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Ok, it’s official: Ikea rule the world. Not only are they the most convenient place to shop for furniture (which I knew already), they also turn out to be practically the only place you can buy bookcases. I spent a full day last Saturday cruising through the other stores and didn’t find anything practical in any of them. Then when I flipped through the Ikea catalog, I discovered that a carefully selected set of Billy’s (Ikea’s main bookcase brand, beloved for new homeowners everywhere) could add up to 141.5 inches width. My dining room measured 142 inches wide. Who am I to argue with fate?

I put in new bookcases in the dining room, including one which has doors (liquor cabinet!), and they’ve swallowed an amazing amount of stuff that was sitting in piles distributed around my home. I also lined up a kitchen contractor to come in and measure the kitchen for new cabinets, etc. I’m not sure about these guys… It’s not clear to me they’re going to have patience while I work out exactly what each of the little details should be like.

Other news: played squash with Sean Morley and Tim Dennison last night, and managed to win one game against Tim. (We won’t talk about the other four games, two against Tim and two against Sean.) We then enjoyed a beer, they talked me into joining the club again, and I had a great dinner with Tim at the Japanese restaurant down the street (while Sean went home to his insistent wife). 🙂

So, happy happy.

Today the smog is simply awful. It looks thick enough to walk on from up here at Scotia Plaza. Disgusting.

2001 06 13 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Long after it has stopped being a source of water cooler discussion, I’ve finally borrowed and devoured Bridget Jones’ Diary. Yes, it’s funny because it’s true. Yes, it’s light and fluffy. But was it better than Thirtynothing (see below)?… No, surprisingly, I didn’t think so. Still good fun, but only worth 3 1/2 out of 5.

2001 06 13 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

A good and useful weekend. The main activity of note was the Trinity reunion (yes, it has been ten years already) which featured get-togethers on Friday and Saturday. Some observations: a LOT of Trinity types seem to have become lawyers, as in, way more than half of those in attendance. Scary. Also, interesting how some people looked unchanged, while for others the ten years have clearly had an impact. And I was pleased to find everyone very approachable, much less scary than I guess I had made them out to be during my awkward undergraduate years. Finally, everyone seems to go to bed much earlier than they used to… Both nights wrapped up before closing time.

In other news, when I got my film developed last week a bunch of pictures from two years ago showed up, including some great shots of my favorite (ok, only) sister Kate from her visit to Toronto (last summer? I think?) They’re in the Photo Gallery, along with some photos from the reunion. [Later note: the reunion pictures are no longer on the site.]

The weather’s been wet and cold for the last few days, further postponing the day when I’ll finally need to start watering the cornucopia of plants that Mom planted two weeks ago. I’m off to Chicago tonight for a workshop, and it looks like the Amsterdam trip at the end of the month is also a go. Time to dig out the upgrade coupons… 😉

2001 06 04 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

It’s Wednesday, but it already feels like it *should* be Thursday. Several things to report:

First of all, Exultate business. The concert two weeks ago was a lot of fun, although the Wednesday night rehearsal at Christopher’s turned out to be a Really Good Idea. The music programme–a bit of opera, a bit of Canadiana, a bit of P.D.Q. Bach, and a lot of quirky modern ‘fun’ pieces, was generally easier than Exultate’s usual concert, but on only three rehearsals it still seemed plenty hard. The extra practice really helped. We had a record number of people (for this time of year), continuing the choir’s steadily improving profile.

Exultate’s 20-something fundraiser last Friday was also a big success. Although we were worried about attendance (not enough advance tickets sales) and we had bad luck with the weather (pouring rain) we ended up with a good crowd, and the event played out like clockwork. Hugh Lawrence did an amazing job as auctioneer, and we’re pretty sure we managed to blow the doors off of last year’s event’s revenue, further improving the choir’s bank balance.

In other business (work), I’m staring work on a project in the Toronto office, doing technical design for a portfolio management product. This is very likely to keep me busy in town all summer, even if none of the other proposals comes through. Good news! Not going to be fired yet. 😉

I dropped off Mom & Dad at the airport yesterday. They’re off to England for the summer. It seems like a long time since I was last in the airport, and in the context of last year’s weekly trips it has been a long time. I’ll be back there next week, however, as I have a brief workshop to attend in Chicago on mobile Commerce (PDA & cell phone banking, etc.) I’m looking forward to it. I might also be going to Amsterdam at the end of the month to teach a course in Internet Architectures, which would be a very useful way for me to start ‘internalizing’ what I know on the topic. I’ve never been to Amsterdam so I hope it works out…

Lastly, the weather today in Toronto is gorgeous but it’s still cool. No complaints here…

2001 05 30 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Depressing how few books I’ve finished recently! I started about five, and I’m still working on four, but basically without the five-hour flights twice a week I don’t have a clear reading slot in my schedule any more.

Bad excuse, I know. So to feel more righteous, I’ve started reading during the sermon at church on Sundays. Not this book, however: Flyboy action figure comes with gasmask, by Jim Munroe. Fun and quirky, Flyboy is about a University of Toronto grad student who’s got a crush on a waitress and a bone to pick with the tobacco industry… and a secret ability to turn into a fly. When he finds out that the waitress also has a secret power, it’s clear that they’re made for each other. They quickly become the Toronto Sun’s worst enemies. I can identify with that. 4 out of 5.

2001 05 24 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Bon voyage to Voyager… The show’s finale was last night. On a 1-5 scale, I would put it at about a 3.5… Not the best Voyager episode ever, not even CLOSE to the best Star Trek episode ever, but entertaining and better than most of Voyager’s episodes, and a good way to end the show, besides. Apparently they’re gearing up to make a Voyager movie (which would be really weird, I mean, they just got rid of the show’s premise,) and a new Star Trek show. But that’s now show number 5! Surely enough is enough?!

