zoo

Went to the zoo yesterday with Sara and Annie. Big mistake...WALL TO WALL KIDS! When we arrived, there were already at least 25 school buses parked in front of the entrance, eek. I saw flamingos for the first time in my life. Annie's favourite animal seemed to be the lizards. Sara liked the icecream the best.

Had a good practice last night, planned our concert playlist for Contata.

Going to the matinee of X-Files today! I've been trying to avoid reading reviews and media hype of the movie; I hate knowing the whole plot of a movie before I go to see it. In the evening, going to the Great Big Sea concert with Allison, Jodi, and Jeff.

great big sea concert

Enjoyed the X-Files movie (won't say more about it in case some of you are going to see it). Went with Cathy, Scott Murray, Mark & Wayne Thompson. Some people in the line had been waiting since 7 am! A rumour briefly circulated that one of the trailers was going to be of the new Star Wars movie due out next summer, but it proved false.

The Great Big Sea concert was amaaaaaaaaaazing, really great. Jeff and I both agreed it was one of our all-time favourite concerts, and this is a bit surprising since he and I don't always share musical tastes. :-) The warm-up bands were The Blue Meanies (I think that was their name) and Squeeze. I quite liked Squeeze, especially the lead singer. Jeff says he has two Squeeze albums on vinyl.

The Great Big Sea guys were very energetic and happy and cute. :-) Everyone in the crowd seemed to know the lyrics to all their songs; I'd better listen to the albums more often! Anyway, 'twas a fun evening. Jodi, Allison, Jeff and I had seats fairly close to the front, near the speakers...conversation was nearly impossible, so we passed notes back and forth instead. :)

Last night, Jeff and I went to a computerfest organized by our friends Reid and Luisa. About twenty-five people showed up with computers and network cables and played computer games for twelve hours straight. :-) Most played Quake. I didn't play much because I get motion sickness during Quake and Doom-type games, but I still had fun hanging out as well as catching up on my reading (Painter 4 Wow! book, a CGI programming book, and a book I'm reviewing for Inklings). We were only a block or two away from the Japanese Cultural Centre, so we dropped by the Tokyo pavilion (part of the current Caravan festival, I think) for some sushi.

peachtree

More on my First Online Grocery Shopping Experience: Hm, no Peachtree Foods grocery delivery yet, and I have to leave the apartment in a few minutes. And now one of the disadvantages of ordering online comes into play...concerned that my groceries weren't delivered when promised, I checked the Peachtree website to find a phone number to contact. But there wasn't one. :-( So now I'm wondering where my groceries have gone, or where they might be, and mentally kicking myself for not getting a phone number for the pleasant-sounding woman who called yesterday. Ah well. At least I didn't lose any money (you don't have to pay until the groceries are delivered). And having to continue doing my grocery shopping in person forces me to get out into the Real World and Interact With Real People, so I suppose this experience is actually a good thing. :-)

Inklings has over 26,000 subscribers, by the way! And I'm pleased to announce that Rand Bellavia is now Assistant Editor. He's going to be helping me answer my (rather voluminous) business email as well as help put issues together. Rand's been helping me out for a while now, so I figured it was time to make it Official. :-)

[5 pm] Peachtree Update: Got home to four (!) messages on my answering machine from Jeanine (sp?), the PSPW (pleasant-sounding Peachtree woman). I called her back and she was very courteous, apologetic. She says the driver claims he tried making the delivery just past 11, but that no one answered when he called up (I'm not sure why this happened, since I was home until 11:30). I also received a lengthy email from Gregory Kalinin at Peachtree. Here's an excerpt:

Hello Ms. Ohi,

I wanted to personally follow up on the order you placed with Food For You.
It has caused quite a commotion here at The Peachtree.

First, I would like to apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused
you.  I would also like to thank you for spending the time to give us
feedback (without it we would not be able to effectively improve our online
grocery shopping system).

I spoke with Food For You in regards to your order.  It seems that the
driver who was to deliver your order arrived at your apartment building
sometime around 11:00 AM but he claims that no one answered.  He then
phoned back to Food For You at approximately 11:06 AM to see if there were
any changes to the delivery instructions.

You brought up a good point: that having a phone number to use for last
minute changes would be useful.  We in fact do have a phone number posted
on the site (it is on the first page of the information section at:
http://www.peachtree.ca/foodforyou/info/index.html ).  I guess you have
demonstrated that the number is not easy enough to find.  We will endeavour
to make that telephone number more prominent on the site.

