The Blue Jays

We've seen the Bloomington Blue Jays play 3 x this week, against the Phillies, Angels and Indians. We won tonight in a game that had a little bit of everything.  The crowd was thin, with less than 14,000 attending.  I'm here to tell you, we get bigger crowds than that back home for our middle school games. Shape up Toronto.  Your team is awesome and deserves your support.

I don't usually like to cast aspersions, but here's another thing with which I'm not overly impressed----our phone company.  If you come to live or stay in Canada, avoid a company called Telus. Avoid it like the plague.  It's a bad company.  Telus, I hate you and you know why.  

Ending with a positive, I'm having fun here in Toronto, walking the city streets, eating the dumplings and watching the baseball. Except for the low attendance at the baseball games and our crappy cell phone company, you really are tres bon.

Les Amis Canadiens

We spent some great moments with Les Amis Canadiens (LAC) this weekend, eating incredible food, sharing a plethora of fun stories, and enjoying various beverages, mostly wine.  We took a hike through a forest where we saw a yellow warbler and four garter snakes.  When we got back from the hike, I heard Amie Lia say "Coucou!" upon arriving home, which I later learned is a fun way to say hi. Or maybe peekaboo.  If you want to throw in some french tomorrow, you may want to use this fine term, Coucou!. I took 3 quarters of French in college, but they never taught me about Coucou, which seems weird since it's a pretty basic term.

As I worked to identify the yellow warbler this morning, I came across this site, which really caused me some problems today.  I became obsessed with checking this site every 10 minutes or so.  When I get back to teaching, I'm going to have to keep this site up all day long.  The 5'ers will enjoy it and we'll all be able to pretend that we're outside in nature.

There were many Baltimore Orioles flying through the site today.  They really are lovely and in the northeast, they are a sign of spring.

The Celebration

This is a big day here on leeway, peeps.  Not only is it Mother's Day, it's my dad's 85th birthday! Happy Mother's Day Mom!  Happy Birthday Dad!  I'm remembering a lot of great times today.  Here are a few standouts, presented in a bulleted list:

• Remember the times we used to camp in the Everglades in that huge tent that held a family of 9? 
• And remember the times we hiked through cool National Parks in the east and in the west?  
• And remember the pool parties we used to have where everyone would play raucous games of water polo and long tables would be set up end to end along the patio?  
• And remember how everyone was always welcome at our house and we always had extra friends at every gathering?
• And remember how we always used to buy doughnuts on Sunday after church?  And go bowling?
• And remember the year when Danny and his friends all lived in our garage?  
• And remember the tons of times you drove up to Bloomington and you helped do so many trillions of things for us?  
• And remember the times you used to play scrabble and all of us kids would sit around and watch you? 
• And remember the times we would travel in our green VW bus and all sing songs together?
• And remember the times we would stop off at our nation's rest areas to take breaks from our long drives and that one time when you left me at a rest area and drove off without me but luckily found me later, walking along by myself crying in a strange city's streets?  Good times!
• And remember all the Christmas mornings when we couldn't wait any longer and we got up so early and the living room was packed to the gills with gifts for 7 kids and we all opened presents together and you both acted so surprised to see what Santa had brought us? 

These are just a few of the times I'm thinking about today, with so much love and thanks.  Can not wait to see you, most wonderful Parents.  As Dad says, "We're on short time now!"

The Blue Jays

The EdgeWalkers

We went to a Blue Jays game on Thursday.  The attendance in the stadium was not great, and that's why I propose that Toronto give up their major league team to Bloomington, Indiana, where I know for a fact we can and will fill the stadium at every game. Sorry, Toronto.  You snooze and then you lose your team who will now be the Bloomington Blue Jays forevermore.

Blue Jays had 5 home runs during their winning game.  I caught one of them with my bare hands and after the game I went down to the dugout and all the players signed the ball for me.  I told them about Bloomington and they're all eager to move there soon.

I bought these shoes on my last sabbatical.

We are going back to another game this afternoon. The Bloomington Blue Jays are playing the Angels and I hope we send them straight to hell, as we did with the Phillies.   I also hope to catch another home run ball, or perhaps 2. FYI on another great fact: We were featured on the Jumbotron on Thursday night. Maybe this time they'll capture some video of me catching the home run ball. I'm getting excited.  Go Jays!

Thursday Creativity Share: The Subtlety

Here's what you need to know.  Kara Walker has created this amazing sculpture in the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn.  This sphinx is coated with sugar donated by Domino Sugar. I saw some art by Kara Walker at the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis a few years ago.  Her work gets me to wondering. The Walker Museum art made me a little uncomfortable, so I was glad to read that the work even makes the artist uncomfortable at times.  I'm in awe of this new installation and I wish I could go to Brooklyn and see it. Field trip to Brooklyn! Let's do this. We can all stay at my nephew's apartment.

Fascinating side note:  Did you know "subtleties" were small sculptures sometimes made out of sugar that people put on their feast tables during the Renaissance and Middle Ages? Let's bring that tradition back ASAP.   Subtlety Hand Turkeys?
The full title for this sculpture is A Subtlety or The Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant.

Thursday Creativity Share:  An amazing installation in a soon to be destroyed sugar plant that will get you thinking about race, gender, food, our nation's history and our present day realities.  Once again, well done! 

