year. it was great for me, not only to see the multiple cultures it represented, but to try some fantastic foods! i ate jerk chicken for the first time - it was so spicy that my lips almost burnt off - plantains with sweet cheese and grilled, spiced corn on the cob. again, it was quite spicy and i almost ripped the fire extinguisher from the wall next to me and asked the hot fireman to help put out my fire. the corn ended up being my favorite of all the foods as evidenced by the picture below. as you can see, this is definitely not a date food!

i made a trip to wal-mart recently, due to the sad absence of target in canada. at home, i wasn't the biggest chip eater - my thing is definitely sweets, as you all know - but i was shocked at the sheer number of different chip types on the chip aisle here. seriously, i have never seen anything like it. i'm told by people in the know that it's a "midwest thing" (ok, i guess toronto is sort of midwest) and that evidently, this part of north america consumes the largest amount of chips anywhere. i believe it. this is just a sampling of the chip flavors i've seen:
- ketchup
- dill pickle
- tandoori
- sweet chili heat
- jalapeno cheddar
- chili cheese lime
- zesty cheddar
and those are just the doritos brands that i could remember. it's very interesting - i tried the tandoori chips and true to their name, they are very spicy. i can only imagine the quantity of chemicals i'm ingesting from eating these fancy chips.

i found another great brunch place. when i first got here, i didn't think brunch was such a big thing in T.O. boy, was i wrong! they are very big into brunch here and if you don't get to the good places early, the queues are very long. i went french this week and tried le petit dejeuner for brunch (http://www.petitdejeuner.ca/. the owner is belgian but grew up in france. lemme tell ya - the belgian waffles are authentic and to die for! in the spirit of trying more than one thing when i find new places, i also had the croque monsieur which was also fantabulous. for dinner, i ate at jules, a french restaurant near my house - V. good nutella crepes (see, i do have a sweet tooth). the steak frites were really good here, too. (http://www.yummybaguette.com/magasin.php-id=159.htm)

rounding out my food edition was a trip to the "taste of the danforth" (http://www.tasteofthedanforth.com/6tastlist.html). there is an area in T.O. called greektown, although rumor has it that no greeks actually live there anymore as they have been ousted by the urban professional yuppies. the festival is basically a huge street party - the city closes the streets and hundreds of vendors come out selling all kinds of greek foods (and others too - i actually saw someone selling churros and it felt like home for just a split second). we made our way down the danforth eating things on sticks and had a ball. i tried mousaka, baklava (heavenly!), souvlaki, spinach pie and loukemades. they also have a hot sauce store with over 200 kinds of hot sauces - i have a friend in houston who would love the place, as they encourage sampling so you can get your heat on (and not a la glenn frey)! oddly, they also sold "mad cow jerky" there - i didn't think that was too funny.

as the evening went on, people would spontaneously break out in greek song and start dancing, locking arms and spinning around in circles just like on "my big fat greek wedding". we held court at the beer garden listening to the greek bands that were playing and finally made our way home after eating and drinking for 5 hours, with proof of our attendance down the fronts of our shirts.

overall, i am feeling well. some days, i wish i could snap my fingers and be in houston. sadly, since i can't seem to find my ruby slippers, i'll have to settle for visitors coming here for now. i'll be home in october and am thoroughly looking forward to it and seeing all of you.

much love to you all,
carm

new word of the week = rye. this is what canadians call whiskey or jack daniels. they'll order a "rye & diet" at the bar.

Niagara Region and Its Glory

hi everyone, it's sunday, august 12 and it's been a while since i've written. i'm happy to say it's because i've been out and about (or oot and aboot) enjoying the fabulous weather and festivals that abound. torontonians definitely enjoy their summers while warning me on a daily basis that it's because of their severe winters. i'm still skeptical, what with global warming and all, but we shall see soon enough. i've done some cool things in the last few weeks so hopefully you'll read on.

as some of you know, i've become somewhat of a wine lover in the past year or so. i joined a cool wine club when i moved here and one of their activities is a wine tour to the niagara wine region. it was a glorious july day and the wineries were beautiful. we got some special treatment at each winery with either the president or winemaker touring us! we got to touch the grapes and even eat them straight from the vine - they were bitter...not like the ones at central market! although my buying habits have slowed since moving to T.O., i still ended up having bought the most number of bottles for the day at 8! we went to the vineland estates winery (http://www.vineland.com/), henry of pelham (http://www.henryofpelham.com/), and flat rock cellars, my personal favorite (http://www.flatrockcellars.com/). flat rock's vineyards look out over lake ontario and in the distance, you can faintly see downtown T.O....it's just gorgeous.

