Dinner was McDonald's.
Saw the DVD of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical The Barkleys of Broadway. Pretty mild.
Dreamed of the movie Kramer vs. Kramer (which I've seen); reflecting that whether you like that movie depends on whther you like Dustin Hoffman (true enough).
Dinner was teriyaki chicken.
Father went to Orchard Home Farms (without me this time) and brought back a nice bag of Gravensteins.
Baked rye bread overnight.
Dreamed of a record album of war-related music; the Slade song "Run, Run Away."
Went to the Canadian National Exhibition with the Asperger's Meetup group. My lunch was Indian food. Afterward I got a Midway pass. (My favourite ride is the bumper cars, of course.)
Dinner was McDonald's.
I was going to meet Carita in Dufferin Grove Park for the Musical Run-Through Meetup. But I waited an hour and didn't meet her.
Saw the DVD of the Errol Flynn movie The Dawn Patrol. It's a bit stagey, but less gung ho than most air force movies.
Went shopping.
Finished my online application to Ontario Disability Support Payments, but it looks like I'll have to go there in person (to an address near Lawrence station).
Went to Sheppard Grande and bought my tickets to the Met opera cinemacasts. The first screening of La Traviata is in April, but it's already sold out!
Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.
Joined the Classical Music Meetup to see Mary Poppins yet again at the park next to Roy Thomson Hall.
Dreamed of the South Pacific song "Younger Than Springtime."
Dinner was vegetable stew. (I sneaked out to Harvey's afterward.)
Dreamed of fooling with a jigsaw puzzle only to find that it was two puzzles (the same picture with different cuts); the actual Casablanca line
"If that plane takes off and you're not on it, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life";
thinking that she would have regretted it.
Dinner was teriyaki chicken (and another apple pie Moira baked).
Saw the DVD of John Duigan's Flirting, an appealing story of romance at Australian boarding schools.
Headache!
"So are you, sweetheart, you just don't know it yet."
--M*A*S*H
Dreamed of the actual quote that British soldiers in World War I were "lions led by donkeys"; a tape recording of a Latin lesson.
Saw Robert Altman's movie of M*A*S*H (for the third time, but the first on a big screen) at the Scotiabank with the Movie Meetup group. It's one of the only movies to capture the craziness that's part of war, but it's pretty dated. (The scene where a showering Hot Lips gets exposed to the whole base is cruel and unfunny.)
Dinner was the rest of the Indian food we had yesterday.
Went to a Classical Music Meetup at the Mad Bean Coffee House. A violin maker and a violin player talked about violins.
Baked whole wheat bread.
Went to Beguiling in Mirvish Village and bought some comic strip reprints, including the first years of Rip Kirby (the coolest guy in the world when I was 11 or 12!).
Dinner was spaghetti.
Went shopping.
Dinner was salmon.
Went on a Queen Street art walk and visited a couple of galleries and a boutique called Art 47.
Got my new iron pills at Shoppers Drug Mart.
John and Kathrine brought dinner over. Once again, I sneaked out to KFC afterward.
Posted a YouTube clip of Danny Kaye singing "Inchworm" in Hans Christian Andersen, on the Asperger group's Facebook page. (The song reminds me of Asperger's Syndrome.)
Yesterday I went to a welfare office near Yonge & Eglinton and they gave me a phone number to call to start the process of getting onto Ontario Disability Support Payments. [I have Asperger's Syndrome.]
Today I had my appointment with Dr. Scholzberg, the haematologist at St. Michael's Hospital. (I was late, but still ended up cooling my heels for a while.) She prescribed a new kind of iron pill for me.
Dinner was roast pork. (Moira baked a pie with some of the apples we picked last week.)
Went to a Classical Music Meetup event: a chamber music concert at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The group performed string quartets by Mozart and Dvorak. The weather started out fine, but during the intermission we hurried from the outdoor marquee to an indoor chapel, and barely escaped a downpour complete with thunder!
The rain largely ended before the concert did, so we made a pilgrimage to pianist Glenn Gould's grave. (The cemetery people drove us there in a couple of CNE-like minibuses.) We saw a deer in a wooded area! I'd borrowed an illustrated guide to the place from the library, but didn't get around to doing much exploring.