In other Hollywood news, I saw Memento on the weekend, at Kelly’s recommendation. I really liked it, but it wasn’t at all what I expected. I knew something about it — guy loses ability to make short-term memories, movie plays out backwards — but hadn’t mentally put it into the Usual-Lock-Stock-and-Two-Smoking-Suspects category where it belongs. This is not a movie for a light evening of escapist entertainment, but a surprising, off-balance mental gymnastics drama. Pretty good, in fact, although I have to agree with the New York Times columnist who called it ephemeral.

Tomorrow night is the Exultate Chamber Singers fun-draiser at the Arts and Letters Club on Elm Street. I hope to see y’all there!

2001 05 24 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Very busy couple of weeks. Work suddenly got very busy, with back-to-back ‘fire drill’ proposals for a couple of Toronto clients. With any luck, I’ll get an assignment in Toronto and be here for the rest of the summer at least!

2001 05 21 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Tuesday… Dies Irae. Dress rehearsal tonight for the Exultate concert on Friday. Today I find out if last week’s Wednesday night session at Christopher’s helped or not.

It’s raining today, but that’s ok… It was quite hot all last week, and although it cooled down on the weekend it stayed sunny. The rain is a nice break for the grass and the flowers. Plus it sets us up for a nice weekend next weekend (we hope). This past weekend was a blast!

Friday I went to St. Thomas’ to hear John Tuttle play a programme of Duruflé, which was amazing… He did the whole recital — 1 1/2 hours of complex organ music — from memory. Simply incredible.

Saturday I was rudely awakened early in the morning (8:45, but it’s a Saturday, dammit) by the upstairs neighbours who apparently decided that the crack of dawn (well, 8:45) is the appropriate time to fire up the ol’ rotary band saw. This lasted for two hours, ruining a perfectly good opportunity to sleep in. At about 11am they finally tired of hammering and banging and (presumably) went to sleep, just after I gave up on the rest of mine and had trudged off to have a shower.

Saturday afternoon improved mightily. Dave and I biked down to St. Lawrence Market and picked up some HUGE steaks. Then we went home and played various games for the afternoon until the rest of the group–Molly and Michael, anyway, Patrick came later from work–showed up. Then the grill went on, the steaks went on the grill, mushrooms were sautéd, green peppers were roasted, bread was toasted… yum. Summertime rules!

Sunday was equally fine. We did Palestrina’s Missa Brevis at church, one of the best pieces of music ever composed IMHO. Sunday afternoon I messed around on the computers for a while (for a change, eh?). I had some difficulty removing Microsoft Office from my old PC (damn thing wouldn’t UNINSTALL without the installation CD’s, duh!) but eventually cleared it off (more room for games, yay!) Then I installed the Firearms mod for Half-life, which is a complicated team warfare mod, lots of fun. Pete and Dave came round and we played some WWII Fighters and the rest of the weekend wound down in like fashion.

Stuff to do: finish packaging my tax organizer to go to Arthur Andersen so they can file my U.S. taxes for me, call the cabinet maker who was supposed to be working on my kitchen design, figure out my schedule for the next couple of weeks, and get more sleep and exercise… As always!

2001 05 08 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Last night Julia and I went up to Christopher’s for dinner and some extra-curricular rehearsal time for the Exultate concert next week. As usual, the choir is a bit unprepared for this concert. We’ve only had one rehearsal on some of the music, and we’ve only got the dress rehearsal left before the concert itself. The music is mostly straightforward, but there are some surprising bits; as the programme is almost all supposed to be funny, we’d really like the audience to see expressions other than raw terror on our faces as we sing.

True to form, Christopher served a great meal, along with beer, wine and ‘bog’. We managed to make it through all of the music, and sang every note correctly at least once. (Not necessarily all in the same run through, of course.) Our duty done, we retired to discuss… well, we basically talked about me and my relationships (and current lack thereof) with a distinctly psychoanalytical bent. We concluded (well, put the conversation on pause, anyway) at about midnight and as I’d been up late both Monday and Tuesday night I was, accordingly, very tired when I got home. As a result of this fatigue (and the ‘bog’) I managed to bang my head on the cupboard door (tidying up the kitchen — Thursday my cleaning lady comes ’round) and am now sporting a little red scar.

The things I suffer for my music…

2001 05 03 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Wow. Must post Blogs more often. I’m getting soft…

Had a great weekend, with lots and lots of singing. Other than Sunday morning at St. Thomas’s, it was all Pax Christi, a Toronto Mennonite choir directed by my friend Stephanie Martin. We performed the Dream of Gerontius by Elgar, a fabulous, lush work rarely performed in Canada (although apparently one of the ‘big 4’ in England after Messiah and Elijah). The choir numbered 84, we had a decent-sized orchestra and great soloists, and basically rocked. Steph did a wonderful job, and was a total pleasure to sing for.

With the dress rehearsal Friday night and performances Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, guessing that I had very little free time this weekend would be correct. Saturday day was a nice break, and I slept in (read paper in bed with cat, yay!) and played games with Dave in the afternoon. Brain reset, basically.

I’ve found some great web sites recently. Here are some of my favorites:
Feed magazine associated with Suck.com, but less bitchy. Good stuff.
Slashdot, a bit-head mag with articles on evil Microsoft and good Linux and the battle for freedom of music from the czars.
Kuro5hin, another techie mag with slightly better production values but less content than Slashdot.
and, of course
Sherman’s Lagoon, the ongoing cartoon about a man-eating shark.

2001 04 30 tom Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink