Canada is so great.

Canada is, like, secretly my spiritual home. Really. It's got all the stuff I like and less of the stuff I don't.

A few observations from my weekend: ( or, ten reasons why Canada rules. )

In entirely other news, the rollerskates Z and I ordered are scheduled to arrive today.
Our scooter mechanic, Percy, tore a ligament while attempting to rollerskate the other day, which is really unfortunate: he'll be laid up for two weeks. His girlfriend Holly is one of the roller derby girls. Tragicomically, this completes a circle of incompetence: she's a terrible scooterist and keeps having bizarre accidents. So she can't scoot and he can't skate: they're perfectly excluded from one another's hobbies.
But they are both great fun at parties, so I suppose they can meet in the middle.

rollerskates rollerskates rollerskates!!!

I never did go back and add a #10 to my list in the previous post, but that's only because I can't decide what should go in there.

At the Ex, we came in just in time for the finale of an act by a troupe called "The Flying Canucks", and I am not kidding. They, and I am also not kidding about this, were skiers and snowboarders who skied on an inflatable ramp onto a trampoline.
Seriously.

Flying Canucks.

We also saw the Texas Trick Riders, who were from Alberta.

I forgot to mention a bunch of other stuff. Our hotel, for example, was awesome. The Sheraton, right across the street from the new City Hall. I also found out why Hotwire.com works the way it does: Right on the little folder where our "room keys" (magnetic-coded keycards, disposable) were, it said, We'll beat any published fare! If you find a lower one, bring it to us, and we'll give you that one plus a 10% discount!
So Hotwire works by not publishing the fares.
So they can't say the hotel's name until you've booked it.

So the key is, by experience, to figure out what hotel is which by the descriptions.
I sort of think you kinda can't go wrong, though. Not that I'd know. But the Sheraton, the Hilton, and a bunch of other big names were all in towers clustered right next to one another. We ate breakfast one morning at the Victoria, which is a local hotel the poshness of which I couldn't judge, but the "All-Day Breakfast" (which appears to be a genre in Toronto) was fabulous beyond expectation.


But. I am not posting to witter on about Canada interminably.
No.
No, I am posting because, I HAVE ROLLERSKATES!!!
My skates arrived via UPS today.

They are Reidell boots (which are leather and lace down to the toe, so, good for wide feet), the black ones with white stripes. The plates are aluminum, "Invader" brand. The wheels are Witch Doctor (Blue Grip), as those were recommended by the QCRG handout-- they are fairly hard, for speed skating. And I upgraded to the China Bones Reds, as recommended-- they are supposed to be well-engineered, durable, high-performance, cheap bearings.

So far I've teetered around the back porch, as that's where I am. I don't know about trying anything more ambitious so far. When Z gets home we'll maybe change the wheels to the outdoor ones and try skating around Delaware Park. Maybe. :)