Layers

Hockey games are fun! Hockey games are cold! Here's how I go to the Ranger Game.

Period 1: Sweater and scarf, like any normal, fashionable human being.

Period 2: Add a hoodie, keep my hands in my pockets, put my hood up.

Period 3: Put on my hat and coat and gloves. Warmth over fashion every time.

If we go outside, though, I'm super prepared. Like if Eddie and I decide to go see Macy's windows, we're cold but I'm already bundled up.

Eddie's Santa Doppleganger

We look so cute together.

We Know Stuff When We Pay Attention To Stuff

Another glorious night of trivia at Sip This! So glorious because I put together a spectacular team (which, might I remind you, is my job--to put the team together), and this team did not come in last!

The topic: Marvel, mostly movies but some comic books

The plan: Read wikipedia daily to learn everything there is to know about Marvel. Look on YouTube to learn about Marvel (and then stop watching because it's just way too complicated). Read IMDB for everything about all Marvel movies. Look up all of Stan Lee's cameos. Go see Doctor Strange. Write as many words on the answer board as possible so that one word might be the right answer.

After a month and maybe twenty pages of notes, I was prepared! Eddie was prepared because he has the ability to watch a movie and remember a lot of stuff about it simply by watching it.

Sidenote: When I watch a movie, I don't know any of the characters' names, and I pretty much forget almost everything it was about except whether or not I enjoyed it. I need to start eating peanuts or whatever it is that makes your memory better.

Also on the team were D and F. D doesn't pay attention to pop culture anything, so this was not her forte. F said he knew some stuff. Some stuff is better than no stuff, so our team was solid!

When Eddie and I walked into Sip This, he told me we'd already lost. He saw someone wearing a Captain America jacket in the back. Maybe it's just a fashion choice. Maybe he doesn't even know it's Captain America. Plus, Captain America is on our side because that's the movie we watched on our honeymoon when the weather took a turn towards torrential downpours, so, you know, that matters.

Trivia started with a question that may as well have been in Japanese because I didn't understand anything it was asking. Then F said, It's Guardians of the Galaxy. I was like, oh, yeah, the one movie I decided not to pay attention to. And so the next two questions were also foreign because they were about the same movie.

Then it took a turn. There was a question and I knew I knew the answer. I wrote it down. We got it right. A point! We got a point!

And on it went. We got a few right in a row. Then we made up a really good answer for a bonus question: What does Jarvis stand for? I could tell you that Jarvis was in the Royal Air Force, but I couldn't tell you what it stood for, so I came up with Just for the J. And then we all added in words. Turns out, we got pretty close, as noted the trivia host. No points for close.

In an attempt to earn points on wrong answers, I took to waving my hand in front of the answers like one of Barker's Beauties. I also waved around the whole board, to which the host replied, That's not working but if you flip it around and do tricks, then maybe. I did not flip the board around for fear it would hit someone in the head.

I also tried smiling really hard and keeping the wrong answer up, which simply led to the host shaking his head "no."

Eddie completed his self-imposed task of getting one answer right. He knew the thingie the Hulk spoke to was called Blue. Then he exceeded expectations during the written portion.

Yes, there was a written portion! They gave us the super hero name and we had to fill in the real name and then the actor name. For any actor I didn't know, I wrote Zach Effron because, you know, why not. Also, I now know his name is spelled Zac Efron, so even that was wrong. There were two or three heroes we'd never even heard of. For those, I made up alliterative names like Bill Bobins and Ned Nevers because most real people names of superheros are alliterative i.e. Peter Parker and Wade Wilson (Spider-man and Deadpool).

The last round was about the comic books, and the final question was about the sinister six, and I knew I had the answer written down on one of my many pages of notes, and I knew that Doc Ock was one of them. So we wrote Doc Ock and then a bunch of other names that may or may not have been actual names of comic book characters.

When all the points were tallied, we came in fourth out of six. Actually, we tied, which according to the host meant there was no last place because no one came in sixth. Sure, I'll go with that. We got 22 points. The winning team got 77. Hooray for mediocrity!

The best part about throwing myself fully into the Marvel world was that it's going to be really helpful for my next poetry collection. The one coming out in March is Liberating The Astronauts, which leans towards sci-fi and science. The one I'm planning after is moving towards superheroes, at least in part. Geekery and poetry and trivia--it all falls into place.

