What I didn't do yesterday...

I forgot to call my dad to wish him a Happy Birthday! I'm such a bad daughter.




It's not like it was an important birthday or anything...he only turned 65.


My hard drive is out of commission at the moment (nothing serious; I just need to relocate the power bar it used to be plugged into), so I didn't have access to old pictures of my dad. However, I think I may have done one better by locating and pulling out this (plus, of course, now having digitally preserved it*):



This is my dad's lasting contribution to my autograph book, signed about 25 years ago in 1986. I got an autograph book in 1986 shortly before heading off to Choir Camp in Berwick, N.S.,** and got my family members to sign it. I may post more of these in the future -- some are pretty funny.

So my dad is now 65. He will be retiring at the end of the summer, and my parents have decided to move to Ottawa. They are looking at buying a condo in the same building as my aunt, right near U of O. This is a bit crazy for me to get my head around. It will be fun having my parents back in the same city as me; however, it will be strange not having my parents in Toronto, which is where I am used to them being. Toronto has been "home" for me for many years, and that is going to change. Robert and Judy will be staying in Toronto (despite mine and Jerome's numerous entreaties to move to Ottawa), and I still have many friends who live in Toronto, but without a bedroom to call my own when I get there, it's just not going to be the same.


* This is also my submission for the Shutterbug Challenge for today.

** My brother's ex-wife also attended that same Choir Camp in 1986. I can't remember how we actually discovered this, but sure enough, there she is in a corner of the group photo we took. She wasn't in my cabin, but it's entirely possible I spoke to her at some point (there was maybe only 100 kids there). Crazy!

The Annual Snowfall Update

Apparently there has been snow in Toronto today. I would just like to state for the record that there is no snow, as of yet, in Ottawa. Earlier today, it was raining. Right now, there is no precipitation to speak of. In fact, I'm thinking of taking a midnight stroll in my bikini top and shorts, it is so mild here.*

If I can't make fun of Hokkaido, what can I make fun of?

* Ed. note - Some blog statements may not be as accurate as claimed. Aforementioned walk may include knee-high mukluks, four scarves, and a tuque complete with pompom on top.

Fêtez la Fête nationale!

À l'honneur de la fête de Saint-Jean-Baptiste, j'ai mis mes photos de notre voyage à Québec en mai sur Flickr.



Any excuse is as good as another, right? Anyway, we celebrated Saint-Jean-Baptiste by driving back from Toronto to Ottawa (ie., not at all). Toronto was, as always, good, though we didn't do much. We ate sushi. We met up with our friend Shoshanah for some (more) shopping and sushi. I got my hair cut. We bought a bunch of prints for our townhouse. The dog got wet in the rain, and wetter in my mom's gardens. There was hail and a funnel cloud (didn't see either, sadly).

A good time was had by all.

This post got me to thinking, however, and I have realized that in 3 of the past 4 months of May, we have travelled somewhere.

Last year, in May 2007, it was to Kyushu.*


The strange but cool Canal City in Fukuoka.

The year before, we didn't go anywhere exotic, though I note, looking through my archives, that we did go to Toronto for a weekend right at the beginning of the month. To be fair, though, we were gearing up for a year in Japan and so not really able to take off at the drop of a hat.

In May 2005, we went to Amsterdam.


A rare, non-canal shot of Amsterdam.


So we'll have to figure out something neat for next year... Suggestions?


* I am embarrassed to note that I have completely neglected to ever finish uploading the Kyushu pictures - Nagasaki, which I think is my favourite city in all of Japan, is noticeably absent! I will rectify this oversight soon!!!

(Soon to be) On the road again...

So those of you who actually pay attention to these things (and who read my blog on my blog and not on Facebook's feed) might have noticed that Randal and I are headed to Mt. Fuji in about 10 days. We're going the weekend of July 6, though we haven't decided yet exactly which day we shall climb it. Or, rather, I should say which night we're going to climb it, as we plan on doing the classic climb-overnight-and-arrive-at-the-summit-in-time-for-sunrise hike.

