Truthiness + Cooking = Food Poisioning

I will post about my weekend in a minute. But first, I have a mini rant. Palinesque Anti-Intellectualism has trickled down to Canadian cartoon shows. While eating my raisin bran this morning in the lobby they had a kid's cartoon about 'racer dogs' on the tv. (I'm not sure why, there were no kids around) And the dogs were having a cooking contest. But the main dog couldn't figure out what to cook, so it got a cookbook.

And the other dogs told him, 'You can't use a cookbook! You need to cook something that comes from your heart!'

All The World's a Stage

I took myself of to Stratford Ontario this weekend, and had a lovely time. I even wore a dress and everything. I got to Stratford, and realized that everything was metered parking and I still had no Canadian money. So then I went to a coffee shop a ways from down town and got coffee and a banana muffin from the sweetest gay man in all of Canada. (I asked whether to get the blueberry or banana muffin and his eyes widened and said I had picked his two very favorite and there was no way he could decide. Then later when I went to get sugar for the coffee he patted me on the shoulder and said 'dear, there's sugar on the table, it's ok.')

I wandered around Stratford, and even found a yarn store. It didn't have anything suitable for my super seekrit project though. :(

I checked into my Bed and Breakfast, which was amaaaazing. The lady was so nice, and the room was gorgeous. And there was a doggie that came up to my door when I parked the car. He waited expectantly, and when I opened the door I saw he'd put his ball down for me to throw. Smart dog.

( Then I went and saw Kiss Me Kate! )

After the first play I wandered around some more and tried to find a place to get dinner. I ended up in a place that was completely empty. So I left as soon as I could down a grilled cheese sandwich (I figured that would be safe enough) and then I got dessert at a coffee shop and headed back towards the theater. I was still pretty early so I wandered around the bank of the Avon and took pictures of all the swans.

( Then I went and saw As You Like It! )

Then I went back to the B&B and went to bed. It was such a comfortable bed I didn't even wake up once, which I usually do when I'm not in my own bed.

So, Saturday was excellent. And you can see many pictures over here. Click and go see. You know you want to see the Shiniest Shakespeare Statue in the world.

Green Black and Blue Make the Colors in the Sky

Sunday I woke up and joined the other couple that was staying at the Bed and Breakfast for said Breakfast. He was from England, and she was from the Netherlands, and they both had their orange on for the world cup. We had a very nice chat over a fresh berry parfait, sausage, fritatta, toast, coffee and tea. They were the kind of sophisticated people that have been everywhere and done everything that I'm always envious of. It was a pretty good ego-stroke to be able to say 'Oh yes, I remember that when I went to China,' or 'Well, when I lived in Japan...' I don't think I will ever feel sophisticated so it's always a shock to hold my own in that sort of conversation.

After breakfast I decided to go to the Butterfly conservatory that I saw a sign for on my way into Canada. Because you know, all the cool kids (aphelion_orion) are doing it. I plugged 'butterfly' into the GPS and took off. Only to find that the 'Butterfly Learning Center' is a DAYCARE. Um. What I really wanted was the Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory. Luckily it wasn't far from the Learning Center.

How cool!! There were so many beautiful butterflies. I tried to get pictures of each type, but I couldn't always manage it. There were some gigantic blue ones that were so fast you just couldn't get a shot. I had butterflies land on me...6 times I think. One of them landed on me 4 times, I could tell it was the same one because it's wing was a bit broken. I wanted to get a shot badly, but it always landed on my camera or camera hand.

I took lots of pictures, and I have to say that I really, really love my camera. It did a great job of getting good close shots. You can even see the compound eyes and loopy tongues in some of the pictures. Please take a look at them here.