Thanks to the lovely cindergal for the beta.

( Beer Run )

I had a wonderful weekend at Wizard World here in Toronto. After Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell's panel, I heard my friend senexmacdonald say, "Well, that's one to cross off my bucket list." The guests were all lovely people - Sean Maher, Amy Acker, Paul Wesley (who kept gazing at his wife - aaaah), the Being Human NA guys, who I love so very, very much. I have a girl crush on Meaghan Rauth - she's so lovely and kind.

Lots o' fun.

My frustration at the moment comes from my Internet connection, intermittent as it is. It hates it when I load a photo (which is why I'm not sharing any from the con and cuts out suddenly. It's also especially crabby if I try to play youtube vids, and it's making it very difficult to research my latest Bollywood article. I keep getting, well, a few messages to get a new cable (though it works with my netbook, which has its own issues or I'd use it instead) and 'reset Local Area Connection Adaptor and Local Area Connection doesn't have a valid IP configuration. My son says it may be the network card but I hate to pull the computer apart if that's not the case. Any ideas?

Need a beta for a Buffy story asap. Do I have a taker?

BTW, met Scott Bakula this weekend. Almost (literally) ran into him more than once. :)

My job is flexible, so I'm actually taking more days off later this week than the weekend was, but technically it was a holiday.

Friday the family got together at Eastside Mario's for lunch. The grandkids are awesome, and both seemed to enjoy their pasta, though she ended up wearing the sauce. He just wore the spaghetti, one strand on his head, like a hairband. Some sort of Pastafarian ritual, I assumed. I'd share a photo but my internet connection is wonky. My son says I most likely need a new network card.

Saturday my husband and I walked the Beltline trail. It's a lovely walking path through the city on an old railroad line where the tracks have been removed. It ends at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, a beautiful and historic place of rest with amazing monuments. Through the day I found four geocaches - well, technically my husband found one of them. :)

Sunday I went back out walking (by myself this time) and found four more caches, and while doing so walked by the Humber Cinema. It was shut shortly after I saw The Nude Bomb (the Get Smart movie) there - I wonder if there's a connection. It's recently been restored and reopened and the Hunger Games was starting in ten minutes - so I watched it in an old-style auditorium with a handful of young teen girls. No, it's not the book, but I quite liked it.

Yesterday I was working up in the north end of the city (the end of the subway line north) and found two more caches on my lunch hour. That's ten since the weekend started. I'm rather pleased with myself. There's a few I didn't find on the Beltline, so I'm planning on going back soon. Next week I'm working near the afore mentioned cemetery, so I'm going to get more info and go back for the puzzle cache I missed on Saturday.

Good times.

I had decided to go to Montreal with my friends for the comic con there in September and now I've decided to go to Chicago Comic Con too. Happily, they're having a special James Marsters 50th birthday party, and I snagged Platinum tickets (which were much less than his platinum anythings used to be). I have a ton of friends going and I'm pretty happy.

But Montreal was nagging at me, not only because of the cost (with Fan Expo in the middle) but because it's the last weekend of the Film Festival. This year's sister city is Mumbai and who knows which movies and actors will be here for it. So I emailed my friend and bailed on the road trip.

And that feels right.

Though this month's expenses include the party, Wizard World Toronto Con, my husband's birthday and Fan Expo tickets. Ouchie. ;)

I was geocaching in a cemetery yesterday (that has a Sherman Tank and an anti-aircraft gun it it - I must go back with a camera.) One family monument was very moving. It was a Russian family and the top name said he was a member of the army who rebelled against Stalin. In 1937 he committed suicide to protect his family from government retaliation. I can't even imagine... But he sounds like quite the man.

It's been a week and I'm still bummed out.

I was having lunch last Wednesday at work, when Cp24 ran a little news scrawl - that David Jones of the Monkees had died of a heart attack at 66.

My coworkers asked what was wrong, because my shocked gasp was quite loud.

People have said that they sympathize, because it's hard when a bit of your childhood dies, and that's true. But The Monkees are more than that to me. I was never much into music (although I have a large enough CD collection), but I have always loved The Monkees. They were my favourite group when I was ten, and they're my favourite group now.

I wanted to go see them when they played Toronto, but my mother said there was no one to take me and I was much too young to go on my own (which is probably why I encouraged my daughter to see every band she liked.) I did see them later, when they did the Pool It tour. By that time I did have some one to take me - my own Peter. I stood in the third row of bodies and screamed a lot. At one time, I was sure that Davy looked right at me.

I went to see them again at Ontario Place with my kids and my friend Peggy. I hope she's making Davy comfortable.

In the early nineties, I wore a DS9 uniform to the CityTV building to do a promo at Speaker's Corner for the Primedia convention. I wore a poncho over it, and I was roasting. There was a crowd of kids around the window where you could watch interviews, and one woman closer to my age. Yep, it was Davy Jones. I stared. Maybe I cried a little. The other woman and I waited around until he came out of the building. I was too shy to talk to him, didn't want to bother him, and did I mention I was sweating in a Star Trek costume? So I didn't follow her when she went to follow him to lunch. He was wearing a suede jacket with fringes and his hair was shoulder length.

That's the last time I saw him, though I did meet Micky at the Motor City Tardis con, and went to a charity concert he did in Toronto (he was fantastic.) My friend Cindy and I may go to Motor City this year to see Peter Tork.

I've decided to go to Wizard World Chicago this summer. I was delighted to find out that Davy was a guest.

Now it will be a sadder place.

It's appropriate that the show airs before Comic Book Men, ( because )

Can you tell I worked yesterday?

Thank you for the virtual cookie and dragon! :)

I'm going out geocaching with my husband this afternoon, and spending much of tomorrow tidying up because my daughter's coming over for a bit next weekend - and I've got work in between.

Tomorrow night is my last writing class. There is a level two, but I've decided not to take it, at least at this point. Very glad I took the course.

And that's all for now. My very exciting life. :)

There have been a few big things happen to family members of mine. The biggest one is for my Mom. As you may recall, she is blind and suffered a stroke, so it's been hard for her and hard for my brothers to look after her. She was accepted into a local nursing home on Friday and she's moving tomorrow. It's right around the corner from where they live, but they'll be selling the house soon anyway. It's transit accessible and even a tad closer for visting. It means both of my brothers will need to find places to live, though.

My son was out of work, but he found something last week that sounds quite interesting, and he'll be starting soon.

My niece was accepted into a high school's performing arts programme.

Nothing so earth changing for me, though I am taking a 'writing for comic books' course and there's a few weeks left. It's been very valuable, but I'm not planning to take the next level. Maybe later.

Anyone else reading the Buffy comics? I found the last issue thought-provoking, which I guess is the point.