Dinner was African stew.
In the Kingdoms of Camelot computer game, the leader of our alliance has set up a city for collecting resources, so I've started sending my huge reserves there.
Dreamed of living with some horrid people and having to move out.
Went to a Games Meetup in High Park. (I met Evgenia and a friend there and they joined us for some of the games.) I played Apples to Apples, and two new games called That's Life and Show Manager.
Dinner was the rest of the corn.
I've started the Frontierville spinoff computer game Pioneer Trail. Still not sure whether I'll persist with it...
Saw a DVD documentary about 20th Century Fox movies. (None of Joan Collins' early roles.)
Today we did go to Orchard Home Farm, but the Gravenstein apples won't be ripe for another ten days. We did get some Ginger Golds.
Baked white bread.
Dinner was corn on the cob, which we bought at Gillespie's near Orchard Home Farm. Sweet!
Went to another classroom films show at the Trash Palace. I bought my ticket through a Meetup group. (The place was sold out!)
"Two words: Get over it!"--Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Got up early because we were going to Orchard Home Farm. But Mother didn't feel like it, so we decided to go tomorrow.
I went back to bed, and stayed there six hours!
Dinner was McDonald's.
Saw the DVD of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version of Tormented.
Chief Wiggum (punishing some childen): "Let this be a lesson to you: kids never learn!"--The Simpsons
Dreamed of forgetting that my Ph.D. thesis had passed; sunny weather changing to rain really quickly.
Went shopping.
Went to the Loblaw's superstore near St. Clair & Bathurst to inquire about renting a room for the Musical Run-Through Meetup. Then I went to Wychwood Library and borrowed the illustrated guide to Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Dinner was African stew.
Went to the NDP nomination meeting for the provincial election. (Afterward I picked up a few more clearance-priced books at Book City.)
"Like a graveyard"
--Attack!
On a group of German POWs: "The mean one's the captain. Just like in any army"--ibid.
Dreamed of a movie about the destruction of a bridge off the northern coast of Jutland in Denmark, with Angelina playing a Nazi in jodhpurs and riding boots.
Dinner was curried shrimp.
Saw the DVD of Robert Aldrich's Attack! It's one of the better 1950s war movies, gripping and straightforward. (The ending was a bit ambiguous.) Jack Palance and Lee Marvin came from the age of Real Men!
Went to Evgenia's apartment for an Asperger's Meetup, but there was nobody there.
My Metropass for August got lost in the mail. Today I finally got around to going to Davisville station, where they gave me a replacement.
Dinner was linguini pesto (which I cooked).
I was going to participate in a Ticket to Ride tournament at Snakes and Lattes--even brought my game set--but I was 20 minutes late and the tournament was already full! (I should have asked Father to drive me there, but he'd already driven me in th morning.) Moira's been having a bad day too.
Saw the DVD of the 2003 revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, with Paul Newman as the narrator. It gets pretty sad.
"Is it being unable to see that makes you weary of life?"
"No, being able to hear."
--Kung Fu
Marge: "I never realized history was so filthy!"--The Simpsons
Went to a Games Meetup at the Yellow Griffin. I played Kill Mister Lucky (sort of a prequel to Clue) and Guillotine (where I tied for first).
On the way home, I travelled on one of the new subway trains that aren't divided into cars. When the train's route curves, you can look toward the other end and see it bend!
Dinner was ham quiche.
Saw the DVD of "Besieged," a double episode of Kung Fu set entirely in China, guest-starring David Carradine's real-life girlfriend Barbara Hershey. (It's one of the episodes from the third season, which I hardly saw at all back at the time.)
"Talk to the wind, Chinaman!"--Kung Fu
Homer: "They did it that way because they're stupid! That's why everybody does everything"--The Simpsons
Went to an Asperger's Meetup at the Tim Horton's east of Yonge & Bloor. They talked about the summer autism retreat a couple of them went to. (Should I go next year?) [I didn't.]
Dinner was tortellini.
Baked white bread, but it came out funny. (Why?)
Yesterday I had a big headache. Maybe it came from switching to caffeine-free Pepsi.