i met a very nice couple from johannesburg, south africa on the tour. they have taken me under their wing and even though we speak the same language, it's quite humorous when one of us says a word that the other has no idea what it means and we just stare and laugh! it has been just amazing listening to them talk about the changes their country has undergone in the last 10 years and i've enjoyed every minute of it.

one of the necessary "to do's" in T.O. is making a visit to the st. lawrence market. it is one of the largest food markets in the world and on saturdays, is bustling with people buying everything from pastries, fruits, coffees/teas to $5 filet mignon wrapped in bacon. yum! i went with the couple from the wine tour and we had breakfast at carousel bakery (http://www.carouselbakery.com/) where we had their famous breakfast sandwiches with peameal bacon (basically back bacon - i don't care for it very much but the canadians love it - it's on every menu i've seen in one form or another).

david beckham was in town recently playing the Toronto FC. the city pretty much went into pandemonium mode. i heard rumours of him being seen at roots (a canadian clothing store) and the whole street being shut down to accommodate.

i've finally found my version of "warren's" in T.O. called crush wine bar. it's within stumbling distance of my house so i can imbibe in their glorious wines all i want. so nice not to have to worry about how to get home. (http://www.crushwinebar.com/) there are a few other regulars i've seen in there and they seem to be charmed by my alleged accent. i keep reminding everyone that THEY have the accent. even weirder - the main bartender's name is my middle name and it's not a common name. it was meant to be. here are a couple of wine suggestions that i tried recently and that were delish:

2005 Dolcetto Langhe "Il Masante", Poderi Aldo Conterno
1999 Rioja Reserva "Senorio de P. Pecina", Bodegas Hnos Pecina

a few friends from texas have come up recently which i absolutely love! not only because it's so great to see them, but it helps you stay connected to your real home. and, even better is that i get to share all of my cool finds with them. it's funny when i get asked for directions on the street - i must have assimilated quite well because i get asked frequently for directions. so for all of you who haven't come up yet, it's just a short plane ride away (well, it's kinda long on continental) and my sofa can be your home away from home. we can eat, drink and be merry!

P.S.

i almost forgot - i'm trying to taste as many canadian foods as i can while i'm here, not only in restaurants, but at the grocery store as well. here's what i've tried thus far:

Whippets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whippet_cookie

Smarties (like M&M's in the US...not like the sugary candy we're used to): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties_(Nestlé)

Ketchup chips - yes, chips flavored like Ketchup. http://www.taquitos.net/snacks.php?snack_code=369

The Verdict? yes on the whippets and smarties; negative on the ketchup chips.

I (heart) Canada

hi everybody! so much to tell but rather than bore you with the gory details, i'll try to maintain some brevity going forward. i've never been accused of being long winded (at least i don't think so) but i noticed my blogs were becoming mini-james michener novels.

i've been doing so much in toronto that people are telling me that i'm going to run out of things to do by christmas if i don't slow it down. i think you just take for granted what you already know and vice versa with what you don't. this city offers so much and i want to see as much as i can that i seem to be on a full out sprint the majority of the time. i've settled into a routine for the most part as far as my work schedule is concerned. i've been very pleased at how many days i'm able to take mass transit to work - i am really enjoying taking the subway and have increased my reading time and novel completion number significantly (speaking of, i just finished a thousand splended suns by hosseni - it is one of the best novels i've ever read - go buy it today.). i've found that i am rarely driving in toronto and could easily make it here without a car. this is a good thing, primarily because i'm paying $4.40 per gallon in toronto. i will never, ever complain about $3/gallon gas again.

so, what have i done? well, i went to a blue jays game which was fun - it was weird, though, to not hear anyone sing the star spangled banner, but hear everyone singing the canadian anthem. check out the mean farmer sunburn, i got from sitting in the nosebleed section, too (see photo). who'd have known that the sun is actually more fierce here than in houston? i'm sure that milkshake will bring all the boys from the yard.







