Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Prebook your hotel rooms before you travel

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Are you going on a holiday in the new year? I don’t think I am, but when I do, I know exactly where to go to look for well priced hotel rooms and other forms of accommodation. You see, there’s a site called HotelResverations.com and they list available hotel rooms, bed and breakfasts, condo rentals and other types of vacation rentals world wide. All you have to do is visit the site, pick a destination and book your hotel reservation, it’s really that easy.

You’ll be pleased with the prices too. I decided to test out their site price wise by trying to find room availability here in Toronto for mid January. Now, we tried to get hotel rooms in August for my husbands family when they all came to town for a wedding and not only was there almost no availability thanks to several conventions going on at that time, but the rooms that were available were very expensive – like $150 to $175 per night or even higher. I realize that summer is tourist season here and that hotel room prices may fluctuate depending on the season but when I searched on Hotel Reservations I found that most prices for the rooms suggested to me were well under $100 and since I know the area and the hotels that were brought up on the page, I know that those prices were fantastic.

So if you are going to be traveling and you want to book your rooms in advance visit Hotelreservations.com. before you go. I think you’ll be quite happy with the prices and the accommodations.





Red Sox Spring Training Camp?

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Since I seem to be on a family kick today, I might as well tell you what just occurred to me. I think I might know another reason why I’ve been thinking more of my family this week and reminiscing about them. The World series has been on!

My father was never a big baseball fan, but my mother – she was a huge baseball fan. My brother that’s coming over sometime this weekend is also a very big baseball fan too. So much so that he’s attended Spring training camp games for a few of his favorite teams.

When my mother passed away a few years ago we – the 5 children – decided that each year we would have a family get together. Whether that be in one of the cities we live in, or as a cruise or tropical Island vacation we get together every year. This past year we all got together in the city of our births, Ottawa, to attend my aunts’ 80th birthday party.

We are still planning what we are going to do in 2007 but the topic of a baseball themed get together has come up. My brother was thinking that it might be interesting to go and see some Boston Red Socks spring training games in Florida. The Red Sox do their spring training in lovely Fort Myers in an open style stadium. I think I’d enjoy going to Florida for a vacation, family get together and perhaps to see a few Red Sox games too.

When I see my brother I think I’ll ask him if he wants to do a baseball get together next year, and if he does we’d better start looking into getting some Boston Red Sox Spring Training tickets. I’d love it if we could get some box seats, because I think that would be nice for us if we are going as a large group. There would be at least nine of us, more if some of the nephews and nieces come along too.

I’m liking the idea more and more. I think we should go for it. What do you think- should we?

Quick Change Artist

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Do you have any special skills?

A unique, yet possibly quirky talent?

I do! I’m a quick change artist.

I don’t remember exactly when I realized that I had this super power. I think that acquiring super powers is something like getting a headache. It’s not there, it’s not there, BOOM, Oh my gosh do I ever have a headache. Curiously headaches seem to leave the same way too don’t they?

But I digress, back to my talent.

I can completely change my top in public without anyone being able to see any parts that I don’t want seen. Ah, I know, not much fun for those watching ’cause they probably want to see what I’m trying to hide. Tough.

How did I acquire this hidden talent? And why? Well, I think it had something to do with having a cottage as a child. Huh?

Well, we used to go up to our cottage in the late fall, and early spring, sometimes we even went in the winter. Do you know how cool cottage bedrooms that are far from the Oil heater or fireplace get in the cool months? They’re freezing!

As a child I was forced to master changing from whatever I was wearing- usually pants and a top and perhaps a sweater, into my little nightie or flannel pj’s (depending on the time of year) without actually baring any flesh to the frigid air. This was the only way to avoid massive goosebumps, and a case of the shivers that often lasted 2 hours or so.

So it makes sense that I developed this talent out of necessity as a child, right? But I still use my hidden talent on occasion. Sometimes it’s necessary.

Take for example my most recent quick change scenario:

Last Saturday, while we were in Chicago, we were rushing to find the concert hall that we had to be at before 8 p.m. after leaving the downtown area. We were lost. We’d left the downtown area at about 7:15 p.m. after our afternoon of sightseeing and picture taking, knowing that we were cutting it close. By 7:45 p.m. my husbands brother realized we were lost and finally stopped for directions.

I had a feeling this might happen. I had wanted to change from the t-shirt and shorts that I was wearing while touring downtown Chicago into a nice top and some jeans prior to the concert. Just before we left our parking space I’d grabbed my top out of the the trunk and brought it into the front passenger seat with me. I had a feeling that I would need to do a quick change scene.