Anyway, there are two problems with the Mt. Fuji hike:

#1:
It's probably going to be crappy weather. We had dinner on Saturday with one of Randal's teachers, and we were telling him and his wife about our Fuji plans, and after telling us some horror stories about climbing it (it's not easy), they started worrying that tsuyu was likely to unleash its fury upon us at the same time. It is that time of year. Ugh. Sounds delightful.

#2:
I'm probably going to die partway up. While, since my arrival in Japan, I've been bicycling more than I ever did in all my life to this point, I don't generally feel I've been as active as I was at home. I even started jogging about a month or so ago - the last thing most people probably ever thought I would do! - and while it is somewhat enjoyable, I am, to be honest, not very good, nor committed, to jogging. I'm hoping sheer determination will get me up that mountain. After all, that's pretty much all I've got!


In other, non-Fuji and non-rain news, plans are starting to solidify for our return home. Our last day of work is July 27. On July 28, I am moving out of my apartment. Randal plans to do the same on either the 28th or 29th. We'll get a hotel in Nagoya. On July 30, we are flying to Thailand! The plan is to spend about 2 weeks in Thailand, and 2 weeks in Laos. I can't wait. I love Thailand, and Laos sounds fascinating. Then, on August 29, we fly back to Nagoya.* Then, on the 30th, we fly home to Toronto via San Francisco.

As if that wasn't enough, after a few days in Toronto, we're heading to Winnipeg - either by plane or by car - to visit Randal's family and collect our pooch. Probably about 2 weeks there, and then back to Toronto. After that, we don't know: Ottawa is looking like the more likely option these days, though I have recently applied for a few Toronto jobs, so we'll see.


I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Either that, or it's 12:21 a.m. and well past my bedtime. ...Ah yes, the latter. Urgh.


* Before you have a chance to ask, our tickets home to Canada are paid for...as long as we fly from Japan.

The Toronto Nature Show

My parents are in North Carolina right now, off having a fun time on the Outer Banks with my dad's brother (who lives in N.C., hence the destination) and sister and their respective families. My younger brother Robert is in Toronto, holding down the fort. And the fort is under siege!!!!!!!

First Assault: The Beetles (I don't love them, yeah yeah yeah):

Randal & I have been in Toronto visiting since late Friday night, and every night when we get home, we discover lots of little black beetles crawling inside the house around the front door. At first we were disgusted and squeamish about killing them; now, by night #3, we are squashing them with gusto. (Except for the one Robert's girlfriend found in her shoe, and the one that fell out of the kleenex and onto my hand - both of those spawned shrieks.)

Tonight, when Randal & I got home from dinner at our friend Shoshanah's, we came in through the garage door in an attempt to thwart the nightly beetle advance. Heh heh, were we ever in for a surprise: in the garage on the floor there were about 100 little beetles crawling around, having a big party. We rushed in the house and got Robert & Judy to don their shoes to come take a look (that was the point at which the beetle-in-Judy's-shoe incident took place). We squashed the indoor beetles then marvelled at the garage beetles. Then I searched the house for bug spray and thankfully found some. We have sprayed around the front door (only on the inside; no one was brave enough to tackle the front step) and some spot spraying inside the garage (including along the bottom of the garage doors), so we'll see what happens. Updates to follow.

Second Assault: "Raton-voleur" is French for "AUGH!"

Then, as we are starting to settle down for the night, I suddenly hear Robert and Judy downstairs in the kitchen making a ruckus. I go down to investigate and Judy tells me breathlessly that there seems to be a raccoon on the roof! (Our kitchen extends past the second storey of the house, plus we have a patio covered with a large wooden trellis sun-shelter type thing, also at roof level.) All four of us troop up to the second-floor bathroom to peer out the window in the dark, and sure enough we can see something just outside the window on the roof in the process of cleaning itself. At first, we think it is a cat. As soon as we convince ourselves that it is definitely a cat, it becomes aware of our presence and backs up, arching its back, looking intently at us. Definitely a raccoon! And - shocking city kids that we are - we were definitely more scared of it than it was of us.*

Robert ran downstairs to get a flashlight so we could see it better. It soon decided to ignore us, and went to lie down on top of the sun-shelter roof. Then we became aware of a second blackish grey lump. A second raccoon!

