Big Tuna

Last night I got to see the season premiere of The Office. YAY! I do love me some Office. And now it's cool to say that you like the U.S. version better than the original British version. Or at least, I say it's cool to say that. Also, here is a cool article about how The Office has been translated to different countries. But, I digress. The weird thing was while I was watching it last night (Aww, Jim and Pam...) I realized that I was watching the NBC feed rather than the Canadian feed. If a show is broadcast on any of the Canadian channels, it doesn't matter if you are watching on a Canadian channel (like CTV, Global or CityTV) or one of the U.S. Buffalo affiliates, you will watch the Canadian feed with Canadian commercials and the like. So, I was getting U.S. commercials and NBC promos and it was kinda weird. DH has said that living in Canada is like being separated from the U.S. by a window, we can see what's going on, but we can't actually touch anything. A nice analogy. I'm also taking some photos around the area today. I hope to get some pics from the Hairspray shoot, but nothing really interesting is happening yet. But I know I'll catch something exciting soon!

In Theatres in 2007

So, I'm walking home the other day and I notice that there is a lot of work going on in the less pleasant areas of the neighborhood near the studio. I was quite pleased because the neighborhood needs a little sprucing up and could use a fresh coat of paint to tidy it up a bit. Cut to yesterday, when again I'm walking home from work and I notice two things. One, the sprucing up consists of paper bricks pasted over the crappy brickwork of the existing buildings. Hmmm. That doesn't seem like any Urban Renewal program that I've ever heard of. What, did that cost the city $2.45? And two, there was a person on a forklift painting a mural on the side of another building. He was writing the word, "Baltimore" when it hit me. They're making the area look like Baltimore for the new Hairspray movie musical. Oooooh, that makes sense. I had heard that John Travolta and Queen Latifa were shooting some scenes a few blocks away from my house, so now it all fits together. Well, it turns out that DH knew way more about this shoot and I could've even guessed. Apparently, the buildings are supposed to be the main character's neighborhood in the movie and they will be shooting day and night, including dance sequences in the middle of the street. I wonder how they will manage to pull this off since it is a neighborhood where people live and work and, allegedly, according to my co-worker, Miss Bella, smoke crystal meth. At any rate, I hope to get some pics taken soon. A HAIRSPRAY FACT! Hairspray's Broadway incarnation won eight Tony Awards in 2003, including best musical, best lead actor and actress in a musical and best original score.

Yaaaaarrrr!

Yar, me landlubbers! Today just happens to be one of my favorite holidays: International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Talking like a pirate is fun to do and absolutely free of charge. This year will be my first TLaPD without my fellow scurvy dog, Deenie Weenie, but I know that she'll be keeping the day in her heart. To especially honor TLaPD I will announce here that The Boy will, in fact, be a pirate this year for Halloween. I already got his costume and it's super cute. It'll be fun this year, because he can walk himself from house to house and I can still steal his candy with impunity! Speaking of The Boy, here is a picture of him and his Aunt Freyapup and Grandma when they were up here visiting this Summer. What a cutie! A CANADIAN FACT! There is supposedly buried treasure in Oak Island, Nova Scotia. Known as the Money Pit, people have tried for centuries to find the alleged pirate treasure located on the island with no luck. As per Wikipedia: "There has been wide speculation about what the pit might contain. Most suggestions include treasure buried by either Captain Kidd, British troops during the American revolution, Spanish sailors from a wrecked galleon, the Inca or even exiled Knights Templar hiding the Holy Grail in the pit. The notorious pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) claimed he buried his treasure "where none but Satan and myself can find it," leading to inevitable suggestions that he dug the pit, but there is no evidence to support this. Perhaps the most far-fetched theory is that English philosopher Francis Bacon used the pit to hide documents proving him to be the author of William Shakespeare's plays. The pit may contain nothing at all. Since the 1970s fewer people have believed the pit has any connection to pirates, due to the massive scale of the subterranean structure and its similarity to other natural formations found in the area."

Goin' Home

I'm so excited! I just finished buying airline tickets for our trip to the States for Thanksgiving. American Thanksgiving. I have to clarify now. We were originally going to drive the entire 12 hour trip, but Air Canada has a deal for $98 each way into Boston. That is an awesome deal. It's almost worth it to pay for the tickets just so we can say we got a great deal. Anyway, it will be easier on the boy (and us!) and we can spend most of our vacation in a calmer state of mind. That's the plan, anyway. Another picture: Every morning on my way to work, I see these women performing Tai Chi in the park. Since I live near a large Chinese community, I see quite a bit of people performing Tai Chi in my neighborhood. It answers the question why whenever I see older Asian people walking about, they always seem to be in better shape than other elderly ethnic groups. It's just an observation that I have. I have no scientific evidence to back any of this up. Nobody quote me in your term papers. Since DH got all kinds of new equipment to upgrade his computer, I think it'll be The Boy and I on our own for the weekend. I want to take some more pictures of T.O. and show you guys some more neat things from up here. Wish me luck!

