July 3, 2006

Even my toenails love long weekends

This weekend was out to Erin’s on Friday night to see her beautiful apartment at Chester and Danforth, and to eat homemade sherbet. She also gave me by birthday present, which was one of her Blythe photos against a streetcar background and it’s amazing. Saturday morning was spent reading, and then watching World Cup. We don’t have cable and our game (with Chinese commentary and the volume down low) was a few seconds ahead of everyone else’s we think, and upon each goal scored on England, the world outside was silent for a brief eternity, and then all at once, I felt like we were in the middle of a stadium. At the Portugal victory, we jumped on our bikes to get out of the neighbourhood (and the horns were blasting well into the night) and cycled to High Park, which was sort of like cycling into a magical world and we had enormous fun. Cycled home in time to get dinner ready, for Katie and Alan were coming over. A fantastic night with them, and we had an excuse to use the cake stand Jennie gave me for my birthday and it was wonderful. On Sunday morning, Stuart cooked the closest thing to a full English we could manage in our meat-free kitchen (eggs, beans and toast) and it was delicious, and we read the paper and hung about until hopped on our bikes again (I feel like a character from ET except we do not have BMXs) and sailed through Trinity Bellwoods Park down to Queen Street, Type Books specifically, where I spent my birthday gift certificiates.
I got Cathedral by Raymond Carver, Angel by Elizabeth Taylor (as recommended by Hilary Mantel), and When I Was Young and in My Prime by Alayna Munce. I was happy with my selections. It was very fair, I think. A Canadian, American and a Brit. Two novels and a short story collection. And I was good enough to support a male author, as well as the two women. They’re on my shelf now, just waiting to be read.
After that we went to Caban. Now I HATE Caban, except that the last time I was there (which was actually the first time), it seemed to be full of treasures and also it is going out of business, so everything was on sale. I thought I would come home with discounted treasures. Was not to be. I have never been in a store in which I wanted so few things. Everything was ugly, cheap or both. And what wasn’t was always over forty dollars. I wanted stainless steel measuring spoons but felt forty dollars was a bit much. Similarly for the Nigella Lawson garlic grater. Or the 80 dollar teapot. Or the hideous overpriced vases. We did find a book of six glasses marked at $5 however, which seemed reasonable. And we needed some glasses. And we were so desparate to make our trek to Caban somewhat worthwhile, we decided to brave the queue. Twenty minutes later, at the check out. Cashier rings them up, and oh yes, they’re five dollars per glass, which comes to $30, which I guess I should have known, but I am just way too accustomed to Wal Mart. Needless to say, we left.
And thereafter was Scrabble and Wine on the porch, reading, dinner and watching About a Boy, which we love. And today I have to do some work, but we have a rooftop dinner scheduled tonight at the home of the marvelous Carolyn.
All in all, it has been a very good weekend.