We watched for a while, Randal took some pictures through the window (if possible, I will try to upload them here later), then one of the raccoons decided it was time to go get some food (I assume) and started climbing down one of the trees. So we all ran back downstairs to the kitchen sliding doors, flipped the back patio light on, and watched his descent. He cut up through the gardens and then out of sight (long yard at my parents' place and too dark to see where he ended up). After a minute or so, the other raccoon followed.

The worst part is that about five minutes later, while I was puttering about the kitchen, I realized that Robert and Judy had left a pillow out on the hammock in our backyard, where they'd been lazing about earlier that afternoon, trying to avoid the sun's heat. The pillow shouldn't stay out overnight. So I told Robert that he'd just have to go out and get it. Which he promptly refused to do. Judy laughed and called him a ninny. So, being the older sister and feeling slightly obliged to set a good I'm-not-afraid-of-no-raccoons example, I sighed and said to never mind, that I would do it. Judy bravely put her sandals on too, we made Robert run upstairs to check that there was no one on the roof, and upon getting the all-clear, we half-tiptoed, half-ran across the backyard (we brought a flashlight too, just to be extra sure we wouldn't encounter any, uh, visitors), grabbed the pillow and ran back in.

Judy picked this point to tell me how, one night a while back, she was leaving our house and walking to her car parked in our driveway, when she suddenly saw a skunk staring at her from not so far away. She fled back to the safety of our house for five minutes and then attempted to leave again, this time successfully. So I will keep my eyes peeled.

Totally enough excitement for one day. Robert says he thinks that last week, before my parents left, he and Mom heard something on the roof but couldn't see anything. We hope we don't have a permanent addition to the family. We're going to keep an eye on things and he may call the Vaughan Pest Control tomorrow if we think it's necessary. Ack. Now all we need is a bat to get into the house. At least there, we have a bat-removal professional on the premises.**

* Except Randal. He's from Winnipeg and well-acquainted with all sorts of animals like that. He's the only one that didn't back up three steps in fear.

** The illustrious Mop Boy, Randal K., aided by his not-so-useful (but loud and squealing) sidekick Bat Girl, of course.

What is it about me and modes of transportation?

I forgot the part on Sunday in Montreal where, after finding out I wouldn't be able to have dinner with Mark and telling my grandmother that I'd be back home in about half an hour, I waited a full hour for the Papineau bus. Having taken the métro (subway) from downtown over to Papineau station, I decided instead of walking the 20-minute walk home to my grandmother's that I'd take the bus up Papineau. I was exhausted from all the shopping. It was 6:55 and I'd just missed the 6:54 bus. The 7:11 bus never came, nor did the 7:29 bus. The 7:48 bus was late. It was a fitting end to the weekend. ;)

Now after a day and a half at home, I am in Toronto until Friday night. Took the overnight bus last night, which was late. Whatever it is with my luck these days, I must leave Canada soon in an attempt to leave it behind!!! The bus leaves first from Montreal (coincidence? perhaps not!), then comes to Ottawa and on to Toronto. There was apparently a delay on the Montreal end. We were supposed to leave at 12:30...and actually left only at 2:00 a.m.!

Couldn't get a window seat unfortunately (it turns out there are other crazy people besides myself who take overnight busses), but I was lucky enough to sit in the area reserved for wheelchairs (none on our bus) and so was blessed with a HUGE amount of leg room. Kinda made up for the four-seater on Monday's train, I guess. Slept maybe 3 hours in total on the ride down. Got in to T.O. at 6:40 (supposed to be 5:55, so we'd made up some time somewhere along the way). My brother picked me up at the subway station, and then I fell asleep on my parents' bed (my dad was already up but my mom was trying to sleep, and I'd gone in to talk to her) for the rest of the morning till about noon.

No plans today - I'd wanted to go visit my aunt but we were short a car. Around 2:30 we had a tremendous thunder and lightning and hail storm - I couldn't even see to the back of our backyard. Mom, it turns out, was on the road in the midst of all this (she'd gone out earlier to do errands), but was smart and pulled into a parking lot rather than try to continue driving.

The Toronto Agenda:

Tonight, no plans.

Tomorrow, I go to Hamilton to visit Jen and Allison so that Jen and I may test the ability of a 6-month-old in enduring a lunch-and-shopping outing.