i went to the toronto outdoor art festival which was fantastic! i bought a piece of art from an artist from northern ontario that i really love. there was some really amazing stuff. http://www.torontooutdoorart.org/ . the taste of thailand festival was this weekend and it was cool. i watched some thai dancing, thai massage and had some fantastic thai food. (http://www.tasteofthailand.ca/) (what a serious dork! that serious dork got suckered into buying one of those parasols too....apparently, $1 from the sale of every one goes to charities in thailand so of course i had to model it. yeah right.)






i went to the distillery district. http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com/ during the 1800's, this area was the largest distillery in the british empire. the city of toronto has now turned the actual distillery into an area filled with small shops, restaurants and art galleries while leaving the majority of the distillery in tact. it has cobblestone roads throughout and has maintained it's industrial look. one of the best choclatiers in toronto is in the distillery district and being a professional sweet eater, it was really, really good. they use a lot of venezuelan chocolate - everything had a very pure chocolate taste. http://www.somachocolate.com/



i mentioned in a previous blog that i planned to attend the fringe theatre festival and after much haranguing with the tickets, i actually made it to a play at the gladstone hotel. it was WAY, WAY cool. the play took place throughout the hotel rather than with the audience just sitting in one place. there were 4 plays happening at once and the characters would interchange with the other plays going on. in other words, even though we were seeing one play, the actors were really going between plays. talk about timing! it was something i'd never seen before...they call it "convergence theatre" and i thought it was genius. (http://www.fringetoronto.com/ and http://torontoist.com/2007/07/fringeist_check.php - review of "The Gladstone Variations".

i've seen a couple of film shoots since i've been here. i wish i knew what movies they're for so i can be on the lookout for the scenes. hairspray was filmed here, along with cinderella man, chicago, and good will hunting. they call it "hollywood north" and now i know why. the white trailer business must be booming here.

i've finally found some good places to eat...i knew they were here, but just had to find them. my favorite place so far is called Toba and it's delicious! (http://www.toba.ca/) i'm also loving the crepes at cafe crepe. i think i talked about this place in a previous posting, but if not, they have the best nutella crepes EVER! pizza rustica has great panini, too. (http://www.pizzarustica.ca/)
the weather continues to be very nice - today, the high was 74 with 58% humidity and sunny skies. these people just don't know what they've got as far as weather is concerned.

lastly, you might know that the final installment of a little book that goes by the name "harry potter" comes out this week. i thought people were gonna lose their shit over this book here. if only i had tried harder in school and been clever enough to come up with the idea of "hogwarts"...who could have guessed?!

At Chapters in the Eaton Centre:



hope everyone's well,
carm

Canada Day, Ikea, Movies & TV

today is Canada Day. everyone is wearing their red and white (no blue here) and there are many gatherings and goings on around town. i get the buffalo, new york news and they're, of course, getting ready for july 4th. so i hear "celebrate independence day" and "celebrate canada day" the next second and i'm experiencing a bit of vertigo because of it. where am i?

i went to the movies for the first time since i've been here. i'm a big movie buff so i was excited to see how they do it here. guess how much a movie is in toronto? $11.95!!! yes, that's right...eleven dollars and ninety-five cents. i almost fell over.! i saw "knocked up" which is hilarious! and, they make several references to canada in the movie so it was fun to be with the canadians watching it. they're so polite about it...they just quietly giggle. it was literally the quietest movie i've been to in years....oh, how i love it here!

i made a second trip to ikea to pick up a couple of things (they have 4 here, btw, versus 1 in houston). when i was checking out, i noticed a sign that said all credit cards have to be signed on the back. i personally don't sign the backs of my cards in hopes that the person checking me out will actually ask to see ID in the event of theft. evidently, that same logic does not hold true in canada. it was saturday and the ikea sale. needless to say, it was packed. i think i was actually almost run over by the vw car with the stacks of luggage on top. but i digress. the cashier checked me out and after he had already swiped my card and after i had signed the receipt and start walking away, he literally starts yelling at me that they can't accept my payment since my card isn't signed. he really got spun up about it as if i was some kind of escaped convict trying to steal a spatula and dishtowel. i pulled out my temporary drivers license with my name on it along with 2 other credit cards with my name on it that are signed and tried to explain to him that in the States, we have theft and so don't sign the cards. it didn't matter. the man actually pulled out his manual to show me that Visa/Mastercard don't allow purchases with cards that aren't signed. there were literally 20 people in line, all glaring at the stupid american. the manager, of course, was eventually called over, who refunded every item i bought and RERUNG everything using a different card. new experiences every day.

last thing - TV. canadian television does not censor like the US does. really, no other country censors like we do, and one could argue that censorship actually incites people to crave what they can't have. well, i'll argue that anyway. in canada, they don't bleep out the curse words on the sopranos, nor do they grey out nudity, etc., etc. it's full on here. interesting. just so you know.

