Hanging Around the Neighborhood.

  Where we are staying did a lot of things right.  The layout of the apartment is really nice and they provided the TV entertainment correctly.  The last place we were in didn't have a TV at all, so we had to just use our phones for watching anything late night.  This place has a small TV with a Chromecast connected.  Since they provide really fast internet, doing this means that they can give you a usable TV without having to pay for cable.

  Most of the places we went to the other days were a bit out of our comfortable walking area.  The most direct way to get to where we were going was to take the 2 subway West and transfered to the 1 heading south.  After that we would usually hop on the Queen Car and get there in no time.  This time we decided to stick to our area and go down Bloor St.

 I was sad to learn that Lettuce Knit was permanently closed.  So it was nice to have a yarn shop so close to our Airbnb that we stubbled upon while trying to get to Shoppers.

   I seem to have a thing about buying three skeins of yarn.  I also bought three when I was in Iceland.  I wanted to just get yarn made in Canada, but the purple called to me.  I got Riverside Studio in Lagoon, Artful Belle in Cabernet, and Hedgehog Fibers in Vengeance.  I'm thinking of putting Lagoon and Cabernet together in what I make with them.

  We passed this place a few times on our first day in town.  Every time we passed we both commented that it sounded good.

  We were thinking of getting bulgogi, but got distracted by other things.  Instead we got Tofu Don, Oyako Don, and Gyoza.  Everything was really good and it was a nice light meal to start our day.

  We missed it the first time and had to turn around.  The Monkey's Paw is a small store with a dark front and no large sign over the door.  It is really easy to miss it.

  This is what we were really after.  You buy a token and you get a random book from the vending machine.  They are usually older books and are fairly strange.  Krissy got Desired Haven by Evelyn M Richardson and I got No Room in the Ark by Alan Moorehead.

  When in Canada you have to go shopping at Roots.  I don't actually know if this is a rule or not, but I wanted to go.  I know that there is a location not far from my house, but I wanted a true experience first.  They were actually having a sale and I got a t-shirt for a pretty good price.  This was a little out of our original planned area, but I'm glad we went.

  We didn't want to head back to the Airbnb yet, so we looked for some place to get a beer and lounge around.  Harbord House popped up and didn't sound like it was too far away.  We walked though the University of St Michael's College.

  I don't know if it was because it warmed up or because the sun came out, but the walk felt a lot longer than it should have.  We were really glad to see that they had sticky toffee pudding, so it was eventually worth the walk.  Krissy also got their watermelon lemonade to help cool off.

  There were so many ramen places to choose from it was so hard to decide.  We scrolled through the pictures of a few and this one looked best.  We were right.

  I was really surprised when she told me that their monthly special of roast beef ramen was a cold noodle dish.  The walk was pretty hot, so it was a welcome surprise.  I was a bit nervous about it, but I really liked it in the end and might make some at home.

  On the way back to Shoppers we spotted this store.  It was a lot like Lil Thingamajigs near where I work and I had to go into it being very careful.  I had to keep an item count in mind and not go over it.  They had so many rolls of cute washi tape and really cute anime keychains.  I got one keychain, and since I got stickers from the shop in the mall I didn't get any of the washi tape.

  These were two things I definitely needed.  I can sometimes find the Ruffles All Dressed at home, but can never find the Ketchup chips.  I am going to wait to try them until I get home, which might be a mistake since I can't easily get more.

  We did get a bit lost when went straight down a road that we normally turn on.  We figured we could just go down one more street and then over, but that lead to a cul-de-sac at an apartment building.  A nice lady who lives there told us of a shortcut around the side and it was a nice walk.