Midway Cafe 41

 Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share
Sunday Salon

April 2025 - Toronto ON

San Diego CA

Saturday what a miserable day as we headed out at 9!

We thoroughly enjoyed Little Canada and its new destinations.

Preparations for a new destination Little Arctic.

Lunch was provided (Elizabeth, Steve, Georgina) at Jack Astor's and the food was surprisingly good. John had a cheeseburger and I had the tuna poke bowl.

We made a quick stop at T&T for some vegetables. Prices amaze me. At Longo's one bunch of scallions can be $2 while here I got three bunches for $1.68!!

Sunday lots of chores were done. The new water cooler was drained as it is being returned this week, it leaks all the time!

I sat down around 5, after prepping dinner and indulged myself in catching up on some of my guilty shows.

Interesting local news - our neighbourhood is to be home to a new event venue that is set to be potentially even more impressive due to its record as the largest of its kind on the planet!

Dubbed the Pavilion, the complex is designed specifically for the new Cirque du Soleil production, Ovo, which debuts in the city this spring.

Monday John's birthday. He packed up the water cooler and returned it to Walmart.

It seems my Christmas cactus that I rescued from the disposal room in June 2024 produced a flower and I missed it until it fell off!

 I ran out to pick up a couple of things for him. 

I also picked up sushi for lunch.

Lion sumomaki - shrimp tempura, crispy sweet potato strings, cucumber, teriyaki sauce, red masago, spicy light mayo, Japanese mayo.

Tuna Lover - 13 pieces Maki: 4 Tokyo  Hosomaki: 6 Spicy Tekka  Nigiri: 3 Maguro

I also picked up an Italian wine and gluten free dessert for him. And an orchid, inspired by our Alice in Bloomland visit last week.

Tuesday and what is that I see outside??? SUNSHINE!! Oh, wait, it's April Fools Day!

UPDATE this exactly our Tuesday and Wednesday!

AND  it is supposed to be 18 C on Thursday?!?!?!?!

Tuesday's Signs from our winter road trip.

We caught the 11:20 bus downtown for a 12:30 lunch reservation at Joey King's. It was John's choice for his birthday lunch as we had enjoyed it in December.

We were early so we went to the bank to convert the leftover US cash to Euros and get some more Euros. I'll make another trip to get some more Euros.

Lunch at Joey King. Our server was Ellie.

I had the same as last time, steak and salmon sushi, really good. John had the steak frites but says he will have mine the next time with tuna. Creme brulee cheesecake was on the menu! We had this for the first time last month in Las Vegas at The Yardhouse.

We had some billing issues that should be sorted out shortly that have been sorted.

After lunch we went into Telus to exchange our phones as "Now that your 2-year term is coming up, you can either return your phone to TELUS in good working condition by 04/12/2025".

Richard, our go-to guy, was working!!

Since there is no way I was buying out the phone we both upgraded and John got a Galaxy watch as well, I had no interest in the watch.

So of course, we had to order new phone cases. 

We received our Federal election vote by mail as we will be away on Election Day, so we completed and mailed those.

John worked on getting our phones set up as we liked them.

Wednesday morning we did some administrivia, banking and tidying up.

I found a great self-guided walking tour for Lisbon but to print would take up too much paper as there were so many photos. I searched for about an hour at this and that way of doing it. I only wanted to print what I was interested in and finally found a workaround.

I had planned on going up to Bloor to get some fabric, but it was so cold out with a forecast of heavy rain, that I changed my plans and stayed underground. I picked up some $ store mini toiletries for travel.

John used the golf simulator.

On my way home, I noticed a police car sitting up next to the Red Canoe, then I realized the canoe had been destroyed by fire! I had written about this piece of Canadian art a few years ago.

Photo from CBC.

I ordered our new (more expensive) water cooler to replace the defective returned one.

Thursday we had plans to go out as it was supposed to be 18 C but it was a foggy morning that cleared up at 10 so we took the streetcar to Bathurst.

John in his springlike attire.

Where we had coffee and lunch at Nord Lyon.Everything is made in-house.

Slightly stuffed, we walked to the AGO.

New - beside MEC.

Well, finally, it was spring today...

This is ending on April 6 so I wanted to see it. The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, click on the link for my detailed post.

A couple of teasers, my detailed post provides more information.

We walked through Chinatown before waiting forever for a streetcar, however, it was gorgeous out so we didn't care.

Mini watermelons!

John bought me a present at the museum!

And in other Toronto news here's what is happening with Union Station's never-ending construction!

Friday I wanted to get some more material so I could finally make those extra cushions for our room. It was back to my winter coat when I left at 9:30!! I went to Fabricland at Yonge and Bloor.

Got what I wanted and caught the 11:40 home.

COOKING

I came across this site that you can list what you do have in the freezer/pantry and it will spit out some recipes for you SuperCook.

Saturday delicious chicken stew using the rest of the rotisserie chicken, it covered Sunday lunch as well.

