Meet the newest members of our little family.

The yellow chicks are a breed called Delawares, and the patterned ones are Ameraucanas. Delawares are on the American Livestock Breed Conservancy’s critical list. They are supposed to be very good winter layers. Ameraucanas are also referred to as “Easter Eggers;” the eggs they lay have shells that are tinted blue or green.

I ordered these chicks from Meyer Hatchery in Ohio, which is one of the few hatcheries that has a small order program. Most hatcheries require a minimum order of about 25 chicks. That’s waaayyy too many for my little urban hennery, so I’m very glad that Meyer has this option available.

It is possible to order small numbers of pullets (”teenaged hens”) from most hatcheries, however the selection of breeds is you can get as pullets is very limited. My current 3 hens came to me as pullets, and while they are fine ladies, I wanted to try some different breeds this time. Hence my search for a hatchery that would allow me to order a small number of chicks.

The chicks are growing really fast. Every day they look a little bit larger and a little bit more feathered out. And they are starting to show their personalities, too. One of them required a bit more of my time because she started “pasting up.” This is something that can happen to young chicks and needs to be taken care of right away. Pasting up is basically a euphemism for “getting plugged up with poo.” The way to fix this is to carefully clear away the dried droppings from the vent area, and monitor them to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I never would have imagined that I would be wiping chicken butts at some point in my life.

Anyway, I’ve taken to calling the gal that needed this special attention “Miss Poopy-Butt.” I think I may shorten that to Miss PB, or just plain ‘ol Missy when she gets bigger.

Between these little gals, the garden, work, and general life stuff, I’ve been pretty busy lately. Good thing I’m starting to get some of my energy back!

It’s the end of a wonderful long holiday weekend. I loved having this four day weekend (my employer gave us Thursday off, too!). I got to enjoy some more of my yummy garden produce…

And I got lots of rest. On Independence Day, Laura, Matt (her boyfriend) and I grabbed some buckets and headed next door to my neighbor’s sour cherry tree. The result of an afternoon of picking was astounding.

And this is not even *all* of the cherries on this one tree. There were several branches that were just too high for us, and also many cherries that were not yet ripe. Laura took some home right away to bake with and the rest are now sitting in my basement refrigerator (otherwise known as “the kegerator” and typically filled with yarn…which had to be temporarily moved) until we process them tomorrow. Some will be frozen and some will be canned.

I also went to see the doctor again on Thursday. I brought with me about 20 days of documentation of my basal body temperature (averaging 97 degrees) and lots of questions and comments. I have to say, I sort of melted down, too. I have had it with being tired, achy, and foggy-brained and sat there crying quite a bit. Most of my labs came back “normal” (whatever that means), although I am too low in vitamin D this time and need to take uber supplements for several months. The vitamin B-12 is elevated, although a level of 736 seems paltry considering that I was getting 1000 mcg injections twice a week for 5 weeks. Nonetheless, that level is in the OK range and will do for now.

Since my body temps are low and my clinical presentation is consistent with hypothyroidism, I’ve started on a low dose of Armour Thyroid. And I’ve had some blood drawn to test for food sensitivities, too. Since I seem to be having issues effectively processing all the vitamins out of foods, it may be that I’m sensitive to something and need to change what I eat. (The antibodies that could effect my processing of B-12 came back normal, too, so no pernicious anemia it seems.)

Between the visit with the doctor and the long holiday rest I’m feeling better already. Having an action plan makes such a difference to me, and the nights of 9 and 10 hours of sleep have been lovely.

Tomorrow I start back to work and back to working out. I don’t expect much out of myself yet, but I am hoping that I’ll get through the day OK and feel like I’m back on the path of what is normal for me. I’d love to be able to resume my busy lifestyle again and stop being such a bummer to be around. That’s my idea of independence right now.

Summer goes by at warp speed here in Chicago. Once the weather starts to warm a bit, the pace of outdoor social activities and events works up to a frenzied pace pretty quickly. Here it is the end of June already and we are in the thick of it.

Yesterday I had my pick of all sorts of things to do: Taste of Chicago, the White Sox/Cubs game, Taste of Randolph Street [why there are so many "taste" things in Chicago is beyond me], Fountain Square Festival in Evanston, and many, many more events that just didn’t register in my full conciousness. And then there was my summer party.

