Birthday to remember...
So Maggie spent the past month planning for this past weekend. She told me to take the Monday off, and to pick a date for the party. She also asked who to invite and what food (Italian - since most people can eat this stuff) to have for dinner.
I think that was about all the input that I had. Originally it was just going to be a board game party for board gamers on Sunday, but due to issues with getting people together on Monday, we combined the board game party with the family party for a gigantic family board game party. I had to run some errands during the morning for the party: picking up drinks, ice, and Melissa. The last item was kind of odd for me since I did not recall inviting her. But I realized later that she was the one who actually made the birthday cupcakes! One set was for my dad and one set was for me. The theme for the cakes was games so my dad had Mah Jong tiles on them while mine had Agricola items.
We had a decent number of people showing up (mostly when the food arrived) and had quite a number of good games going on. I think The Resistance got the most number of participants, but Zigurrat did get a number of games played. One memorable quote was:
Gamemaster Hwan: "Everybody close your eyes. Spies, open your eyes. Spies, make sure you can see each other."
Dangerman "The-worst-spy-ever" Kendrick: "Yes."
We finished late into the night and I had all the next morning to recuperate for tomorrow's events.
Or so I thought.
We got a call the next morning that some body had forgotten his sunglasses at the party. That somebody was leaving town very soon so...
I ended up delivering the glasses and riding back home just in time to get ready to leave. I was also pretty lucky that it did not start raining on me while I was on my bike. The forecast was predicting a high percentage chance of thunder storms for Sunday and Monday. We did end up with torrential rain on Sunday, but that was after I had picked up Melissa and we were indoors the rest of the day (and night). Monday was looking pretty good to begin with, but the skies started to darken while I was riding back home, so I wanted to make sure that I got underground before the skies opened up again.
Maggie and I took the subway downtown where we met up with my parents at the Hot House for lunch. We then met up with Richard from Muddy York Walking Tours for a tour of old Toronto. The walk was very informative and educational and we were able to walk the entire breadth of the old city in a couple of hours. Good exercise! The weather cooperated with us during the entire tour. It was muggy, but not too cloudy, and there was no rain in sight.
It was only after we had driven down to the TIFF Bell Lightbox when the skies began to cloud over again. After we had sat down at our table at Luma, the wind picked up and the torrents began to fall from the sky. We watched in amusement at the commuters below scurried around to find shelter from the driving rain, but was surprised when even as our dessert was being served, that the rain was not letting up. That was when the power went out.
We had a brownout in the middle of our entree, but I figured that probably would be the worst of it since I did not expect the storm to last so long. When the power went out I did not expect it to last more than several minutes, except for the fact that the entire city looked like it was out of power. The streets looked close to gridlock with all of the traffic lights out and the rain still obscuring vision. The approaching evening did not look like it was going to help the situation one bit.
Our last stop was down the street at Second City for a show, so we did not have far to walk in the rain. Maggie planned ahead and brought ponchos for everyone. When we got there we discovered that the power was out there and they would call the show around quarter after seven. The deadline rolled by and power was still out so they told everyone to head on home and ask for a refund tomorrow. Maggie and my mom went to the bathroom for a final break before heading back. Just as they came out, the power came back on. The show was on!
We were told, however, that there was some flooding in the dressing area, so they would not be able to perform their regular show. Instead, they will refund our tickets, and gave us an hour of impromptu comedy. Bonus! The impromptu comedy was okay, I've seen quite a number during my time, but my parents seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
The drive back was not so bad since the power had been on for a couple of hours already. Most of the traffic had left the core, and we were making our way back home. We were doing good until we reached our neighborhood and was greeted by complete blackness. The power was still out outside of the core. Crap! Our building fortunately had emergency power so we were able to park underground, but our elevator did not work. We had to take the stairs. I found out later that during a power outage, one of the two elevators would be shut down for fire department use. Unfortunately, one of the elevators in our building has been out of service for the few weeks which meant that the functioning elevator was shut down. It would have been okay if we did not need to move back to the garage, but we did quite a bit of stair climbing that night.
Maggie and I went to bed in the dark. It was not until 2:30 in the morning before power was restored in our building. I still managed to fall asleep in the heat and humidity. I'm not sure how I ever survived before without air conditioning. Still, it was a weekend to remember!
