Sausages. Just sausages.

The full Monty will have to wait.  After much anticipation, Brunch was postponed yet again.  Scratchy throat and sneezing have become the norm. After a night of zero sleep, I am even more curmudgeonly than usual.  We are two weeks into the New Year and already looking ahead to the next statutory holiday.  Thankfully, forces conspired to declare Family Day available to all.

But the world has bigger problems.  Sunday was a day of action to counter the coming inauguration--marches on Washington, pink hats, Writers and Readers Resist. Very pleased to hear that Mr. Anka has withdrawn his services.  No one needs to listen to a version of My Way that has been specifically tailored for the event. Stellar performance from Baldwin—and SNL writers—Saturday night. And not to mention a call for Hinckley to give sober though to an encore.  A marathon session of House of Cards II suggests impeachment shouldn’t be all that difficult. We don’t need an assassination attempt.

Streep’s acceptance speech carried me and a lot of people through the week.  Not even the threat of 10 cm of snow could dampen the mood. Some felt she was just as bad as Trump in calling out Kovaleski’s history to get her point across. I have no issues with celebrities using their platform to express their opinion.  

As a counter measure to January 20 and a bleak day for last Sunday’s news—bombings, death by bus—I read Healey’s The Drawer Boy, again.

You carried me—and all that—around all this time?

The snow turned out to be a non-starter and we have endured rain and cloud ever since.  Come back sun, all is forgiven.  Need a sun lamp and brass band to get me up in the morning.  I am better to suited to an equatorial climate.  The rain forecast did not stop the property manager from dumping a truckload of salt on the driveway.  This is why there’s salt shortage; it has nothing to do with snow and ice.

Things do still happen north of the border.  Pleased to see Dion shuffled out as he lacks the social graces and spine for the position of Foreign Minister.  Will the Woman in Red tame the Orange Man? Like her colleagues, Ms. Freeland is equally adept at avoiding answering a direct question.

Not you! Not you! By Wednesday, we were back to the US—the post press-conference blues. More backbone, Press.  Reading that all unsubstantiated claims against Rob Ford’s indiscretions turned out to true.

Three things on the to-do-list:

One, find a way to finally shirk the flushed cheeks, congestion, aches, and sneezing. I took in five minutes of chill, afternoon air to clear the lungs. There is a suggestion of green left in the garden—a robust aquilegia and a spike holding on for dear life. (Also, to convince those around me to wash their hands on a regular basis and encourage them to sneeze not into the hand or the air, but, the armpit.  Germs are no joke.)  

Two, to find the right balance in being engaged with news and avoiding it outright due to rising blood pressure from seeing Trump splashed across the newspaper and screen. But we shouldn’t silo or bubble-wrap ourselves, either.

Three, to find a tastier option than lifeless WASA crisp bread to sustain me through January’s fast. This is critical.

Closed out the week with The Trip—Italy, for respite care. It is pure torture watching beautiful food being hoovered up without any appreciation for the preparation, plating, or mindful eating. Note to self, it is time to return to more adventurous menu planning.  Beautiful pieces of music from Strauss and Mahler (“Wouldn’t you simply die without Mahler?”) throughout the film. Very medicinal movie all round.

Odd to start the Sunday wind-down without a Vinyl Café story; last year’s weekly double bill made for a good jumping off point; we wish Mr. McLean well.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have several pounds of sausage, black pudding, and ham to dispense with.

Adieu, February.

Adieu, February. In no particular order.

 

 

Taking this and all future birthdays as a vacation day—this is the best decision, so far
 

Indulging in an enormous Cake & Loaf hazelnut éclair and having no guilt about it

A stranger speaks in an urban coffee-shop

Family Day spent with family

The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine at Soulpepper Theatre

Embracing winter tomatoes

A gift of Dillon’s gin

Revisiting Bleu—the French windows

Amateur mixologists

Sighting of one neighbour-the rest remain in hibernation

A Winter’s Tale at Coal Mine Theatre~conversing with strangers in a cramped lobby

The stamina to sit through a trial and listen to how your husband was probably shot at close range; his bone fragments vacuumed up out of the incinerator for you

15-degree temperatures

Karl Nordstrom

News of AbFab reaches us

Salvaged meatballs at the bottom of the soup pot—an enormous coup

Bulbous whales

Susan Coyne’s Kingfisher Days

Aberdeen Tavern luncheon

Tequila in the afternoon

Barns in winter light

Oysters

Cemeteries in winter light

…rotting plush of the rose bush...  BP Kelly

Harald Sohlberg

Worn granite

Festoon

“Are you recording this conversation?”

