buskerfest

Cathy and I went out for dinner at Milestones, then to see "The Bourne Identity" at the Paramount. I always order the same thing at Milestones: the Maple Cider Salmon Salad. Jeff Bohnhoff and Rand Bellavia have both had this when they were in Toronto; I was going to get Cathy to try it, too. It's my all-time favourite salad, ever. I could eat this salad for dinner every night. Lunchtime and breakfast, too. Okay, well maybe not.

Anyway, to my horror, Maple Cider Salmon Salad HAS BEEN TAKEN OFF THE MENU. I asked our waiter, and he confirmed this. AUGH.

I'm going to write a letter to Milestones pleading for them to put this dish back on the menu. We'll see what happens.

Both Cathy and I enjoyed The Bourne Identity, an entertaining flick that passed two hours quickly enough. I still liked Minority Report better, though.

Today's Blatherpics were taken at Buskerfest this past weekend. I dropped by during a run, paid my donation to the Epilepsy Foundation as an entry fee.

I had expected to find more music; I guess I had always figured the word "busker" referred more to musicians than general entertainers. Instead, there were a lot of booths selling crafts and other merchandise, some craft areas for children, and different performance areas for entertainers.

Just before I was about to leave, I noticed an athletic-looking trio setting up a high wire. Intrigued, I sat down to wait with other curious onlookers. The group, High Strung, put on an entertaining acrobatics and high wire show.

At one point, I even got recruited to be part of their act (on the GROUND, not the high wire, thankfully). They picked out three others in the audience as well. I barely had time to stuff my digital camera back into my waist pouch before we were instructed to sit on chairs arranged in a circle, each of us facing the back of the person in front. Then we were told to lean back so that our heads were resting in the laps of the people behind us. Everything happened pretty quickly. THEN they took our chairs away!

The resulting sight must have been impressive since I could hear gasps of amazement from the crowd; sure wish I had someone in the audience with my camera. After a few seconds, the performers came around and tickled us so that we all collapsed in a heap on the ground. At the end of the act, they took our hands and raised them while we all stood in line, basking in the enthusiastic cheers and applause from the crowd. :-)





I'm running 4-5 times a week these days. Sometimes first thing in the morning, other days in the late afternoon. I like running in the rain, and prefer it to running in the full heat of the sun.

I've noticed that many times that when my running comes up in conversation, the first thing people tend to ask is, "How far do you run?" Geez, I have no idea. 3 miles? 4 miles? Maybe not that far, maybe farther, I have no idea. I usually run down to the lakefront, then west until I get to Ontario Place, turn around and go back. Sometimes I run the entire way. Sometimes I mix up walking and running.

I usually measure by time, not distance, trying to keep my workout to an hour max., same as when I worked out at the gym. The hour includes warm-up and cool-down. I do my abdominal "crunches" and weights sometime during the work day when I need a break from the computer.

I've pretty much decided that I'm not interested in running races, at least for now. A few of my Toronto friends have been trying to convince me to participate in various 5-k races later in the year, saying that it will give me something to work towards, help me set goals.

Thing is, I don't need extra motivation. I like running. Every few weeks, I raise the bar for myself a little by going a longer distance, or pushing myself harder during a run. The reward of achieving those self-imposed goals means much more to me than finishing a race. Overall, I'm working toward gradually increasing my fitness level and for me, that's enough of a personal goal to keep me motivated.

But the main reason I'm not all that interested in racing (or even running with other people) is that I like running on my own, without anyone telling me how far I should run or how hard I should run. I get a tremendous amount of enjoyment from this selfish hour of solitude, away from phones and laptops, unreachable.

I remember DESPISING cross-country running back in school. I hated the whole competitive aspect, hated being forced to run, hated how I felt when I was running, how I felt after. I usually came in last or near last, of course. Some days I was sorely tempted to run off the regular track and just keep running until I was far away.

Maybe if I did, I would have ended up liking running more back then.

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Artist at Buskerfest on the weekend.
	High Strung acrobatic group.
	A girl trio at Buskerfest called The Limeybirds.
	This group called themselves River Tribe. Really interesting instruments. The guy on the far left kept opening and shutting the door of his keyboard instrument like an accordion. Does anyone know what kind of instrument this is?