Finally, whenever I start to put a team together, I get a lot of suggestions for trivia in the future, like, I'll be on the team if they have this kind of trivia. So, here are the suggestions even though I have no control over trivia topics:

1. Chinese History
2. History in general
3. War history
4. Cars, as in the automobiles, not the movie
5. Another Seinfeld
6. Another Disney
7. The Big Bang Theory
8. Music
9. Indiana Jones

My only suggestion is me winning.

Trivia: It Finally Happened

My brother and I teamed up for October trivia at Sip This. The theme was October trivia. That meant Halloween and spooky movies. That meant we were not going to do well.

We could've done well. We could've looked up the most basic information about Halloween like where it began and why we carve pumpkins.

But no. We went in cold. We went in knowing this would not go well. We went in feeling like we could totally not come in last while knowing nothing.

We came in last.

We did not know that Halloween started in Ireland. We guessed Mexico after my brother changed his mind from Transylvania to Spain. Notice none were correct. I agreed with everything he said, anyway, and had no guesses of my own. This was about the time he said that if this were Chinese History trivia, he'd be doing better. Note to Sip This: Chinese History Trivia next time.

We also did not know that people used to carve turnips before carving pumpkins. I don't remember what we guessed. It might have been potatoes. That would make sense considering the Ireland answer from the previous question. It doesn't matter. We got it wrong.

Also wrong? Almost all our other answers. There were questions about shows like "Salute Your Shorts," which I watched more than many years ago, so no, I did not remember that one episode about Zeke the scary guy. There were questions about movies like Corpse Bride, for which I thought to myself, Oh yeah I've always wanted to watch that movie. Then there were questions about movies and shows I'd never heard of ever.

To be fair, there were also questions about movies I've seen and should have known answers to, and because I have a horrible memory, I didn't remember anything. Like who kills Freddie in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Our answer: Jason Voorhees. Which is incorrect. Very incorrect.

So, you know, we got 11 questions right. Out of like 40 something.

The tea was good. Very very good. 

Now I have a few weeks to figure out how much I know about Marvel Comics and if I should brush up on what I know. (I should. I might. Probably not.) Gettin the team together....

I'm Cuuuute! And Cooooold!

The Rangers home opener came with a blue carpet pre-game spectacular starting mid-afternoon. Eddie and I got there maybe an hour before the game and still caught a few of the old players walking through and being interviewed. There was a lot of waiting around, but also a lot of excitement. When the sun started setting, I started to get chilly, so we decided to find one of the new entrances to the Garden to go inside since we'd come outside.

Sure, go ahead and stand right in front of me.

Finding the new entrance was easy because we were wearing Rangers gear and I made a friend. We were walking down the street near Nick + Stef's restaurant and we heard "You two, over here! Right over here!" A guard at the door waved to us, very excited. He might have been 87, give or take a year. We got closer and he pointed at me and shouted, "You're cuuuuuute! She's cutttte!" Eddie was laughing and I said thank you and he kept it going as we went through the door and up the stairs: So cuuuuuute! You've got a cute one!!!!

I don't care how old I get. Cute is cute. I'll take it.

Where we went in, there were no crowds, barely any lines, and we found our seats right away. They were too close.

Too close means a few things:

1. It's cold.

2. When the puck hits the glass, it looks like it's coming towards your face.

Too close.

Also, the level we were on didn't sell waffle fries, so we had to take a long trip around MSG to find the waffle fries and then had to take the long trip back. The trip isn't so long that it's not walkable. I'm talking long because we took some time trying to figure out how to go up and then how to come back down. Escalators. Stairs. Doors. Lines. Navigating the Garden takes some skillz.

Before the game, they had a ceremony for the Rangers celebrating 90 years. For that, the seats were good.

The game started. We were excited. I was cold. The game got more exciting. I got more cold. By the time the third period began, I'd stopped talking and moving because I was frozen in place.

The Rangers won. Yeay! A small price to pay for a freezer headache and finger frostbite. Yes, it was that cold.

Pre-frozen cuteness

I tried again. I love going to hockey games, so I sucked it up and went again, and this time, we were sitting in Eddie's season tickets seats. These seats? Were too close. I think there's a vent that's directly straight towards my face, and if I move, it moves with me. I'd come prepared. I'd layered up with a long sleeved shirt and a hoodie pull-over.

Between periods, we left our seats to roam. It was a little warmer out there. However, by the end of the second period, I was an ice berg. We went into the store, and that, too, was cold. One of the sales people pointed out, "You look cold." That's far from cute, now isn't it.