"Don't Read Enough?"

Sadly, it looks like this blog has been reduced to weekly posts for the time being. Sigh. At any rate, life still goes on up here for the American family. Yesterday, I went for my physician interview. It can be pretty hard to find a doctor in Toronto that is accepting new patients, but I managed to find someone and she was pretty nice. She just asked me a few questions about my family history and then I went to the lab, as she ordered a couple of blood tests. She also gave two months worth of samples of (ahem) contraceptive pills (ahem). I can't imagine a doctor in the U.S. just handing out two month's worth of a prescription drug. But, things are different here. Anyway, I go in next month for my actual physical. It's been raining quite a bit lately. I taught The Boy the words "rain" and "raining" this morning, which I think will prove to be quite useful. Right now he just says "water" which is also correct, if not exactly accurate. Right now the city is all atwitter with the Toronto International Film Festival. When I was driving through the city on Sunday, there were all sorts of people camped out in front of the Four Seasons hotel hoping to get a look at a celebrity. I don't know if they were waiting for someone in particular, or anyone famous. I still have more pictures that I've taken around my protective neighborhood bubble. Here are a couple: Here is a billboard that I've seen all over the city. There is supposedly another billboard with Bill Clinton instead of Bush, but it doesn't make much sense. And, I've only seen it on the simplyaudiobooks.ca website, but it's not on the site anymore. If that wasn't enough to give you an idea what Canadians think of GWB, here is another ad I saw during my travels: It's for Lakehead University. If you can't read the bottom, it says "Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't mean you're smart. Choosing Lakehead does." Take from that what you will.

Fun in the Fall

Well, the Labor Day weekend has come and gone and Fall came slamming down on Toronto with a mighty force. I'm a big fan of Fall and I'm glad to see it. The air is crisp, the winds are cool and the leaves are slowly changing color. I love it. While most of the Labor Day weekend was pretty soggy, the actual Labor Day was dry enough so that we could get out of the house and we went to High Park. High Park is a very large park in Toronto, almost 400 acres, with all sorts of treats to enjoy. There is a playground, of course, but also a zoo, a children's garden, a big swimming pool, a "trackless train," lots of sports fields and more than one-third of the park is in a natural state, which is kind of nice. There are also open-air stage plays and outdoor movies in the summer. At the playground, while The Boy was swinging in the baby swing, I decided to swing on the regular swing, which I guess I haven't done since I was in High School. It was a weird feeling, almost foreign. While we were there, an organic Farmer's Market was going on and we stopped in to get The Boy an apple, a favorite snack of his. Because The Boy is so cute, the cashier gave the apple to him, gratis. I always knew that his adorability would provide us with big payoffs. Like free fruit. Speaking of The Boy, The Boy's speaking has greatly improved. He can say "Memere" and "Pepere, " much to the delight of my mother. He can also say the "c" in "cat" and he calls elephants, "Emmy" after "Emily Elephant" in one of his toys. But the highlight, is that he's starting to say is name, or "Na-nan" actually. But points for trying. Fortunately, for him, he's still cute. A CANADIAN FACT! In High Park, the animal paddocks have always been one of the most popular attractions, dating back to 1890 when deer were the first animals kept. Today, you will find domestic and exotic species including bison, llamas, peacocks, deer, highland cattle and sheep.

The Conspiracy Conspiracy

I don't know what it is lately, but I've been finding tons of stuff on the ground. I've picked up nearly 10 coupons just laying there and today I found a receipt from the gas station that I can use at the grocery store for $1.08! It's like I found $1.08 just sitting on the sidewalk! I may be a trash-picker, but I'm a trash-picker that's over a dollar richer. When you walk a lot you tend to notice things that you would never see while driving in a car. I saw a series of flyers in the park this week for a website called Toronto Mums. Someone had written in red pen "conspiracy." Well, now my interest was piqued. A conspiracy, you say? Are they like some kind of Freemason offshoot? Do these Toronto Mums wield more power than previously thought? Are they the ones holding back the electric car? Well, today I noticed that a flyer for a roofer also had a "conspiracy" written on it in the same handwriting with the same color red pen. Sadly, it looks like there is not conspiracy, but just a bored and/or crazy person who likes to write on flyers. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I wasn't a little bit disappointed. I was all set to get my black robe with matching toddler black robe for The Boy.