Easter Weekend- Part 1
I had a very eventful and fun Easter weekend.
Headed downtown on Friday morning and met Deb for lunch at Swiss Chalet. After that we walked over to the Paramount theatre and saw "A Mighty Wind". Fun movie, Lots of great inside jokes that musicians will particularly like and lots of music that sounded uncannily like it should have come out of the 60's folk boom. I'm looking forward to going to see the movie again with John.
Dropped by The Second Cup for chai lattes after the movie and called our friend, Donna Maloney, who was traveling in from Buffalo to stay at the Sheridan Hotel, to discover that she had arrived earlier than expected. Deb and I went to join her at the Sheridan and we sat around and talked and looked through her assorted LOTR books and magasines.
We then walked out to the sushi restaurant UT and Donna had eaten at Ad Astra and we had a very good leisurely meal. We were amused that the cook and the waitress recognized us and though we thought at first it was because of my red hair it was even funnier when they asked Donna later if she had been the one in the Elf costume last time we were in the restaurant (she was). So much for Donna's sense of security that no one recognizes her when she's in costume :).
We decided to cap off the evening with a showing of "The Two Towers", so we traveled on the subway up to the Sheppard Grande to see the movie. Always fun to see a Tolkien movie with fellow fanatics.
Deb headed home at that point and Donna and I went back to the hotel for the night. The Sheridan is the same hotel "The Gathering of The Fellowship" will be in next December and I can definitely vouch for the fact that the beds are incredibly comfortable. Donna and I were woken up in the middle of the night by hallway partiers, so it gave us another excuse to talk about Tolkien books and movies.
Next morning we headed out toward Spadina to the fabric district, which was Donna's main purpose for coming into Toronto for the weekend. Donna is a very talented seamstress with a fondness for making fantasy-based costumes and she had agreed at Ad Astra to sew dresses for me and another Tolkien fan, Trish, to wear at the Ball at "The Gathering", as well as making a bunch of Middle-earth banners to hang at the Medieval Times for the Masquerade Ball in December. After more chai lattes at The Second Cup we met Trish in front of King's Textiles and headed in to go fabric shopping.
Donna started with my Elven gown and we decided on a gorgeous forest green velvet for the dress. We didn't buy any trim on Saturday, but we may add trim to the dress after the first fitting in May or July. After that, Donna and Trish found several lovely cotton fabrics in shades of blue for Trish's hobbit dress. After that Donna threw open her copy of "The Art of The Two Towers" and went searching for felt and silk for several banners. It was clear that the staff were quite familiar with Donna and her eccentric sewing projects. When one saleslady saw Donna she greeted her by saying, "Hi, Arwen. Good to see you again." :).
We all lugged our fabric finds down Queen St. and stopped in at The Silver Snail to look at all the sf/fantasy merchandise. After that we headed out for sushi again. I thought -UT- was crazy about sushi. Then I met Donna. She claims she can't get good sushi in Buffalo, so she always takes advantage of the sushi restaurants in Toronto.
Trish headed out to Etobicoke and I walked Donna back to the Sheridan so she could pick up her car. We had a really terrific couple of days and I find myself very glad that Buffalo is so close to Toronto and that Donna doesn't mind driving here! She'll be in town again on the long May weekend to meet with other concom members for a "The Gathering" meeting. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the other organizers whom I have only met in e-mail or on the TORC boards that weekend as well.
Once Donna headed on south I moved into the second half of my Easter weekend plans, arranging to meet John at Finch subway to head home to visit my parents and sisters for Easter Sunday.
More on that tomorrow.
Headed downtown on Friday morning and met Deb for lunch at Swiss Chalet. After that we walked over to the Paramount theatre and saw "A Mighty Wind". Fun movie, Lots of great inside jokes that musicians will particularly like and lots of music that sounded uncannily like it should have come out of the 60's folk boom. I'm looking forward to going to see the movie again with John.
Dropped by The Second Cup for chai lattes after the movie and called our friend, Donna Maloney, who was traveling in from Buffalo to stay at the Sheridan Hotel, to discover that she had arrived earlier than expected. Deb and I went to join her at the Sheridan and we sat around and talked and looked through her assorted LOTR books and magasines.
We then walked out to the sushi restaurant UT and Donna had eaten at Ad Astra and we had a very good leisurely meal. We were amused that the cook and the waitress recognized us and though we thought at first it was because of my red hair it was even funnier when they asked Donna later if she had been the one in the Elf costume last time we were in the restaurant (she was). So much for Donna's sense of security that no one recognizes her when she's in costume :).
We decided to cap off the evening with a showing of "The Two Towers", so we traveled on the subway up to the Sheppard Grande to see the movie. Always fun to see a Tolkien movie with fellow fanatics.
Deb headed home at that point and Donna and I went back to the hotel for the night. The Sheridan is the same hotel "The Gathering of The Fellowship" will be in next December and I can definitely vouch for the fact that the beds are incredibly comfortable. Donna and I were woken up in the middle of the night by hallway partiers, so it gave us another excuse to talk about Tolkien books and movies.
Next morning we headed out toward Spadina to the fabric district, which was Donna's main purpose for coming into Toronto for the weekend. Donna is a very talented seamstress with a fondness for making fantasy-based costumes and she had agreed at Ad Astra to sew dresses for me and another Tolkien fan, Trish, to wear at the Ball at "The Gathering", as well as making a bunch of Middle-earth banners to hang at the Medieval Times for the Masquerade Ball in December. After more chai lattes at The Second Cup we met Trish in front of King's Textiles and headed in to go fabric shopping.
Donna started with my Elven gown and we decided on a gorgeous forest green velvet for the dress. We didn't buy any trim on Saturday, but we may add trim to the dress after the first fitting in May or July. After that, Donna and Trish found several lovely cotton fabrics in shades of blue for Trish's hobbit dress. After that Donna threw open her copy of "The Art of The Two Towers" and went searching for felt and silk for several banners. It was clear that the staff were quite familiar with Donna and her eccentric sewing projects. When one saleslady saw Donna she greeted her by saying, "Hi, Arwen. Good to see you again." :).
We all lugged our fabric finds down Queen St. and stopped in at The Silver Snail to look at all the sf/fantasy merchandise. After that we headed out for sushi again. I thought -UT- was crazy about sushi. Then I met Donna. She claims she can't get good sushi in Buffalo, so she always takes advantage of the sushi restaurants in Toronto.
Trish headed out to Etobicoke and I walked Donna back to the Sheridan so she could pick up her car. We had a really terrific couple of days and I find myself very glad that Buffalo is so close to Toronto and that Donna doesn't mind driving here! She'll be in town again on the long May weekend to meet with other concom members for a "The Gathering" meeting. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the other organizers whom I have only met in e-mail or on the TORC boards that weekend as well.
Once Donna headed on south I moved into the second half of my Easter weekend plans, arranging to meet John at Finch subway to head home to visit my parents and sisters for Easter Sunday.
More on that tomorrow.