First, on a chilly and dampish day in early September, I single-handedly summoned back summer weather by putting on my swimsuit to go paddleboarding in the Beaches.

Also, I wrote my first book review in seven years, of Wendy and the Lost Boys, an incredibly insightful biography of my favourite playwright.

Then I went comic book shopping with documentarian Morgan Spurlock, who was very excited that I am a member of a graphic novel book club.

AND I saw Contagion, which did not turn me into a germaphobe as anticipated.

Now we’re all caught up.

[ROM-judging aside: It was my first visit since the big crystal renovation (aside from the hard-hat tour I got of the place when it was still a construction site in 2006), and it's not as good as it used to be. The dinosaur exhibit used to be awesome and spooky and you would run through the dark creepy underwater part over and over again for the thrill of pretending the swimming dino skeletons would get you. Now, all the dino skeletons are crammed into the badly lit and extremely noisy mezzanine and it's just a loud stupid collection of bones and not scary or thrilling at all.]

Anyway, we had a lovely time at the ROM, and I had an equally lovely time watching the show last night. It’s always wonderful to see a full orchestra onstage in such an intimate venue, and the music was stunning. The movement was great too – William and Lucy are particularly lovely dancers.

Now this will be stuck in my head forever:

Then I went for lunch with the new Second City kids at Wayne Gretzky’s and we spent a lot of time talking about chicken wings. For the record, I enjoy the wings at Sneaky Dee’s and Kilgour’s – at Kilgour’s, the blue cheese dipping sauce is particularly good. I have never, however, enjoyed the television program Wings.

What I wasn’t able to mention in either story was that on my first night in Winnipeg, where I was a guest on the Gold Floor of the Fairmont, I arrived back at my room to this creatively patriotic bedtime snack:

Nothing says "welcome to the Prairies" like a voyageur diorama made of cookies.

Yes, that is a cookie canoe containing macarons, and, further back, a little cookie man standing next to a cookie inukshuk. Oh Canada.

In all my years of being dragged/going willingly to Winnipeg, I had never actually the local delicacy known as a Jeanne’s Cake. So my lovely Auntie Della finally bought me one:

I was deprived of Jeanne cakes throughout my childhood because my mother can't stand them, even though most ex-Winnipeggers buy frozen cakes to take home for nostalgia's sake.

As it turns out, I wasn’t missing too much. But I had a really nice afternoon with my auntie Della.

I did more in Winnipeg than eat sweets, but who cares, right?

- Daniel Craig is a great cowboy.
- Also, he looks his best when is face is all dirty and blood-spattered and sun damaged. Which is all of this movie.
- There is a really adorable dog who doesn’t die or get eaten by an alien or anything.
- This guy Clancy Brown is just a delight and during his scenes, he makes you think you are watching a way better movie than you are.
- There are some nice shots of the prairies, and silhouettes of cowboys and stuff.

That’s it.

She’s the twin on the right, with the slightly crazier eyes. She’s wonderful. She doesn’t play a twin in Next to Normal, though. So if you’re looking for conjoined twins, that is the wrong musical for you.

And I already mentioned all the sugar I ate at Cake Pop class, but here’s the story. (And another photo, for those of you who can’t get enough pictures of mini cake on a stick.)

I ate all the sugar yesterday. I attended a Cake Pop class at Le Dolci for a story for the National Post (it’ll be in the paper on Saturday). This was supposed to look like a mini cupcake, but it kind of looks like a two-toned marshmallow covered in stars instead. In any case, it was delicious.

-I loved that Larry’s neighbours have a permanent yard sale going on.

That’s it.