Several weeks ago I realized I haven’t thrown a party at my house in a couple years and decided one was well overdue. Last night was the big night and I was quite pleased with how it all turned out. As hard as I try to be well prepared, there always seems to be a tense hour where I’m scrambling around trying to pull out platters, prep food, put out snacks, etc. Luckily that passed by without me becoming too cranky with all the helpful friends who gladly pitched in and endured my anxieties. Put a little food in me, and I generally get better when I’m like that, and last night was no exception.

Surprisingly, the big attraction of the evening was the garden. Last Sunday, I was finally able to muster enough energy to spend the day dead-heading, weeding, and generally tidying up. I lucked out with the landscapers, too, and was able to get a fresh application of mulch just a few days ago. The weather has continued to be just wet enough that the garden becomes more full and lush every day. Similar to the summer festivals here in Chicago, we have entered peak season in my garden and it shows.

So, last night we all enjoyed an evening of incredible bounty: good food fresh from the garden, juicy and engaging conversations, and the lovely congeniality that comes when you find the friends from all the corners of your life really do get along and enjoy each other as much as you enjoy each of them.

I feel like I’m in limbo, and it’s really weighing on me. Fair warning: I try not to bitch and moan too much here, ’cause we all hear plenty of that elsewhere. I’m making an exception today since I’m so miserable.

Last week, I saw a new internist. The appointment went well, and I left feeling very positive about working with this doctor as a partner. I had prepped for this appointment by spending some time writing down major milestones in my medical history, like surgeries, onset of any sort of physical symptoms, etc. We used this during our conversation and it ended up being very helpful as we looked for patterns and put together a game plan for how to get me feeling better. However, I still had to get some blood tests, and this is why I am in a state of suspended animation now; until we get the labs and diagnostic tests over with, we’re sort of not sure what to be doing right now.

The B-12 situation is one thing that needs to be followed. I had lab orders from the allergist to get those tests run about 5 days after my last B-12 injection. So, I had that blood draw done last Friday. And I’m still waiting for the results.

The internist wants to dig a little deeper around the B-12 situation. She wrote orders for antibody tests for intrinsic factor (yep, that’s what it’s really called) and antiparietal cell antibodies. If I have either of these antibodies present, I have pernicious anemia and will have to take sublingual or injection B-12 regularly.

The other course of action we are taking is testing for thyroid antibodies, to see if my body is trying to destroy my own thyroid: in other words, if I have an autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto’s disease). I have many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism — unexplained weight gain, joint pain and stiffness, fatigue, moodiness, trouble concentrating — and the previous thyroid function tests were either borderline hypothyroid, or on the low end of functioning. With the exception of the weight gain and join pain, the symptoms above could also be due to the B-12 deficiency, however there’s no reason why I can’t have both going on at the same time.

I’m also recording my early morning body temp. First thing in the morning, before I even really rouse or get up, I stick the electronic thermometer in my mouth to take my temp. The internist wants me to do this for an entire month to see if my my body temp averages below 98 degrees. I told her that would be no problem, as even when I am up and about and active my body temp is never as high as 98. So far, the highest my morning temp has been is 97.7. Today it was 97.0 and a couple days ago it was 96.4.

So, all of this busy work to find out exactly what is wrong is good. But I’m still miserable. The past week has been a bad one. I ache a lot. I am tired, tired, tired; I have barely enough energy to get through the day and my home time is spent mainly laying down with a book (’cause that’s all I have the energy for) or sleeping.

I did go to the gym twice this week to work out with the trainer, and have been wiped out in the process. Yesterday I barely made it through the workout; I was getting dizzy and light-headed just doing squats with no weights. Afterward, I spent most of the day in a fog and went to bed at 8:30 (and this was after having taken a nap from 5:30 to 7 PM).

I just want to cry half the time because I am so frustrated and miserable. I end up spending most of my precious energy on work (and not even work that I feel is done well), leaving me with none for my personal life. The weather this week has been perfect for outdoor activities (low humidity, pleasant temps), but I barely get to enjoy it. I struggled this morning just to get up and water the veggie garden, which desperately needed it. I want to be out in the yard every day after work tending to my garden: weeding, pruning, dead-heading, etc. I love doing this stuff. But I just don’t have the energy right now. Nor do I even have the energy to sit up and knit in the evenings.

I’m going to get through this and find a way to make it better. I know I will. In the meantime, though…well, it’s rough…that’s all I can say.