I think that was about all the input that I had. Originally it was just going to be a board game party for board gamers on Sunday, but due to issues with getting people together on Monday, we combined the board game party with the family party for a gigantic family board game party. I had to run some errands during the morning for the party: picking up drinks, ice, and Melissa. The last item was kind of odd for me since I did not recall inviting her. But I realized later that she was the one who actually made the birthday cupcakes! One set was for my dad and one set was for me. The theme for the cakes was games so my dad had Mah Jong tiles on them while mine had Agricola items.
We had a decent number of people showing up (mostly when the food arrived) and had quite a number of good games going on. I think The Resistance got the most number of participants, but Zigurrat did get a number of games played. One memorable quote was:
Gamemaster Hwan: "Everybody close your eyes. Spies, open your eyes. Spies, make sure you can see each other."
Dangerman "The-worst-spy-ever" Kendrick: "Yes."
We finished late into the night and I had all the next morning to recuperate for tomorrow's events.
Or so I thought.
We got a call the next morning that some body had forgotten his sunglasses at the party. That somebody was leaving town very soon so...
I ended up delivering the glasses and riding back home just in time to get ready to leave. I was also pretty lucky that it did not start raining on me while I was on my bike. The forecast was predicting a high percentage chance of thunder storms for Sunday and Monday. We did end up with torrential rain on Sunday, but that was after I had picked up Melissa and we were indoors the rest of the day (and night). Monday was looking pretty good to begin with, but the skies started to darken while I was riding back home, so I wanted to make sure that I got underground before the skies opened up again.
Maggie and I took the subway downtown where we met up with my parents at the Hot House for lunch. We then met up with Richard from Muddy York Walking Tours for a tour of old Toronto. The walk was very informative and educational and we were able to walk the entire breadth of the old city in a couple of hours. Good exercise! The weather cooperated with us during the entire tour. It was muggy, but not too cloudy, and there was no rain in sight.
It was only after we had driven down to the TIFF Bell Lightbox when the skies began to cloud over again. After we had sat down at our table at Luma, the wind picked up and the torrents began to fall from the sky. We watched in amusement at the commuters below scurried around to find shelter from the driving rain, but was surprised when even as our dessert was being served, that the rain was not letting up. That was when the power went out.
We had a brownout in the middle of our entree, but I figured that probably would be the worst of it since I did not expect the storm to last so long. When the power went out I did not expect it to last more than several minutes, except for the fact that the entire city looked like it was out of power. The streets looked close to gridlock with all of the traffic lights out and the rain still obscuring vision. The approaching evening did not look like it was going to help the situation one bit.
Our last stop was down the street at Second City for a show, so we did not have far to walk in the rain. Maggie planned ahead and brought ponchos for everyone. When we got there we discovered that the power was out there and they would call the show around quarter after seven. The deadline rolled by and power was still out so they told everyone to head on home and ask for a refund tomorrow. Maggie and my mom went to the bathroom for a final break before heading back. Just as they came out, the power came back on. The show was on!
We were told, however, that there was some flooding in the dressing area, so they would not be able to perform their regular show. Instead, they will refund our tickets, and gave us an hour of impromptu comedy. Bonus! The impromptu comedy was okay, I've seen quite a number during my time, but my parents seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
The drive back was not so bad since the power had been on for a couple of hours already. Most of the traffic had left the core, and we were making our way back home. We were doing good until we reached our neighborhood and was greeted by complete blackness. The power was still out outside of the core. Crap! Our building fortunately had emergency power so we were able to park underground, but our elevator did not work. We had to take the stairs. I found out later that during a power outage, one of the two elevators would be shut down for fire department use. Unfortunately, one of the elevators in our building has been out of service for the few weeks which meant that the functioning elevator was shut down. It would have been okay if we did not need to move back to the garage, but we did quite a bit of stair climbing that night.
Maggie and I went to bed in the dark. It was not until 2:30 in the morning before power was restored in our building. I still managed to fall asleep in the heat and humidity. I'm not sure how I ever survived before without air conditioning. Still, it was a weekend to remember!
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