Alright, me and plenty of shoes arrived, bienvenu au Canada, yesterday. It was a long day of traveling, on the bus at 7:00 AM in Madison, through ridiculous security lines in Chicago, to the short flight to Toronto. The shoes were packed in the bottom of mammoth suitcase, which, although it is truly mammoth, is very obedient – it sits and stays upright better than any dog I’ve ever seen. I took the train into town from the airport – that was really slick – $19 and 25 minutes. I was able to pull mammoth suitcase along behind me on the 25-minute walk from the train station to our airbnb. That part was really fun – it was rush hour in Toronto and I could look the drivers who were trying to make right turns across my path in the eye and think, “Just try it. This suitcase is going to make such a bump when you drive over it, and I bet it could even bend the rim of your tire.”
I met Mark at Starbucks, after a little finagling – I went to the wrong one, because of course there are actually three within a 2 block radius, although one of them had a fire and is boarded up.
I unpacked, and we went to get my Canadian sim card. Nothing was working quite right so we went off to get dinner, while waiting for the Telus store manager to come back. We found a nice little Italian place. I had a salad of fried wild mushrooms on top of argula, with cheese and balsamic, that was delicious. Mark’s green salad didn’t have enough greens for him, but has tagliatelle with veal ragu, and my spaghetti with tomato-basil sauce were both just right. we went back to the Telus store, and the manager made my phone just right, too.
Funghi Assoluti
Baked Oyster Mushrooms, Parmigiano, Bread Crumbs, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar on Arugula
Thursday was the library information technology conference. One speaker’s slides had some great metaphors for linked library data, trees and sap and apples – this is a 2-year old version, but similar. I stayed for the morning, then walked home and had lunch and worked. I picked up a salad and a plum (and some Jergens) at the big Loblaws that had been “our” grocery store the first time we came to TIFF and stayed at Liza’s on Mutual St. I was afraid our favorite coffee place, Bulldog, was no more – there’s a giant hole in the ground where they used to be – but turns out they just moved. Even closer to the Ryerson Theatre.
Loblaw takeaway salad
I went back and met Mark at the conference and watched the last two sessions.
We took the subway to pick up our TIFF tickets. Paying the membership fee was so worth it – the member line was waaay shorter, and indoors.
TIFF tix