Dinner was linguini primavera.
Went to Mary's games night. (I played Say Anything and Balderdash.)
On a bald prospective husband: "You want hair? Marry a monkey!"--Fiddler on the Roof
Dreamed of groups of young people sailing around the world at the same time as part of a big project; finding out that years ago someone published a paper using my research, and not caring.
Went shopping.
Dinner was ham.
Saw Norman Jewison's movie of Fiddler on the Roof (for the fourth time) with the Toronto Social Group Meetup at an outdoor screening next to Roy Thomson Hall. (I should have brought a pillow!) It's a strong, worthy adaptation of the classic Broadway musical. The scene with the ghosts still gives me the willies! I should read Sholom Aleichem's stories. [When Motl the mousy tailor was getting up the nerve to tell Tevye he loved the latter's daughter, someone in the audience shouted "You can do it, Motl!"]
"Your absence!"
--The Pick-Up Artist
Yesterday I saw the DVD of Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus. I liked Marianne Faithfull's "Something Better." (I don't think I'd ever heard "Jumpin' Jack Flash" before!)
Dreamed of waking up early in the morning at our old home in Sackville, N.B.
Dinner was steak.
Saw the DVD of James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist. Robert Downey Jr. (in his debut) had a Harlequin-like appeal, but the Molly Ringwald character didn't really make sense.
I've started translating another of my Spanish-language Mortadelo y Filemon comic books. This one's title is "Armas con Bicho," which translates as "critter weapons"!
Dinner was corn.
I was going to see a documentary at the Projection Booth, about a veteran New York Times fashion photographer. But transit was screwed up by the Taste of the Danforth street festival, and I waited over ten minutes for the Pape bus before figuring out that it wasn't running. I didn't want to be late, so I went home.
Dinner was tortellini.
Saw the DVD of Robert Wise's Born to Kill, a classic sexy film noir.
Then we saw the DVD of the TV play Days of Wine and Roses.
"I'm not rapey enough for you"--Weeds
Dreamed of travelling in southern Cape Breton; climbing the highest local peak, with a view for miles around; visiting a notorious Russian; writing on a wall; the movie Untamed Heart.
Baked multigrain bread.
Dinner was steak.
Picked up a couple of bonds at Scotiabank.
Dreamed of recalling Father saying he didn't care for Steve McQueen (which he really did say).
Dinner was spaghetti.
Saw the cinemacast of Franco Zeffirelli's Met production of Puccini's opera Turandot at the Sheppard Grande with the Classical Music Meetup group. The first two acts are pretty good, but it gets masochistic in the third. ("Pain is sweetness to me...")
"He skeeves people off, like midgets"--Weeds
Dreamed of trying to remember what town I was born in. (It was Sackville, N.B.)
Dinner was salmon.
Saw the DVD of Rod Serling's 1957 TV play The Comedian. Mickey Rooney was disturbingly well-cast as the eponymous loud-mouthed bully!
Dreamed of driving from Halifax to my hometown Sackville, N.B.; wondering whether I'd get to see any of the August movies being shown at the Projection Booth. [I didn't.]
Dinner was churrasco chicken.
Saw Joe Johnson's Captain America: The First Avenger at the Yonge & Eglinton. (I was going to see the last Harry Potter movie, but the TTC was slower than I expected.) It was a pretty good little-boy adventure. They were showing it in 3-D, but my Scene card had enough points for a free admission anyway.
In The Huffington Post I commented (paraphrasing Churchill on Neville Chamberlain) that Obama had the choice of bankruptcy or dishonour: he chose dishonour, and he'll get bankruptcy.
Dreamed of seeing the first part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in a library in a Moncton shopping centre; trying to remember what movies were released in May and June, 1980.
Had lunch with the Mad About Movies Meetup group at Spin. (I ate fresh fruit crepes.) Afterward we walked through Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where I spotted journalist Norman DePoe's grave.
Dinner was the rest of the corn on the cob. (This time I poured cold water on it before eating, and didn't burn my mouth.)
Started two new cities in my computer games: Heathead in Kingdoms of Camelot, and Strathdunum (Celtic for "fort in the valley") in Glory of Rome.
