Reverse psychology winter vacation

While many of my colleagues and friends prepare for their winter getaways to to Arizona, Mexico, Hawaii, Jamaica and others sunny destinations, I packed up my long-jons, my down jacket & toque.  Destination: Toronto.  I wanted to make a visit to Briana and Ted before I got banned from air travel and I figured a good dose of true Canadian winter would give me a greater appreciation of how truly un-wintery our west coast winters are.

Walking down a side street in a very quiet Toronto 

Well, I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to test my theory of winter vacation reverse psychology; I landed at Toronto Pearson airport just ahead of winter storm that was being touted as "the biggest storm to hit Toronto in 5 years!"  With all the media buzz over the storm, I was really hoping it might get named "snowmageddon" or "snowzilla" or some other name that I could get printed on a t-shirt, but all the clever meteorologists must've had the day off, and all we got was "severe winter storm."  Other than the obvious havoc it wreaked on transport (thank goodness I arrived when I did!)  storm didn't seem all that bad, so all the attention was probably a bit of snoverkill anyway.

Briana and Ted bought their house in Toronto last spring and moved in in September.  I saw it from the outside when we came out for their wedding, but now I got to visit and stay in the new place.  It's a cute duplex on a pretty and quiet tree-lined street not far from downtown Toronto.

Briana & Ted in front of their new house

We had a nice relaxed morning and waffle breakfast before heading out into the snow.   We walked to the University of Toronto to use the athletic centre.  My plan was to swim, but I was turned around at the pool deck as it was playing host to a swim competition.  As there was no pregnancy category, I didn't think I had the goods to compete!  So I joined Briana in the gym for a spin.

After our workout, we had lunch at a delicious vegetarian restaurant, Fresh.  From there we took the subway to the Eaton's Centre, where it would appear a large percentage of Torontonians go to spend a snow day.  I went to Indigo to get a book of baby names and I almost fell over when I saw the section on pregnancy & parenting!  Between the Internet and the hundreds of manuals that have been written on these two subjects, its a wonder pregnant women and future parents don't explode from overwhelming confusion!  Life must've been simpler when most pregnancy advice came from your doctor, your mom, your girlfriends & "What to Expect When You're Expecting."  Even naming baby seems daunting when you can't decide if you want a "cool name", a "rock 'n roll name", a "Canadian name" or a "Sci-Fi baby name."  This is serious business.

After a long day out, it was a treat to come home & kick up our feet with other two inhabitants of the house: Winnie & Keido.  Briana made a delicious Indian dinner & I went to bed early, dreaming of a baby named Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Winnie

Keido & Throckmorton