Sunday shrimp and haddock ceviche, Thai mango salad. John said he would try ceviche if I made it at home. So I did, considering there is no cooking it takes a long time to do! It turned out well.

I would try this aguachile recipe next time.

Monday John's B'day - a favourite of his, spaghetti and homemade meatballs/sauce with garlic toast.

Tuesday lunch out. T&T pork dumplings with my sauce

Wednesday curry chicken

Thursday ham and potato cabbage au gratin

Friday steak frites with dipping sauce Australian wine 

WATCHING

Inferno   When Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Dr. Sienna Brooks and they race across Europe together against the clock to foil a deadly global plot.

Holland 2025 Nicole Kidman A woman's picture-perfect life in quaint Holland, Michigan crumbles, when she and a friend uncover a twisted secret in their midst.

We watched our usual recorded series and streaming shows.

I am (very) late to the party, I started Call the Midwife!!! "I could murder a Dubonnet!"

I'm also catching up on the latest British Bakeoff and Bollywed.

READING

One eRead Canada One eRead/Un Livrel Canada brings readers together with unlimited access to the book for the month of April so that all Canadians can read along at the same time! Read the ebook in English or French, or listen to the audiobook in French.

This month's read is Valid which I borrowed from the library. 

Set in a disturbingly transfigured Montreal in the year 2050, Valid is a monologue delivered over the span of eight hours by Christelle, a seventy-year-old trans woman forced to live as a man in order to survive. Speaking to her captor, an ever–more powerful AI, she turns the tables and mounts her own revolution by showing her truest self. Part autofiction, part dystopic speculation on an all-too-possible future characterized by corporate power, ecological collapse, and political havoc, Valid is an ambitious work that is as much philosophical as it is confessional.

After the Eclipse while I enjoyed her writing I did find myself saying hurry up!! I did figure out who it was when he first appeared, his manner was off-putting. 

The "EH" List - MADE IN CANADA (and some ranting)

 April 2025 - Toronto ON

Once again, I am stunned by how much more I could post here due to fELON 47 antics. Honestly, I am only selecting a few items weekly!

It is staggering to read what "just ordinary bloggers", that I follow, are writing. 

  Bohemian Valhalla  - Arizona. Every post will include her own rants!

I've always previously felt Proud to be an American so this is an unsettling Feeling to be Ashamed at what we're devolving into and what a Spectacle we've become Globally.   Anyway, making Good Trouble is all those of us who oppose it all can do.   Civil Rights and fighting for Equality and Votes for Women and people of Color, Rights for the Disabled and the LGBTQ+ Community has been a long and grueling struggle we never gave up on and has to continue unabated.  Even tho' we're going backwards by a Century in just a couple Months is more than discouraging tho', it's almost inconceivable.   To lose that much Ground that fast and with so many Americans seemingly okay with it all is Mind Blowing to me.   I thought we were better than that and more evolved, we apparently were not, as a collective.  It is Shameful.  

She often talks about the lack of respect (and funding) for her husband who is a Veteran.

As it is I got the itemized Statement for The Man's last Civilian Hospitalization for his Heart Failure and our Military provided Insurance thru TriCare For Life barely allowed anything in Coverage!   The Bill was $80,026.00 and TriCare Allowed only $8,559.69, I shit you not!  They did away with Base Hospitals so that all Active Duty and their Dependents and Retirees must go straight Civilian now. 

BootsandBraids California

The cashier asked how my day was going. "Excellent, because I got eggs. They’re expensive, but I gotta do what I gotta do", said I. An 18-count Eggland's Organics is up from $13.49 to $13.99. I then said that I’d seen memes online where guys courting women are no longer bringing flowers, but instead bring eggs.
A commenter said in response: My lesbian egg farmer's wife is a doctor and they applied to immigrate to Canada and were accepted. She is selling the flock and my egg prices will be going from $3 a dozen to whatever the market asks.

In another post she mentions: Like I, NDN looked into the place online, and like I she found it a great place to live. However, unlike I, after checking the complex out online, NDN immediately drove over to the complex for a tour.

Declaring the place as pretty much perfect, including the fact the Fitness Center will soon be adding Yoga, NDN says she’s ready to move as well.

Only thing stopping her from leasing a unit right now is the uncertainty surrounding social security. She says that as soon as she gets some level of certainty that immigrant president Elon is going to leave our social security alone, she’s outa here.

Good luck with getting a level of certainty within the 1389 days left to go under the current regime.

COMMENTS I have received from Americans in the last week. These are public, printed comments that you can find on my blog.

I am deeply ashamed of what the man I didn't vote for has done to our historic friendship with Canada. Please know that EVERYONE did not vote for him and we don't all agree with him. Your country is truly admirable. Ours used to be. We are sad and reeling--even, now, too late, many who voted for him.

I always want to tell people from other countries, it's not all of here who are crazy! So embarrassing these days....thanks to millions of voters who stayed home. Geez.

