So many adventures

It's nearly 10:00 in the morning, and I'm still in my pyjamas. And I still need to go borrow a car from some friends, so that I can drive Meg and Karl to the ferry. We also have plans of walking to the beach and to the cheese shop, but I think we'll see how we're all feeling before we proceed.

We've done a lot, these past few days. So very much. So very tired. But it's been good.

Some highlights:

• Karl found us an amazing used book store. They had two floors, with so many fabulous books, plus they have another shop somewhere else downtown, and that doesn't even include everything they have in their warehouse which they have listed on ABE. So beautiful. Karl and I were getting emotional about their literature and history sections, not to mention all of their rare books. (They have a German history section! And it includes important books that I need, for cheap! They also have reference lists everywhere, like a list on the wall giving a chronology of the British kings and queens, or lists of all the books in specific series, and when they were first published.)
• I finally went to "that awesome store in Chinatown" that everyone talks about. It winds along forever, with so many rooms of so many cool things.
• We randomly ran into one of the other PhD students while downtown (the one who shares an office with me). We have tentative plans for August, because we're both leaving (Chris and I for Sask., he and his wife for Japan) next week.
• We went to the Butterfly Gardens! It was really cool, with essentially a rainforest indoors. I'm sad that the pollen really got to me there (so many flowers, in such an enclosed space), because it was fun. They had flamingos!
• On our way out (at closing time), we encountered a young French-Canadian man who was just discovering that he'd missed the last shuttle back into the city. We offered him a ride home and had fun getting to know him. (He took the train entirely across Canada!) Meg made his day by speaking French.

And now I'd better go and start making breakfast and coffee.