Homer: "I don't have the discipline to be a hippie!"--The Simpsons
Had dinner at the Golden Thai restaurant with the Aspergers Meetup group. I ate special fried rice and cashew chicken. Bea tells me that the St. Michael's Hospital, where my examination will be next month, has good haematologists. (She used to work in hospital administration.)
Finally sprang for new cities in the computer games Glory of Rome and Kingdoms of Camelot. (I've also started a new Facebook game called Millionaire Boss.)
John Slattery (who plays Roger Sterling on Mad Men) is six months younger than me!
Baked raisin bread.
Dinner was frozen pizza.
Saw a La Scala production of Verdi's Nabucco in an open-air screening at the Italian Consulate, with the Classical Music Meetup group.
Homer: "When was the last time Barbra Streisand cleaned your garage?"--The Simpsons
Dreamed of trying to drive a car [I've never learned]; filling a washing machine; the 1980s CBC comedy series Seeing Things (which I never watched).
Went shopping. (We replenished the ice.)
Dinner was corn on the cob (which I bought at Whittamore Farm yesterday). I think I burnt my mouth!
I was going to go on an Art Walk Meetup, but I wasn't quite up to it.
Marge: "Nelson Muntz is a troubled, lonely, sad little boy. He needs to be isolated from everyone!"--The Simpsons
Dreamed of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son (the basis for Sanford and Son).
We went out to Whittamore Farm in the morning and picked raspberries, along with peas and beans.
Went back to bed and dreamed of dolls of Bonnie and Clyde.
Saw a DVD of classroom films with a safety theme, including the Sid Davis classic Live and Learn.
Donald had dinner with us at Red Lobster.
Lisa: "I know it's true! I read it on a restaurant placemat"--The Simpsons
Puitak and Gordon came over and brought lunch.
Drove down to the lakeshore with the parents. (I don't usually accompany them.)
Dinner was the rest of the Chinese food.
"All kinds."
--The Narrow Margin
"You make me sick to my stomach!"
"Well, not in my sink."
--ibid.
I feel like I'm getting a cold.
Dinner was the rest of the fettucine.
Saw the DVD of Richard Fleischer's train thriller The Narrow Margin. That was quite a twist! (They should have taken a plane.)
"Angels are naked."
--La Boheme
Went to a Classical Music Meetup at a fancy townhouse on Sheppard Avenue. (I took the bus east from Downsview station.) We saw a Blu-Ray DVD of a production of Puccini's La Boheme by Madrid's Teatro Real, and had a big-screen set to see it on! Laura Giordano was a gorgeous Musetta!
Dinner was lobster rolls.
Went to bed early.
Dreamed of finding an underground civilization with a lower level of development and causing a civil war there; checking different TV channels around midnight Saturday; Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Taught Me"; Moira learning the Armenian language. [She knows German and Russian.]
Went to a Games Meetup at the Ryerson student centre. The weather was so hot that I wasn't up to bringing my own games, as I usually do. I only stayed for one game: a new one called Samurai.
On the way home, I picked up a new Japanese-English dictionary at Indigo Books.
Dinner was Chinese food.
Went to a Karaoke Meetup at Bar Plus. I only sang three songs. (My energy level wasn't high today.)
Headache.
We sold some of our used books in a yard sale, and made almost $100.
Dreamed of movies that were in release in the summer of 1987, like Full Metal Jacket.
Baked whole wheat bread.
I've moved all three of my cities in the computer game Glory of Rome from Moesia to Dalmatia in hope of being "farmed" less. Now my alliance has a central city to concentrate resources and reinforcements.
Dinner was an Indian buffet at the Regency Restaurant in Little India with the Social Anxiety Meetup.
I've misplaced my Japanese-English dictionary so I guess I'll have to buy a new one. (Oh well, the old one was in pieces.)
Dreamed of a thriller like Body Heat but with an even more complicated plot.
Went to see my shrink Dr. Hassan. Once again I got Father to drive me to the St. Clair subway station to make sure I'd be on time, but once again the doctor was a long while getting around to me anway. (When will I learn?)