Knowing we’d only just get there in time to get in and find our seats before the concert started I decided to change my top. I don’t think I’ve ever done this before while moving slowly through crowded city streets, in the front of a car with the window down and the sunroof open. If I made a mistake, not only would my friends and family get an unexpected exposure, but so would complete strangers who were passing by our car as we drove the crowded streets, or when we were stopped at a set of lights.

I was also trying to be a good law abiding citizen and keep my seat belt (lap and shoulder strap) on while completing this quick change. This complicated matters, as did the fact that I was trying to change into a tiny little tank top with multiple holes for my arms or neck to make a mistake poking through.

It was a struggle! It was probably like watching someone struggle out of a straight jacket. At one point my arm was stuck in an awkward position behind my back, in the tank top that was under my t-shirt. I thought I might have to dislocate my shoulder to complete the act, or be forced to bare it all. Finally, my arm slipped into the right place and the tank top was in place. Off came my t-shirt to reveal the cute tank underneath.

I didn’t know what the concert would be like, dressy, casual or what. So I decided to put a nice open shirt over the tank top. Unfortunately I was still wearing the shorts. What I was wearing on top didn’t quite go with the shorts I was wearing, but I’ve yet to master changing into tight jeans while in a car. If they’d been baggy or looser jeans yeah, I probably would have tried. Oh well.

Since I have these unique super powers I decided to take a test to find out which Super Hero I’m most like:

Your results:

You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man
85%
Superman
80%
The Flash
65%
Green Lantern
65%
Wonder Woman
60%
Supergirl
60%
Iron Man
60%
Robin
57%
Catwoman
50%
Hulk
45%
Batman
45%
You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero am I?” quiz…
Where does Spiderman change anyway? Doesn’t he always just appear in costume whenever he’s needed? Yeah, he must be a quick change artist too. As you can see I’m also 80% like Superman and we all know he changes in telephone booths, right? Kinda like me changing in a car.

So which Super Hero are you, and do you have any hidden talents or skills that match your Super Hero persona?

Come on, talk to me.

One big city to another

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I’m back!

1127.28 miles (1 814.18 Kilometers), or in understandable terms – about 22 hours of driving from Toronto to Chicago and back again, and I sure glad I’m home.

We had a fantastic time. Chicago is a beautiful city, I really was blown away by all the fantastic looking buildings and beautiful sights. Maybe that’s what they really mean by “Windy City”? It’s not the wind that blows you away it’s the beauty.

The Bruce Cockburn concert was great too. I’m not a huge fan but I do appreciate seeing such a talented musician. Chris, my husband, was glued to the edge of his seat watching Bruce’s every move on the 6 different guitars that he played. Chris was trying to figure out if he plays Bruce’s music the same way, and except for a few chords here and there, yes he does.

The two people who came on our trip with us weren’t the greatest choice to have brought along. The one guy was someone that Chris works with and he’s supposed to be a musician too, but I think he’s more interested in producing than performing these days. Needless to say he didn’t bring any instruments. He brought along a girl that we hadn’t met before … a different person than who he’d told us he was bringing. We learned in the car that the girl was only 19 years old. That meant no going out to the Blues and Jazz clubs ’cause she wouldn’t be able to get in. Wish we’d known that before we started out.

I guess Chris and I must have “Mr. and Mrs. Doormat” stamped on our foreheads lately, because these two people really stiffed us on the cost of the trip. They only put in $40 for gas (Total cost of gas was close to $200), didn’t pay for the concert tickets, and didn’t really hang out with us in Chris’ brothers home or when we went downtown sight seeing. Every time we asked them for money they kept saying oh we have to go to the ATM, oh we’ll stop at an ATM on the way home and pay you, Oh we don’t have any money in our bank accounts- sorry. GEEEEEEEZZZZZZ

Anyway, I wasn’t going to let them ruin my trip. I had a great time.

We arrived at about 9:30 pm Chicago time (10:30 pm Toronto time) and a friend of Chris’ brother showed up and took us to his office to show us around. Not really what I wanted to do right after driving for 12 hours (we hit a lot of construction on the way so the trip was longer). He’s an architect and his whole office building was a beautifully restored old house. I wish I took pictures of that. It was worth the visit, and it was a short outing.