We went back in to watch the third period. The game was really fun and exciting (despite the jerk who was a row ahead of us who was screaming all drunken nonsense to the players who couldn't hear him). I put my hood up. Then I proceeded to slowly wrap the hood halfway around my face. The Rangers won. Yeay! I got to leave. Yeay!!

So here's the plan. Next time, I'm wearing long sleeves, a hoodie, gloves, a scarf, and a hat. I am not joking. Third time's a charm. Plus, I'll look adorable.

In Which Putting The Team Together Was The Only Thing I Knew

Star Wars trivia is as intimidating as it sounds. You may think you know Star Wars until you meet those who really do know Star Wars. Then you can be like me and know really nothing about Star Wars and still enter into Star Wars trivia, and then really hope to win.

My officemates-turned-trivia-team joined together once again to compete. I was helpful in that I wanted to win. I also nodded a lot to support the team. I knew not one answer.

In fact, this is what happened right before heading to trivia:

I also was very supportive when my teammates challenged certain answers. Supportive here means helping to catch the attention of the hosts and then again nodding feverishly at their claims. I'm very good at, "Yes, what they said!"

When people challenge, it can get heated. Teams start countering as to why the challenge does not make sense. The hosts cringe a little inside. The thing about my team is that we all teach for a living. We are so used to a room full of people sending dagger eyes our way that challenging is really no biggie. We lost the challenges for the most part. I turned to my teammates, and seeing their faces, I realized that it was quite possible they were heading home to watch hours of Star Wars just to make sure the right answers were really right.

The tea I had was delicious. We came in not last. So, you know, mission accomplished. All good things happen at Sip This trivia night.

Thanks, Toronto: Part 3

I don't make a habit of going to places where Guy Fieri has been on purpose. I do love diners, however, so when Eddie and I were in DC, we found out that the diner we were in had been on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. There was a big poster on the wall. We looked it up afterwards, and what it was on the show for had nothing to do with the menu we'd seen. Basically, it was an overpriced diner.

In planning our trip, I looked up a bunch of places to eat and found that Toronto had diners, too.  Ooh, I love diner food. I love everything about a diner. The diner I found, The Lakeview Restaurant, had also been on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. What fun! The third day of our trip, we hopped in a cab and headed over to it because it was pretty much away from everything else.

We were the only ones there when we walked in. The lights didn't seem to be on. The server seated us in a tiny booth and served us water, which she spilled all over my menu, saying Oops! and giggling and then walking away. Great start to breakfast.

I ordered a decaf. It would take a few minutes because it had to be brewed. They were incredibly prepared for breakfast.

Eddie ordered a coke. They had coke but no ice. He got it anyway, and she came back with three ice cubes in the coke--I found some! she said. The coke was gross.

Eddie asked for white toast. They had no white bread.

The food took an extraordinary amount of time to arrive. Two more people had walked in, so maybe this was a crowd for them. Overall, the restaurant didn't look like it got very busy. In some places, it looked like it was falling apart.

Skimming the wet menu

 

There's that Guy Fieri again

The food arrived eventually as did my decaf. Eddie and I dug into our meals. I don't know if this is a Canadian thing or not, but both breakfasts we had, the one the day before and this one, came with orange slices we hadn't ordered. And the orange slices were delicious!

 I ate some eggs. I looked at Eddie. He had eaten some eggs. I asked, Do you like your eggs? He was like, Ummm... I was like, These eggs are gross. He was like, Oh, good, I didn't want to complain but they taste terrible. I don't know if they were powdered or old or the chef simply couldn't make scrambled eggs, but there was something really wrong with them. We ate as much as we could, and nibbled at the potatoes and I had some of my toast which was the best thing on the plate.

Then our side salads arrived.

Yes, you read that correctly Our salads. The server was like, These come with your meal. And she put down two small bowls of salad that we could eat at 9AM. The salad looked really good, like a salad I'd make for myself, complete with sunflower seeds. 

We did not eat the salad. We asked for the check. We left, kinda still hungry but too appalled to eat.

To burn off that large and scrumptious meal, we walked a little down the main street, passing a park and some odds and ends shops. Then a man we passed caught up with us and asked, Hey buddy you got a cigarette? Eddie said he didn't smoke, and I prayed that we wouldn't be murdered in Canada.

Then we found a cab and the driver motioned for us to get in but stayed on his cell phone so we sat and waited. We told him we wanted to go to Nathan Phillips Square. He started up the car and it chugged along. Slowly I realized that this car was going to break down. And it did. As soon as he had to come to a full stop, it turned itself off. I prayed that we wouldn't be exploded by a car in Canada.

