Back and Busy

I took off early Monday morning to go to Toronto. I don't think I'd mentioned the trip previously, so I apologize for the surprise lack of postings.

The trip was for the new company. I got together with the other people who are helping us out with fundraising and such. Everyone was very cool, we had a couple of good days or meetings, and we're off and running. It's nice to have a plan in place.

Monday I had dinner with Robin (link at right) and his wife, Valerie, at a restaurant near their home. He's doing some work for us and it was good to be able to sit down with him, get some work done, and socialize for a while. I'm really happy with the work he's done so far and I'm looking forward to receiving the final product in a couple of weeks.

I'd never been to Toronto before and I thought it was great. It's definitely a city I'd move to if the opportunity ever came up. It has good energy, a good mix of people, a large university, and is all-around attractive.

I had a bit of extra time on Thursday morning, so I walked around Bloor Avenue (Street? I forget.) to do some window shopping and to look for a new book, had lunch, and then went to the Royal Ontario Museum (or, the ROM, as they say). That was nice to wander around in for a while. I hadn't been to a museum in a long time. They're putting on a new addition, so some of it was closed, but the displays I saw were great.

On the trip I also read the newest Shadowrun novel, A Fistful of Data by Stephen Dedman. It was fun to read because Seth and I had recommended him to the editor as a good option for working on some books for WizKids. Seth was even thanked in the front of the book -- certainly because Dedman actually knows who Seth is and doesn't know me at all. Regardless, I feel as if I had a hand in the novel's creation, so I was happy to see it. Plus, I enjoyed it. Personally, I felt as if there were too many characters, but it was handled well and good fun.

I'm also a little more than half-way through Phillip Pullman's The Subtle Knife, and I'm enjoying that quite a bit, too. I'm hoping to finish it soon, so that I can get close to reading a dozen novels like I did last year even though I've been distracted by the whole girlfriend thing.

More later.