Ok, a long time since my last post. Sorry! I've had a busy spell at work, though it's settled down now and the next few weeks are looking relatively sane.

Hard to believe September's almost over, and fall is here. The temperature plummeted this week, pretty much right at the official first day of fall, just to let us know that summer really was over. But what a long, long summer it was... Really nice. The leaves have started turning, and the weather is cool and crisp. I love autumn!

Lots of little news items to report. Two weeks ago, Anne and I went down to Roy Thomson Hall for to see a Film Festival showing of a spanish film, "El otro lado de la cama" (The Wrong Side of the Bed), a wonderfully fresh and sweet little sex comedy. Not a sophisticated film, but the characters were all sympathetic and easy on the eyes, and the plot was a lot of fun. Plus, at seemingly random intervals the actors broke into hilarious musical dance routines, which effectively dispelled any sense that the situation was at all serious. All in all, a great little movie, well worth your time.

Last weekend we rented A.I., something of an antithesis to The Wrong Side of the Bed. A big special effects budget, over-serious attempts to moralize, an overly complicated plot (but with big, unexplained holes), and bad acting. We didn't even bother going through the second disks bonus materials -- it was basically poor. Which is a shame, because it could have been good: American science fiction has a lot to say about defining and respecting intelligence, although with a strong bias towards anthropomorphic forms. It's clear Isaac Asimov's robot books were a source of ideas for A.I., but his approach relied on clear text, uncomplicated characters, and a healthy respect for the reader's intelligence, all things missing in the movie. A shame.

It was a pretty big weekend for Anne. Roy Thomson Hall, where she works, had a massive gala reopening on Saturday. They spent 22 weeks and $20 Million (Canadian) on renovating the acoustics of the hall, and Saturday was the first time that the public could hear the results. The Toronto Symphony and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir pulled out some "big bang" music, and the sound was, in fact, greatly improved over the rather poor qualities of the last 20 years. Anne's patron services teams did an excellent job with an absolutely full house, and the champagne and desserts afterwards capped a very successful event.

Sunday RTH followed up the gala with an open house, so Anne had to go back to work. I went off to church, and we met up afterwards at a garden party for the choir at Sheila MacAdams' house. It was a lot of fun: a potluck lunch, a beautiful garden, and a game of croquet.

Coming up: Friday is our first opera concert for the Canadian Opera Company's season. And, weather permitting, we're going sailing with Bruce Hill on Saturday.
posted by Tom at 10:36 AM | link | (0) comments

Good morning! Bright and early out here at Pearson International. Anne and I enjoyed a lovely weekend visiting the parents. We stopped first in Georgetown to have afternoon tea with her folks, then drove up Highway 7 to Guelph and stayed overnight with my parents. Everything went swimmingly, and the weather was lovely (though a bit hot).

This week is going to be a bit of a grind for me. I have a lot of tasks due at work... Long hours ahead! Hopefully come next week I'll be in a bit better shape and can relax a little more.

I hope everyone's doing well, and look forward to seeing you soon!
posted by Tom at 7:25 AM | link | (0) comments

6:20 on a Friday afternoon, and I'm still in the office. Partially, yes, because Anne has to work late tonight so there's no particular rush to get home, but also, I'm working too hard...

A big weekend coming up. Tomorrow we're picking up a rental car and heading out to Georgetown to visit Anne's parents. Then around dinner time we'll amble along to Guelph, to stay overnight with my folks. It looks like the weather's going to be warm and sunny for the whole weekend, so it should be a great trip. Hopefully we'll get in some hiking. Other than that, not much planned.
posted by Tom at 6:47 PM | link | (0) comments

Happy September, everyone! 'Tis the end of the summer, psychologically speaking. And a lovely end it was, in Toronto, anyway: a nice, bright, sunny, warm weekend, perfect for puttering about town.

Saturday was shopping day: over to the Eaton Centre for a failed attempt at getting picture frames and a successful attempt to get new shoes and trousers from Harry Rosen, then up to Anne's place to feed the cat (Scotty) before stopping in at the Loblaws and hauling home food for Sunday. Dinner on Sunday evening was a nice mix of Usual Suspects (Joyce, Patrick, me) and other friends (Anne, Pete, Anne's friend Laurie). Feast your virtual taste buds on the menu. Anne made a gaspacho soup, then I served the main course (grilled NY steaks with salsa verde, grilled corn, orzo with tomato and oregano) and dessert (miniature icebox cakes, basically chocolate wafers separated by layers of sweet whipped cream, with a layer of raspberries, all glazed with more whipped cream and garnished with grated semi-sweet chocolate). Yum.

It was a lovely evening, and beautiful outside, so we stayed out and played Pictionary, guys vs. girls. The ladies got off to a superb start, clearing half of the board in their first turn, but we came back and were (briefly) in the lead after 3/4 of the board. It ended up in a neck-and-neck race to the finish, with both of our teams going for the final All Play category... but in the end, the ladies won. Must be that feminine intuition. (You should have seen the round where they got the word "spending" in 9 seconds flat.) :-)

Monday I played tennis with Pete, and despite his overall fitness level I managed to beat him 6-2. He hasn't played in a couple of years, so he's pretty rusty, but I felt pretty good about my serve and general ability to hit the ball over the net. Still, I was tiring much faster than he was so I'm sure if we'd kept going he would have had my number before long.

In other news, my parents are back from England safe and sound, and Anne and I are going to visit them next weekend. Should be fun...
posted by Tom at 7:42 PM | link | (0) comments