In the computer game The Kings of Camelot three of my five cities now have a full twelve Level 10 wildernesses, leaving me to focus on raiding barbarian camps near them. And I've just figured out that for that purpose I may as well have archers alone.
Dinner was fettucine alfredo (which I cooked).
"It looks like a place where they'd film a Miss Marple"--ibid.
Dreamed of trying to explain Tom Swiftie jokes to Moira; mentioning that Elmore Leonard never uses adverbs (which is true).
Moira and I went to see Michael Winterbottom's The Trip at the Cumberland, with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon improvising their way through a tour of inns in northern England. Lots of funny impersonations! (Too bad that the cinema's air conditioning made me sleepy.)
Dinner was salmon.
Went to a Classical Music Meetup at the Mad Bean Cafe. The letter was U and the subject was uncompleted works.
Dreamed of griping that my Ph.D. thesis supervisor couldn't direct traffic! (Was that fair?)
Had lunch at the Mandarin with the Movie Meetup group. The others saw the Woody Allen movie Paris After Midnight afterward, but it didn't start till 15:30 so I didn't stay.
Back home I tried to watch a DVD of Lenny Bruce's last filmed performance, but I dozed off.
Dinner was lasagna.
Saw the DVD of the first two episodes of the 1978 TV series Edward & Mrs. Simpson (for the third time). IMHO abdicating the Throne was the best thing Edward VIII ever did for the United Kingdom!
Dreamed of living in a huge house with a big library; a Harry Potter story in which Ron gave his life for Harry and Harry took Ron's form to keep the bad guys confused; the Marx Brothers movie The Cocoanuts.
Saw the DVD of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version of The Indestructible Man (for the second time).
Dinner was frozen pizza.
Saw the cinemacast of the Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Sheppard Grande. My main interest, of course, was Dmitri Hvorotvsky's Count di Luna!
"Sometimes I feel like I'm slightly retarded in the mouth"--Weeds
The Coro Verdi performed the summer mass at the Church of the Holy Redeemer. (John George drove me there.)
Brian, a fellow Coro Verdi member, told me how he'd had an operation where they stopped his heart for a few minutes. (Some electrical dysfunction in his heart was causing his body to retain too much water.) He had an out-of-body experience where he saw his hometown Montreal, his late father and his late dog!
In the afternoon I napped till dinner time.
Dinner was corn on the cob.
Slept with the windows open. [Nowadays I do that every summer.]
Dreamed of the front yard of our old home in Sackville, N.B., being covered with a layer of ice thick enough to skate on.
Went to the new Projection Booth cinema in the East End and saw some cartoons. (The place was so empty that they didn't charge admission!) I saw some Ub Iwerks fairy tale cartoons; some Famous Studios cartoons with characters like Little Audrey and Herman the mouse; and the CTV cartoons of The Nightingale and The Velveteen Rabbit; but no Warner Brothers. Their upcoming documentaries look interesting.
Afterward I walked east to the Little India street festival.
Dinner was spaghetti.
I've dreamed more than once of going to a new cinema, and today I actually did it!
"Just because you've been a slutty, irresponsible slutty slut..."--Weeds
Went to an Asperger's Meetup. We met at the Tim Horton's east of the Bloor-Yonge station.
Baked rye bread.
Went shopping.
Dinner was stir-fry.
Saw the DVD The Golden Age of British Comedy, with sketches from the 1940s through the 1960s.
I read about the new Projection Booth cinema and on their webpage found a link to the Silent Toronto blog, a fascinating read about Toronto's deceased cinema palaces.
Dreamed of a British ad promoting disaster response by government, narrated with a Welsh accent; water flowing out of a manhole.
Dinner was beef stroganoff.
Went to a Coro Verdi rehearsal for Sunday's mass.
Dreamed of uncovering a large penis unconnected to anything.
Visited Dr. Ang. (My CT scan turned out negative.)
I had such a long wait for the doctor that I was late for dinner, which was chicken curry.
"I make dresses for women who really wear them!"--Valentino
Dreamed of being about to get on a cruise ship in Moncton, where we'd suffer amnesia and be given new identities; playing a Farmville-like computer game where one area turned out to produce poisonous food.
Dinner was Swiss Chalet takeout rotisserie.
