Why dinner is never just dinner..

Here's what happens when skittle through my home town with just enough time to have a couple of friends over for an innocent little dinner*:

Bridget explains the Meaning of the Universe to Amy ... Amy seems to take this in stride.

Sadly, I wasn't paying attention so I can't pass it along to you, mea culpa.

Greg is hit up for computer help by everyone he knows ...

Look at my parents' awestruck faces!

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, I get a little happy and ballance an oven mit on my head.

I'm a classy dame.

Don't worry, I'm back in Canada now, and I'm so stressed out with work that no major antics should occur in the next few weeks. I'll have to go back to posting weird things the Intern finds for us ...

*to all my friends whom I didn't get a chance to see .... uh ... What?? I wasn't in town?!?!?! Look, over there! Something Shiny!!

Every household should have one:

And you can make him yourself!!!*

Wheeeeee!!!!!

*But, sadly, only if you have 2£ ... which I think applies only to Lissa and Dave at this point.

Reading Week

In good old Canadia we don't get Spring Break, we get a "Reading Week". As far as I can tell, this is the same thing as having a Spring Break, but involves lots more guilt. Fun.

Thanks to the Intern, today I was able to successfully avoid reading by doing this:

Not as good as the real thing ... but strangely hypnotic.

I should have bought my computer in Canada ...

The Intern points out a serious design flaw in American computers:

What's a girl to do now! Without this key I can't properly type Canadian!

Horray for visitors...

... especially in February!!

Honestly, I think the only people nuts enough to visit Toronto in the middle of winter just to see me would have to be my parents. We had a great weekend, in which I competely ignored my woes of learning German and reading about the Carolingian Renaissance, and did lots of tourism and ate yummy food instead.

First, we took a tour of the St. George Campus (the scene of my academic exploits) and wandered into all the historic buildings.

Here the Intern re-lives his school days of Yore:

I tried to get them to eat Poutine (french fries covered with gravy and cheese and the only truly "Canadian" food I could think of) but I guess the truck you get them from was a little too sketchy for their taste.

As far as I know, no serious injury has been associated with the Poutine from here:

Then we clearly had to go to the Shoe Museum ... because its mere existence demanded it.

Mom is pretty confident that her shoes will measure up:

Sadly her boots, though very trendy, were almost immediately eclipsed in coolness by the Pope shoes:

We also went shopping in China Town, and were amused and disturbed by a great many things

I love the expressions on their faces...

(note: we have no idea what the orange colored meat actually was)

And these are only a few of the delights to which you may all be expected to submit if you ever have the tragic misfortune of being coerced into visiting me in the lovely city of Toronto. Um .... please??

Canadia ... scandalized!!

Okay ... so I assume everyone has heard of the NHL gambling scandal unfolding before our eager eyes. As one can probably imagine, Canadians are being driven to distraction by this unfortunate development. But this raises a question for me ...

I've never really been a Hockey Fan* but I really need to know if the following factoid is a "Canadian" thing: On the news here, they actually refer to Wayne Gretzky as "The Great One". They don't even say his name. That's seriously all they call him: The Great One.

Is this normal?? Have I been missing something?? Or am I really living in a strange and foreign land!?!?

Hail Oh Mighty Great One!

*Shhhh, Don't tell the Canadians, knowledge like this this could endanger my otherwise happy existence in Ontario ....