More Yummy Fun

We went to a fun dinner with some of the best conversations at my gal pal Zandra's place. Had an amazing discussion about Afghanistan with a cop who had also served there. And he is a prof and practices photography go figure! And...a Mexican poet biker. What a night!

Jenny's Amazing "Busking" Party!

Tricia, Djjin, Stagg and the michevious Andy!

Hey...it's been awhile since I was able to make time to come online and blog...it's been a super busy week. Once we got the car we were able to do about a dozen errands we had been saving up for weeks to do if we got a car. So we delivered art work and did odds and ends and I got settled in to driving in chicago. I ws already aware that many Chicago drivers drive with their own unique spectacularity and I quickly had to accept I either freak out and bitch all the time or just expand my savvy. I chose the latter. Just assume everyone drives spectacularly and be ready heh heh.

So a few days ago our friend Jenny hosted a party for us. She had a wonderful idea since the wether was so cold and snowy and we can't busk in this kind of weather to have a party with live music and we could set up some paintings. Stagg had some artwork that was in our basement storage at our old apartment and so it survived the fire and we set up about 30 paintings. I had made about 10 paintings in the last two weeks to add to the party too.

Jenny organized all kinds of beverages, I made jello shots, and she had some snacks and three great music acts. We just had a really awesome evening. Andy and Tricia had come to town for this evening to help out and we all had a lot of fun. Here are some pics...

These two are really really beautiful performers with beautiful voices. Their names are Malic and Kate.



Jenny and Stagg.

Dennis Linda and Tricia.



Saoirse Ronne played a few songs and I love her voice!


Tony and Stagg.




Tricia and her mum Linda. They look like sisters!

My friend Zandra and her visitor in from Japan, (whose name I forgot how to spell. Will correct later this afternoon.)

The wonderful wonderful Marvin, Jenny and Scott!

Shout Out To My Sister!

My sister helped us out this past couple weeks by helping us to get a car. This is a huge change for staying at grandmas house...we already drove to the grocery store and are able to drive around to look for apartments and "for rent" signs. And it's stick!!! Whoo hoo. This little aqua machine has got a great pep and we bought it from a mechanic/owner and it has been super well-maintained. We really had horseshoes up our ass getting this car. Stagg had an idea after I had been looking on Craigslist and in papers etc he remembered an auto shop he used to pass by on the bus...so we stopped in. At first the owner/mechanic showed us some cars which were nice, but I was bummed they were automatic. When he learned I prefered stick, he said I will sell you my old car! I have the best sister in the world...of course she had ulterior motives ha ha hoping we will drive to see her...and I think we will!

Travelling Into The Past

Andy arrived on Thursday night around 9 p.m. and we had some pizza and a couple cocktails and started catching up on news and whats been going on with all three of us. Andy and I are reading the sdame book for our bookclub. (I read this one when it first came out, but I wanted to return to it and have a discussion). On Friday we did a lot of running around. We were actually so busy I didn't have time to get to the blog and post anything or etc because we had a a lot to do. On Friday we got Andy some gift certificates for a wedding he is going to. We got tarot cards...Andy gave Stagg a set and Stagg gave Andy a set. Obviously Stagg lost his tarot cards sets which he had been studying for the last few years. Now they both have a lovely new set and book.

On Friday night we got back to grandmas house and made some supper and thought "What shall we do tononight?" Well...we thought lets play cards or a game so we started rummaging around the basement fdor board games or decks of cards. We also found some old booze down there and brought up a few bottles. The labels are old-fashioned but the Canadian Club, the Brandy, the Gin was all perfectly fine for consumption. We found Polish Vodka and Krupnik! We skipped the Krupnik (long story). Stagg came up from the basement with this strange looking board insisting it was a fun game and he used to play. I was quite surprised Stagg played a game bnecause he doesn't have much card or board game history. And what was this odd looking contraption? It's on thetable in the photos below. Stagg tried to explain but I was like, no way those pegs work like that...it makes no snese. So we googled the description of what the game looked like...and we tracked it down!

We also started digging through grandmas record collection! What a fun thing to do. And we played the records we found on the old console stereo. So we had a very retro style night indeed.












Okay so we finally agreed on trying this game.
Clapper". It turned out to be kind of fun. It seems to have been invented in 1963 and was originally also called "Trick Track". It's a little like a poor mans backgammon.

Kensington Market

Stagg's favourite place in Toronto is Kensington Market so I always take lots of pics for him.