Tomorrow evening, no plans.

Friday afternoon, my dad's cousin Marion arrives for the long weekend, and I plan on going shopping downtown (MEC and Eaton Centre).

Friday evening, no plans.

Friday at midnight, take the bus back to Ottawa (hopefully on time).

You know it's time to write when ...

Last month, I beat my all-time monthly posting rate. My previous record was 9 posts in August 2005, and I beat that on May 17 (my last post) with 10 posts. So, record beaten, time to stop posting for the month. ;)

So, what's been happening? Well, it's been busy. As Rebecca mentioned, I went to Toronto for the May long weekend. Read her post for the lowdown on the first part of it: much shopping, eating, and martini-drinking. On Sunday, after Rebecca left, I did some more shopping with my friend Shoshanah - but she was still walking around with swollen lymph nodes and feeling pretty miserable, so we didn't achieve much. Still, always good to see her. Sunday night we celebrated Mother's Day / Robert's birthday, and then I went out for drinks with Robin and a different Rebecca (just to confuse everyone). Monday I bummed around and then took the Greyhound back home that evening.

Three days later, on the 26th, Randal, Rion and I headed back to Toronto. We'd taken the day off so we rented a car and drove up. Ate dinner at a place called Hockey Sushi on Centre Street in Thornhill. All-you-can-eat, reeeeeally good. Rebecca #2 had told me about it the previous weekend. Saturday my friend Jen and her husband Mike, baby Allison, and their dog, a large year-old Black Lab confusingly called Baby, came over to visit for brunch. Rion and Baby did not get along, unfortunately :( Baby was too big and excited for Rion, and he got scared. So we had to keep them separated. It was a nice visit, otherwise. Then that evening, my cousin Brian got married. Quite a nice wedding. On Sunday, we headed downtown with Rion to Shoshanah's place again, and had a good visit (her lymph nodes having returned to their normal size by this point). She has a fantastic house in the East end (Gerrard & Pape area). We got back to Ottawa late that evening (it was about 10:00 p.m. by the time we got home), so a tiring weekend, but nice to be able to visit some people we don't often get to see.

Which bring us to now. Things have happened this week, including dealings with maddening shoe salespersons, but nothing truly worth sharing, at least not now. I was originally going to go to Montreal this weekend to visit my grandmother and check out a Japanese festival that is taking place there, but decided to stay here and catch up on all the stuff that hasn't been getting done, like preparatory paperwork for going to Japan (visas, medication imports, etc.), finishing up my TESL Business English module (which needs to be returned ASAP), weeding through books and clothes, etc. 55 days left!

Weekend Round-Up #2

We went to Toronto this past weekend. Nice drive up Thursday during the day for all but poor Rion who gets car-sick. He was sick a bunch of times between here and Kingston, and then settled down until somewhere on Brock Street in Pickering. Poor pooch. Thursday evening we went (sans le pooch) to the opening for Apertura, a roaming art gallery started by four Bay St. female lawyers (we used to work with two of them). It was a great show! And packed! It was also kinda fun to run into a bunch of people we used to work with - hi Heather! hi Lindsay! hi Francis! hi Sarah! hi Patti!

After the show, much excitement as first Randal & I took the Queen streetcar to Bathurst and then the Bathurst streetcar to Bloor (Randal had never taken the Toronto streetcars before). We were headed, of course, for Insomnia, our fave martini bar. We originally had planned to head out for sushi (of course!) but decided to do Insomnia instead. Well. Were we in for a treat. I ordered my usual - chicken and brie and avocado sandwich with french fries and aioli, and Randal went for a salad and steak. Mmmmm, good. A martini each. Then as we are sipping our second martinis of the night, we suddenly notice a guy setting up what seems to be a sushi boat at the table next to us. Sushi at Insomnia??? Not able to contain our curiosity any longer, we ask the guy what he's doing. Apparently they are having a Sapporo beer sampler night and he has been hired from his restaurant to serve sushi to the Insomnia patrons. At this point, two svelte (and not very Japanese) women offer us some Sapporo to taste. I am known for not being able to keep my mouth shut when appropriate, so I advise that we drink Sapporo at home all the time (we do!), but sure, I'd love to try a glass. Randal has to drive later, alas. Then the sushi guy (David) gives us a lovely plate of spicy salmon maki. Later he gave us a second plate of tuna maki. It was soooo good. We chatted with him a bit - told him we were going to Japan, etc. He gave us the card to his restaurant, Akasaka, which is in Richmond Hill. Satisfied, sushified, we headed home for the night around midnight.

