Clawing toward finality

I called the shop this morning, and was told that my scooter is almost ready. Same for the paperwork.

Now I can hear your eyebrow arching in doubt as I write this, and after 448 days of "almost ready", I dig it. But the word is that they're going to the MTO to do the paperwork this week, and it should be ready either Friday or Saturday.

They're going to the MTO to do the paperwork? Lovely. That's providing service. That's good. I'm not going to look a gift permit in the mouth.

Caught Jon Stewart at Massey Hall last Friday with Christy. Just plain great. The guy had no opening act, no pretense, he just came out and laid down 90 minutes of funny. He started with politically based funny, and then moved on social commentary and religious analysis then on to more general stuff. His encore? Among other things, a 10 minute story about his dog's explosive diarrhea. Killed. Now I'm not one to relish a poop joke, but I laughed. Hard.
It was a great show, and just a refreshing demonstration of what standup has the potential to be.

Slap Happy finalized our paperwork last week, and joined Autoshare. We've had some trouble fitting all of us plus a musical director AND a keyboard into Kerry's car on several occasions, so this seemed like a good solution. Plus it gives the three of us without cars access to vehicles when we need them. I took a trial run this weekend and my sister and I took a car to "the good grocery store" (a Loblaws across town, somehow not as "good" as I remembered) to stock up on food. A delight.

We didn't bother with Thanksgiving this year. I guess our childhood in the States has hardwired us to not accept the Canadian version of the holiday. It always seems to come up too suddenly after Labour Day, and not quite close enough to Christmas to satisfy our desire to give thanks. Even after the family moved to Canada, we'd still celebrate on American holiday. It just feels right. Thanksgiving dinner, then start planning for Christmas. Boom-boom, done.

Still plugging away at planning our vacation to Disneyworld. I just bought the Unofficial Guide to Disneyworld, a daunting, gigantic tome of planning. There's even an associated website that generates customized touring plans based on your needs.

I know, it sounds ridiculously anal. We probably won't need it, because we're going at a supposedly "quiet" time of year, but it's fun to futz. As I was reading the guide, I had a flashback to our very first trip to The World as a family. My mom was determined to make good on her promise to take us to Disneyworld. Well, I was about 19 when we made it, but we had a great time. We rented a condo off property, and did all the parks. Mom had bought, I'm fairly certain, and earlier edition of this same guide. What I remember vividly about the tour is us stopping after an attraction, and mom pulling out the book, and all of us saying in unison, "The book says...". We teased her about following it to the letter, but in the end it saved us a bunch of time by avoiding lines. My independant stubborn youth railed against the book, but looking back, it was always right. Darn kids.
And so here I am, my mother's daughter: poring over the book, laying out a plan, making dining reservations, booking tours. Doing what I can to make our family time just that much more fun... Its our first time being together any time near Christmas in years, so this means a lot to me.

I'm such a nerd!