Fred Visits the Doctor

Yesterday was Fred's second visit to the vet, this time for boosters, since we've taken him in. He was much less traumatized by the exprience this time around. Didn't hold a grudge against us nearly as long as he did the last time.

The first visit was interesting. He went in for shots and a blood test. And he was fine so long as Angela and I were in the room. But then the vet took him to the back for the blood test (which required shaving his tummy) and they offered to clip his nails. "Sure," we said, "if you can manage it." Ten minutes later, the vet walked into the front lobby and said, "Your cat is the devil." Fred would not let a group of three trained technicians get close enough to take the blood sample let alone clip his nails.

Ah, Freddy.

He and the next door cat, which belongs to Nick and Jeannette, are engaged in a prolonged territorial dispute. UN ceasefire resolutions may not calm these two, so there's a water bottle and hose within arm's length should they decide to escalate the conflict.


Three weekends ago, right at the start of that nasty heat wave, we drove to Philadephia for a cousin's wedding, as we affectionately refer to as the 'rave nuptials.'

We piled into the car with Angela's father and brother for a little family road trip. It was humid and hot. And the highway was long. Dinner was held in a trendy event space (the name escapes me) which takes up the 2nd and 3rd floors of one of the many, many beautiful historic buildings in the city. The food was excellent, especially the antipasto spread which included mammoth shrimp and oysters and gin martinis. And then at one point in the evening, as the live band was busting out some bastard form of cheesy house music which is popular in only maybe five cities across the U.S., we were lucky enough to witness a couple of the groomsmen take off their jackets, pick up some glow sticks, and start into what can only be described as a very awkward version of that Capoeira -- wild-eyed, tuxedo-clad, arms flailing.




The next weekend we spent it at the Guelph Lakeside conservation area for the Hillside music festival. Two and half days of excellent indie-ish music, really good food (believe it or not), and lantern-making. Oh, yeah it's a real hippie, hippie fest with drum circles each morning, and healing circles and drum circles at night in the campground. (We opted to rough it at the Travelodge.) You could also learn to make a stone wall without using mortar. That's a life skill is what that is.

(Beware the Hillside Mascots. They typically travel in herds!)


Here is The Stills performing on Friday night. Concert photos pretty much always look like crap using our camera, so I just turn off the flash and see what happens.




Drinking from the Hillside Cup










This weekend we biked down Queen's Quay (alongside what felt like the rest of the cycling population of Toronto). As part of the waterfront redevelopment, this week the city shut down part of the roadway to cars and turned it into bike lanes to mimic what the new waterfront will look like. Once this thing is built, the Beaches in East Toronto will be connected via bike path to some greenspace near a cluster of waterfront condos all to way in south Etobicoke. That's impressive. Am anxious to see it come together.