New Word of the Day: Humidex http://www.qc.ec.gc.ca/Meteo/Documentation/Humidex_e.html

Coming this week - the Toronto Fringe Festival (http://www.fringetoronto.com/)

New Restaurant Tried = Cafe Crepe (Nutella crepes...yummmm!)

The Adventures Continue...

hi everybody! so much to catch up on since i wrote last. i've been settling in to my new home, neighborhood and most importantly, job very nicely. my car and personal effects finally arrived (yay for candles!) in toronto on friday so i'm finally starting to feel like i'll actually be here for a while rather than feeling like i'm in on an extended vacation. i'm living in the entertainment district (as i mentioned before) and here's where i'm living while i'm here so you can check out the area (http://www.tridel.com/element/). i also cleared all of my items through canadian customs with no problems. when i walked up to the counter, the man said "where are you coming from with that accent?" and i said "accent? what accent?" i never thought i had much of one, but i evidently stick out like a sore thumb here!

the newness of being here has worn off just a bit. there really aren't many things familiar here so it's a constant state of "not knowing what's where". they just opened a Forever 21 in Toronto and for those of you guys who don't know what that is, they knock off current runway looks in a very inexpensive way (it's cheap, in other words!). it was bustling and i picked up a couple of cute things. the toronto transit commission (http://www.ttc.ca/) was demo'ing their "next generation" streetcars but i must say that they look exactly like the light rail trains already in use in houston, so one up for the bayou city! on my way back from shopping, i stopped to listen to some jazz being played near city hall. one of the 2 jazz festivals that happen in toronto is going on this week so i picked up a hot dog from a street vendor (they're actually REALLY good and fresh here) along with a fresh squeezed lemonade and listened to some jazz. it was fantastic.(http://www.torontojazz.com/Pages/Toronto_Downtown_Jazz_Festival_pgM29.asp)

i haven't eaten out here nearly as much as i did in houston, primarily because i don't know what's good and what isn't. there are so many places to choose from here that it's difficult to narrow down. somewhere that looks like a hole in the wall could be the best place in toronto! not to mention, it's very expensive to eat out here because of all the taxes that are added onto everything. after a little research, i found a few local places, though, and headed out. i was in the mood for roti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti) which i fell in love with the last time i was here. there is such a large indian population here (next largest outside of india) that there is something with indian flavoring on almost every menu you see. i ate at gandhi roti which was really, really good. i got the chicken jalfoorezi and when they asked me if i wanted mine mild, medium or spicy, i opted for the medium, thinking that my texas upbringing had prepared me for all things spicy. UH UH!! not here. my mouth was on fire in about 2 seconds, but i pressed on due to the major hunger pangs that were poking my insides and took the rest to go. gandhi is a definite must when you're in town. (http://chriswalsh.vox.com/library/post/gandhi-cuisine-the-best-roti-in-toronto.html) on my way back home, i heard hooting and hollering coming up behind me. a few cyclists passed me, and then some more, and more, and when i turned around, there were hundreds of people on bicycles riding down queen street! i don't mean cyclists like lance armstrong...i mean just regular guys and girls on their schwinn's riding through the streets. they were promoting the bicycle film festival coming up later this year. one guy was on a 2 story bike that was made up of about 6 bikes on top of one another. when a red light came up, he had to lean against a light pole so as not to fall on the pavement. it was a really cool sight. (http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/).

