Oh, Canada

We went to Toronto for the first time on Canada Day Weekend (which intersects with 4th of July weekend, as it happens).  Charmed as hell to see this guy as the plane flew into the city airport.  

This year celebrates Canada's 150th birthday, so recognitions of that were all over the place.

Not content to have one night of parties for such a big milestone, there were concerts and fireworks several days in a row - we caught one incarnation.

Our first stop after checking in was the SkyDome (which is now named after a cell service company, I guess) for a Blue Jays/Red Sox game.  We missed the first inning and change because, well, we were coming to the game from Newark, but that did not spoil our day. The dome was open when we got there, but some rain started a few innings in so they closed it mid-game.

Our next stop was a brewery/restaurant, where we grabbed seats at the bar and got as much info from the fantastic bartender as we could about places to go.  

We walked our asses off, like you do when you're in a city you don't (yet) know well. Great city, many fab neighborhoods, super friendly people, really good food and drink, good public transportation, great street art, robust art & performance scene all around.

On multiple recommendations, we went to the AGO and caught, among other things, a show focusing on Canadian artists, with a particular eye on indigenous artists [as you can imagine, the whole "this nation was formed 150 years ago! Woo hoo!" story plays pretty differently among the indigenous population and allies].  Also caught a retrospective of Rita Letendre, whom I hadn't heard of; the show was an excellent, necessary corrective to that.

So yes, Oh, Canada - you're not perfect, and your dreamboat of a Prime Minister has made some sketchy compromises and gets off super easy because of his disastrous counterpart to the south, but you are a (relatively) open society with an eye on human rights, and what appears to be an open mind about truth and reconciliation with the people who have lived on this continent for millennia.

Plus, Toronto has an airport you can get to via a 90 second ferry ride, which is pretty bitchin.

Monty Hall

Not the deal-making TV personality, but the rockin' teen venue wherein we saw The Above and Ex Hex, preceded by a few pints at the Iron Monkey.

And the beat goes on...

Night Off

It's thunderous in Nuevo York. We just watched a viddy (Dream of Life) on our only night off this week, and now the thunder is raising a ruckus. We have to clean up from dinner before we crash - very good simple meal: brown rice pasta with red sauce with lots of garlic, onion and mushroom, green salad with mushrooms and kalamata olives, a surprisingly excellent sourdough, and some predictably excellent cheeses to round it out. Oh, and some a Wisconsin beer I've never had before called Eastside (don't know why, but it's kind of hard to get non-mass-produced Wisconsin beer out here). I also got us a bottle of acqua minerale because I've been thinking about Rome, in part because our Roman friends are coming to NYC in a couple days.

Anyway, it's good to have a night off sometimes. Rain will turn up as we sleep.

Some Kind of Sunday

Ok.

I have my Packers t-shirt.

I have my GO PACK GO sign.

I have all the fixings for a big vat of chili.

My friend (from Green Bay, no less) who is hosting the party is putting together a big spread of Wisconsin cheeses to make grilled cheese sandwiches.

There will be beer.

One of my best friends who is doing very well in acting is THERE in Dallas playing in a 'celebrity' flag football game and gets to go to The Game too.

That is all. Carry on.

Oh wait, one more thing:

Go Pack GO!!!!

Cow Country

Which is where I'm from originally. "Cow Country" is not a pejorative term, or it shouldn't be; it's just an accurate one. I also sometimes refer to it as "Big Butt Country" which is more pejorative I suppose, but it's also, well, pretty accurate.

The point is, Wisconsin is the place where I was born and raised, and I love it a lot, although I'm very happy in my choice not to live there currently. Cory and I flew out there last week for a kind of a reunion with my family/birthday party for Grandma. So to get things rolling, here's a photo of Grandma.


There's the guest of honor with my newest cousin, Jacob. One of my aunts is only a few years older than I am, and she and her husband adopted this little guy at the end of last year. He was getting over a cold last weekend, which made Grandpa not want to have anything to do with him, but Grandma was uncowed.


Irrespective of his fear of baby-borne illness, Grandpa was in pretty good spirits. Ornery to the last, of course, but doing just fine. He walked Cory and me around his squash garden and apple trees - including challenging me to throw a blemished apple over the fence into the pasture beyond the lawn that he, at 92 years old, still mows twice a week. I made it (barely), thank God.

The little ones were having a great time, of course. The big party was at my cousin Kari's farm.


There's Cory pushing Anna on the swing with Alex, who is her, what, second cousin once removed I guess.


Here's Alex focused on his driving. This little John Deere is like a kiddie golf cart: brakes automatically when you take your foot off the "gas" pedal, so it doesn't require all that much in the way of coordination, but it zips all over the place. 2 years old this kid is, driving around a farm...


And here's his big brother Jack concentrating on his task at hand. This one is 4, and he has better focus than plenty of grown-ups I know.

They are all children of the corn, of course.


This is my dad and Kari's husband Chad overseeing Alex as he gives Annie a driving lesson.


And last but not least, here's Anna trying to figure out what the hell to do with that larger-than-life creature before her. If you click on the photo, you can make out the dreadlock-ish thing Lady has going on behind her ear.

And then there was the food... For Grandma's birthday party, Mom made spiral ham with all the fixins and then some, and Grandma herself provided brownies, carrot cake, apple pie and ice cream. And beer. The night before, we had pizza at the old family favorite in Madison. With sangria and beer. Then the night after, we stayed in what has to be the most Norwegian town in America and had breakfast there (I had a scrambled egg concoction wrapped in lefse, which is actually one of the few things that it's hard to track down a good version of in New York.) We had another family gathering at Chad & Kari's place again the next day - Anna had gotten sick, so Lori had to take her back to our aunt Jane's place in Madison, and she entrusted me with her Secret Lasagna Recipe. It was a big hit! Good going Lori. We also had mom's skillet zucchini dish. And beer. Then it was back to Madison to meet some of my old high school friends at The Old Fashioned, which has a fantastic selection of Wisconsin foods and cheeses. And beer. Finally, we had a gathering of the other side of the family on Labor Day: Burgers, Brats, Beans, Potato Salad and Cole Slaw, etc. And beer.

Because that's what it's all about.

Did I mention that this is sometimes known as Big Butt Country?