While we are a small company, we have many happy customers who regularly
enjoy the convenience of our online grocery shopping service.  We are very
concerned when even one person is not satisfied.  Having been in the
Internet business for three years, we understand the power that word of
mouth has to amplify both the positive and negative experiences people
encounter - it serves as a great incentive for us to provide exceptional
service.

Summary: I was quite impressed by the response by Peachtree to my misplaced order and am willing to give them another try. (Yes, just ignore what I said about it being good to get out into the Real World :-) )

sunday dinner

Had a nice dinner at my sister's place last night. After dinner, we went out into the backyard to blow bubbles...my dad had a bunch of bubble-making toys with him (is he an ideal grandpa, or what? :-)). Annie ran (in the careening half-falling way that one-year-olds have) around yelling, "BAH! BAH-BUH!" over and over again until my dad got all the bubble-making stuff passed out to the adults. Annie and Sara ran around the yard trying to catch the bubbles. We also took a walk to a coffee shop on Yonge Street to get some dessert (Sara rode Uncle Jeff's back the entire way there and back). Sara chose a blue iced whale-shaped cookie. Partway through the cookie, she turned to Jeff and said (through a mouthful of crumbs), "After we get back, Uncle Jeff, do you know what I'm going to do to you?" Uncle Jeff: "What are you going to do?" Sara (with glee): "I'M GOING TO TIRE YOU OUT!!!"

And she did. :-) Every Sunday, she and Jeff do "gymnastics". I don't know how Jeff has the energy. Sitting on the ground leaning back against a couch, he grabs Sara's hands in his own, lets her walk up his chest and over his head onto the couch behind him, then flips her in a somersault over his head and down his chest as she screams in delight. I couldn't watch them doing this the first few times...it looked far too dangerous! But Sara loves it, and Jeff is careful. No injuries in the year or two they've been doing this, or at least not since Jeff started putting a large pillow over the lower part of his body after Sara innocently jumped on a particularly sensitive part of his anatomy. :-)

Annie and I watched a bit of Anastasia. Annie loves this movie, especially the scene where Anastasia sings a song in the old ballroom of the palace while ghosts dance around the ceiling. Annie imitates everything Anastasia is doing on the screen, only a few seconds earlier, including the bows at the end (with her small diapered bum sticking up in the air).

I forgot to mention that Jeff and I were woken up by a helicopter hovering near our building yesterday morning! Turns out the helicopter had to make 27 trips to drop air conditioning equipment to the top of First Canadian Place (building near ours)...no, we didn't count. :-) It was on the news. Also turns out this particular helicopter (sorry, I can't remember the name) was also the one that lowered the last piece of the CN tower into place during its construction.

fune

Just finished sending out tomorrow's issue of Inklings. This issues has advice for those who want to break into the sf short story market, as well as some copyright info answering interesting questions like whether it's legal to forward humourous stories via email, etc.

It's become a bit of a tradition for Jeff and I to go out for sushi (at Fune, of course) on an Inklings night. I do last-minute edits to the issue, fret about whether it's too long, and then let it "settle" for an hour before I do the final readthrough and sending of the issue.

Tonight I had my usual salmon sashimi but also tried a new sushi roll: "New York maki". VERY yummy. Ingredients include salmon skin, avocado, other stuff I can't identify (I had leftovers so brought them home, am pigging out on them right now).
I also had the new drink Chris recently invented, supposedly christened the "Ohi drink". :-) It's absolutely WONDERFUL, probably my favourite alcoholic beverage (yes, even more than plum wine). Apparently its ingredients include vodka, kampari (sp?), melon liqueur, and cranberry juice. Yummmmmmmmm. He went a bit heavy on the booze this time, and I was well on my way to being pleasantly buzzed by the end of the meal (he kept refilling my glass when I wasn't looking). I'm glad I finished the issue BEFORE we went for sushi!

I switched from Netscape to Internet Explorer, by the way. We'll see how it goes. I made the switch because several other people have preferred IE, and because Netscape tends to crash on me at LEAST once a day. So far I like it (and it hasn't crashed yet) except that it seems a tad slower than Netscape when downloading pages. Anyone else have comments on this?

No blatherings for the next couple days...Jeff and I are going to Niagara-on-the-Lake with my mom-in-law. Trip report when I get back!