Weekend Stuff
I've spent most of the weekend with movies, books and on the trail.
We spent yesterday with my sister, Sheilagh, starting at her apartment so John could help her fix her computer. He needs to go back and look at it again on Tuesday. For some strange reason an inexpensive piece of home decorating software seems to have shut down her computer system altogether and he'll need more time than we had on Saturday to go back and fix it. Sigh.
So, instead, we went out to celebrate Sheilagh's and John's birthdays, which were both in the last few weeks. We went to Tortilla Flats on Queen St. for lunch where I ordered the most amazing vegetarian chili. I wish I knew how to make it. After lunch we went to the Paramount theatre to see "Spiderman 2" (Sheilagh for the first time, John and me for the second time). And, you know, despite hearing various complaints about the movie from people, both in person and on-line, I really liked it as much the second time as I did the first. It's hokey, it's over the top, it's angsty, it's unrealistic and goofily romantic, but it's also exciting and funny and moving and goofily inspiring. Hey, there's a hero in all of us... Heck, it's a comicbook movie and one of the more entertaining ones I've seen. It's fun just to go for the ride. Bring on Spidey 3.
John and I stopped to rent a movie on the way home, too. John really wanted to see Bruce Campbell in "Bubba Hotep". Um, it was bad, I mean it was -really- bad, a geriatric Elvis fighting mummies, but, hey, John liked it and I got some cross-stitching done :).
This morning we headed out west in search of the trails on the Oak Ridges Moraine. Now, I've read plenty about the Oak Ridges Moraine, but based on the hiking info I've had it's been all but impossible to find where the trails are actually situated. I was beginning to think those trails were as mythical as the Yellow Brick Road. Friday, though, we bought a new atlas of Ontario (to get some good road maps of Manitoulin Island) and they had conservation areas listed on Oak Ridges Moraine that I'd never seen before. Off we went in search of them. After a lot of dead ends (chained up gates, private property, construction) we -finally- found an entrance into the Moraine Trails. A terrific system of trails, no doubt we'll go back there this summer to explore some more. Today we took a two hour hike on the "White Oaks Trail" which was very lush, green and pretty.
Swung by the library on the way home so I could go in search of some of the mystery books recommended to me in my LJ last week. I was pleased to find Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time", as I couldn't find it in two large bookstores I'd checked on the weekend. I also picked up a couple of Sharyn McCrumb's mysteries. I'm presently reading her "Bimbos of the Death Sun", which is just a hoot. It's a murder mystery set at a science fiction convention, complete with live gaming, video rooms, author signing, a hilarious masquerade and, yay, filking. Well, OK, filking as folks sitting around in a hotel room singing Star Trek and Dorsai parodies, but fun nonetheless, especially in the scene I just read with the Scottish folksinger stumbling in to lead them in spooky traditional standards. I know McCrumb has a series of mysteries loosely based on traditional folksongs, so I am now eager to track them down, too. But clearly McCrumb must be a sf/fantasy fan herself 'cause no one can skewer the community this deftly without having seen it from the inside out. I'm going to pass the book onto John after I'm done.
Going back to reading the book now (so beware of spoilers below in the comments, eh?)... I haven't even gotten to the actual murder yet, which I know about from the dust jacket. So, is that author guy a clone for Harlan Ellison or what? :)
We spent yesterday with my sister, Sheilagh, starting at her apartment so John could help her fix her computer. He needs to go back and look at it again on Tuesday. For some strange reason an inexpensive piece of home decorating software seems to have shut down her computer system altogether and he'll need more time than we had on Saturday to go back and fix it. Sigh.
So, instead, we went out to celebrate Sheilagh's and John's birthdays, which were both in the last few weeks. We went to Tortilla Flats on Queen St. for lunch where I ordered the most amazing vegetarian chili. I wish I knew how to make it. After lunch we went to the Paramount theatre to see "Spiderman 2" (Sheilagh for the first time, John and me for the second time). And, you know, despite hearing various complaints about the movie from people, both in person and on-line, I really liked it as much the second time as I did the first. It's hokey, it's over the top, it's angsty, it's unrealistic and goofily romantic, but it's also exciting and funny and moving and goofily inspiring. Hey, there's a hero in all of us... Heck, it's a comicbook movie and one of the more entertaining ones I've seen. It's fun just to go for the ride. Bring on Spidey 3.
John and I stopped to rent a movie on the way home, too. John really wanted to see Bruce Campbell in "Bubba Hotep". Um, it was bad, I mean it was -really- bad, a geriatric Elvis fighting mummies, but, hey, John liked it and I got some cross-stitching done :).
This morning we headed out west in search of the trails on the Oak Ridges Moraine. Now, I've read plenty about the Oak Ridges Moraine, but based on the hiking info I've had it's been all but impossible to find where the trails are actually situated. I was beginning to think those trails were as mythical as the Yellow Brick Road. Friday, though, we bought a new atlas of Ontario (to get some good road maps of Manitoulin Island) and they had conservation areas listed on Oak Ridges Moraine that I'd never seen before. Off we went in search of them. After a lot of dead ends (chained up gates, private property, construction) we -finally- found an entrance into the Moraine Trails. A terrific system of trails, no doubt we'll go back there this summer to explore some more. Today we took a two hour hike on the "White Oaks Trail" which was very lush, green and pretty.
Swung by the library on the way home so I could go in search of some of the mystery books recommended to me in my LJ last week. I was pleased to find Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time", as I couldn't find it in two large bookstores I'd checked on the weekend. I also picked up a couple of Sharyn McCrumb's mysteries. I'm presently reading her "Bimbos of the Death Sun", which is just a hoot. It's a murder mystery set at a science fiction convention, complete with live gaming, video rooms, author signing, a hilarious masquerade and, yay, filking. Well, OK, filking as folks sitting around in a hotel room singing Star Trek and Dorsai parodies, but fun nonetheless, especially in the scene I just read with the Scottish folksinger stumbling in to lead them in spooky traditional standards. I know McCrumb has a series of mysteries loosely based on traditional folksongs, so I am now eager to track them down, too. But clearly McCrumb must be a sf/fantasy fan herself 'cause no one can skewer the community this deftly without having seen it from the inside out. I'm going to pass the book onto John after I'm done.
Going back to reading the book now (so beware of spoilers below in the comments, eh?)... I haven't even gotten to the actual murder yet, which I know about from the dust jacket. So, is that author guy a clone for Harlan Ellison or what? :)