Toronto, day 138 – Macaron Madness

photo by Kelly Robson

photo by Kelly Robson

A new bakery has opened in the neighborhood, by which I mean across the street.”https://www.facebook.com/Delysees”>Delysees is its name, and they have lovely-looking light french breads and wee little $4 sandwiches.

I have been questing after a Toronto macaron as good as the ones at The Bel Cafe in Vancouver, with no joy yet. They’re either too sugary or too stale-chewy or the flavor isn’t subtle enough. But Delysees has a promising entry in the dark chocolate category, velvety and rich, and not overly sweet. I have only failed to award the trophy because they don’t yet have a proper cooler for the things, so the meringue wasn’t crunchy on their opening day. And I’ve only tried the one flavor.

Toronto, Day 129

Last week was full of petty frustrations and upheavals, nothing huge, but enough to put a glower on my face, from time to time, and shadow my attention to the many things, big and small, that were lovely and delightful about the week.

Some of the things that were, at times, overshadowed by the grump: The launch for Priscilla Uppal’s new book Projection: Encounters With My Runaway Mother was really fun, and the book is, in part, about movies. Each chapter is named for a film: it starts with Blade Runner and there’s a Throw Momma from the Train chapter. Very promising!

On Saturday we went with Linda Carson to check out Hop Day before making and devouring a delicious fall feast together.

Here’s one of the Hop Day attendees confronting a painting I really liked; it’s called Orphan:

A fellow Art Hop attendee confronts a painting card Orphan.

I finished a story, and am quite pleased with it. The construction dudes seem to be on the verge of finishing our courtyard, and have not only turned on the water feature but have added gorgeous blue lights to it. And Bird TV is back on the air–the sparrows have found our suet feeder and the cats are wildly attentive.

Even the iO7 upgrade offered a bit of fun and entertainment.

Toronto, Day 107, Instagrams

Soap dish and droplets.Everysummer in all its glory, as Tana French says.Toronto has a beaver dam statue by Douglas Coupland. How unexpected!Yes, that is a human dangling from the CN Tower. She may have paid for the privilege.My new neighborhood has many theaters in it; here's one.Minnow in the morning.
Bird feeder, down by Lake Ontario.Morgan, resident cat at Wonderbucks, on Commercial Drive in Vancouver.One last shot from #FanExpoCanada - low tech Iron Man.Anonymous parent at #fanexpocanada.I have caught you snooping in my files, Nancy Drew! (Actually, @kellyoyo )Kelly contemplates the splendour of our new local wine bar, Cibo. @kellyoyo
Minnow in an extra-pensive moment.And this fandom I don't know at all...One true pairing: Thor and Cap. At #fanexpocanada in, natch, #torontoAnd this is @kellyoyo at @theonefish, where the women are women and the halibut is tasty.fans in costume at fanexpoThis bouncer embracing my Kelly Ann is also a Kelly Ann! So... Photo!
Artoo hasn't aged a day! #fanexpocanada #torontoSuper Mario has some things to ponder, in a cute way, at #fanexpocanada.Lord Vader and his plus one at #fanexpocanada in #toronto.Pam and AWOL Archer at #fanexpocanada in #toronto.Iron Man Mark One at #fanexpocanada. Go Team Tony!It's all, like, South Parky here at #fanexpocanada.

Instagrams, a set on Flickr.

My recent past, captured in snapshot and, sometimes, magically filtered. If you float your cursor over a given pic, it has a caption. To my astonishment, this works on the WordPress blog and Livejournal.

The #BuffyRewatch is “Gone” on @tordotcom

slayerThis week Buffy’s invisible and the Trio reveal themselves to the Scoobies in my rewatch of “Gone.” Also, Buffy’s hair is declared officially teh cute.

I will be appearing at FanExpo all week, starting Thursday. Look for me in “Author’s Alley” and at a panel on Friday at 6:15 p.m. on WorldBuilding and Epic Fantasy magic systems. I’m very excited about my first face-to-face collision with Toronto fandom, though very sad to be FanExpoing with my bestest con wingman, D.D. Barant of the Bloodhound Files novels.

Toronto, Day 91, Anniversary dreams of the dead

I had a quick glimpse of Grandma Joan in a dream this morning.

I’m quite a lucid dreamer, so I realized pretty quickly what was up, and as a result she wasn’t around long. My dead tend to do that in dreams; they bugger off once the jig is up.

What was super-cool is that the dream itself was a seventies Cold War sort of thing, something straight out of John Le Carre, and so she was lurking in a photography shop, in a trenchcoat, with unfortunate early Eighties hair, and her vanishing had this quality of ‘spy going about her business’ than not.

And then it was off to the Kremlin, where a guy named Molinov was hatching a scheme, and then quickly to the hotel where Kelly and I were staying, for their continental breakfast. (It was shortly before six, so I was dreaming of breakfast. But spy breakfast! Because that young Continental Breakfast woman from the hotel was definitely trying to charm her way into our room.

And then, um, redcoats were marching on the lawn of the hotel. Because every dream needs a historical anachronism.

Simcoe Day, Fort York

It’s possible the sight of Grandma was triggered by my learning on Facebook of Andrew Brechin’s suden death. I used to play Champions with Breklor; I’ve been racking my brains to figure out just when we met, but it was a damn long time ago and I can’t believe he’s suddenly gone. I do remember the last time I saw him: it was at the Storm Crow Tavern (of course!) at a book launch, and we caught up and talked about his son.

In much happier news, it’s my legalversary!!! Kelly and I have been married for almost 25 years, but today is the tenth anniversary of our having gone legal, thanks to the Supreme Court and the hard work of marriage equality activists across the country.

This is us in 09:
Kamloops09