AUBREEVISION - Observations from the far side of the dial

Sitting on the back deck playing online Scrabble -- well, the Yahoo Games equivalent, Literati -- with Eric, surburban traffic the accompanying soundtrack. Given that Scrabble's a slow game, we're simultaneously doing other things -- I'm blogging, obviously, and Eric's watching the Red Sox/Orioles game on TV. When you're 400 miles apart, online Scrabble matches double as long-distance dates.

Returned last night from a couple of days in Toronto. Gigglydragon, Feisty, waves and I made the trek to TO for our friend Davey's wedding. This is what I wrote in my notebook on the train trip down:

"Sitting on a train with gigglydragon. We're en route to Toronto and she's currently seeing imaginary yellow birds. Overslept and had to cab my way to the train station. Thanks to my foresight in setting up the coffeemaker last night, at least I was able to manage coffee and a cereal bar on the run.

"We're over two hours into our four-and-a-half-hour trip and I've almost exhausted every entertainment possibility, from the word search in the on-board magazine to watching videos on my digital camera to sorting out the tangle of essentials in my hastily packed bag. Desperate times call for desperate measures -- I think we may have to resort to Hangman. Oh, God -- giggly's just launched into I Spy."

To help pass the time, I decided to interview giggly, who, incidentally, was travelling by train for the very first time. Here's the result:

Aubree: If you were a fast-food meal, what would you be, and why?

Gigglydragon: I would be a Wendy's grilled chicken sandwich with a caesar salad and iced tea, no ice. Why? Because I wouldn't want to cause anyone a heart attack. I would want to be the best fast-food meal I could be. Oh, and for the burger the bun is optional.

Aubree: What are your impressions of your train travel de-flowering?

Giggly: I am enjoying all the stopped cars. I am feeling I should wave. And there's so much more space than [on] a cramped, junky old plane.

Aubree: What would you be doing if you were at work right now?

Giggly: I wouldn't be at work right now, but even if I was, I couldn't tell you what I was doing because it's classified. Except blogging. I would probably be blogging.

Aubree: If you ever got a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it?

Giggly: It would be of myself, gigglydragon, and it would be on my left butt cheek.

Aubree: Was it difficult growing up with a name like gigglydragon? Did the other children laugh at you?

Giggly: Well, I have three heads. What do you think?

Aubree: One last question. If you took up a new hobby, assuming money and time are no object, what would it be?

Giggly: I would take up the hobby of travelling the world. But only to English-speaking places that have foods I recognize and understand.

Aubree: By train?

Giggly: Well, I'd have to travel by airplane because, you know, trains don't really go across water. Otherwise I couldn't get off this continent.

Thanks for humouring me, giggly!

What made this weekend's wedding especially unique was the absence of a bride -- it was the first same-sex wedding I've ever attended. Davey and I have been friends since our band days back in high school and he's been involved with a terrific man named Chris for the last two years. Their wedding was a wonderful affair that left no doubt in the minds of those present that Davey and Chris have found their perfect partners in each other.

The wedding location was the Banting House Inn, a Victorian bed and breakfast in downtown Toronto; the ceremony itself was held in the Inn's beautiful gardens. Here's a photo of the handsome grooms -- Chris on the left, Davey on the right -- walking up to the officiant as the ceremony began:

Immediately following the ceremony, a casual party/reception was held in the garden complete with hors d'oeuvres, rum punch (a nod to Chris' upbringing in Barbados), champagne and an Asian-themed buffet (my favourite item, at least on the cuteness scale: cold noodle salad served in mini Chinese-takeout-style boxes and eaten with chopsticks). Here's the cake, comprised of amaretto and strawberries-and-cream flavoured layers -- yum!:



And the cutting of the cake:



I was the keeper of the guest book, a duty made much more fun by the fact that it involved taking each guest's photo with a behemoth of a Polaroid camera. I adhered each photo to a separate page in the guest book, then had guests write a message next to their photo. A really neat idea and a great ice-breaker. All in all, it was a wonderful evening. We've come a long way since high school, Davey!

Gigglydragon, waves, Feisty and I spent the night with Heron and Dina, our friends who were married in February. Here's a photo from their wedding, another first for me in that it was a Muslim wedding:



Gigglydragon and I shared a mattress at Dina and Heron's. She insists that I snore and that said snoring sounds like purring. It's finally happening -- the cats have claimed me as one of their own!

Before training back to Ottawa last night, giggly and I did some shopping with happyinpink. Highlights included grape slush bubble tea (love it!) and finally experiencing the retail legend that is H&M (cheap and Swedish -- the clothing-store equivalent of Ikea). Couldn't justify buying anything but coveted extensively.

With that, our adventures in Toronto drew to a close -- giggly and I hopped a train-station-bound subway and were on our way. No train-ride interview this time -- passed the hours with sleep and an issue of Us Weekly. Two notes on trains -- they're cold and the bathrooms reek. Would it kill them to buy a Glade Plug-In?