Lisa Stokes

How Do They Do that?

This morning I headed out to Georgetown to test again the second-hand road bike that I tested on Sunday night. On Wednesday I went to Cyclepath and talked to Christie about the used bike and also tried two new ones. They felt good but I was really unsure about spending the kind of money required for new. After half an hour of riding a hilly road in Georgetown this morning I decided that the used one would be a reasonably good fit once I change the stem and have it fitted. I will also buy the clip in pedals and shoes.

Here I am with the new bike. I always wondered how people held their bikes above their heads like that. Now I know. The bikes in those pictures only weigh about 20 pounds.

On the way back from Georgetown I met Gail for lunch at Kelsey’s. I had the Asian Grilled Steak Salad. It was delicious.

This afternoon Trystan’s friend Edmund came over and we played Rumoli. Edmund and I both had to borrow from the bank to keep playing against Trystan until I had a run of good hands and paid back the bank and had enough left over to keep playing.

For dinner we went out to Five Guys. We went once before over a year ago and the kids have been asking to go back ever since. We ordered three large fries between the six of us and it was way too much. I had the vegetable sandwich which was quite good and not nearly as filling as the burgers.

Typical teens.

A Day out at the AGO

Today Trystan, Owen and I decided to use one of the coupons in the 2014 Fun Pass that the Ontario government provides to schoolchildren in their report cards each year. I don’t think we have ever used one of the coupons before.

We drove to Kipling subway station where the north lot was already full. It took a while to find the south lot (I’ve never parked there before) and it had a Lot Full sign up but there was an attendant allowing a few cars in and directing them to empty spots. The TTC is a better deal than Brampton Transit for occasional users and children. Cash fares were $3 for adults, $2 for teens and $0.75 for children. In Brampton cash fare is $3.75 regardless of age. If one uses Presto the student fare is $2.50 and the adult fare is $2.80.

It has been a while since Owen has been on the subway. He didn’t really remember the last time. We sat right at the front so we could see where we were going.

As we emerged from the subway at Dundas and University both boys were struck by how noisy it is downtown compared to places we generally frequent. After a quick stop at Tim’s we arrived at the Art Gallery. Entry was $30 for the three of us with one child free.

One of the themes on display throughout the gallery was Art as Therapy (#artastherapy).

After visiting the restrooms in the basement we climbed Frank Ghery’s 2008 staircase addition to the fifth floor tower where the Contemporary Art exhibit was housed. The first exhibit we saw was entitled Gustav’s Wing by Dahn Vo which consisted six bronze fragments cast from the artist’s nephew scattered about a large room. Owen found it rather creepy.

Here is Owen admiring a large work of art sitting in front of multi storey windows covered in giant wooden louvers.

One of the stranger exhibits was The Index by David Altmejd.

When we bought our tickets we were provided with five trading cards describing pieces of art which we were to try to find during our visit.

We found three.

There was a great view of the Ontario College of Art and Design from the top of the south staircase.

We had a good lunch at The Village Idiot Pub across the street from the gallery. We sat inside but there were huge garage door-style windows which were open and made for a lovely atmosphere on a sunny summer day. Trystan had pizza, Owen a cheeseburger and I had a club wrap.

On the way back to the gallery after lunch we discover two huge Henry Moore sculptures which have been climbed on for years smoothing and shining the bronze.

I love the rooms with paintings framed and hung floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

After visiting a few more galleries we had coffee and gelato at the Espresso Bar in the Frank Ghery galleria on the second floor extending the length of the building along Dundas Street. It is an amazing space and caused Owen to comment, “The building is a work of art”.

We had a terrific day and agreed that we must return on another day to see the galleries we missed. The subway was very crowded on the way home. I stood all the way back to Kipling.

We arrived back at Kipling to a cool van thanks to parking under the Kipling Avenue bridge.

Traffic on the 427 was terrible and we arrived home too late to drive Megan to work at Rogers for 6 causing her to have to use Brampton Transit to get to work. It took almost two hours to get home. I can’t imagine doing that commute every day, but it was a fun adventure for the three of us today.

Running Around

Today was a day of running around not accomplishing much.

I began by driving Megan to Mississauga Secondary School. She was told to be there from 8:30 to 10:30. It was her final day of her summer 2 credit co-op program. It is a 25 minute drive at that time of day. When we arrived there were lots of parents sitting in cars so I asked Megan to speak to the teacher to determine how long she would need to stay. Turns out it was only a few minutes to pick up her portfolio and certificate of completion.

So we arrived back home much earlier than expected to find Trystan and Owen in their usual place in front of the TV shooting people. I insisted they breakfast and dress for a ride to their cousins. My nephews weren’t thrilled to be invited outside from their screens however they agreed to 20 minutes of exercise in exchange for some screen time with the cousins afterwards.

Here we are on our way to Professors Lake.

My boys are on the left, my nephews on the right. The two cousins on the outside are ten years old and four days apart in age. The two on the inside are thirteen years old and twelve days apart in age.

Here they are waiting to cross the road on the way back.

Next we returned home so I could take Alun to the doctor. Ever have one of those middle aged moments where you get something wrong for no apparent reason? I made the appointment yesterday. I wrote the time on the calendar: 11:40.

Last night I wrote out the day’s schedule on a white board easel which we use to try to keep track of when and where the six of us need to be for the day. On the board I wrote the appointment time as 11:40.

Somehow, as I rode to the cousins’ house, I managed to mis-remember the appointment time as 11:50. I worked back from there how long the cousins could play, when we needed to ride home and when Alun and I needed to leave to drive to the doctors.

When we checked in we were told we were down as “no show”. I said, “Your clock must be fast”. It wasn’t. The receptionist showed me her cell phone. Then it came back to me that the appointment time was 11:40. Duh. Fortunately, we were called in just as we sat down.