I’ve had a difficult week with pressing deadlines at work and really low energy. But, I found time to get outside into the yard last night and tonight.

Last night was all about weeding. The plentiful rain has helped many weed seeds germinate fairly quickly. I focused on the veggie beds last night for only about an hour, which was all the time I could muster up energy for. Tonight, I just cut some lettuce for tomorrow’s lunch, and took in the spectacle.

The first photo is of my “wall o’ roses” in it’s full glory: all three varieties are displayed. (Forgive the weeds; I haven’t gotten to that part of the yard yet.) But this last photo with the pink roses is of my new love: Zephirine Drouhin.

I picked this rose variety up at the Chicago Botanic Garden sale about 3 years ago. It sounded wonderful: a climber with no thorns that provided scented blooms even in part shade. For the past two seasons it has been a vigorous grower, but the blooms have been few and far between. Last year, I recall getting 2 measly blooms on the entire, humongous plant.

But this year…ah…this year she has finally found her stride.

This wall of my garage is very visible to my neighbors. They have commented to me how incredibly beautiful the roses are this year. My neighbors directly next door are an elderly couple, and the husband is very ill. He doesn’t even make it outside anymore, but his wife said he was sitting on their three-season porch in the back, looking out the window and commented how beautiful the roses were this year. I’m glad they brought him pleasure, too.

Well, this past week was great if you’re a plant. We’ve had rain and high humidity nearly every day for the past week. While there’s been no need to water the garden, it has been difficult to do general maintenance chores like weeding when it’s this wet and generally icky outside.

My garden is filling out very well now, but the weeds are sprouting up all over, too, and need to be managed before they get out of hand. Just a couple weeks ago the maple tree in the backyard dropped all of its samaras [Isn't that a great word? That's what all those little whirligig/helicopter seed pods are called: samaras.] so we have many exuberant little maple trees sprouting up in the oddest places.

At least the roses are really popping right now. I’m quite happy that the Zephirine Drouhin has finally settled in enough after 3 years to toss off multiple scented, pink blossoms; in past years, I’ve only gotten one bloom each year from this climber. The wall o’roses along the garage is definitely looking mighty fine, and if I can actually get out there with a camera and not get drowned in precip or my own juices in the process I’ll take a few photos.

Last Sunday I finished planting all of my pots, and with the blessings of rain we’ve received this week every one of them is growing/sprouting very well. I’ve decided to use pots not just for ornamentals this year. I nestled some big pots (a few “recycled” from shrubs and things I’ve planted in the past few years) down into the mulch to help retain water, and planted them with herbs (parsley, basil, epazote, and rosemary) and a few veggies. I have two pots of slicer cucumbers, two pots of zucchini, and 2 pots of icebox watermelons. Yep, I’m growing watermelons this year! This is my grand experiment plant and it will be quite exciting if it turns out well.

Yesterday I found time for some outdoor fun in the early morning before the weather turned unbearably humid and rainy. Betsy and I went out to the Morton Arboretum for a little tour and then brunch at Dali’s Cafe in Downers Grove. I had never been to the Morton Arboretum before (shocking, I know!), so during this visit I was just barely able to get an idea of the grand size of the place. Everything was so green and lush; it would have been great to spend more time, but I knew I needed to get back into the city during the early afternoon so we had to leave after a couple hours.

As an added bonus, I got to visit Knitche very quickly, too, since the car was parked right in front. I showed great restraint and didn’t buy anything, but Betsy seemed very tempted to start knitting again…hmmm….This is definitely a wonderful shop to visit and conveniently just a couple blocks from a Metra station, so it’s possible to visit without a car. Not only did they have a great selection of yarns, but they have Intelligentsia coffee and teas, as well as baked goods. (I really, really long for a knit cafe within Chicago, why can’t someone open one up???!!!)

We’re still living without a TV and coping quite well. I think I miss viewing the local news the most. We had an exciting Saturday afternoon/evening here in Chicagoland with some strong storms moving through. I was listening to the radio and as soon as I heard them say that a tornado was spotted moving through the south suburbs, I immediately thought about Adrienne and had to check in on her. She was already in the basement, eagerly waiting for the all-clear. (If she had thought to bring some knitting down with her to keep her company, maybe she wouldn’t have been so cranky about having to spend an hour in the basement!) Here we just had lots and lots of wind and heavy rain.

