lost in space

I did go for a swim after writing yesterday's Blathering, but only after a brain-sizzling sauna bake. Cottage weather has definitely careened off full-out summer and is hurtling down the blissfully bracing ramp that is autumn. I love autumn.

We dropped Harry and Jean and an unhappily tranquilized Mackerel off at the airport yesterday before heading home to downtown living and high speed access again. Yay for the access! I can read Allison's California report without having to wait ages for the graphics to download.

Sorely behind in e-mail, but nothing like my Inkspot days. I was on the Filkhaven IRC shortly after returning from California and moaned about having 500+ e-mails waiting in my Inbox. "500 e-mails after a week away? LUXURY!" scoffed one Filkhaven visitor. "I dream of having only 500 e-mails when I get back from a vacation!" said another. And it's true...how quickly I forget that I used to get 200-300 e-mails on a daily basis when I worked on Inkspot.

Even so, 800 e-mails (the total has crept up while I was at the cottage) is a lot for me.





Bryan Fullerton dropped by to chat and to give Jeff his much-anticipated copy of Jaguar, and then Jeff and I headed off to Parki's for dinner.

Holy toledo, is Parki's newly revamped kitchen amazing! Here's what it used to look like. And here's what it looks like now. You can find out more about Parki's renovation project here.

Parki cooked a wonderful dinner: barbecued marlin, curry potatoes, salad with homemade dressing. Chocolate and raspberry gelato with fruit for dessert. Yummm. We went to a nearby coffee shop to chat (I had banana cream hot chocolate), and then dropped by HMV.

Rand had told me that the new Aimee Mann CD, "Lost In Space", was out. Parki and I both picked up copies, and Parki and Jeff also bought the new Coldplay album. When I got home and opened the Aimee Mann CD, I was delighted to discover that the cover image and illustrations in the cover package had been done by Seth, a Toronto artist that Rand introduced me to a while back; I have Seth's first book, It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken.

Today is my father's 71st birthday! I'm going to Centre Island with Ruth, Sara, Annie and my father today, then to my sister's for the birthday party.





Links/news:

Barenaked Ladies lead singer Stephen Page is partnering with the cofounders of Shift magazine to relaunch an Ontario wine magazine. (Source: Masthead Online)

Universal Press Syndicate is launching a database which will allow you to search for comics and editorial cartoons. (Source: Yahoo News)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Sign we passed in Huntsville, on the way back from the cottage. Interesting use of spacing.
	All the Canada Post trucks have Amazon.ca advertising now, must have cost a bundle.
	A rather silly sign in Kelsey's, where Allison, Jodi, Rand & I had dinner a few weeks ago.