This weekend was fairly tiring, but still cool.

On Friday I went to Pacific Mall and bought a DVD of questionable legality, but it was a DVD that I can't buy in any other way so I don't exactly feel bad about it. The movie is called Hero and it is a Chinese movie starring Jet Li that is going to be released in theatres in North America in the near future. I saw a preview for it when I saw Kill Bill 2 and it looked good. After watching it I would say that is was very good. The movie paid a lot of attention to visual presentation and was very pretty and artsy. I'm glad I bought it, especially because it was only $8 (no tax, yay Pacific Mall).

On Saturday I went with Adrienne to various parts of the Street Festivals that happened here this weekend, but we didn't see anything too exciting. The best was the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit, which was at Nathan Phillip's Square and was a show with something like 500 artists displaying their work. Lots of good stuff. The only other stuff really worth mentioning was the food. We had lunch at a random vegetarian Chinese restaurant that gave massive servings. We split a $6 meal and we weren't able to finish half of it between the both of us. And for supper we ate pasta in the Italian section of Toronto that was pretty good and not very expensive.

Today was much better as far as the festival goes. We went and saw a break dancing competition that was really good. The music (courtesy of DJ Serious) was amazing as well.

The rest of my weekend was fairly relaxing; I spent a bunch of time with Kim and slept a lot.

On Saturday Kim and I went shopping, saw Fahrenheit 9/11 (which was moderately interesting) and then had supper at Mongolian Grill. Pretty good day.

And today I had lunch with Kim's family (roast beef) and then rode a bus to Toronto, yay!

Normally I update after the weekend is over and it may appear that this post occurs just as the weekend is starting, but in fact my weekend is ultra long due to Canada Day being on a Thursday and the fact that everyone (myself included) decided to take Friday off. And a lot has already happened this weekend so I figured this would be a good time to update. This week has been crazy and really fun.

Monday was the federal election and although I signed up to vote by mail (since I am in Toronto and away from my home riding) they never sent me the voter kit and so I had to vote in my Toronto riding (As an aside, I later found out that Elections Canada had called me at work to tell me that they needed a copy of my driver's license in order to verify my identity for voting by mail even though the guy who told me how to submit the form said that I didn't need to. Unfortunately for me, I have been working downtown for a while and did not get the message until after the election). So, to return to the story, the local returning office (in North York) told me that all I had to do to vote in my Toronto riding was to show proof of residence and register at my polling station in Willowdale (my riding in Toronto). So I went around 7:00 with my lease and with Matt and Adrienne to vouch for me if necessary and got in line to register. When I finally got to talk to the registration lady I was told that I was not allowed to vote here and must go vote in my home riding. They didn't even look at my lease or anything. This seemed strange to me since the returning office had made things quite clear, so I kept trying to explain to them that it would be impossible to get to my home riding before the polls closed and that I was told that I was allowed to vote in Toronto. Eventually one of the ladies got fed up and essentially gave me the boot and told me that they were too busy to help me. So yeah, no voting for me. By that point I felt that I had put an honest effort into it and so I went home. Then I went swimming which was quite tiring but very excellent. I'm going to try to do it regularly.

Tuesday was wing night with Jeff, Brad, Jen, Matt and Adrienne and that was pretty cool. I had the suicide wings which were of the perfect spiciness and were much more tasty than the hot wings I had the last time I was there.