one other cool place i visited was pages bookstore. it's a small, locally owned bookstore which are sadly, slowly dying out, but it's an amazing store on queen street and you should definitely pay it a visit and SUPPORT the store when you're in toronto. (http://pagesbooks.ca/)

good news for those of you spending nights worrying about this - i finally found a place to get my nails done. if you know me, you know this is a vital part of my beauty regimen and i've gone without since before i left houston. the place i found was modeled after the beauty bars that sprouted up in new york in the last few years and it's a really neat concept called polish beauty bar. (http://www.polishbeautybar.com/) oddly (!), they immediately asked me "where are you from" and get this - when i said texas, the store manager asked what part...when i said houston, she said "my sister lives in houston, well, right outside houston in sugar land...she moved from calgary to houston 3 years ago"....can you just believe it?! it's a tiny, tiny world out there. i lunched at the only repeat place i've been to in toronto and i think is my favorite little lunch spot i've ever been to. it's called the red tea box and it's like taking a trip to the mad hatter's house. it's fantastic and if you come to toronto and hit no other places, you HAVE to eat here. it's amazing. they have the best iced tea on the planet and the fondant pastries are TO DIE FOR! (http://www.torontolife.com/guide/food/coffee-tea/the-red-tea-box/). i visited the clint roenisch gallery which i believe is one of the more eclectic galleries in toronto on west queen west. (http://www.clintroenisch.com/). way cool.

overall, having a fabulous time here. the highs are still in the low 70's and i don't know if i'll ever be able to live on the face of the sun (HOUSTON!) again.

BBQ or Grill?

There seems to be an ongoing debate here about the difference between a Barbeque and a Grill. Well, it may not be an ongoing debate in Canada, but it's an ongoing debate in my mind. My company's annual "summer BBQ" was the first Friday I was here, so I got really excited that I was going to get to eat a sliced beef sandwich with sauce. I was quickly corrected. Evidently, a "BBQ" in Canada is the actual apparatus used to cook the hamburgers and hot dogs, not the actual food type. I was crushed when I realized that I was just getting a grilled hamburger and not a real BBQ sandwich. When we cook out in Texas, we do it on the "grill" (and not the gold kind in your mouth) and invite people over to the BBQ...am I right?! Oh, and instead of chips and cookies like we'd have in Texas, they served the burgers with salad and fruit. (See previous post on sweets.)

New Word Learned: "Guk" = spicy mayonnaise.

New Restaurant - Lick's "BBQ"

Ah, the weekend - Part Deux

Sunday, Sunday!


I was so exhausted from my first week that I actually slept until 10:45am, which, even though I need my sleep, is almost a record for me. I don't think I've yet mentioned the fun that is Toronto traffic. While I know I only had a 3 minute commute in Houston, the traffic here is beyond anything I've ever seen. Imagine this - a busy, crowded intersection on a 4 lane road with about 200 pedestrians and no left turn signals. Car in the left lane tries to turn left but has to wait until the green light turns red due to the lack of turn signals. Car in the right lane tries to turn right but has to wait until the green light turns red due to the pedestrians. So 2 cars get through per light. It's basically gridlock. To loop you back, my exhaustion was because I'm sitting in 2+ hours of traffic a day to go 25 miles total!! Anywho, on to the good stuff...


It was Pride Week in Toronto (http://www.pridetoronto.com/). For those of you not in the know (like me), Toronto hosts the 2nd largest Gay Pride Festival in the world; over one million people attended this year's festivities. I decided before I came that I'm going to go to anything and everything I can and take it all in. So off I went. There is a Whole Foods in Yorkville (the shi-shi area of Toronto) and I had previously tried to get there in my car, but because of the parking situation, I abandoned trip. I planned my route to Whole Foods where I would go up Yonge Street to catch some of the parade. It was really cool - the streets were closed off and all of the major stores were giving out rainbow flags. It was the most calm, organized parade I've ever seen - no one was out of control or acting crazy. There were lots of cool, hip people out along with families, old people, and the like. The parade started with a bang of colored confetti and down came the floats! I'll post some pictures soon. Oh, and I was on TV, too! The local TV station personality was interviewing people waiting for the parade and I happened to be standing right behind them. The camera was literally facing me head on and later that night, I was on CityTV news at 11. At the Pride Parade. Priceless.

Whole Foods was great, but still different from the ones at home. Everything's just a little bit different here, but it still felt like home. It cost me a chunk of change just like home, too.

Took the Subway home with my groceries and smiled at the fantastic weekend I had.

And so ended weekend #1 in Toronto.

Ah, the weekend - Part Un

I was so excited to get out and about on Saturday that I woke up after only 6 hours of sleep, which for me, is a very bad thing. As many of my friends and colleagues know, I require a minimum of 8 hours of sleep per night or I'm not my usual cheerful self and can turn into a bit of an ogre (and not the cute Shrek variety). I had planned to ride the ferry to the Toronto Islands, but it was very windy last week, not to mention 60 degrees (15 degrees Celsius) outside.