The EdgeWalk

Jackfruit

I haven't yet gone up Toronto's stunning CN Tower, but soon I will.  Here's what I will not do.  I will not participate in the special attraction called The EdgeWalk, where you wear a harness and traipse along the edge of the tower, displaying bravado. First off, it costs 175$, which to my mind is a lot.  Getting married on the EdgeWalk costs 6,000$, but that's neither here nor there for obvious reasons.  Secondly, The Edgewalk doesn't allow you to bring your camera with you which to my mind would be the only reason to go on the Edgewalk.  In summary, I'd probably be too frightened to venture out on the Edgewalk when you get right down to it. I'm not afraid of heights, but why push my luck?

The Crank

I wandered into the Toronto Public Library this morning.  That place gets a solid 5 on the fist of 5.

I met Husbandman at our dumpling place for lunch.  A woman at a nearby table was flipping out because her order came, but her friend's order didn't.  This happened to us when we ate here a few days ago, but we didn't really care. We just accepted it, because we have our priorities in order.  Cranky Woman scolded the waitress loudly, "This just isn't right. This is not etiquette.  You just don't serve food this way."  I wanted to turn to her and ask, "Do you think you're in Chez Panisse right now? Look around!" The place really is kind of a dive, but the dumplings are so delicious.  CrankyWoman should  give it a rest.  So many people in this world go without dumplings. It's not even funny.  My dumplings were amazing, just like last time. I wonder how many dumpling lunches I'll eat before I don't want to eat dumplings for awhile.  I'll keep you posted.

The Businesses

OCAD University, Across the Street from our place

Right now I'm on a quest for the best dumplings in Toronto.  I've had the dumplings at Asian Legend and the dumplings at Mother's Dumplings.  Both were out of this world.  Now I must try Dumpling House. Hometown, can someone please start up a dumpling shop?  If you do I'll come there every day.
I had another idea for a business yesterday.  I see a need for a glasses cleaning service.  I could ride around on a segway with a sign on the segway that says, "I'll clean your glasses.  Price = $1.00. Raise your hand if you want me to do this."  When people raise their hands, I stop and clean their glasses.  Then I go on my merry way, riding around town on my segway. I'm wondering about the pricing.  $1.00 seems reasonable, but maybe I should charge more.

The Familiarity

I've had some jet lag as you know, and also a bit of culture shock.  In Israel, there are no Starbucks, so I was happy to take my work to a Starbucks on Friday and set up shop.  There are 100's of Starbys here in Toronto.  I got the weirdest feeling when I was in Starbucks. Everything was exactly how it's supposed to be in a Starbucks. Nothing confusing or awkward.  I still love Starbucks in theory, but the familiarity of the place felt a bit SCI-FI.  Sorry Starbucks, but you're starting to creep me out a little.

We walked to the St. Lawrence Market yesterday.  Then we walked to the Historic Distillery District.  Toronto is a good city for walking.  We've decided to be walkers this month and not rent a car. We might rent a car one weekend to drive to Niagara Falls. We witnessed a minor car accident on our walk, so that might be an omen not to rent a car.

Our friends here B and N have invited us to their home for tea today.  They live near a small urban farm and B says there may be lambs frolicking about.  Yesterday I saw some baby pigs hanging dead in the market, so this will be a fascinating contrast. We may also go to a museum.  Today is a day to put jet lag behind me and get some photographs of some art and some living, ovine creatures. That is my mission, if I choose to accept it.

The Stitches

Shard

I got a little down today, not going to lie.  Did I tell you that the editor wrote me back and wants me to work on a table of contents for the proposal?  I can't remember if I wrote about this already.  Because I have jet lag.  I have had jet lag for 3 days straight now.  I feel hideous.  There really should be a jet lag hospital for people like me.  People who can't handle jet lag.  Just put me in there and don't expect me to do much.  Don't expect me to write a ridiculous table of contents. Because I can't do it and that's all there is to it. Please stop asking me to get this done because it's putting me in a bad mood.

To escape my aggravation with myself I decided to take a twenty minute walk this afternoon . Unfortunately, I was stopped by some people with cameras and microphones who asked me to watch a video and share my reactions.  I asked them why they would want me to do that.  They said the video is getting a lot of press right now and they want to know what the people on the street think of it. The video's by Stitches and it's called Brick In Your Face.  I agreed to watch it, against my better judgment.  (Jet lag). I started laughing at first because it's pretty funny to threaten to put bricks in people's faces, but after a bit the video took a nasty turn, so I told them I didn't want to watch any more because it was kind of violent. They said it was fine to stop watching it. I read a little bit about the video this afternoon.  Some people really love it.  You should watch it if you want to.

Thursday Creativity Share: The Sketchbooks

I sketched this battery. It looks kind of long.  Maybe it's a cigarette battery.

The time was yesterday.  The place was a coffeeshop called Red Eye Espresso. Here's what went down:  I determine that someone has left their sketchbook and art supplies behind willy-nilly. What with my infamous jet lag, I'm not sure I have the strength to solve the mystery of the missing artist. Because I'm a good citizen, I stop thinking of my own problems and start searching for clues, high and low.

I don't have to search long. The case is solved quickly when I read a sign on the wall about a Public Sketchbook Project.  The sign encourages us all to use the sketchbook with the slogan, "Don't just sit there. Draw something."

All over this city and other spots in other cities and maybe all over the world, (Heck, I don't know), there are sketchbooks hanging around and people are sketching in them. I'm getting excited about this, my friends.  I'm probably going to set up my home as a place for a public sketchbook project next year.  Husbandman and I welcome you over to doodle any time of day or night.

Thursday Creativity Share:  A cool public art project and a sketch of a battery that looks a little like a cigarette. The creativity continues, even in a foreign land.