toronto: a FUN city

It's my mom-in-law's 65th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Ginny!

Sad news: our friend Reid and his entire Mac team in Toronto got laid off from Roxio on Tuesday. :-( See his journal entry for details. If anyone out there has work for a team of Mac developers who work really well together, please do contact Reid (whose picture is above). They're really hoping to stay together as a team.

I slept most of yesterday, feel a bit better today. I hope Jodi's doing okay in L.A. Apparently Beckett's come down with The Bug, too. :-(

Our friend Helen has been visiting, but I'm afraid that my hostessing duties have been limited to staggering out bleary-eyed into the living room and asking how she's doing.

Several people told me about this chocolate-related job (thanks to Rob Wynne for the URL). Holy cow, they must be deluged with applications right now. Especially since I've sent in two dozen already under various pseudonyms...

;-)

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I've mentioned the Catholic World Youth Day backpacks in past Blatherings. My friend ScottM went out and got me one! For those interested, here's a close-up of the goods.

The backpack strap is nicely padded with a Canada logo in black print plus a plastic pocket for id:





The tag inside the backpack is one from Correctional Service Canada in Drummond, with the phrase, "Making Safe Reintegration Work":





A colour brochure about Ontario, Canada:





A plastic World Youth Day candle holder (with prongs on the inside to stick the candle on) and candle:





A small wooden cross on a string:





The official World Youth Day map by MapArt, with World Youth Day event locations marked in Toronto, special maps of Exhibition Place, Downsview Lands, and downtown Toronto, and a TTC map:





I had to cringe at some of the interior text, however. Like the following, which seems to try a bit too hard to emphasize the FUN aspect of Toronto:

"TORONTO: THE FUN CITY

The Fun City

With a dazzling array of performing arts, cultural and sporting events as well as street fairs, festivals and parades, Toronto is indeed Canada's City Of Fun. From cold winter to hot summer, Toronto is alive with festivities and fun."

Augh.

But onto the other backpack goodies. There was a World Youth Day pin:





A cityscape postcard:





A bunch of other postcards:





A plastic rosary:





And a Catholic World Youth Day scarf:





If there are any World Youth out there reading my Blatherings, I'd love to hear how much of this stuff you've actually used/kept. Thanks for the backpack, Scott!