Friday, we played it easy, sleeping in and then just doing some shopping in the neighbourhood. My mom wanted to go to Toys 'R' Us, so we did, and then Randal & I went to Indigo (to pick up a birthday present for my mom*) and then to the Promenade Mall to check out the Japanese dish store and the Asian grocery store, which we hadn't had much time to visit the last time we'd been home. Bought some different varieties of noodles, some fruit juices, and some mochi, Japanese red bean cakes.

We got home around 6:45, just in time to get changed and go out to eat for my mom's birthday at Akasaka! It was less than a 15-minute drive from my parents' place. My brother Robert and his girlfriend Judy joined us too. And we ate and ate. Robert & Judy and my parents both split dinners for two - salad and miso soup followed by some sushi and maki, then a large salmon appetizer, then a plateful of any two of: beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, or shrimp and veggie tempura, with cold udon noodles, and the whole topped off by dessert (ice cream or mango mousse or green tea crème brulée). Randal & I had a TRUCKLOAD of sushi. We had a Rainbow Roll (which included butterfish which is not usual), some kind of crunchy Dynamite Roll which was so good we ordered a second set, mixed selection of sashimi, mixed selection of nigiri, and California Rolls (the only mediocre part of the meal). Plus dessert! If you are ever in the Richmond Hill area, I highly recommend it. They also do teppanyaki there (where everyone sits in a square facing the chef who cooks right in front of you).

Oh yes, chocolate birthday cake Friday night once we found a tiny bit of space in our poor overloaded stomaches. :)

Saturday got off to a bang - Randal and I got up early for once and went downtown for about 11:00 (that's early for us!). We spent the entire day downtown. We shopped our way across Bloor from University and then all the way down Yonge to Queen. I can't remember everything we bought but it was a lot. Mostly things for traveling (no point in buying anything else): two mini address books, extra toothbrushes (2 for $1 at the Dollarama at Bay & Charles - woo-ee!), mini flashlight for me, some CDs for Randal, LOTS of chocolate ostensibly for the road trip back to Ottawa but really just to get us through the dark packing days ahead in our future, etc. Oh, and Randal bought a pair of sandals, and I bought 3 pairs of shoes! (Dressy sandals, walking sandals, and a cute little pair of men's brown sneakers - let's just say I was sitting in Payless too long while Randal debated over his shoe purchases: he almost bought 4 pairs in Payless alone!) Dinner downtown and then we hit a secondhand bookstore where I purchased two more books - Lost Japan by Alex Kerr and Lonely Planet's guide to Kyoto. (Wishful thinking on my part I'm sure - but it was cheap and I figured I'd use it even if *gasp* I never make it back to Kyoto ever again.) Then we dragged ourselves home again.

Sunday we planned on leaving first thing in the morning for Ottawa so as to have time to shop (with a car!) Sunday afternoon, but after watching a movie Saturday night (Monsters, Inc., which I had seen but Randal had not) and only getting a so-so night's sleep, we decided to take our time Sunday and only ended up leaving Thornhill at about 12:30. Nice drive back - Rion was only sick 3 times between Thornhill and Oshawa (about an hour's drive) and then he slept most of the rest of the way.

And that was my weekend. Nothing interesting has happened since, and probably nothing much interesting will happen ever again. But if anything does, I'll be sure to let you all know!

* Digital Photography for Dummies. I can post the title since she of course opened her presents Friday night (forgot to mention that at the same time as the chocolate cake). She has recently gotten herself a digital camera (which she can use underwater too, oooooh, and I had just found out on Thursday that my dad was planning to give her Adobe Photoshop for her b-day (there's a chapter on the program in the book), so it was perfect! My mom is also the weird kind of person who will read a book like that from cover to cover. Really, she should have been a librarian.