Brock’s blanket

Plant therapy

Cuttlefish

Red

Mr. Turner--what of the house-keeper?

Michael Winter’s Minister Without Porfolio~rooting for a fictional orange horse—willing it to bust out of that horse trailer

 

Spiced-chocolate pots & fresh cream

Crack of good chocolate

Molly Johnson with Mr. Botos at the piano

Spicy yellow-beet soup

Tank glassworks

Re-Reading bookstore

The farce that is the Primaries

 

 

Showing January The Door.

Lots of moaning and groaning from the masses about how crap January was.   Here are some positive notes.

New Year’s Full Monty breakfast with family

The moment when you nearly spend $445 on a night of Wagner

Crisp, clear, star-filled evenings

Planning theatre season

When the past comes to find you

Potted-trout

Gift of vanilla, from away

Books that make you laugh and cry and frighten you all in one chapter

Vampires with a conscience

Someone offered up their space in the grocery line

Brown-butter cod

Tending new plants

The Thomson snuff bottles

Alisa Siegel docs

The minutiae of other people’s lives

Tabatha Southey columns

No significant snowfall, month #3

Duck sausage

Catharsis in the dental chair II

Mint-condition used books

Cauliflower frenzy

That people flock to an art gallery to look at Turner paintings

Warm chocolate-chip cookies at the Young Centre

People-watching

European church bells playing Bowie

Frostwork

Scotch pies

Frederick and cookbooks

Palin Humour

Treated to lunch

The Galloway Giggle

Kathy Bates, who never disappoints

Harwood wine with pasta-the memory of Prince Edward County in a bottle

Fiery-pink morning skies

The legacy of actors and musicians

Toronto commute in under an hour-first time in a long time

Community activism

Dumplings

That $60 shirt I got for $15

January 31 and still steeped in Xmas atmosphere

FORE WORD

(Deliberate spelling of FORE WORD, by the way.)

Felled by disease, again.

After unearthing a dormant Mountain virus last September, it has been a steady cycle of colds, flu, pneumonia (with a touch of food poisoning) ending with seasonal allergies and the occasional spike of the aforementioned affections. (Not to mention the stress incurred as a direct result of neighbours.) More on this later. By mid month, I found myself laid low by a bizarre flu that made its way through everyone in Cubicle Land. This is what happens when you travel outside Ontario.

Looking outside on this Autumn-like August day, I see leaves of yellow and orange (most of them already on the ground). At the time of writing, it was overcast and cool. Have we experienced summer at all in Ontario?

Many bloggers offer up an apology for their absence and indeed there are moments when you feel you've missed some critical, non-existent deadline.  Panic sets in-what are you going to do with the three thousand pictures you took thus far? I offer no apology, just excuses; one of them being the loss of my little black book which was quite a setback. Almost like Hemingway! It's fair to say I've saved tens of thousands of dollars in therapy through writing.  But let's not bring the dogs into this too early.

Back on track and if for no other reason than mental exercise, I shall post again! (Index-finger pointed skyward for effect.)  Plus, I'd like to get rid of the piles of crap taking up real-estate in the office-bits of notes, leaflets, maps and detritus. Where is the latter half of The Cross-Country Trek? Foodie notes, experimental libations, people watching, and the ever popular borderline rant are just sitting there.

Now, where was I?

Notes from the Waiting Room

Let’s be rational here, I argued.  Do we really have to set the alarm for a Saturday morning? To say I was so far ahead of the game Friday night, I disappointed myself by shifting the alarm from 7:30 to 8 to 8:30 and finally to 9.    I felt buoyed.  Round II of the paintwork out of the way by Friday at 7 so managed to salvage the evening.

 

An encore of Q, with Ghomeshi championing Canadian books through the annual Canada Reads.  “How quietly Canadian,” he mused.  Surprise, still, after all these years at seeing the nation get excited over reading.  There was a comment from a US listener who said something to the effect of where but Canada can you find a Reality show about books?  So hopefully you’ve got all the titles on your reading To Do list?  At the very least the winner-February by Lisa Moore.

 

The Sisters Brothers is going well-enjoying that there’s room for men to pay attention to oral hygiene and dieting during Gold Rush times. Just tapping into the Stoppard.  The theatre tickets have arrived and I’m patiently waiting for the season to begin.

