he's coming to town

so we finally went live this morning. I was at work at 6:30 to make sure everything was working okay... and luckily it was.

I'm tired and it's cold in the office today which somehow brings me to what I did yesterday.

Yesterday was the annual santa claus parade in Toronto. I don't think I ever went to this when I was a kid - I think i usually sat at home and watched. I vaguely remember convincing someone (maybe my dad) to go down to Christie Pitts to see the parade set up at some point but as a child I never sat / stood and actually watched the parade in the cold. I think my first time watching it would've been when I was 16 or 17 with Ryan - he'd heard I'd never seen it and decided it was one of those things I just had to experience.

Anyway. I went to the parade yesterday. I bundled up (jamaisian toque, mitts and boots), grabbed my camera and headed off. I should note here that it was snowing as I left. I got to the parade probably about an hour into it (from where I was on the route) and quickly realized that it was really cold outside. And that the parade was not as interesting as I thought it would be. I had looked online to try to find out what time Santa would be making his appearance but I couldn't find that - I could only find the float line-up which I should've printed because once I got there I started wondering how long it would be before he'd show up. As I turned into an icicle I decided I should go and find him (walk up the parade route to both keep warm and speed up the process.)

And then Santa arrived. After about an hour of standing in the cold he arrived. And he wouldn't stop talking about the most stupid things (like the weather and how it rained yesterday but rain won't stop Santa, oh no! ho ho ho!) - yeah it was lame. And I could tell from the expression of the kids around me that they were not all that impressed either.

My pictures turned out pretty lame. Maybe my editing them just didn't work the way I anticipated...

Looking for Santa...


I think their expressions say it all


And who doesn't like an out-of-tune marching band? Actually, the band following this guy was pretty insane - probably 70 or 80 musicians and they were pretty good.


and finally.... the big guy: