Congrats to Ronda, who won Strength of a Gamma (Pack Discipline, Book 2) by Kim Dare! Strength of a Gamma will be released by Total-E-Bound on Monday, November 8.
I am home.
“It’s about time you came home, Mom!” -Chaos
Category Archives: See the Sights
San Francisco Snapshots
“I don’t think Mom is coming home, big kitty.” -Mayhem
At long last, one (mostly) for the knitters!
Brigitte and I spent a lot of time walking through the Beaches, which is a lovely neighborhood in Toronto near Lake Ontario. *scrabbling sound*
There we go – Lake Ontario! The first Toronto yarn shop we visited was the Naked Sheep.
I do love their naked-butt sheep logo. Just down the street, we discovered…
…Wild Earth Cafe, which had some tasty gf treats!
The next yarn store we visited was Romni Wools a few days later, when Lorraine volunteered to show us some sights. We just peeked into Lettuce Knit (we already knew we’d be coming back for Knit Night), then hopped into the car and checked out Romni Wools.
All I can really say about Romni is “Whoa.” I’ve never seen so much yarn in a single store before. Obviously, I was too overwhelmed to take a picture. When Brigitte and I had recovered a bit (from yarn fumes and spelunking in the basement), we headed over to the Purple Purl.
Isn’t this an amazing dress?! I’d never knit it or wear it, but it was pretty cool to see:
Purchases? What purchases? … Look! Over there! A streetcar!
“I feel very philosophical today. Hmm. I think… I feel really sleepy.” -Chaos
What would possess anyone to want to go over these in a barrel?!
Because really? That’s not something that seemed like a good idea to me while I was at Niagara Falls (Canadian side).
Here’s the second half of the falls, by the American side:
And I didn’t know this little tidbit about Father Hennepin:
Hmm. I have to hope that he discovered St. Anthony Falls before he saw Niagara Falls, because our wee falls would’ve been so very, very disappointing in comparison. Trivia: I live a few blocks away from Hennepin Avenue in Uptown Minneapolis.
The city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, definitely had an Atlantic City feel to it, although that wasn’t so obvious from down by the Falls themselves.
“Don’t you think this elaborate ruse has gone far enough, Mom? You and I both know that nothing exists beyond the hallway outside the condo door besides the vet’s office. Why you wanted to spend so much time at the vet’s office, I have no idea.” -Chaos
Yesterday in pictures
How’s everyone doing?! I’m more than a little afraid to check my Google Reader at this point… 🙂 I’ve been having a wonderful time with Brigitte and the Little Dudes, and meeting Lorraine Tuesday was fantabulous (as is she, of course!).
Yesterday evening, Brigitte and I went on a little jaunt on the streetcar.
We had dinner at Fran’s…
and then walked over to Kensington Market.
We had a very specific goal.
It was great fun to meet Merika and Michelle (below), along with Dr. Steph, Megan, and Molly (not pictured).
And that other Stephanie, of course. Nope, I’m not giving you any context for this picture. Isn’t it more fun this way? Stephanie, please forgive me for the maniacal glint that Picasa seems to have added (or merely enhanced?!) in this photo…
“Mom? Ok, the joke’s kind of stale now. You can come out from wherever you’re hiding, Mom. Mom????”
Quick post, no pictures
Made it to Toronto Friday afternoon and am having a blast hanging out with Brigitte! And how fun is it that Brigitte expanded her family while I was here?!
Update on vacation in bullets:
- I didn’t get a picture of the silo with the ginormous inflated jack-o-lantern on top while I was driving, but wished I had.
- I’m still not over the fact that I’m using exotic Canadian money. Why the heck is US money so monochromatic and boring?
- Toronto is lovely, although I’m really not sure how many streetcar pictures a person really needs.
- How did I miss the fact that Lake Ontario is right there?! Brigitte and I are going to walk down to the beach tomorrow.
- We had some tasty gf treats at a new cafe on Queen Street yesterday. Yum!
- We also ate fabulous salads at the Green Eggplant. Perfect salads. Yum!
- Rumour has it we’re going on a yarn crawl with Lorraine on Tuesday. Looking forward to that.
- Gandalf, Atticus, and Mae all seem to like me. I am honored that the reclusive Mae seeks me out for pets!
- Probably I will be sore from laughing so much with Brigitte.
- I started a new sock and am half done with the foot. More details on that soon.
- I have introduced Brigitte to the wonder of Lakefront Brewery’s New Grist gf beer. We have a mission to find it in Toronto now.
More later!
Lake Monster of the Isles
Flee! Flee! There’s a monster in Lake of the Isles! Save yourselves while you still can!
Whew! That was close…
…or maybe not so much.
Hey, has anyone seen Mayhem?
“Hee hee!” -Mayhem
Of statues and fangs
At approximately this time of year, eight or nine years ago, a friend from near Boston and I decided to meet up in New Orleans for a long weekend away from winter. You’ve seen some of those pictures before, such as my pictures of egrets from the zoo, and me very hungover. Here are a couple more photos of some famous landmarks.
And of course, when one thinks of New Orleans, one thinks of vampires, right? 😉
“Well, I might not know what they are, but they are kind of fun to play with.” -Chaos
“Gimme!” -Mayhem
“Gimme gimme!!” -Mayhem
A burro and a very cute tummy
Since the computer is mostly, but not completely set up (I am able to post from it again!), I’m afraid I’m going to have to post the burro photo (Black Hills, September 2004, as the burro sticks its head through my car window to see what might be edible) as threatened, along with an exceptionally cute picture of Mayhem’s tummy in an attempt to distract you from the lack of any content whatsoever. Whew!
“Hmm, I wonder what a BMW tastes like?” -Burro
“What the heck are you doing now, Mom?!” -Mayhem
Infestation!
Guess I’ll add Excelsior to my list of places to avoid until they get that nasty spider infestation under control… (Get out while you can, Deb!) (Really, I had no idea it was going to turn into Spider Week here at SoC.)
Anyone want to bet that they have very few parking violations? Or even museum guests?! 😉
“On second thought, those giant spiders look more like something the big kitty would enjoy. I’ll just hide under the covers until they’re done with him and go away… I mean, until he’s got them under control.” -Mayhem
Rebecca is having surgery today. Please keep her in your thoughts and send her lots of healing vibes! Thanks.