 A lineup presents the perfect people watching moment.  Noon hour on a Saturday at the Ministry offices are a hotbed of activity.  You have the whole of humanity laid out before you.  People watching does speed things along.

 A man stood sentry dressed in balaclava, fireman’s jacket and boots.  I thought he was promoting something but I think that due to the amount of clothing he couldn’t move his arms properly and had been patiently waiting for someone to open the door for him.  Cold temperatures were predicted but not for another fourteen hours.  He seemed a little over dressed.  Good to be prepared, I guess.

Children running amok bouncing up and down on the fragile perimeter heating; parents oblivious. Crowding of personal space; anything to have some semblance of movement.  Ear budded people looking serene. Couples canoodling.

 

A man kept checking the front of the line which meant he had to lean over the shoulder of the woman in front of him.  He was not familiar with the concept of the watched pot.  The woman toted a file folder teeming with paperwork and it looked as if she could do with a good night’s sleep.  Another man gave his hair a comb every ten minutes; the stress of the line-up manifesting itself as unruly hair.  Choice of ring tones varied from the call to prayer to guitar riffs to just a plain old ring which is rare these days.  What does your ring tone say about you?

It came as no surprise that the personal space invader was ill prepared for the transaction.  He was shocked to learn he had a parking fine from 2011. He selected savings instead of chequing.  (Is  there really any difference between the two anymore?  Interest rates being what they are.) He wasn’t sure if he wanted one or two year renewal and so on.  Patrons were getting restless. 

 

I focused on my thighs-yes, the thighs.  In the yoga sense.  I’ve been doing yoga for nigh on seven years now.  Take this tip for the next time you have a long wait.  Push down with your feet into the floor to engage the thigh muscles.  Do not slouch, do not lean against the counter, do not try to balance on one leg.  Works brilliantly.  I felt like breaking out into song at one point just to stir things up a bit.  A one woman Flash Mob.  I wanted to say to those complaining that it’s your own fault for getting there at noon on a Saturday.  The place has been open since 9AM.

I considered the last 24 hours.  Readers still upset at McKay’s editorial cartoon of the outgoing pope getting coffee and a muffin at Tim Horton’s.  I knew the second I saw it that there would be a flood of letters to the editor.  Relax people, it’s a cartoon; this is not an attack on your religion.

The asteroid (meteor).  I bet Putin was more concerned that this was going to land on his beloved Olympic park than anything else.  Am I wrong? The Sunday Edition closed with a piece on the Bolshoi.  Dangerous business running a ballet in the modern Russian age.  It’s still tinged with communist leanings.  The person to be publicly held responsible for the acid attack will not be the one who actually committed the crime.  The modern KGB is not actually investigating this which speaks volumes.

Bad news on the book front, Nicholas Hoare Books in Toronto are closing their doors     April 1.  One of those oldy-worldy shops.  Classical music and wooden floors-what’s not to love?  Now where do we pit stop on Front?  If you’re visiting the Hamilton area, try Bryan Prince Booksellers or A Different Drummer Books in Burlington.  (I coveted the Beatrix Potter box set that used to sit on the top floor.) Hoare will be retiring to a very comfortable estate in Nova Scotia so don't feel too badly for him. He intends to set up a library and vineyard amongst the three hundred or so acres.  What of his employees, though?

At the dealership earlier that day:  “And do you know your license plate number?”  What should have been said was just “What is your license plate number?” 

Shared a laugh with the clerk over the wait. We couldn’t help but listen in while others tried to make payments.  “This is why it takes so long,” she explained. 

I tackled a little more of Apartment Therapy. Is there anything more exhilarating than vacuuming and dusting into the late Saturday evening hours?  I predict no more clutter in the hallway.  You can’t give up newspapers, magazines and books but they do take up real estate.  I brought Spring Cleaning forward by two months and the sense of accomplishment feels good.  My soundtrack?  Rage Against The Machine, Joy Division, Tony Bennett (Lady Gaga has gone up in my estimation-Lady is a Tramp is a great duet), Martha Wainwright, Pearl Jam and The Tragically Hip.  Eclecticism never goes out of style. 

Forced a G & T.

The blue sky was a dead giveaway-Arctic conditions on a Sunday AM.  I saved myself a trip to the esthetician because several layers of skin had burned clear away with the cold when I eventually stepped outside. Bore witness to a rainbow in the West so that was something.  Another point for February (that’s three if anyone’s counting).