The TV should be fixed at the end of this week, so we will once again be able to rent DVDs and spend endless hours watching mindless entertainment. In the meantime, I’m continuing to plug away at listening to my huge backlog of podcasts and enjoying this simpler pace. Maybe we’ll continue to spend some days completely TV-less….nah, with the election season heating up this fall, I’m certain Mark will be glued to CNN and MSNBC in every waking moment.

There’s this chocolate factory just west of the Loop (business district) in Chicago. Every once in a while — if the wind is just right and they’re working on a fresh batch — the aroma of chocolate envelops you as you walk across the river from the commuter train station. I think it smells like baking brownies and it is a delicious way to start your day.

When I bike into work, I ride right by the chocolate factory and always get to catch that heavenly smell. Just a few minutes away on my bike route is the bread factory which smells equally delicious. Bread and chocolate in the morning…sounds like a great combination to me.   

The chocolate factory is on the west side of the river, and for some reason the smell doesn’t seem to make it across the water. Maybe it’s all those tall office buildings in the way. Whatever it is, by the time you get across the river, the smell is gone and you’re back to the usual urban sensory data: cars, buses, and all of their attendant sounds and odors.

I often enjoy my short walk across the river and wish I had a camera handy. The sights are usually quite pleasing: commuter boats (yes, during the warmer months here you can complete your commute via boat to the east side of the Loop instead of walking it), ducks, sculling crews, barges (reminding us that the river really is still used for commerce and not just pleasure), and patterns in the current. I guess since I usually can’t juggle a camera, a loaded backpack, and a cup of coffee, these sights, sounds and smells will remain my private pleasure. But you can imagine you’re here, walking next to me, enjoying them, too.

It’s been quite a week for us!

The extra long holiday weekend allowed us to keep up with the usual chores and fit in some extra fun. So, we took a road trip out to visit with Andrew and Misty of Geek.Farm.Life podcast fame. We went out for an enormous brunch, made cream, butter, and bread (well, I watched as these things were done expertly by Andrew), fed animals, and just generally hung out. The last time we were there was in deep winter and the change in season made quite a difference in our visit. We were able to walk around the farm a bit and admire their huge garden. I really enjoy visiting with them and wish we lived a bit closer.

Mark brought along his new recorder so we used it to make their weekly podcast. (You can hear it in action here, and remember you don’t need an iPod to listen to a podcast.) He also brought his video camera and shot a few interesting clips for his growing collection of random movie-making shots. One of these days, he’ll have enough for an epic pic, I guess.

Speaking of gardens, ours is coming along nicely now.

Note the second bed from the front. Before I went away to Toronto for a weekend of fun, that bed contained vigorous pea vines and many, many chard and beet seedlings. All was “securely” covered with bird netting to keep the hungry hens at bay. The “Houdini chickens” found a way in while I was gone, though, and they destroyed the bed. Since this is the third garden bed they’ve somehow messed up (how do they get around the bird netting???), we had to find some way to address the situation, or I would never get to eat a homegrown veggie again. The solution:

Now the hens have plenty of room to roam, and they are confined away from the growing garden. This run is only temporary. It wouldn’t stand up to a determined predator, so I do still lock the hens inside the Eglu run at night. Note that I mentioned the run only; now that they are inside so many fences (3 to be exact) and the weather is warmer, I don’t feel so compelled to lock up the coop door itself at night. So, no more arising bleary-eyed at dawn, either! I leave the food inside the run, too, so they get get up when they want to in the early morning, nosh away, and I refill food and water at my leisure when I get up. I still have grand plans to build a more permanent run and coop before winter.

On Memorial Day itself, I decided I deserved to take it easy. So, I sat on the porch and knitted for a while, then moved inside to take a nap on the couch while watching some TV. And so, it was while I was dozing and watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus on BBC America that the TV decided to quit working. I really didn’t notice as I was only half-way awake at the time. It was only later when Mark wanted to show me his latest and greatest mini-film (clips of me at the Chicago GreenFestival interspersed with clips of the dairy goats on Andrew and Misty’s farm…hey, what is that supposed to mean???) that we discovered the TV was truly dead.

We bought this TV in September 2007. It’s a blend of old and new technology, with a built in HD tuner (so we can use the roof antenna when we want to) and a flat-screen, slimline picture tube. We decided to go with a picture tube rather than an LCD because it was “proven technology,” time-tested and dependable, supposedly. Then, a little over a year later it dies. It’s going to cost us about $300 to fix it, which is hard for me to swallow considering how much we paid for the damn thing a year-and-a-half ago.