When we approached a street I recognized, I asked Eddie if he would mind getting out there. He was like, We can keep going. The car shuddered back and forth, and I was like, Are you sure? He shrugged so I was like, Here's fine! We'll get out right here! This is far enough! Thanks so much!!

And then Eddie paid the guy in American money and he had to give us Canadian money back, and that's exactly when we realized that the exchange rate had been very beneficial for all of our cab drivers. Eddie is a rock star among taxis.

My feet hit the pavement and it was like touching down from outer space. So happy to be alive. We walked the few blocks to the square and went underground into the path to do some souvenir shopping and window shopping. Then we went to the Eaton Centre so I could find a small bag to bring with me to the baseball game later because the one I had seemed too big. The Eaton Centre is like another small village. I've been to the Mall of America, and this puts that to shame.

We made it to lunch without passing out from malnutrition without having eaten a satisfying breakfast. We found the food court, and while Eddie grabbed a burger from A&W, I had myself a fancy crepe meal.

She gave me two sets of utensils as if I was going to share these.

Since we had the game that night, we went back to the hotel to pack. We'd be leaving at 6 something the next morning. Our hotel had two sets of elevators, and I was mesmerized by this one.

It lights up so pretty!

And in case you missed it, here's the view from our room.

AND our hotel phone had a pizza button.

We packed, I set up a car for the next day to the airport, I pressed the pizza button (no, really, I did and it's just guest services--I suppose they can order you a pizza), and then we got ready for the game. But first, we checked out YouTube for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives to look up The Lakeview Restaurant, and the segment on the show was nothing like our experience. The place had lights on and was packed with people and everyone who needed ice seemed to have it. For shame, Lakeview and Triple D, for shame!

We took a cab down, and man was there traffic. The driver explained that traffic in Toronto's downtown, especially at rush hour and on game night, was horrific. Then he gave us a grand plan of how the US and Canada should be one country, citing population and land mass and unshared holidays that could be shared. It was quite informative. When we got close to the stadium, he told us not to waste our money--we should get out and walk down the street and turn and we'd be there. That was helpful.

Once again, we walked in 80 degree weather. The stadium wasn't open just yet, but there were lines forming to go in. We stood on a line and went in pretty quickly. We found our seats easily. The positive: the Yankees were warming up on the field and we were in the third row along the first base line watching them. The negative: the dome was open (I wanted it closed) and we were in direct sun, which is great when you're not wearing jeans. The dome does not seem to open all the way, so I was still pleased by it. We waited to see if any players would come over, but they simply waved a lot.

Not wearing sunglasses

Dome!

Fancy hat

This is pretty cool to see when you look up.

We found food. Eddie got chicken fingers and fries which cost about 15 bucks and then a soda that cost 5  and he got a pretzel that is half the size of a New York pretzel and that was 5, too. Ballpark prices never cease to amaze me. Seeing that I ate my weight in crepes for lunch, I got only peanuts. Another 5 bucks.

Now let's talk about these chicken fingers. They were not those frozen to fried things. They were like actual pieces of actual chicken, breaded and fried. There were two pieces, but they were large and filling. And the fries overflowed and also tasted delicious. I had a bite of each. Wow. Good food. The pretzel was fine. The peanuts were fine and I took them home with me because there were enough in the bag to last me a few days if I needed to live on peanuts.

We settled into our seats. In front of us were two couples. The girl in front of me spent a lot of time looking at herself in her cell phone by using the selfie camera mode. Then she took a selfie of herself and her boyfriend, and I could totally see I was in it, so I smiled.

See that phone? I'm in that selfie.

 The girls were decked out in NY gear and the guys wore Toronto jerseys, but the girls didn't seem to be really into the game. They were really into the alcohol though. Lots of it.

The largest man in the world sat next to me. He was just very large and wearing heavy jeans and big work boots and I was sweating for him.

Then the game began. I'm not really interested in baseball games. I do, however, like what goes on at them. Two fans competed in a tie tying competition, and the one who tied his tie the quickest won a suit. A suit! And his row got gift cards for pizza or something.

Then another guy won a lawn mower. A lawn mower!

They played a few more games, all with great prizes. And then there was singing. During the seventh inning stretch, they did Take Me Out To The Ballgame, which I sang along to. They also did some Toronto song I'd never heard before. Clearly I didn't sing along to that.