Wednesday was the big day for the summer, the Dave Matthews Band concert, and it was really really good. I left work at 4:00pm so I could get home to meet Mike (who found his own way to our house) and Matt and then head down to Molson Amphitheatre. On the way we met some guy who was also going and we chatted with him a bit on the way in. Matt and I were on the lawn (cheap, haha) and Mike had a really nice seat in the 200 section. The concert was amazing, all the members of the band are insanely talented and there were a lot of solos and things. After the concert we met up with Mike to go home, but it turned out that the person Mike was sitting beside was actually like some sort of disturbing copy of Mike (the guy works as a coop for Alias, is a student at Waterloo, likes DMB, likes Jazz, plays the sax, was student council president, was involved in OSSSA, etc, etc) and so the guy gave us a ride home. Getting a ride home after a concert at Molson Amphitheatre is most excellent because, although it takes a while to get out of the parking lot, it takes even longer to get a street car. So that was pretty sweet. After getting home we went out to get food near our house and the only thing open was a place called John Anderson's. I had the biggest chicken souvlaki ever and ended up being really full until like 3:00pm the next day.

In the morning on Thursday Adrienne, Matt, Mike and I went downtown to check out Mike's apartment for the Fall and it was really nice. It's in one of the high rises near the Skydome/CN Tower and it is clearly meant for real people and not students. But the guy who lives there is trying to get some extra cash by renting out the spare room, so Mike found what may be the sweetest apartment in Toronto (based on the price/goodness ratio which is $650/amazing). The place has hardwood floors, nice kitchen stuff and a really good view of the CN Tower. The building has a workout room, exercise pool and massive patio on the roof, and it has pool tables, plasma TV's and Internet stations on the ground floor (all free to residents of course). It is also downtown which makes it extremely useful. After seeing the apartment we went to Nathan Phillip's square to catch some of the Jazz festival and we saw the Mayor talk and listened to a few songs from one of the bands. It was really cool and it would have been nice to stay longer, but we had like a billion things to do. So, we went up to York Mill's to pick up Mike's girlfriend and then went to see Spiderman 2 with everyone plus Adrienne's friend Tess. The movie was pretty good, I enjoyed its acknowledgement of its corny roots. It was also clearly set up for a sequel. After the movie we went downtown to go to Salad King for supper but they were closed. Kinda weird for a restaurant to close on an almost certainly profitable day but whatever. We went to Spring Rolls instead which is another Thai place and it was very good. Another place I'll have to go back to. Then Mike and Kristen and I went to see some more Jazz and then the fireworks and then went home.

Today was not as exciting; I just got up in the morning and got on a bus to go home which is where I am now. I'm writing this on Kim's new laptop which I have spent the day fixing up.

I don't know what I am doing for the rest of the weekend but I think I have had enough fun for a while so I will probably just sleep.

Last weekend was quite amusing. On Friday Matt and Adrienne met me downtown and we went to Canada Computers to buy things - Me: DVD-ROM drive, Matt; 256MB USB Pen Drive; Adrienne: Computer Speakers. Then we got ice cream and stuff for sundaes and watched the movie "21 Grams" while eating the ice cream.

On Saturday I was supposed to meet Adrienne downtown to go watch the Dyke March (part of Toronto's Gay Pride Week) and then maybe get food or something. But she was at the running show and was late so I stopped waiting and watched it by myself. It was pretty good, but nothing compared to the real pride parade on Sunday. Adrienne and I went to it after getting stuff from the Eaton's Centre. It was really busy, the Toronto Star estimated that a million people watched the parade. And it lasted at least 2 hours I think. Making it the biggest parade I have ever been to. There were also a lot of booths setup on Wellesley and on Church which we spent some time looking at. The parade was cool because everyone was happy and there wasn't any hate or intolerance or negativity or anything. Just happy people having fun.

Today I am going swimming for the purposes of...EXERCISE! Gasp! I don't know what will become of me after this. Probably I will become a superhero. Yeah. That's it.

Last weekend was fun, Kim came to visit and we went downtown and wandered around and looked at things. Not much happened but it was still fun. We also watched a movie. And ate a lot of berries. We also cooked supper together which was amusing. Corn on the cob is good. Oooh, and we played pool. Kim has gotten pretty good. Apparently she gets practice at the restaurant.

Tonight Adrienne, Jen, Matt and I went to Lick's for burgers and that was also good. While we were eating, Jim Harris (the leader of the Green party) came in and got food or something. It was amusing. After supper we got Frozen Hot Chocolate from Second Cup which was very good but made me very full.