Chris’ brother cooked us up a fantastic meal of steak and grilled veggies when we got back. Mmmm that steak was so good. Then we all went outside onto the deck and Chris pulled out his guitar and entertained us for a few hours. He was so tired after doing a good portion of the driving, plus he was trying to match his brother drink for drink – which is an impossible task, so his playing stayed good, but the singing faltered after a while … he could only stumble through the songs if he had to sing along, but he did fine when we all sang. I eventually herded him towards the bedroom and we got some much needed sleep.

We didn’t get up all that early on Saturday – maybe 10:30, and by the time everyone had had the wonderful breakfast that they made for us (two types of sausages, pancakes and lots of fruit) and we all got ready to go it was getting close to 1 pm.

We drove downtown, driving by the lake shore as we went. Their beach area reminded me very much of Toronto’s beach area. We spent the afternoon walking around the downtown core. Well, Chris and I and his brother did. The two kids we brought along went shopping.

Millenium park is beautiful. What Chris’ brother was calling the Bean, I’ve since found out is called the Cloud Gate. It’s a huge metallic elliptical object that reflects everything around it. It’s quite the experience to walk up to and view yourself and the crowds surrounding you on the face of the sculpture. When you walk under it everything gets distorted and the shiny mirror like sides almost disappear to the point that you can easily walk into the walls. Which I did of course, klutz that I am! I took a lot of pictures of this sculpture and I’ll put some up over the next few days. We must have spent an hour and a half to two hours just in that park alone.

When we left the park we headed over the House of Blues. Unfortunately the bar was closed for a private party. The inside of the building was amazing to look at though, as was the outside. As I said Chicago has some wonderful architecture and you could go there and just walk around looking at all the fantastic building shapes and art work for hours. Which I guess, is pretty much what we did.

We ended up in the Harry Carey bar for a few drinks and some appetizers. We saw the baseball that was blown up last year. It’s just shreds. I love the outside of the bar, it’s really interesting looking. Pictures coming soon. Then we met up with the people that came with us on our trip and frantically drove around trying to find North Lincoln where the concert was taking place in the Old School house. We made it just on time and had a great time watching Bruce Cockburn entertain us for 3 hours or so.

After the concert Chris’ brother wanted to take us for some Chicago Deep dish pizza at a restaurant near his house- in the burbs. Unfortunately when we got there the restaurant was closed and we ended up going to a TGI Fridays. The food was NOT good there, but the bartender was entertaining. Did you know that if you fill up a beer glass or mug with draft, making sure it’s got a good head of foam that reaches the top of the glass, that if you put a napkin over it (to create a seal), you can then throw the glass about ten feet? I didn’t know that, but I saw it three times. It works.

When we told the bartender we were from Canada and asked him if he’d ever visited he said “no, it’s too cold up there I think”. LOL Hate to tell you buddy but it’s about the same temperature in Toronto as it is in Chicago and we’re in the same gardening zones (Toronto’s might be higher actually, hard to find accurate info). I always find it funny when people just seem to automatically assume that Canada is cold. Yeah, our winters are, but winter in most of the US states are fairly cool too.

After our restaurant adventure we went back to Chris’ brothers home. The kids we brought disappeared without a word and the rest of us went outside for more music al la Chris.

Sunday was a bit weird. When I got up Chris’ brother and his wife were leaving to go visit their daughter at University. They hadn’t mentioned that they would be doing that so we had a fast good-bye, then off they went. In the meantime one of Chris brothers friends had come over for a visit and he sat with us for a while talking. We’d met him before as Chris brother had brought him to the Toronto area for visits a few times. The friend is also a Canadian. Chris’ brother seems to know all of the Canadians in the area.

Leaving took a long time as people kept stopping by. Chris’ brothers father in law came to pick up one of my nephews for Hockey practice. I love the way they say Hockey, it’s more like Hawckey, and cops are caps etc. Interesting accent Chicago.

Our trip back only took about 10 hours. We skipped some construction and a few tolls by taking a slightly different route. We didn’t get home until close to 2 a.m. Monday morning.

I’ve got to work on my photos and put some up for my visitors to see. I’m very happy with most of them and I hope that you’ll enjoy them when I start sharing them with you.

I titled this post “One big city to another” because I was traveling from the fifth largest city in North America – Toronto – to the fourth largest city in North America- Chicago. The city of Chicago only has us beat population wise by about three hundred thousand people. Their urban area has perhaps 5 million more people than ours does though, but they don’t count that when they count populations for cities. Now I need to visit Los Angeles (3rd largest), New York (2nd largest) and Mexico city (1st) and I’ll be able to say that I’ve visited the five largest cities in N.A..

