Zoo & Summerworks.

My friend Linda

Distant relatives.


I've never seen a baby peacock before. They have a cool spike of hair or feathers on top of their head like a mohawk.

Love the meercats.

This owl looks strange.

This was my favourite animal this time, the red panda. It wouldn't sit still very long, and his friend was up a tree, so I have to show him in stages. This is his HUGE tail:

His body:

And his face. How cute!

I liked that there was no fence between us and the kangaroos.

The baby on the right was cute.

And finally at a Kids on TV show on Sunday night as part of Summerworks.

What I'm Reading: The Asthmatic Glassblower by Billed Nickerson

Found this book while looking through a review of his forthcoming book, McPoems, which features poems the author wrote while he was working for McDonalds.
This one caught me as whether you like it or not, it jumps out at you at grabs hold (click to enlarge):

And this one I sent to a friend who is a big fan of Velma from Scooby Doo.

Caribanna

Went to Caribana for the first time on Saturday.

The entire parade seems to be full of half naked girls. Not so much into that. Decided to use the time to photograph some of the train wrecks as they went by.
This was the first float, it was VERY hot and this didn't look like it was fun to carry around:

Big boobs below. Lots of boobs.

Crazy man. Not so many men:

This fellow was a notable exception, but was hesitant to let men take his photo, it was just for the ladies.....

Little boy blue:

Ok, and here starts the disasters. A thong? Do you own a mirror?

The saddest part is this girl looked to be about 21 or 22 and check out her legs:

The girl on the left's breast was threatening to fall out at any minute, but she at least was having fun.

Big dress, but it looked easier to move than the one above:

This woman was past an age where this outfit was acceptable:

Lots of people:

African drums, I think for sale?

A newsboy caught in the crowd.

Check the eyelashes, and stretch marks. Nice touch!

Colourful:

The best part of the day was definately heading over to Roncesvalles to the Polish bakery. Mmmm.....

Bare

Not feeling so well lately and a bit behind on my blogging.
You know how you read in the papers the signs of depression? I have that. It feels like a clinical thing, rather than there being anything wrong in my life. I want to sleep a lot, I don't want to do anything, when people come up to talk to me at work or on the street it's all I can do not to run away, I have anxiety attacks lying in bed alone going to sleep, I sleep for 15 hours straight. Ugh.
It's mainly coming across as a fight to not just lie in bed with the lights off all the time. Saturday I slept from 2 am to 9 pm on Sunday and then Sunday I slept from 1 to 10 and then Monday I slept from 6 pm to 8 am.
I am on medication for this kind of thing and had reduced it but now think I need to go back to the old, stronger dose. Increasing the dose means I go through a period where I'm a zombie and feel nothing but I get back to normal in about a week.
Perhaps this is too personal to blog about? But no one really talks about this stuff, so maybe talking is a good thing?
Very poor. My air conditioner stopped working about midnight last night, hopefully a day of rest will make it better as I can't afford to have it fixed. Going to a wedding in 2 weeks and need a new dress shirt, and just realized last night I have to bring a gift. Am thinking $100 in an envelope sounds good. I still haven't paid my hotel bill from Ottawa from the start of June, need to do that soon. No trips right now. Cruise is already paid for though!
Ok, after all that rambling, I went to see Bare three times in Toronto and loved it.
After Thursday night's show I got the main members of the cast to sign this:

And got to meet some of them. This fellow, Graham, was the dreamiest and everyone wanted him. I think when he put his arm around me I lost all sense of time and space. What was surprising to me was he was so nice and cool.

Everyone else was really nice and cool too.

Oh, and how the Hell did I get to a point where I weigh this much?

What I'm Reading, Stripmalling

Reading Stripmalling by Jon Paul Fiorentino:

A great Canadian book.

I keep meaning to update this blog with what I'm reading and keep forgetting.

Anyway, came across this part where the hero is praying to Jesus to get a girl, and he writes Jesus a letter:

I finsihed this today and am moving on to "Say You're One of Them" by Uwem Akpan.

"Nigerian-born Jesuit priest Akpan transports the reader into gritty scenes of chaos and fear in his rich debut collection of five long stories set in war-torn Africa. An Ex-mas Feast tells the heartbreaking story of eight-year-old Jigana, a Kenyan boy whose 12-year-old sister, Maisha, works as a prostitute to support her family. Jigana's mother quells the children's hunger by having them sniff glue while they wait for Maisha to earn enough to bring home a holiday meal. In Luxurious Hearses, Jubril, a teenage Muslim, flees the violence in northern Nigeria. Attacked by his own Muslim neighbors, his only way out is on a bus transporting Christians to the south. In Fattening for Gabon, 10-year-old Kotchikpa and his younger sister are sent by their sick parents to live with their uncle, Fofo Kpee, who in turn explains to the children that they are going to live with their prosperous godparents, who, as Kotchikpa pieces together, are actually human traffickers. Akpan's prose is beautiful and his stories are insightful and revealing, made even more harrowing because all the horror—and there is much—is seen through the eyes of children."

Jeff Francoeur

Jeff Francoeur is my hero.

When I went on my first vacation to Atlanta on my first vacation to see the Atlanta Braves he was the new up and coming player every one was talking about. I remember his jersey's selling out at the stands around the stadium.
I had a lay-over on my flight back and was wearing a Jeff Francoeur t-shirt and someone told me he was on the cover of the new Sports Illustrated at the airport.
When I went over to the newsstand, this was there:

Which perfectly capped off my trip.
Jeff has struggled lately but is such a nice guy everyone loves him.

He's nicknamed Frenchy and has a pair of lucky turkey underwear:

Video here.
He had a series of successful commericals for Delta airlines:

And if you follow his blog, he still seems to be associated with them. I really liked the commercial.
I have a Jeff Francoeur statue on my desk at work.
So when I was watching Sunday night baseball last night, and saw Jeff in the uniform of the hated New York Mets, my heart sunk.
Bad news :(

Trades are really a part of baseball but I still want the original 2005 Atlanta Braves team to stay in tact. Is that too much to ask?
Probably.
My original Francoeur t-shirt is ripped and heavily worn and no longer fits but I haven't been able to throw it out. So today, before they were gone for good, I ordered a new t-shirt in a size that fits.

Electric Bike

I'm thinking of getting an electric bicycle. I have to ride uphill every day to work and about half the time I bail at the thought of riding the whole way uphill. So I believe if I had an electric bike it would pay for itself it TTC token savings.

Looking at Canadian Tire they have a few models, like this one:

Mongoose Electric Motocross Bike

The good thing is it's only $399.00. The bad thing is I would look STUPID on this riding down the streets of Toronto. What's too funny is the Q and A on the Canadian Tire site, it says "I'm looking for an electric bike for my mother who is 340 pounds. Would this be suitable?"

Can you picture this guy's 340 pound mom on this bike? DOES IT LOOK SUITABLE?

There's also this one, which also looks stupid for $599.00:

Schwinn AL1020 Folding Electric Bike

And finally this one:

Schwinn Invidia 26-in Electric Bike

Which is $649.00

I'm a little worried about how people die on motorcycles but this has a top speed of 28 km/hr so I should be fine right? I'd have to get a new helmet.

I like the sound of the "twist-and-go electric assist drive".

There was some talk on the website of the bar making this look like a women's bike. The other one with the bar slightly higher is another $150 and otherwise looks exactly the same. Someone said it wasn't a women's design, it was "easy mount". I can go with that.