I lied, no one came to see our house tonight, the person is living somewhere else.

So, last weekend I went with Adrienne to Salad King which is a really good Thai restaurant. It was really good. We got Spicy Fish and Pad Thai and the fish was amazing. And Spicy. Stating the obvious is fun. We also watched a street performer for a while (he juggled machetes) and we walked along Queen St and went to Active Surplus. Anybody need surplus medical supplies?

I also finished 3 modules of my distance course, which was mind-numbing but productive, I guess. And I cleaned lots of the house.

On Monday I chose my courses for the fall term, here is my schedule so far:

• MWF 10:30-11:30 CO330 - Combinatorical Enumeration
• MWF 12:30-1:30 CS341 - Algorithms and Data Structures
• TTh 8:30-10:00 CS343 - Concurrency
• TTh 10:00-11:30 CO350 - Linear Optimization
• Th 7:00-10:00 SCI206 - The Physics of How Things Work

But I noticed like two days before I had to pick my schedule that Networks (CS456) is actually being offered this Fall, which is cool because that course is normally only offered in the Winter. I only have one Winter study term left, and it has already been taken by Graphics and Programming Languages (CS442) so I had pretty much abandoned the idea of taking Networks. But now I might be able to if I think I can handle it next term. I would replace Linear Optimization, but first I have to get in. The section is already full so I am on the waiting list. I wonder what will happen?

Tuesday was wing night again and we went to St Louis Bar and Grill and the wings were alright, but I didn't like them as much as Morty's and that made me sad. I want Morty's to be in Toronto.

Last night we opened our new bag of milk to find that all three bags were really nasty, even though the expiry date had not yet passed. They were really nasty...like curd-tastic. Mmmm...curds. So we went and bought new milk and as such I stayed up too late last night and now I am tired.

Today our landlord is bring someone to see the house who may potentially be living with us in July and August. Mmmmm....potential roommate.

Kim is coming to visit this weekend which will be really cool. I haven't been seeing her as much this term because of the fact that Toronto is a bit less convenient than Waterloo for coming and going. We will probably do some random stuff, not sure what yet. Maybe order her a new laptop which will at least be fun for me. New computers rule.

So yeah, I think it is about time I do a proper Toronto update.

I'm living just off Yonge St. between Sheppard and Finch which is pretty far north, but since it is on Yonge St. it is close to the subway and so it is close to everything. Also our house rocks, it is all well-kept and real and I don't expect I will live in anything nearly as nice for many years to come. And we have a pool table in the basement because the landlord doesn't want to move it out I think.

I'm working for a telemedicine company, (video conference medical stuff) North Network, at Don Mills and Lawrence but I am also working for a company downtown at King and Jarvis because they are contracted to North. It is going alright because both places are fun to work and I have money again so that makes me happy.

We have been doing a lot of fun stuff in Toronto, I have already been to a clothing show, the Harbour front, several malls, St. Lawrence market, a bunch of restaurants, Ikea, North York General Hospital, China town, the back of an ambulance, Marche, Yonge between Eglinton and Lawrence, the movie Troy and a bunch of other random places that I can't really think of right now. Should have updated more I guess.

I am also doing a distance course, *booming voice* NUCLEAR SCIENCE */booming voice* which I wish I wasn't because it is taking too much of my fun time. Like time better spent playing Chronotrigger and other fun games, like the entire Final Fantasy series. Or working on my website, I still plan on implementing the comment feature. I think that will get done on this weekend because I am staying and no one will be here on Saturday.

So yeah, now I am going to investigate a pool where I could swim lengths every night for something called exercise. I've heard its good for you or something.

I got a new desk! It is fuschia. Ikea rules, just like Fight Club. *soap*

*Sniff* I did something stupid and lost all my April entries, in the future I must be more diligent in my backup.