I didn’t see or do as much as I would have liked to have during my visit. Our trip was too short and was mostly travel back and forth. The next time I visit Chicago I’ll have to go for a week or more so that I can really come back saying that I’ve got a good sense of the city.

Funny thing, when we first got to Chris’ brothers home in the suburbs of Chicago the girl that came along with us turned to me and asked if I thought I could live there. I looked at her a little puzzled and said “Well, we just got here, all I’ve seen is the highway and this little suburb, so I have no idea if I’d like living here or not.” Now, after a day of walking around downtown and seeing some of the sites I think I could answer her question with a Yes, I think I could live here. It’s a big city, I like big cities because there’s so much to do. Yeah, I could live there.

To Chicago we will go

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I’m in the van driving to Chicago now. I’m with my husband Chris and two of our friends, and we’re on our way to go see Bruce Cockburn play in a small venue in downtown Chicago on Saturday night.

Actually, it’s early Friday morning (12:43 a.m.) and I’m still at home sitting at my computer pre-writing this post. But, if all goes well, by the time you are reading this I will be on my way to Chicago.

There was supposed to be six of us going, but two pulled out at the last minute on Thursday morning. Our two friends that are going might find two of their friends to come … so really I might be sitting in the van with 5 other people right now … I just don’t know it yet. LOL

The two friends that are driving with us are musicians, and the van is likely full of musical instruments. Well, I know it will have Chris guitar and our keyboard. I’m the only non-musician. Finally, Mr. Fab – we’ve found something I can’t do! Well, not yet. If my husband would only give me a guitar lesson I’m sure I’d master it. Maybe, or maybe not. Either way I’m sure I wouldn’t be as good as my husband as he’s an amazing guitar player.

Now I’ve said that I’m probably in a van. We don’t have a van. We have a car.
We will be leaving the house early in the morning and convoying to Brantford to Chris’ family home where we will leave our cars and then get into his parents van and drive off.

The only problem is that as Chris’ dad was driving the van on Thursday it made a funny noise. Not only that, when they were visiting Toronto during the double wedding two weekends ago the van chugged it’s way through a busy downtown intersection much to our dismay. It turned out that someone had forgotten that the emergency brake was on. Probably because it was covered with a bunch of stuff – tissue box, sweater etc and they had probably driven from Brantford with the emergency brake on, and then proceeded to drive through Toronto for two days with it on too. So, back to the grinding noise. Chris’ dad finally decided to call a garage and the Van is going in for a check-up at 7:30 Friday morning.

If the van is ok or ends up getting fixed well be off to Chicago as soon as it’s ready. If it can’t be fixed quickly we might end up not going, as we don’t think our car is up to a 9 or so hour drive each way.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

So, now, as you sit there reading this we might be part way through our drive, stuck in construction between Indiana and Illinois, or we might even have arrived at Chris’ brothers house. Heck, I might be sitting in his hot tub right now.

Oh, oh! If you are a regular reader of this site you probably already know that me and hot tubs don’t seem to get along. The second last hot tub event that I attended ended up with me falling outside on a weird curb and hurting my knee really bad. That was July 8th and my knee is still recovering. When I fall, I fall down hard, I don’t do anything half way it seems. The first hot tub event occured the day after our boarder from hell moved in … and well, if you’ve read the page this post is on then you’ll know how that’s turned out.

We don’t have a huge itinerary planned for our trip.

We’ll arrive in Chicago sometime Friday evening and Chris’ brother has already planned to invite some friends over, so I’m assuming we’ll be having a little party.

The next day we’ll visit downtown Chicago and walk around and see the sights. I hope to get some fantastic photos while I’m there. Then that evening, perhaps after a BBQ, we’ll head back downtown and go and see Bruce Cockburns concert. Depending upon when that ends we might go to some blues bars or find something interesting to do in the city.

On Sunday we’ll spend some time recovering and then we’ll get back into the van and start the drive home. I’m assuming we’ll leave sometime on Sunday afternoon so I don’t expect to get back to Toronto until sometime in the wee hours on Monday. We’ve got to go back to Brantford first and get our car too.

Our neighbors are going to watch the house while we’re away. Their good about that, and well their nosy too, so if they see anything that doesn’t look right, and they will be looking, I’m sure they’ll take care of it.

Hopefully I’ll have an internet connection when I’m there. If I have time, perhaps I’ll write another post and tell ya what we’ve been up to, otherwise that will have to wait until we get back. Either way the posts will keep coming as I’ve written a few to keep you guys happy over the weekend while I’m busy.

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