The Family *roll

Phew. We’re home after an extended weekend in Toronto. Emily left you with a cliff hanger on her last post: how would Eleanor travel? I am pleased to report that she was awesome. She was happy during all the flights (ecstatic during take-offs) and happy for hours and hours in her car seat as we drove to, from and around Toronto (we have apparently become small city people: we were overwhelmed by the traffic and all the people. So, so many people). She slept like a champ despite the change in scenery, sticking to all her naps and continuing her four-month long habit of sleeping 12 straight hours. She rocks.

We were in Toronto for A&A’s wedding, which was just wonderful. I managed to take seven decent pictures of the wedding  (well, I took 6, Emily took 1) before it became too dark for me take anything at all. Unfortunately, I have 3 pictures of jam, and none of the wedding couple. Apparently, I need to get my priorities straight. But damn, that jam looked fine.

We took a trip to Barrie to see Emily’s Grandmother, who was most pleased to see her only great grandchild. Finally, we were treated to a wonderful party at my sister’s house for family and friends to meet (again, in some cases) Eleanor. It was particularly gratifying to see Eleanor happily playing with her many cousins.

But really the highlight of the trip, as with all trips, was the opportunity to peruse the Skymall magazine during the flights. Gone are the days, sadly, when I could luxuriate for the entirety of the flight over the pages and pages of absurd products; Eleanor’s attempts to crawl over me to get at the passenger in the aisle seat demanded constant vigilance.  I did, however, get a chance to revisit some Skymall classics including “The Zombie of Montclaire Moors” Statue, “Bigfoot, the Garden Yeti” Statue and, perhaps my all time favorite, the personalized memorial bench with the amazingly bad poem (there’s something about the studied low-browedness of the poem that really pleases me). If I were insanely wealthy, I would have a second house that was decorated exlusively with products from Skymall.

This time around, I was particularly tickled to come across the products of a company called “Envirocycle.” They sell composters, watering cans, planters etc. The products are not particularly exciting. What got me is the company’s logo. “We sell earth friendly products in a beautiful design. That’s why our logo contains a personified representation of the earth looking like a hooker.” Ah, mother earth. You old whore.