Went to a screening of the fashion documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor at Studio 561 near Bathurst station, as part of an Art Meetup. (Jeanne Beker, of the fashion show FTV, appeared briefly.)
Afterward I went to Book City and bought some books that were priced to clear. (We might resell them at a profit...)
Dreamed of an actual line in the children's book The Travels of Babar: "Real war is not a joke."
Neisau's right: that Hotshot game is addictive!
John and Kathrine came over for dinner, which was pizza. (I burnt my mouth again!)
Went to Nepeta's games event at the Fox and Fiddle near St. Clair station. I played The Amazeing Labyrinth, Settlers of Catan (which I won!) and the Monopoly-based card game Deal, which I didn't quite figure out.
I was a long time getting home because the Salsa on St. Clair street festival had queered up the St. Clair Avenue transport.
This weekend is the noisy nearby Salsa on St. Clair Festival, so the parents and I visited Brampton to escape the noise. (We were going to see the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Niagara on the Lake, but Father wasn't up to driving that far!)
We went to Downey's Farm Store in Caledon, picked some raspberries (too few were ripe) and bought some strawberries in the store.
We ate at the original Mandarin Restaurant in Brampton. That place is huge!
After we got home, I strolled around Salsa on St. Clair.
Dreamed of an obituary of Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz.
Baked multigrain bread.
Dinner was salmon.
Went on an art walk in Yorkville. One of the galleries we went to had an exhibit of Picasso etchings. (Many of them have already sold for huge prices!)
Dreamed of the true story of frontiersman Tom Horn; living on the moon; a Chinese man sitting next to me giving my arm a nasty pinch for no reason; returning to earth with its blue skies, and singing the Al Jolson song "Blue Skies."
Dreamed of the Barcarolle in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann; strawberry shortcake.
Dinner was sausage and mashed potatoes.
Went to a Classical Music Meetup at the North York Centre library. The director of the Toronto Summer Music talked about this year's romantic theme.
I've just quit the online game Frontierville again. (My new interest is a game called Hot Shots.)
Saw a DVD of Redd Foxx and Groucho Mark doing one-man shows.
Went shopping.
Dinner was pork chops.
Went to the Open Minds Cafe Meetup. Unfortunately, it was combined with a Live Your Dream Meetup and the latter dominated things. (I had nothing to contribute.)
Dreamed about the Petula Clark song "Downtown" (which I sometimes sing at karaoke); wondering why the past is so close; the Warren Beatty movie Heaven Can Wait; the TV series B.J. and the Bear (which I never watched); trying to pick up a load of wire for BJ (who was a trucker) but not being sure which kind.
Dinner was lasagna.
Went to an Introvert Meetup. We walked through the Don Valley to the brick works. (The organizer had a pair of very frisky spaniels.)
Homer: "Taking stupid risks is what makes life worth living!"--The Simpsons
Dinner was steak.
Went to a karaoke event organized by Anthony Ng at Twister Karaoke. (It was a birthday party for another Anthony.)
Headache.
Dreamed of our old house in Sackville, N.B., being in Nazi-occupied Russia near smouldering ruins still hot; a new rival subway system in London (with a commercial sponsor for each station).
Baked cheese bread.
Went to an Aspie Meetup at Harbourfront. (Big Canada Day crowds!) Tonia brought her King Charles dog Scrappy.
Dinner was Burger King.
Dinner was pizza.
Went on a Queen Street art walk. We visited BYOB (a "cocktail emporium") and Artscape Gallery, and spoke to artists Morley Shayuk and Michael Toke. Someone bought us soup from Ravi Soups, but I didn't have any.
Father and I got up early, drove to Whittamore Farm and picked some strawberries. (I also bought some Jonagold apples at their store.) The weather was unusually cool.
After we got home, I went back to bed for over three hours.
Dinner was sausages.
My choir performed Nabucco for the second time. (This time the family came. Father drove Mother home during the intermission because she had a cramp.) Giuseppe said the opera group might perform Norma or A Masked Ball next year.
I'll soon be taking another break from the online game Frontierville. (And I'm not sure about Kingdoms of Camelot and Glory of Rome.)