The doctor could see nothing wrong with Alun’s eye, which has been weeping for months despite prescribed eye drops which initially improved the situation, but recently it has worsened again. So we are off to the ophthalmologist next week.

In the afternoon I went to Cyclepath to try out a couple of bikes. I want to get a road bike as my hybrid is just too hard to ride for the longer distances I want to do. I tried the $1900 carbon frame Giant Defy Composite 2.

I also tried the $1200 aluminum frame Giant Defy 2.

They were both very nice bikes. I think the carbon had a nicer ride, but am not certain that I could tell if I didn’t know.

On top of the bike I would have to buy pedals, shoes, a more comfortable seat, a carrier and lock. I just don’t know if I can justify that kind of money on a bike.

I tried a second hand one on Sunday night. I am going to go try it again on Friday not that I have tried a couple new ones.

Seven Repairs in Five Years

My day started with the seventh dishwasher repair in five years on my seven year old dishwasher. I think I have now spent more repairing it than I paid for it in the first place.

I have used the same repairman for over a decade. He has repaired my current dishwasher and the one it replaced, my dryer (twice) and my fridge (twice). He has probably been to my house at least 15 times. Every time I call and every time I answer the door when he arrives, it is like he is encountering me for the first time. Why do I use him? Well, he always comes within a couple of hours after I call. His rates are reasonable. He doesn’t charge extra to come on weekends or holidays. Today, for the first time in over ten years, he acknowledged that he knew who I was. When I called and told him the address he replied, “You, again?!”.

To provide Trystan and Owen with something to do on a rainy day other than the one thing they want to do (play video games), we baked some cookies from the Mrs. Fields cookie book. I hate that recipe book. Everything looks so good, but so many of the recipes have too many steps (mix, wrap, refrigerate,roll, cut, bake, ice), too little flour (so end up a sticky mess) and overly optimistic yields. Today’s recipe was par for the course. The elapsed time was hours. It stuck to everything when we rolled it out. We ended up with 13 cookies compared to a predicted yield of 36. They did taste good though and it kept the boys away from the TV for a while.

Waiting for the cookies.

Eating the cookies.

Today was Michael’s father’s last day with us so we took some pictures of him with his grandkids.

Finally, here is a great picture I took of Owen just to test my camera settings while waiting for the other kids to arrive.

Day Out at Canada’s Wondeland

Alun has a season pass to Canada’s Wonderland. This is the third year he has had one. Usually, he goes with three school friends, however this year he hasn’t planned anything with his friends so far.

This year season pass holders can purchase up to four “Bring a friend Mondays” passes for $20 and up to four “Bring a friend any day” passes for $27. Two weeks ago I dropped off Trystan and Alun for the day for some brotherly fun. Today I went, for the first time since about 1990, along with Alun, Trystan, Owen and Michael’s father, Donald.

We arrived at 10am and while the lineups to get in appeared long they moved fairly quickly. Our first ride of the day was the Spinerator.

It was fun and not too scary a ride to get started with. Owen had never been on larger rides than they have at Fantasy Fair in Woodbine Mall.

After that we decided to split up for an hour so Donald, Trystan and Owen could continue on some of the less extreme rides, while Alun and I headed for The Leviathan.

The lineup wasn’t too long and after a ride which I found mildly uncomfortable but not particularly scary we alighted to find that the lineup had more than doubled since we joined it. I had heard that it was best to do the popular rides early and our experience seemed to support that. From the time we joined the line until we finished the ride was about 25 minutes. At the bottom of the first major decent the car enters a tunnel and it was hard to believe we wouldn’t be decapitated, but we lived to tell the tale.

Next we moved on to The Drop Zone which was over quickly but gave a fun floating feeling as we fell.

Here I am lining up for our next ride Nightmares.

This was my favourite ride of the day. Alun challenged me not to hold on and to stand straight up.

An hour had passed and we met up with Donald, Trystan and Owen. We decided to continue in the same groups and agreed to meet after another hour for lunch at the Marketplace International Buffet. They concurred that Nightmares was their favourite ride as well. They had been on it twice as well as once on Shockwave.

Alun and I went to Shockwave next where it took us 45 minutes to line up and have a ride. We didn’t get to go side by side here as we were the last two allowed on. At each ride there would be boxes to put belongings in or they would be left around the edges. As we waited at Shockwave a group of people walked straight to the front of the line. Apparently, they had bought “Fast Lane”, which for $55 or $65 on top of your daily admission allows you to bypass the lines. Too rich for me!

Lunch cost almost $100 after a 15% discount for season pass holders. The food was dismal. We should have had Subway. The boys enjoyed it, but agreed that Subway would have been better.

After lunch Owen joined Alun and me as Donald and Trystan wanted to go on Wild Beast and Owen, after riding The Fly before lunch, decided he was done with roller coasters for the day.

We started with The Rage, a swinging ship, which was fun and relaxing. I could have had a post-prandial nap on this ride had it lasted longer.

I actually left my cameras at home so had to talk Alun into taking this picture of Owen and me while we waited to board The Rage. He refused to be in the picture.

Next, we settled on Orbiter, which looked fun and had a short line. It was fun so we went again.

After that, we lined up for Swing of the Century, but there was a flash of lightening before we got on and all of the rides shut down until the storm passed. We met up with Donald and Trystan, who had watched the diving show and then gone on Wild Beast. Alun and I had planned to go on Windseeker next, but we all agreed we had had enough and didn’t want to wait an undetermined amount of time for the rides to begin again so we headed home.

While the rides were fun, I am not a fan of hot, crowded places or lineups so I don’t think I’ll be heading back to Wonderland too soon.