No holiday for The Widget Maker so was in full Sunday Evening Wind Down Mode.  Determined that Thursday at 10 PM is my point in the week when I go into weekend mode. It’s the last time you clock-watch for a few days. 

Cannot remember if an answer was given as to what exactly is Family Day.  For those of you at home with the family, enjoy.

Post Script

I'm still striving to rationalize a nine hour day on a Stat holiday.  One good thing to come out of it was lunch at August 8 on Wilson St. in Hamilton.  Excellent sushi.  $14.99 all you can eat menu that you don't have to line up at a buffet to participate in.  The usual suspects but the highlight (and purpose) of the trip was the pork dumplings. Will be returning.

Did he or did he not see his shadow?

Frosty AM.  Thought I was dreaming, but no, the morning show was talking about Rob Ford again. Campaign mismanagement this time.  Hardly rousing commentary making it a challenge to get up.  No consensus on the groundhog front.  Early Spring? Time will tell.

Spent the weekend trying to get rid of pennies. Today is the last day for the Canadian coin.  We are now rounding up or down. I’ve rolled many a penny over the years.  Hours of filling the little paper tubes and what do you have?  About $3.50 And so late Sunday afternoon in the grocery store, I carefully counted out pennies and offered them up to the clerk. 

At this point we were in hour three of pre Super Bowl ramble. Shopping carts jammed with corn chips, guacamole and pepperette & cubed cheese trays. (Note to self:  clear office fridge of leftover Xmas pepperettes .)  I was the odd person out with vegetables and juice.  It’s always been a curiosity of mine as to why people eat when they watch television?  Same goes for movies.   The Sunday Edition had a piece with Malcom Gladwell in which he stated that all football fans are complicit in the suicides of players. Hmm. 

 

I was still digesting Friday’s Thai.  Excellent meal at Miss Thailand in Stoney Creek.  They had the heat on in both the kitchen and dining room.  So nice to have a warm dining room.  Had lunch at The Vicar’s Vice, also in the Creek.  Vicar’s is a converted church with a cavernous, draughty dining room.  The food arrived tepid and got cold fast.  Vicar’s has been striving to be a Gastro-Pub for a few years but never quite got there.  The menu has been revamped  and it seems like they are well on their way to being able to use Gastro as a tag line.  Good carrot and maple soup.  Hot soup is a big deal for me.  Not many restaurants give you hot soup-fear of lawsuits a la Tim Hortons.   Excellent atmosphere at the Thai. Good satay, rolls, mango salad, green curry and spicy chicken.  Maybe a little too much heat in the curry.  It had been a while since I went with a spicy dish.  Very nice presentation.  Curry came in a porcelain lidded bowl and the sticky rice in a little lidded bamboo basket. 

 

Sluggish start to Saturday (I blame the Thai).  The point in the week when you realize it’s the weekend-what a moment!  Not quite a fry up but close.  One egg in the house, week old mushrooms and bacon and a box of frozen pancakes.  “A box of frozen pancakes?”  you say.  Consider for a moment how many containers, pans and utensils for a couple of pancakes.  Sometimes we have to go the frozen route.  Cobbled together what turned out to be a good breakfast.  Paper read front to back-first time in four days.  Gary McHale defending his Queen’s Jubilee medal-I’m still not sure why he got one.  Time to clear the cobwebs.

 

Q graced Hamilton with its presence once again.  Ghomeshi was very positive about Hamilton describing us as a “victim of eons of misconception”.  Quite so.  The Widget Maker  is taking up residence in Hamilton-the North End in fact.  They are looking forward to the Harbourfront, the shops, the restaurants and so on.  I find this a very refreshing attitude.  Spread the word.

 

Set off in the falling snow-delay tactic on the chore front.    Like the North End, the East End receives its share of bashing . Everything looks spruced up with a dusting of snow, though. 

Davis Creek, North & South...

 

 

 

 

 

Stoney Creek and the battlefield grounds...
 

 

 

 

Raccoon or possum tracks?

 

I see the signs warning against no tobogganing seems to have had the desired effect. The grounds have only just been re landscaped and there were lots of people sledding down the hills during our last snow. Nothing worse come tourist season than to see great strips of earth where there should be finely manicured sod.

Whether you're E, N, S or W, if you're feeling under appreciated, get out and find your local nice spots.