We’ve been sans TV this entire week, and will have to continue this way until next Thursday when the repairman comes back with the part. I guess if there’s something we really want to watch, we can use our ‘puters for that. I’m actually kind of enjoying spending my evenings just catching up on podcasts, though. And since it’s already summer hiatus time, it’s not like I’m missing key episodes of my favorite shows (30 Rock rocks!).

I guess I’m learning that as much as we live in a high tech “always on” world, it’s still possible to dial back and survive without. Which is a valuable lesson, right?

I checked my Google Reader over the weekend only to find that Adrienne of Knit and Run had tagged me with a meme. I’ve actually never done one of these before (although I totally loved the book in which I first encountered this term several years ago: Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash…but then again I am an anthropology/archeaology geek and also love inferences to ancient goddess-worshipping cultures…and Inanna is my main lady, so to speak), but I’m going to give it a try. As memes go, this one seems pretty low impact: not a lot of time or explanations involved. So, let’s go!

The rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

The requisite to tag 6 other people is kind of hard for me. I sort of feel guilty tagging people; it seems like so much pressure! So, I’m going to sort of cop out and say: if you’re reading this and haven’t done it already, consider yourself tagged! 

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Let’s see…I had been married not quite a year, had just completed a great honeymoon in Costa Rica, was finishing up my year of service in Americorps/Vista and starting to look for a new job, and was prepping to start graduate school. Looking back: wow, that was quite a bit to take on in one year!
2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today, not in any particular order?  Well, the day is nearly over and here’s what I can confirm happened: worked out with the trainer at the gym; telecommuted to put in a full day’s work; went to the allergist for the final round of allergy tests and another (number 5 of 10…halfway there!) B-12 shot; prepped and cooked a roast for dinner (roasted rabbit, yum!); cleaned up most of the dinner dishes. Geez, quite an exciting day, eh?
3. Snacks I enjoy. Nuts, dried fruit, cheese, and plain, air-popped popcorn.
4. Places I’ve lived. Whoa, this could be long list if I noted every housing option and location! Let’s see: various south suburbs of Chicago; Toronto, Canada; and Chicago. I’ve lived in apartments, condos, and houses.
5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire. Travel the world. Develop my writing skills. Learn more self-sufficiency skills (like cheese-making, food preservation, basic carpentry, etc). Give away lots of money to charitable causes and teach others what I’ve learned. Live life on my timetable and conditions, as much as possible (barring natural disasters).

Well, let’s see where this goes, eh?

We weren’t up early on Saturday morning. No, all that beer made us a bit…sluggish…the next morning. So, we got a late start on our trek to the eastern parts of Toronto.

We took the Queen streetcar and got off in Leslieville for brunch and the continuation of our yarn crawl.

I don’t recall this as a neighborhood when I lived here *cough* 20 *cough* years ago. [Damn, it's hard to admit I was older than a wee child that many years ago!] It seems to be coming along, though, as there were several newish looking shops there.

After breakfast, we wandered along Queen Street East until we got to The Purple Purl. And here we paused for quite a while.

When we walked in, we were happy to see a good-sized seating area with cushy chairs, a case full of goodies (including truffles and pastries), and an espresso machine. But before we gave in to the urge to lounge, we walked around and fondled the yarn.

The Purl has a great selection of “Canadian content,” as they say. There were yarns such as Indigo Moon and other special items such as hand-carved buttons. I fell hard for the buttons (tagua nut, antler, and maple) and a single skein of Canadian Quiviut. Then we settled in for a nice cup of tea and a chat with some friendly knitters and one of the shop owners, Jennifer. We could have stayed far into the afternoon, but realized that we were sitting inside on an incredibly lovely day. So, we managed to lever ourselves out of there and hop back on the Queen streetcar.

We exited at Kew Gardens Park and continued down Queen on foot in search of healthy carry out for lunch. We also made one more stop at The Naked Sheep to complete our yarn crawl. A sweet shop with a good selection of basics and luxury yarns, we nonetheless didn’t linger too long as we were itching to hit the boardwalk along The Beaches.

With some Thai carry out in hand, we parked ourselves on a comfy bench where we ate, knit, and watched all the people and dogs walking by.