Oh! The National Anthems. I almost forgot. So before the game started, a children's choir took the field and first sang the American National Anthem. This was Memorial Day, so the announcer also said something about that. It was nice to hear. Then they sang the Canadian National Anthem.

Now this is when Eddie and I were set to shine. Before our trip, we looked up the words to the anthem. I mean, we've heard it thousands of times because we watch a lot of hockey, but we didn't know all the words. We first looked it up maybe a year or two ago after we saw a hockey game when the mic went out and the Canadian fans sang the American National Anthem. We wondered if we'd be able to do the same, so we looked up the lyrics, preparing for the day when the two of us who can barely carry a tune would save the day at a hockey game on American soil when the mic went out and we would lead the crowd in harmony. Pretty much, we were prepared for this moment.

Then the kids started singing in French.

Dammit.

Anyway, it was nicely done and the baseballing happened. There was a guy behind us who had some sort of odd hatred for Teixeira. Every time he came to bat, the guy would yell at him, tell him he was on steroids, call him ugly, say his wife should leave him. It was really strange, so much so that the very large man next to me wondered aloud what exactly Teixeira did to that guy. I have my own Teixeira thing. I think he has a lady butt, so when he comes up to bat, I say to myself and to Eddie, Mark Teixeira has a lady butt. My thing seems to be less confrontational.

Lady butt

Lady butt

Lady butt

We were also entertained by the mascot. I don't like adults in costume usually, but this mascot was pretty entertaining. As long as he was rows away from me, I was fine with it.

All this side entertainment proved to be the bright side of the game because the Yankees played dreadfully. Towards the end of the game, they scored one run, so I put on my rally cap, which really meant turning my hat backwards.

It didn't work, so we watched as the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays. Still, we had amazing seats.

There was a guy in that building waving a Blue Jay's flag from his balcony.

The night grew so pretty and not very dark, so we walked back to our hotel. We passed by some really fantastic street performers playing drums. We also saw the CN Tower all lit up on our way out.

As we walked, Eddie decided that we should find soft ice cream. We found a few food trucks, but none were for ice cream. Until we hit Nathan Phillips once again and found the ice cream truck. I normally do not eat ice cream, but this was too good to pass up. I wanted to feel like a baseball cliche--peanuts and ice cream and a rally cap. A perfect ending to our Toronto trip.

Thanks, Toronto: Part 2

Eggsmart has great eggs and a knack for punning.

Heh heh heh

So this is where we ate breakfast, which was pretty delicious. We learned that Jersey Shore fries were basically regular french fries. Also, there are many different choices of spreads to put on toast.

Totally not posing

Definitely not posing

We caught a cab down to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Eddie made yet another new friend by not asking for money back. The place hadn't opened yet so we took a quick walk around the block to find Toronto's flatiron building. We found lots of buildings, probably the tallest ones in downtown, but didn't find the one I was looking for. So we settled for these.

Then we headed back to the Hall of Fame, which was still not open. We checked out the outside first.

Fun Fact: The Hockey Hall of Fame is kind of in the basement of a shopping mall. We went inside the mall part to go to its actual entrance to wait. There were maybe forty people down there, not really in a line, but simply hanging out at the entrance.

Outside of the store on the main floor

I guess Eddie wanted to get in as much of the floor as possible.

Pretty ceiling of the shopping mall

A few minutes after 10, someone opened the gate and in we all went. I'd already bought our tix, so we gave them to the guy along with a coupon I'd found for free wristbands. That's right--FREE! We also bought a program that had a map in it. However, we didn't use the map. The HoF was pretty small, so we didn't really need it to find anything.

As soon as we got by the cashier, I was like, We're going to the Stanley Cup. He was like, huh? I was like, Let's go before there's a line. I don't know why everyone was checking out the jerseys in the display cases when they could go back to those at any time. I mean, what's the most important thing to see in the Hockey Hall of Fame? Eddie was like, oh good idea.

We were the first people in the Stanley Cup room and the only ones there for several minutes. We were allowed to take pictures of it and touch it. It's a replica, so they aren't too worried about someone knocking it over. The photographer took our picture for which I was not ready twice. Then we took a look at the old plates on the cup in the little room. Eddie started to look at the other stuff in the room, and I was like, Nope! We're going to play games first to avoid lines and then come back! He was like, oh good idea.

This is not the Stanley Cup, but it was in the same room.

Once in a lifetime picture, and I'm looking slightly to the right.