So I decided to look for Plan B. It was a glorious day and I ran across free walks hosted by the Toronto Historical Society. I settled on a tour of an area of Toronto known as Cabbagetown (http://www.cabbagetownpa.ca/). They call it Cabbagetown because of the number of Irish immigrants who fled to the area during the potato famine in the mid-1800's. They, of course, wanted to make sure their families didn't go hungry as they had in Ireland so they planted plenty of crops in their front yards, much of it cabbage - et voila! Cabbagetown was born. The homes are semi-detached and the owners would live on one side and rent out the other side for income, usually to family since they knew where to find them. :) The architecture is mostly Victorian in period and gothic renaissance and bay & gable in style. There was a hotel built on the main street that was 3 stories; the rich people who lived in Toronto used to go to Cabbagetown for the weekend to "get away from the city" and only the richest of the rich were allowed on the 3rd story balcony so they would be able to see the unobstructed view of downtown Toronto!


We ended our walk at the Necropolis - Toronto's 2nd oldest cemetery and the only non-deonimational cemetery until the early 1900's (http://www.mountpleasantgroupofcemeteries.ca/our_cemeteries/toronto_necropolis.asp). All of the other cemeteries in Toronto were either Catholic or Presbyterian so you better have been a good paying parishioner when you died, or you would end up at the Necropolis!. It's a beautiful cemetery in a very quiet party of the city and next to the Don River. There's quite a bit of the High Victorian Gothic style and such famous Canadians as Toronto's first mayor, William Lyon MacKenzie are buried there.


After the walk ended, I went into a little pastry shop to grab a baguette and only later found out that it's evidently one of the best in Toronto. It's called Daniel et Daniel and if/when you go, you have to get a Hedgehog Rum Ball - yummy (http://www.danieletdaniel.ca/)! One thing I have found here is that there are not the plethora of sweets like we have in the US. And, the sweets they do have aren't as sweet as ours at home. I actually think my sweet tooth has lessened from lack of choices if you can believe that. There definitely isn't a Dessert Gallery here.

I had walked over to the "walking tour" which turned out to be a leisurely (not) 2.5 mile walk . i decided to try taking the streetcar on my way home, so I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I realized I was on the wrong corner of the street and, after I got on I realized it was going AWAY from downtown! Lost again. Sigh. Thankfully, Canadians are nice to a fault and the driver helped me get to the right stop AND didn't make me pay again! While we were driving home, there was an Indian wedding outside of the King Edward (for those of you who went to the Platinum Awards) and get this - there were these drummers and a bunch of men dressed in very fancy garb on these beautiful horses with hoardes of people outside clapping and dancing. They had King Street closed down....now THAT'S a celebration!

Let the adventure begin!

My first full week in Toronto passed very quickly! Although I had initial "Toronto hate" due to a bit of homesickness, I finally crept out of my hole on Wednesday and ventured out on my own. I am really starting to love my neighborhood - it's the Entertainment District and is very close to the CN Tower and Rogers Centre, many of the theatres as well as the "avant-garde" area of Toronto called Queen Street. The area is bustling and people are always out and about which I love. I'm only a block away from Rogers Centre which is where the Toronto BlueJays play (that's baseball, for those of you who aren't sports fans) and because it's summer, there are games going on all the time. It makes for interesting traffic "situations" coming home from work, but once I'm home, it's fun to have all the fans around.


Even though I don't know many people in Toronto, there are a few other Texans living here. I had dinner with a fabulous colleague on Thursday evening at a fabulous Italian restaurant called Pizzaiolo (http://www.pizzaiolorestaurant.com/). It was delicioso and so were my leftover pizza slices! A few of the other people living here from Texas got together for drinks and dinner on Friday evening in an area of Toronto called the Beaches. The boardwalk looks out over Lake Ontario which is as blue as the Logan sapphire. We walked (everyone here walks which is all new to me - no one believes when I tell them that we'd drive to a store 20 yards away!) to a lovely Italian restaurant on Queen Street East called Ci Vediamo (which means "we see each other" in Italian). We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and unintentionally entertained the locals with our Texas accents!

Other restaurants frequented: Urban (http://www.urbanrestaurant.com/)

New Word Learned: Loonie (nickname for the the $1 Canadian coin)