The sun was out most of the time, but we did feel a bit chilly when it was briefly covered by a cloud. However, it was a fabulous, relaxing way to spend an hour. There were cormorants fishing in Lake Ontario, kite-fliers, swimmers (!!), and many happy people enjoying the weather on their bikes, rollerblades, and their own two feet.

Eventually, we had to head back to the room and plan out what to do for dinner. After two nights of less than stellar food (no complaints, but pub food and airport food aren’t exactly memorable in a really good way) we wanted to splurge. After a little bit of web browsing, we found a great place: Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar.

The “foodies” on Chowhound may have some issues with Jamie Kennedy’s menus, but Rachael and I had a fabulous dinner. The menu is tapas-style, which allowed us to try several different different dishes of fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. I enjoyed all my selections immensely: celery root soup; smoked pickerel with fennel salad; and duck confit with soft polenta and dried fruit compote.

With each plate, I enjoyed a different wine pairing of just 3 oz each, so I didn’t repeat my over-indulgence of the night before. Although, when we ended our meal by splitting the plate of artisanal cheeses, I went for the larger pour of port. We stopped for some gelato as we walked back to our hotel and then turned in for a decent night’s sleep.

The next morning was our last, and we were desperate to enjoy a decent breakfast. The previous two mornings we had eaten mediocre breakfasts, where the only thing that really stood out was the peameal bacon. The night before, we had found out about Jamie Kennedy’s newest venture, Gilead Cafe, and since we had such a fine dinner the night before we decided to try it. Since we had to check out at noon, we got up for an early start to Corktown (another newish neighborhood). We didn’t realize the subways didn’t open until 9 AM on Sundays, so we ended up taking a cab instead.

When the cab dropped us off on King at Gilead Court, we were a bit perplexed. It looked like an alley and we didn’t see any large signage from King Street. A few steps later, though, and we were reassured to see some folks inside setting up for the day.

This was a divine breakfast: fresh-baked croissant, fresh coffee, and a bowl of yogurt with granola and hazel nuts. The yogurt was the best I’ve *ever* had: handmade on the premises from whole, raw milk then blended with homemade blueberry jam. The texture was thick and creamy, and the taste was tangy and rich. The server said they “hang” the yogurt a bit to let more liquid drain off, resulting in a thicker yogurt. All I know is I’d eat this every day quite gladly!

We still wanted to do a bit of exploring before heading back to the hotel, so we walked the few blocks to the Distillery District to look around and take in the offerings. Here we had our second fabulous cup of coffee at Balzac’s Coffee Roastery.

This gem of a place served up outstanding coffee in a beautiful setting. Even the latte was beautiful.

We also stopped at a yummy bakery in the Distillery where I picked up a fresh scone, but I missed the name of the place because as I was paying for my scone, I got a call from United Airlines that my flight had been cancelled. Thus ended our time in the Distillery, as we caught another cab back to the hotel to plot out how I was going to get home and then check out.

The flight cancellation was actually not something I was too worried about. After all, I still had half the day left to get onto another flight and, if it was really necessary for me to stay an extra day, I had my laptop for work. So, I made the best of this bonus time.

Rachael had planned to take in a movie after I left at midday for the airport. She wanted to stick to her plan and I wanted to take in more of Toronto, so we parted ways and I was once again wandering on my own. I headed to Chinatown to take in the sites and enjoy the cheap lunch I had missed a couple days earlier.

I found that the barbeque pork over rice is still the best deal in Chinatown. When I lived here, we used to stop in Chinatown for this steal of a meal where we could both eat for a total of $5. The price has gone up, but not by much. I paid $3.25 for the bowl of rice and barbeque pork, which also included a hot pot of tea. I actually splurged a bit and ordered a plate of gai-lon (Chinese broccoli) for an extra $4 since this is one of my favorite veggies.

Wandering up Spadina towards College, I stopped at a Chinese bakery where I picked up a couple sweet red bean pastries for snacking on the way to the airport, and then caught the streetcar back to the hotel where I picked up my bag. Then it was off to the airport for a long wait to get on a short, but highly unpleasant flight home.

All in all, I had a great time and it felt good to get back to a town for which I have so many fond memories. I don’t know why, but the people in Toronto just seem so much more happy and secure and the vibe is reassuring. The transit was superb and the size of the city is very manageable compared to Chicago or New York. I started off my trip with a streak of nostalgia and ended up ready to return again and again. As long as it doesn’t involve flying United Airlines, that is.