I'm with you on Musk. No one voted for him and yet he is destroying my country and trying to take over yours (and Greenland, too). I was especially pleased with Confound the Science. I would have laughed if it hadn't been so spot on.

I'm glad that Canada is standing up to the bullying by Trump. Please know that many of us (most of us?) here are furious with that man. I'm personally buying everything I can from Canada. And as little as possible from the billionaires!

Bravo to Canada for standing up to our bully-in-chief.

 MEANWHILE IN CANADA

I wondered when this would happen.

Canada's BC Premier threatened tolls and possibly closure of the roads leading into Alaska against Trump's tariffs. Alaska took matters into its own hands.

A resolution affirming Canada’s sovereignty and cross-border relations has passed in the Alaska state legislature.
House Joint Resolution No. 11 was introduced by house majority leader Republican Chuck Kopp, of Anchorage, on Feb. 26. As reported by the *News,* on March 14, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai, Whitehorse Mayor Kirk Cameron and Dawson City Mayor Stephen Johnson all testified virtually to house representatives about the resolution.
The resolution was passed with 33 representatives in favour, and four against. Those four were Republicans Jamie Allard, Bill Elam, Mike Prax, and Cathy Tilton.
One representative, Republican Delena Johnson, was absent, and two representatives, Republican Sarah Vance, and Democrat Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, were excused.
Three amendments were made to the resolution before it passed.
The first stated that the House of Representatives would be opposed to any tolls, as well as measures, that “would harm the unique relationship between Canada and Alaska or negatively affect our integrated economies.”
A member of staff for representative Will Stapp, who introduced the amendment, told the News that it was in response to recent British Columbia legislation to introduce tolls.
The second amendment introduced more information into the resolution. The resolution pointed to the Alaska Highway as a critical lifeline for the movement of goods, services and people between Alaska and the rest of the U.S. through Canadian territory, and expressed concern by any threats or actions by Canada to shut down any roads into Alaska, specifically naming the Alaska Highway.
Such actions could jeopardize funding commitments, including those for the repair and maintenance of the Shakwak road, read the amendment, which was adopted in its entirety.
Uncertainty around Shakwak funding has been a point of contention in the Yukon legislature this spring, as a recent executive order by American President Donald Trump paused the disbursal of money from the funding source that provides for the maintenance of the road.
The third amendment acknowledged the rivers that flow between Canada and Alaska, and their history and importance for Indigenous governments on both sides of the border.
“Our goal is to lower the temperature and to bring healing and restoration in a relationship that we feel has been unnecessarily frayed at a time when, frankly, we can't afford that. Our nation can't afford it, and Alaska certainly can't afford it,” said representative Kopp when the News spoke with him on March 17, shortly after the bill was introduced.
“We need a strong Alaska-Canada partnership. We need a strong America-Canada partnership, and that's a partnership that's worth defending.”
With files from Dana Hatherly

Michael Buble Opening Monologue Junos 2025

Michael  Live Bublé at the 2025 Juno Awards

Twitter - CDN doctor

I guess the American cruise lines are missing their Canadians.

tRump Freaks Out as Canada Bans Tesla from Special Incentives

ONLY DAYS LEFT TO THE FEDERAL ELECTION

BTW we have already voted as we will be out of the country on April 28.

UNUNITED STATES 

Crushed it in Wisconsin with Justice SUSAN CRAWFORD!!!

President Trump’s tariffs on Canadian lumber will increase the cost of American homes. His tariffs on Canadian autos will mean more expensive American cars and pickup trucks. His tariffs on Canadian pharmaceuticals will increase the cost of drugs for seniors on fixed incomes.

The Trump regime has put a 10% tariff on the Heard Island and McDonald which is inhabited only by Penguins. The majestic Penguin has become the first nonhuman in history to enter a trade war with the United States.

.

Subject: Stood the test of time....some of these go back 2000 years

Politicians

We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. Aesop, Greek slave & fable author

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. Plato, ancient Greek Philosopher

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

~Nikita Khrushchev, Russian Soviet politician

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.

~Quoted in 'Clarence Darrow for the Defence' by Irving Stone.

Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.  ~John Quinton, American actor/writer

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~Oscar Ameringer, "the Mark Twain of American Socialism."

I offered my opponents a deal: "if they stop telling lies about me, I will stop telling the truth about them". ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952.

  A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. ~Texas Guinan. 19th-century American businessman

I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. ~Charles de Gaulle, French general & politician

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. ~Doug Larson (English middle-distance runner who won gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games)

I am reminded of a joke: What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.  What happens if all of them drown? That is a solution!!!

I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two are lawyers and three or more are the government.   ~John Adams (1735 - 1826)

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Government. But then I repeat myself. Mark Twain (1835- 1910)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the Government and report the facts! ~  Will Rogers (1879- 1935)

I contend that for a nation to try and tax itself into prosperity, is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.    ~  Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

A Government which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always depend on the support of Paul! ~  Will Rogers (1879- 1935)

The problem we face today is because the people that work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.   ~  George Bernard Shaw (1856- 1950)