smorgasbord

view from the Summer Pavilion behind the Library of Parliament

Supreme Court of Canada is slightly right of centre in the distance

Until I looked up this title word in the dictionary a few minutes ago, if I were to have been asked to spell it, I would have written "schmorgasborg," 'cause that's how I've always pronounced it. Go figure. Reminiscent of the time when I discovered that "shootsiescores" was actually my own faulty hearing of "he shoots, he scores." And don't get me started on all the malapropisms I encountered when I marked students' assignments for Business Communications.

Writers' Festival
However, I digress. (It must be a bad sign when the writer digresses before even beginning. Oh, well, false starts: we begin and begin and begin again. Who said that? Kroetsch? I'm sure he wasn't the first to begin that argument.) The Ottawa International Writers' Festival (spring edition) began one week ago yesterday. I didn't take in as many sessions as I originally planned, but I still attended enough to feel I'd received my money's worth out of my festival pass. (I've noted for next year that I probably should have created my own 5-event pass and saved a few dollars. There's a fine line between not enough and too much.) I listened to poets, fiction writers, non-fiction writers, editors, and publishers read from their texts and speak about concepts that mattered to them: Fred Wah, Rachel Zolf, Stuart Ross, Alison Pick, Anne Simpson, Don Domanski, Stan Dragland, Beth Follett, Alan Briesmaster, Chris Kitzan, Doug Francis, Steve Venright, Nathaniel G. Moore, RM Vaughan, Drew Hayden Taylor, Kateri Ackiwenzie-Damm, and Irene Gammel. As one might expect, I heard some more than others. I bought a few new books, too. (Yeah, like I needed those, right? Although, in my defence, I did recently read one of the books that had been sitting on a shelf for 5-10 years--Linda Nagata's Tech Heaven. It was a compelling, if unsettling, extrapolative narrative of ethics in relation to cryonics. Published in 1995. Does anyone write or report or think of cryonics anymore?)

Queensway
Last week marked another very important occasion for me: I drove on the Queensway, otherwise known as the #417, for the first time since returning to the region. The last time we lived here, I'd just begun tentatively making my way to Kanata via the 416 & 417--and then we moved back home. For those of you who have hyperspaced the Toronto 401 or hurtled down the Coquihalla, the Queensway would pose no challenge. I, however, best acquainted with Pembina Hwy, also known as Hwy #75, and Winnipeg's Perimeter Hwy, was most intimidated by it. I drew inspiration from three stalwart women: Ottawa-transplant Lisa, who only learned to drive sometime within the past five years or so, but whips from one end of the amalgamated city limits to the other with ease; cousin Shauna from Wpg, for whom the driving motivation to high-tail it down the 401 on her vacation was a visit to IKEA; and Ottawa-born Ci (pronounced "chee"), who once confided that she prayed for an opening before entering every on- and off-ramp.

Someone once compared driving on the 417 to driving on the Perimeter, but I beg to differ: double the Perimeter and up the speed by 15-20 km/h, then add vehicles constantly changing lanes, and maybe you've got yourself a comparison. Of course, from my outsider's perspective, it seems everyone here drives at least 10 km/h over any posted speed limit. James claims that he knows of two red light cameras (they seem to frequent Kanata, although I've read there are actually eight equipped intersections--only eight for the whole region?!), and that there are often police with radar guns along Strandherd. I saw one yesterday--police with radar gun, not red light camera. Anyway, the point to my rambling is that I finally found the courage to fly (figuratively, not literally). So with a little more practice, should we find ourselves descended upon by visitors this summer, I'll be able to tour them around while James is at work; if no visitors, well then, I'll be able to frequent the malls right across town.

Parliament Hill
On Saturday, I attended a two o'clock festival event, thinking I'd hang around downtown until another one at 6pm. I walked from Library and Archives Canada via Parliament Hill to Rideau Centre (see photo above). At 24˚C, it was as though we'd passed straight from winter into summer. I'm guessing half of the population of Ottawa was on Parliament Hill or down in the Byward Market on Saturday afternoon. Everywhere tube tops, tank tops, racerback tanks, spaghetti straps, no straps, babydoll tops with shortie shorts, biking shorts, walking shorts, sundresses, sandals, thongs (I mean the flip-flops kind, not underwear, even though I'm sure the latter were out & about, too). I had planned a bit of shopping at Rideau Centre, but it was difficult to stay indoors. I stopped at Sugar Mountain, wanting a gelato, but the lineup was way too long. After an hour or so in the sun, I decided I didn't feel like any more festival events, so I bussed back to Fallowfield and called James to pick me up. Before the end of the shopping day, I squeezed in a quick trip to Reitman's, where I bought three T-shirts.

New Adventures in Soy
Move over Rice Dream. Vitasoy light vanilla is my new favorite milk alternative. I also tried So Nice vanilla (as opposed to the original flavor I tried a few weeks back), but it just doesn't measure up. I've also tried Yves veggie burgers, both the mock beef and mock chicken. While I still maintain that they don't really taste like meat, they're edible. In fact, topped with lettuce, and a trio of relish, mustard, ketchup (for beef) or Caesar dressing (for chicken), and cleverly disguised in a Kaiser bun, they're not half bad. I recommend adding a slice of Swiss cheese, mushrooms, and onions to the "beef" patty.

Rice Dream vanilla ~ demoted to 4/5
Vitasoy light vanilla ~ 5/5 ~ I like the taste and a definite bonus is that it has about half the calories of Vitasoy vanilla and Rice Dream vanilla
So Nice vanilla ~ 1.5/5 ~ better than So Nice original, but not by much
Yves veggie burgers (chicken or beef) ~ 3/5

Good-bye Fun Mountain
The last two spots of our onetime eleven-foot mountain of snow melted in the neighbors' front yard yesterday at some point between the time we left for Cedarview Alliance and the time we returned.

Spring Cleaning
Not much progress on the spring cleaning front. Sometime this week I intend to wash windows on the ground floor. I should also vacuum and wipe down the inside of the truck. I did weed through my greeting card collection, in an attempt to reduce years' worth of accumulated paper. Does anybody want the fronts of old cards for craft projects? I'd be happy to mail them.

Off I go to tackle some other projects on my list.