We got to the interactive games with only two people ahead of us. The first game was shooting against a goalie. We could choose Lundqvist, or one of the goalies from Toronto or Montreal. Eddie shot against Lundqvist. He got no goals. I shot against the Montreal goalie. I got one goal.

I AM BETTER AT HOCKEY THAN EDDIE IS! 

I WIN LIFE!

To hear Eddie tell the story, you'll learn how the computerized game was broken and he certainly got at least one in. Because, you know, he's better than the computer.

The next game was goal tending. Ahead of us were four people. When I say "people" here, I really mean children. You know, kids who are supposed to play games. The two right in front of us were pretty young, and man were they good! The mom said they used to live in NY and were Rangers fans, but now they live in Michigan. We told her about the MSG revamp and then her younger son distracted us all as he put on all the goalie gear, which was pretty much as big as he was. Then he blocked a bunch of shots without any fear. 

The line behind us was growing, so that's about when I decided I wasn't going to do it. It wasn't fear of embarrassment. I mean, come on, I'd already won at life by scoring more goals than Eddie did. It was more of not wanting to waste anyone's time. I knew what I'd do. As soon as a puck came at me, I was going to run away from it. The game lasted over two minutes plus the time it takes to put on and take off the equipment. Since I knew my score would be negative saves, I decided to not delay anyone's day.

Eddie went and saved more than half the goals. It was rather impressive.

After that, we went back to the beginning and looked at all the memorabilia. There were movies and interactive trivia games we could do. There was a lot of non-NHL stuff there, too, which was beyond my knowledge of hockey, but it was still interesting. They also had something called Hockey In Space that I'm still trying to figure out.

I realize, I'm a child. The guy's name is Dickie Moore, and on the sign it says Moore, Dickie.

The contract between the NHL and the cup keepers

The original travel box for the cup

We made our way back to here.

There it is again.

Hockey in Space?

Pretty ceiling

Friends

We saw everything, some things twice. Having visited the Baseball Hall of Fame, I thought this one was more compact. We finished more quickly than I thought we would. Soon enough we were heading upstairs to mall level and into the store where we could buy our Stanley Cup photo (the one in which I am looking a bit harried) and anything else we could want hockey-related. And I had a coupon for 10 % off. And I forgot to use it. Dangit. We got some pretty nice swag anyway, and then headed to find lunch.

And this is what happens when I climb stairs ahead of my husband.

We walked a lot in the sun and it was hot. We ducked into a pizza shop and Eddie asked for two slices for himself. I'd planned to find something else. But then the pizza came out of the oven and what they called two slices was really four, so I wound up eating pizza with him. It was a crazy size for a slice. Like picture two NYC slices together. Very generous, but very unnecessary.

And then I got Starbucks because I wanted to try a mini waffle cone drink thingie and vacation was the only time I'd try it. And it was good.

Off we went to see the Love Locks. We got a cab, Eddie made a friend, and we headed into the Distillery District. Since lots of Toronto reminded me of NYC, I figured there would be a fair amount of street vendors around selling overpriced locks for people who didn't have one. Nope, Toronto doesn't have that. So we settled on a few photos.

Back to the cabs to make another friend, and we went all the way across Toronto to find Honest Ed's. The main reason I wanted to go there was so I could point at Eddie and say, Hey that's you. Also, it has really discounted prices. Like, we bought an ornament there for 1.99, and in other stores, the same ornament was 19.99. So yeah, it was worth the cab ride. Also, once we were inside, we were transported to what seemed to be another world. It was weird in there, y'all.

What department is this?

Or this?

The Fun House Mirror Department

The weather started to take a turn from overly sunny to overcast windy. We walked down the main road to check out some of what we'd seen going by from the cab. There was a game happening on the college campus. He guessed lacrosse. I thought soccer. When we peeked through the gate, we saw it was frisbee.

Then came one of my most favorite moments. That weekend was something called Doors Open (or Open Doors--one of those). Lots of buildings across town allowed free entry along with talks and activities about architecture. I found this gem:

Oh, irony. I love you so.

Then we ventured into a basement bookstore and walked by some large dominoes.

The overcast turned to whipping wind, so we grabbed a cab, made a driver happy, and headed to our hotel to crash. Then I decided I needed to see the Toronto sign again, so I sat at the hotel room window staring at it for a while.

Then we watched Ant-Man on Netflix until the wi-fi gave out from too many people using it all at once.

I'll leave you with this to ponder:

One more time--what the heck is this?