Looks like a fine sunny Monday. The moon is out and a crisp morning is one of the things we should be striving to appreciate.

 

Culture & Recreation -Tour of the Neighbourhood Edition

Usual weekend run of books, food, exercise and people watching. Yes Virginia, there is life in the core.

(note to certain people; remember you can always double click the photos to see the slide show; you know who you are)

101 Ways To Kill Your Boss was not on the shelves so went with the autobiography of Bigfoot. Me Own Words and the follow up, Me Write Book by Graham Roumieu.  I am awaiting I Not Dead.  Very funny stuff.

 

 

From chapter One-Feelings:

Stop, Smell Rose  (accompanied by photo of hiker on trail)

Where you go Man on road?
Why you run when me want talk?
You manners bad 
So me learn you good
Tear off legs so no more run

Love is Sad (accompanied by photo of man on ATV)

Man on funny car

Me love!

Want for big foot wife

One day me catch

Try make baby but you head collapse like sock full of eggs

Me cry

Birds cry too

Me sad

Pulitzer worthy, no?  Also back on Alan Bennett~ Smut(two short stories). So with this and
the Big Foot books should be able to get on with Resolution #3: finish reading all the books in the house.  Thomas Hardy, Anthony Trollope, Lynn Truss, Brothers Grimm, Virginia Woolf, Adam Gopnik, Lawrence Stern(The Life of Tristram Shandy) and I recommend the movie Tristram Shandy-A Cock & Bull Story with Steve Coogan and, finally, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People which came to me gratis from the good people at General Mills cereals.  Perhaps if I read the book, I’ll become a more effective reader in the process.  I have great tomes on the shelves:  Gardening, Wine, Opera.  They’ve been consulted over the years  but never fully read.

 

The resolutions are working out well in fact.  I like Lorraine Sommerfield’s recent column on New Year Revolutions.  You buy yourself what you need for Xmas and have other people tell you what your resolution ought to be.  It’s a bold move.

 

Success so far with #1~stay out of Indigo; there simply isn’t time to read everything you want and it only reminds you that you could easily settle into a life of reading, travel, cooking and gardening; #2~start the day one half hour earlier-not to work but to remove yourself from the traffic buildup, to give yourself time to come down from all the bad driving out there, get the kettle filled and avoid walking into a beehive of activity where the take-out coffee and colognes have already filled the space; allow time for yourself in the early AM; and #5 ~learn (ie. get a better grip on) things through the blog:  proper names for things, better menu planning, history/facts, taking a better picture, spelling and grammar (I have never spent so much time looking for spelling errors).  No home should be without Fowler's Modern English Usage. I apologize if there have been any undue notifications in Inboxes; I only update spelling/grammatical/factual errors and no one should be getting notifications. 
 

Here’s a shot of the Birks’ Bldg clock now residing in the Farmers’ Market. 

I think it must have been very tempting to put the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse instead of the jousting knights given the state of the nation here in Hamilton. Passed what’s left of Ivor Wynne on the way in-just the North stand remaining and the hole in the ground that was the Board of Education Building. I don’t think we’re ready for a eulogy just yet.  A grocery store is going in beside the market and stall holders are a little nervous.  Stopped for some international cuisine.  Pheasant Night is approaching and I was looking for inspiration.  Thinking of scallops a la Elizabeth David to start, roast bird with chestnut sauce, the chocolate pots again (because who can say no to dark chocolate, cream, sugar, butter and brandy?) and a French cheese to finish.  We’ll see how ambitious I am in a week’s time. Lots of people in the market, library and the mall.
 

I set off for Gore Park.  (#4 coming along nicely~I even bought new shoes). The core is by no means dead.  I was taking pictures and was asked what my interest here was by a passerby.  I explained my distress with absentee landlords and why we can’t seem to get them to open a can of paint.   This man feels, “They’d rather spend millions than a few thousand in maintenance."  He felt it was about keeping family business going.  New-build contracts are more prized than maintenance. 

Here's a nicely done reno and there's no reason its neighbour couldn't be refurbished.

Hope something positive comes of this one.

We commiserated for a few moments and he went on his way.  You hear the maintenance cost thing a lot in the course of a week.  Remember people, read your Maintenance Manual.  There’s a reason you have to change filters and lubricate bearings. Wondering why your equipment has failed?  It is not a manufacturing defect. 

Thought for the day:  The lowest bid is not necessarily the best bid.  Remember it’s tax payers money.  Learn to tell the difference between apples and oranges.  

