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.)
(sarcastically) "No, she's a mermaid."
--Young and Innocent
Dreamed of wanting to play an arcade video game where you're a caveman attacking a mammoth; looking through a big pile of change but failing to find a quarter.
Finally bought my new Metropass. (They didn't mail them this month because of the postal strike.)
Dinner was more pork chops. (Moira also made some risotto with onions and barley, but I can't stand onions.)
Saw the DVD of Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (for the second time). It's one of his early British movies, a well-written romantic comedy-mystery. My favourite scene is the one with the suspicious aunt.
Dreamed of the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice.
Went to Toronto East General Hospital and got a CT scan. They injected me with a dye and I felt a bit dizzy afterward.
Dinner was pork chops
Coro Verdi had one more rehearsal before our final show. (I considered skipping it, but decided my head was clear enough.) Just before we started there was a brief delay when a fire alarm went off: we all went out to the front of the building and saw a fire engine arrive, but it was a false alarm.
John George usually gives me a lift to the subway, but we ended early and his wife hadn't yet brought their car. Instead Giovanni gave me a lift to St. Clair Avenue. When I mentioned that I'm 49, Giovanni was really surprised, and said I look twenty years younger!
Dreamed of a non-existent film of animated toys made back in the 19th century; trying to figure out who owned a legendary Los Angeles cinema.
Went to a Games Meetup at the Yellow Griffin. I played Fireball Island (which I won, to my surprise) and Ticket to Ride (which I also won).
Dinner was salmon.
Dreamed of a British family that spent part of their time in London and part out in the country.
Dinner was McDonald's.
Went to Karaoke Meetup at Barplus. I sang Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" for the first time.
