sophia

Went to a pub in the Yorkville-Cumberland area with Helen and Jeff. Amazingly good fish and chips, yum. Dropped by Chapters and was irritated by all the crowds on the third floor (where I wanted to go browse, in the writing section)...then saw someone extremely familiar-looking signing books nearby: Sophia Loren! She looked just like she does in the movies...glamorous, suspiciously ageless, big hair.

best ice cream

re: blatherchat comments. Apologies to Annie Walker, who was partly responsible for the Jelly Belly shirt and club membership! Thanks, Annie!! And yes, I waited nearly a year before sending in that membership application, I am so Bad. I want to try that Crunchie-pop-rock confection the UKers are blatherchatting about...I'll have to take a look around here to see if someone has it.

Had fun with Allison and Jodi last night (do we EVER not have fun when we get together?? :) Ritual dinner at the Pickle Barrel, a bit of mall shopping, then back to Allison's to work on our harmony/arrangement workshop for FilKONtario.

Apologies for uploading the wrong version of the comic yesterday; I've fixed that.

The Best Ice cream In The World is the stuff made at Greg's Icecream on Bloor Street near St. George St. (on the University of Toronto campus). It's all made on the premises, and you can find different flavours there every day, depending on the whim of the owner. My favourites: Oreo (Lissa would love this! Too bad it won't ship well), green tea, pears & ginger, cinnamon, and maple cream. We picked a pint up of the last flavour when we went out with Helen...it's to die for.

internet world conference

Went to the Internet World conference this morning. Each year I go, more of the exhibits seem interesting to me...I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing. :-) I'm more focussed on researching info than freebies. Talked to the Oracle people about their new Oracle WebDB product, talked to Reuters. Whilst waiting for the multimedia Reuters guy, I chatted with the markets-oriented Reuters guy. Nice sort, interested in Inkspot. I showed him my comic and he called yet another Reuters guy to see as well. :-) Talked about web comics. Went to the Chapters booth (everything was 20% off) and bought Netrepreneur (by Joseph Lowery, Que Corporation, 1998) and Internet World Guide To One-To-One Web Marketing (by Allen, Kania, Yaeckel, Wiley Books, 1998). Both look pretty good...I never thought I'd see the day when I'd actually be excited about reading marketing books.

Tomorrow is Jeff's birthday! Please do send him birthday email if you have a free moment, thanks. :-)

3:22 pm update: Wow, Jeff reports getting birthday email already. :-) Anyway, Annie and Sara just called me. Sara sang me a song, and Annie told me about her day (translations in the background by Ruth). At the end of my "conversation" with Annie, as usual, I told her I loved her. FOR THE FIRST TIME, SHE SAID, "I love you, too"!!!!!!!!! (well, it came out as "Wuv doo", but I know what she meant). I practically melted all over the phone. She could have asked me for anything at that moment and I would have given it to her. I wonder if toddlers know how much power they truly wield?

Lissa claims the best icecream is by the original Swensen's store in San Francisco. I want to try some of this!! To Joey: I have had both cinnamon and pears & ginger flavours at Greg's. It's entirely possibly they've also made pears & cinnamon! Yummmmm. To Joel: you're a gourmet cook, aren't you? Your recipe for pop rock chocolate sounds wonderful but way too much effort for a non-cook. :-)

post-storm

Nasty storm last night, with lots of wind, ice pellets, thunder and lightning. Of course I went out in the middle of it to take some Thai food to Jeff and Rick at work...am I a devoted spouse, or what? :-) Convinced the delivery guy to come here and pick me up, then take me to Jeff's building. Slow driving...I don't think the guy's car had snow tires, and he was afraid of skidding off the road (yes, I gave him a big tip). After dinner, I walked home...nasty walk with the ice pellets being whipped around in the fierce wind, kept my face covered and ducked down on the way home, trying not to walk INTO anything at the same time. Jeff didn't get home until 2 a.m. again. He's been working 15 hour days for the past week.

Hey, it's starting to snow again...

uk in 2000!

I can't believe we have to wait an ENTIRE YEAR before Didgeri-Douze! :-)

Looks like I'm doing a book about online markets for writers for Writer's Digest Books! (same people who do the magazine, the annual market, and publish a series of books for writers) I'm very jazzed about this. The book project sort of fell in my lap...they called me out of the blue and asked if I was interested.

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Feb.8 Update, 7:30 pm: Hey, guess what?? Urban Tapestry are the Overseas Guests of Honour at Didgeri-Douze next February!! Date: Feb. 4-6, 2000. Location: Milton Keynes, England! Woohoo!!! I talked to Phil and Lissa Allcock on the phone this afternoon and I'm afraid I was a bit of an incoherent airhead; I was so excited. :) I didn't even notice when Lissa passed the phone to Phil (I did think it odd how her voice had suddenly changed). To Annie, Tim, Lissa, Phil, and Smitty...thanks so much! We are very honoured (and excited, did I mention we were excited?).

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Monday, February 8, 1999

cake

Celebrated Jeff's birthday by going to Fune on Saturday with a few friends. Came back to the apartment after, talked, watched Mulan (one of our friends had just bought the video). Love that movie. :) One of the first animated pieces I've seen that doesn't turn Asians into caricatures...nicely done. Celebrated Jeff's birthday again last night with my sister and her family. Sara and Annie made the cake (with some help from Ruth). Apparently Annie, not quite having the coordination necessary to manage the butter knife to spread icing, ended up stabbing the cake several times instead. Ruth didn't have the heart to make Annie stop (she was having so much fun helping Sara ice the cake) and compensated by trying to cover up all the gouges with icing.

Ruth let Sara choose Uncle Jeff's birthday present; I'm sure Annie will want a hand in this starting next year. Apparently Sara waffled between a pair of ballet slippers (so he could dance with her) and a tube of sparkly body glitter for the longest time, but finally settled on a Cinderella mug instead. Personally, I would have liked to see Jeff in the ballet slippers. :-) Anyway, he was VERY pleased with the mug and told Sara so, and took it work with him this morning. Last year, Sara bought him an Ariel doll, which he proudly stuck on top of his computer monitor.

Officemusic: Dave Matthews (Crash)