 

Wilson Blanchard owns a lot of buildings in the core and they have deemed a series of units unsound (above) and not worth any effort to restore. The plan is to tear down three buildings circa 1840’s and replace them with a high rise residential/retail/commercial mix. Another high rise is not what is needed here. We’ve all seen what happened in Toronto. The Lister Block was declared structurally unsound and it rose from the ashes. I’ve seen the inside before renovation and I joined the chorus. No one wanted it restored. After all it had sat vacant, slowly crumbling for decades. The newly renovated Lister opened for business in 2011. The team retained the façade and have done a fine job with the building.

 

 

I think Blanchard is finding it a daunting proposal to renovate but it can be done.  Need to hook him up with Liuna.  Think he's finding the depth of the building a bit much.  He has done a nice job with the Piggott Bldg  (above).  Some nice stained glass in the foyer.

 

The South portion of King used to serve as the bus terminal for many routes.  The terminal was moved a block away and the master plan calls for pedestrianization of the South side.  People watching and coffee sipping.  It is within range of many shops and restaurants.  This plan is still in its infancy and it faces a few challenges. Gore Park is remodelled on what seems to be an annual base.  First grass and paths and fountains, then concrete, then back to the original design.  Gore houses the fountain, War Memorial, Queen Victoria’s and Sir John A’s statues.  
 

Vrancor also owns a fair bit of downtown property.  Bit of controversy here because the projects are taking forever to complete.  Starting to resemble downtown TO.  Work continues on the former Federal building & Homewood Suites.  There have been some rather nice loft and school conversions.

Residents are needed in the core but do we have to tear everything down and build highrises? Look at the South side of Main. Apartment blocks took over from Victorian rowhouses. We have lost old City Hall, the Birks Bldg, and most recently the Board of Education building. 

A recent piece in the local paper called for the removal of “zombies” from the park.  You cannot sanitize the city  by allowing only certain classes to populate it.  There must be space for everyone.  "If you build it theory" but where do the other people go?  All city departments have to be on the same page when it comes to reviving the core.

Heading down Gore to the Royal Connaught-currently serving as a movie set.  The weekend Spec states that we may have finally found another developer.  Let's hope so.  This is not easy on the eyes.

There are some fine building with lots of detailing you don't get on a modern building.

Got as far as Victoria Ave. and St. Christopher's Church. 

Doubled back  via Wellington and then King William.  This would make a great pedestrian only zone.  The Lister Block at one end and Theatre Aquarius at the other.

Hamilton's answer to Greenwich Village...

Hess Village by day...

 

 



George Street...

Note to self-one street at a time next visit.

After three hours, it was time to defrost with a cappuccino.  Working my way through a polenta tube.  It looks so unappealing but with the right ingredients, you can elevate it to new heights.  Pored over the Elizabeth David and honed the menu.  A little Nina Simone and Billie Holiday on the stereo.  Verve's Jazz Essentials is an excellent intro to Nina Simone.  Hockey back on; all seems to have been forgiven.  I abstained.  Finished off the evening with La Vie En Rose-french film on the life of Edith Piaf.  Two hours and half a box of tissues later, I was emotionally drained.

With practically no sleep from the wind storm that was still raging and having spent yesterday in a cold wind tunnel, decided against the hike to Davis and Stoney Creeks.  Friday AM would have been the best time for pictures but I felt duty bound to actually start work on time. Laboured under the delusion that Thursday was Friday.  Bit of a disappointment when I finally consulted the newspaper mid morning.

Went into Spring cleaning mode.  Morley was filled with anxiety over her own clutter and took refuge at the neighbour's minimalistic home.  I felt inspired to tackle my own piles of paperwork.  Coming along nicely (#10-check).

Finished off the day labouring over the Stratford, Shaw and Soulpepper theatre guides.  Prices have gone up and Stratford's pricing goes up again after Jan 31 so book now if you're planning a trip.  Tommy is on this year and it has its own pricing system with top tickets going for $175.  Bit of a push for a family to spend the day on those kind of dollars.  Musical pricing is sufficient and even this can run you $135.

Want to see everything; have to make some decisions.  Note that it's back to just The Stratford Festival this year.  They've ditched the great man even though they're putting on four of his plays.  (Off to the printers for new letter head and envelopes.) 

It's (-15C) and snowing again but I've ordered my tickets and I'm in warm weather mode.