Conclusion: outside of the academic system for the first time in many moons, November is less stressful, though just as busy. October too, for that matter! And we can probably just set December aside for Christmas (four Christmases? five?).

Life is still good over here, and the days are full. I've been working a lot, sometimes late (the bane of flexible hours), but it's been pretty fun. My work at the Princess Margaret Hospital runs over a year contract, which means the halfway-point lands in January... along with a plenitude of associated deadlines. Thankfully, my project has already survived a couple of management changes and administrative obstacles, so we're pretty much out of the danger zone. As for the rest, the day-to-day craziness waxes and wanes, and though I'm pretty finished come Friday around 3pm, overall I feel on top of things and up to the challenge.

Outside of work, the evenings are ravenous! I did find a place to play badminton for a few months, and joined the choir at Knox Presbyterian Church (on Spadina), where Ali and I have been attending the last little while. The choir is about twenty-five voices strong, though of course I'm in a tenor section of three--oh, and the tenor lead sings full-time with the Canadian Opera Company. Thankfully, the rest of the choir can't keep up with him either, so I don't feel so bad--just delightfully in over my head. Other Toronto highlights include some off-the-beaten-trail theatre ("Baby with the Bathwater" and "Pounding Nails Into the Floor with my Forehead"), and several quality afternoons laughing/admiring/eye-rolling/wandering in and out of the many pint-sized galleries lining Queen St. and other, more hidden crannies. Strange city-people events aside ("Manhunt," aka "street tag," anyone? Darn that Thursday night choir practice!), I still run off into the forest now and again. Unfortunately, running away recently became more difficult, as in early December my time finally ran out and Ontario lunged at me with its "Non-Student-Loophole"-Ontario-Resident talons... the essence here being I had to re-register my 1984 Accord. A little bit of fix-it work and luck had things looking promising, but when the dust finally settled, I had to put "Gramps" to rest. So, instead of car keys, I'm rattling subway tokens, and in an oddly European "wait, this is North America?" moment, I took the train (admittedly, the GO) on this continent for the first time. The trip was so... linear :)

Thankfully, other trips are still bursting the seams! Most notably, Ali and I went to a certain "governated" state to visit these smiling people:

Our Californian Hosts

For those who don't recognize the above, suffice it to say that the goon on the left works at Google, which meant a fun tour of the campus (look! free food!) and other assorted shenanigans. Sadly, Ali didn't get to see her server farm, but we made it up to her with a game of pretend...

Pretending to be Pros

Followed by the real thing!

Catching the Big One

I think Rhoda took approximately three millions photos, but I put some highlights up over on Flickr. It was a fantastic way to celebrate that good old southern holiday known as American Thanksgiving: good times, good people.

And that's about three months right there. I did shave the beard in there somewhere, and found myself a quaint little used ipod nano (thanks Justin!); otherwise, I've just been enjoying the opportunity to catch up with people I know who've been hiding out in the GTA for the last couple years (the list is longer than I thought!). Of course, I'm taking off again on Friday for Manitoba (hitching a ride with Vaughn... wanna come? Room for one more!), so life isn't *all* Toronto, but hey, could be worse. And then it's head-down for a Rocky Balboa of a January (minus the sixty-year-old part, and a follow-up Rambo IV... you know, I'm just going to let that one go).

Sun, wind, waves