pyat

velvetpage and I spent the night in the frozen wastes of Markham, at a rather cozy hotel. We were attending a cousin's wedding.


Markham is a weird place, a large suburb of Toronto. It's all industrial parks and identical big box plazas, with no trees. Certain areas are whiter than snow, other areas have all the signs in Korean. We drove along highway 7, and every few kilometres the scenery would repeat itself. Mandarin Buffet, Best Buy, Canadian Tire, Super Centre, Baptist megachurch, wash-rinse-repeat. We did locate the old downtown of Markham by chance, a little stretch of brick storefronts with "old timey" lamp posts.


velvetpage was lovely, as always...


I gotta new haircut!


The hotel room mirrors had an odd (and deliberate) distortion. The top third was normal, while the bottom two thirds of the mirror had a slimming effect. This got more obvious as you walked away from them.


It was a Salvation Army wedding.


velvetpage and her three siblings.


And again...


And again, visiting our hotel room between the ceremony and the reception.


There were Albertans at the wedding!


I see you...

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...

By 9:30 AM this morning I'd had the girls to my mom's house, Erin to work, gone for coffee, walked up the side of the Niagara Escarpment, come down, and gone grocery shopping. Yay!

A 2 second exposure of the tree outside my house. It is a dark and stormy night. Very high winds, and snow is in the forecast.

For those keeping track at home, I've caught seven mice since Saturday. Two dead, five relocated into the wild.

I'm a guest at Hammercon on Saturday! Anyone going who I didn't already know about?

Pyat's Fortress has received another update...

( Photo tour! )

Today was a busy day, but also one suffused in cool golden sunlight, with friends, family and good, and a lot of brisk walking. This past week has been terribly productive, yet also filled with naps and warm baths and three excellent gaming sessions run for three different groups of friends.

I remain conviced that walking away from my job was the smartest thing I've done this year.

In the morning I took Claire to her gymanstics class and walked back from Ottawa street. We saw a traffic accident and a street market!


This afternoon I took Elizabeth to the birthday party of doc_mystery and mrs_dm's daughter. I hung around with them for a bit, then struck off on a random ramble through the Dundas Valley. Dundas is insulated from Hamilton by geography, and Willet Hill in Dundas is one step further removed. You access it by walking up a steep, curved road.




I admired the fall colour and explored the old cemetary, and the view eastward to Hamilton.







After this was Thanksgiving Dinner at my mother-in-law's, always a warm and pleasant event, with lots of good company and delicious food. I even wrestled with my 3 year old nephew! It is odd to think that I even have a nephew, and will, in a few years, be recognized as the weird old Uncle Pyat.

D&D! In a basement! With tea service!

I still have them, though they are not of great scope of late, what with a high workload.


Last week, commanderteddog and I ventured to the Patrician Grill, a diner that looks very much like a movie set. It's sort of a quintessential diner archetype from the 60s and 70s. It's the sort of place that sells dry toast, liver and onions, and orange juice in tiny, tiny glasses that let them pretend its fresh-squeezed.


There was an enormous air conditioner over the door that appeared to be larger than thebitterguy's Smart Car. It was nonfunctional, and the place was sweltering. Somehow, that made it more genuine.


I had a burger, Teddog had the All Day Breakfast Special.

On a curious note, a few blocks away there is a 1940s diner still extant called the "Senator Diner." This place has the original fixtures, but has morphed into the sort of hipster joint that sells $18 hamburgers. Given their Imperial Roman names, I'm wondering if the Senator and the Patrician were founded around the same time.


Earlier that day, I saw a giant bicycle!


Coming home late one night. Using my little point and click, so it's blurry. But the scene reminded me strongly of some descriptions of view from the Last Redoubt, in Hodgson's The Night Land.

"To my right, which was to the North, there stood, very far away, the House of Silence, upon a low hill. And in that House were many lights, and no sound. And so had it been through an uncountable Eternity of Years. Always those steady lights, and no whisper of sound..."


Finally, since quitting my Conan MMORPG account, it appears my character has come to life and is delivering sermons in downtown Toronto. With about the same impact as I had, I should add.

A very good day! I slept in till 9 AM, and was woken by my daughters jumping on my head. They presented me with a card and a copy of the Tintin comic, The Secret of the Unicorn. Whereupon I spent the next couple of hours playing with the girls.

Around lunchtime we decided, entirely out of the blue, to go to the Metro Toronto Zoo, and then Killman Zoo, and then the African Lion Safari.

So, naturally, we ended up with season passes to Marine Land in Niagara Falls.


As noted by velvetpage in a Twitter message during the Walrus feeding.

( Enter a cool blue world. And meet the Polka King. )


After that, we went for supper at Applebee's in Niagara Falls, and I had an enormous steak. Then a leisurely drive through St. Catherines, and home again.

Best Father's Day I've had, so far. Thank you velvetpage, and Elizabeth and Claire. I love you all very much.

Lots of work, a lunchtime wander with commanderteddog, rush home to...


Fun fair at Elizabeth's school. She said, "I hope sassy_fae sees this!"


shadow_maze was there, and told me about his near TPK in his D&D game on Saturday!


And his son was also there!


And my parents walked over to see the girls. I really like this photo.

shadow_maze took some very nice pics on the weekend, including this charming one of velvetpage...

We celebrated with lamb burgers, Spongebob, regicidal card games, and fireworks. It was a very relaxed and pleasant day. In reverse order:


Fireworks at Dundas Park...
( Photos! )

Claire was Claire.

And now... is time for bed, yes?