link dumping

So, we are off to Canada tomorrow. And as with every trip I've taken recently, we are completely disorganised. Partly this is because I went splat after all the DIY, and partly because I had a migraine last night & still have it to some degree, so I just want to fall over and sleep.

In an attempt to clear out my tabs before we go places, some links from various people (which you've probably seen already):
The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations on the Web. I want a katamari hat. And then I want lots of strange knitted items with velcro to attach to the hat.

Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist - Biologist Who Underwent Sex Change Describes Biases Against Women. Washington Post article from last year. I wonder if there are followups anywhere.

The Incredible Edible Belgian Chocolate Anus. May not be work-safe, depending on where you work. I note that the Dark Chocolate and Dark Chocolate/Orange anuses are vegan. Not that I particularly need chocolate "bumholes", but perhaps you know a vegan who does.

a shame about the weather

Last Thursday was my birthday. The day was spectacularly quiet, but in the evening 8 of us (me, wuzzie, alexa_robinson, artremis, meeping, gerwinium, hatter & bfo) went to 222. Dinner was perfect, and it was just the right number of people - so most of the time there were no more than two separate conversations on the table, and everyone could talk to everyone else. I did feel a bit sorry for Ludy, though, sitting between Richard & Marcus, as they've been co-conspirators since 1994 but haven't actually lived together these past 9 years. So they were getting louder and louder and louder, and Ludy had forgotten her earplugs. Oh well.

I got some nice presents, including a Wii plus the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess from Richard, and Eledees from Tim & Peter, and an octopus t-shirt from Richard's sister A. Ludy bought me Montezuma's chocolate and the foulest-smelling Lush product EVER! Fortunately, it's supposed to smell that bad, and it may turn out to be a useful natural replacement for the evil green seborrhoeic dermatitis shampoo that I'm forced to use to get my hair clean.

As is typical for my birthday, it was grey and cloudy for half the day, chucking it down with rain for a quarter, and reasonably warm and sunny for the rest of it. I always thought the fact I've only had three or four dry birthdays in my life was me being paranoid or misremembering, but apparently there's a great deal of historical precedent. Apparently there is actual scientific reasoning for why the end of June is so rotten weather-wise! You have to wonder why they insist on holding Wimbledon and Glastonbury at this time of year when the meteorologists consider it "monsoon season".

21-31

Lately my periods have been playing silly buggers. ( Read more... )

Post to be updated as organisation occurs

Plan for our trip to Canada:
( Cut so as to not occupy your entire friends page. )

You'll notice a whole load of empty there. The things we definitely want to do are:

• Toronto Zoo (open 9:00am - 7:30pm every day).
  
• Ontario Science Centre (open 10 am - 8 pm Tuesdays to Fridays).
  
• Paramount Canada's Wonderland (what a stupid name that is) (open 10am-10pm, Splash Works open 11am-8pm). Note to self: Wear sports bra!

The Zoo or Science Centre will be done on Friday, depending on the weather. Weather's good, so we're going to the Zoo. Richard does want to see the Science Centre before he leaves, so we'll need to schedule that in somewhen.

The theme park will be after the wedding, on Tuesday and/or Wednesday. It may involve two days if we do the rides and waterpark as two separate days, or one veeeeerry long day if I can acquire sufficient baratron-compatible food for that.

epi_lj and okoshun have suggested the Royal Ontario Museum on Monday 2nd.

Feel free to suggest meeting up for dinner. I am vegan but Richard eats anything. Chinese and Indian always work well (even your average, run-of-the-mill, meat-serving Chinese can make at least one thing I can eat), Italian is often good, American-style burgers & meat places are usually bad. I'm looking at the Happycow listings for Toronto and getting in a muddle - nowhere seems to have exclusively good reviews. The one thing I do know is we won't be going to Buddha's Vegetarian Foods at 666 Dundas St W, as pretty much all the reviews said it was greasy, and my grease tolerance is far lower than the average person's. We might go to the Cafe 668 Vegetarian Restaurant next door at 668 Dundas St W, as it has an equal mix of good and bad reviews.