January
A sad month, as both Cylia and myself were learning how to live without Otter in our lives.
February
Went to the local Floof Furmeet, which is held in the Delta Hotel by Pearson Airport. Took Athra of course, because that Khajiit is such a ham for attention. Other than that, not much of interest other than prep for Furnal Equinox.
March
Before an FE meeting on the first Saturday of the month I had a bit of time, so I rode out on the TTC Line 4 from Yonge-Sheppard to Don Mills. That meant that I’d now ridden on every subway line from end to end. Hurrah?
FE time, and this year had Aeto and Saerak come up to the con for the first time. Also, this was the first time that I was staffing the con as Business Director. Of course this meant I couldn’t do as much costume stuff as I wanted to, which was a shame, but other than that, the con seemed to come off okay.
April
Went to see Come From Away with a few other local people. A good show! If you’re not familiar with what it is, it’s a musical of the real events that took place on and just after September 11, 2001 when 38 planes were diverted to Gander International Airport on the island of Newfoundland, and how the local people did whatever they could to welcome the ‘plane people’.
Needed a relaxacon, so went down to try Motor City Furry Con down in the Detroit area. A small con with not too much happening, but was good to get away for a bit.
At the end of the month, the plan was to go down to Florida and meet up with my parents and brother to help celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. It didn’t quite happen as planned, because my dad had to back out due to a medical issue. In the end, I still went – along with Aeto – and stayed in the rental accommodation that my parents had already paid for. It was either that, or they’d lose the money completely. So, we got a small vacation out of it, and spent much of it in the company of Dreamfinder Dragon (Dreams).
May
Went with Lanakila and Nexus to Mountsberg Raptor Centre and saw birbs! Chomper the Great Horned Owl still hates Lanakila, so that’s still amusing 🙂
It was Game of Thrones finale this month, so I posted some pics of the Drogon costume (made by Temperance, Silverhusky and Wolfish) and got some good reactions.
Also, went over to see Derecho in Saginaw, MI.
June
A bunch of us went down to the University of Guelph and posed with the big gryphon statue there.
Ribfests around the GTA had kicked off, so was good to wander out to those on Saturday afternoons for dinners.
Traveled down to Michigan again, where Derecho and I went to the Mid Michigan Renaissance Festival, and Athra was well received.
July
AnthroCon right at the start of the month, and this time everyone from a little group-of-friends Telegram chat that I’m in was there. So we all hung out with each other for the most part. A fun convention. Brought Drogon down as well, and he got to re-meet Temperance again.
August
After missing it last year due to a foot injury, drove up (with Babs) to Ottawa and attended CanFurence. Another smaller con, but had a decent enough time there. Ended up enjoying running around in one costume of mine that I didn’t think I’d be using most of the time. Even took the Kootenay costume up there! First outing of him in quite a while.
Right at the end of the month, went to DragonCon for the first time. Took Drogon, Qesnel, Athra and a Cats-style costume (Snowpaw) I’ve had for a while and barely done anything with. Drogon participated in the Game of Thrones photoshoot and the big parade. Qesnel went out one evening along with Dreams’ Namid Jedi gryphon. Athra did his thing, of course, also going in for the Elder Scrolls photoshoot. Finally, Snowpaw went out with Temperance (as Rum Tum Tugger) for a while, and then went to the Musicals photoshoot. Quite a fun time overall! Not a con that I would do every year, but I would go back.
September
My brother and his wife became parents, again! This time to twins – Charlotte and Imogen. Unfortunately, due to an early birth they had some health issues and were in the hospital for quite a while.
Sadder news that month was that McVitie’s Canada had discontinued Ginger Nuts (a type of cookie/biscuit), so I could no longer buy them easily in grocery stores. Now I have to travel further afield to import stores to get them.
The Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable (FCLR) was being hosted by Furnal Equinox in Toronto this year, so I got to participate in that.
Then the following weekend I went up to a Pokémon Go Safari Zone event in Montréal. First time that I’ve been to the city and spent a significant amount of time in Quebec! Fortunately I remembered enough High School French to survive and figure most things out – mainly signage, as English was quite heavily spoken there still. First time too taking a train for a significant distance in N.America, as that’s how I got to Montréal and back. Was surprised how fast it went, actually, but it was not as smooth of a ride as in UK/Europe.
At the end of the month, I was back in Michigan again, this time for the Michigan Renaissance Festival… which, of course, meant that Athra was out and trying to be the centre of attention again.
October
Cylia worried me for a bit, as she ended up limping one night. She managed to walk it off, but was out of sorts for a bit. She got a trip to the vet out of it, but nothing was found. Whatever it was, she recovered from it okay.
Nikoli got stockings! Saw these being offered, and thought that is silly enough for a spotkat.
Canadian General Election – the second one that I’ve been able to vote in. As someone who hasn’t always had the right to vote where I’ve lived, now I have it, I take it very seriously.
November
Went down to North Carolina for the Renaissance Festival! I’d thought about doing it for a while, and managed to find a trip for some airline points and some money to make it happen. Met up with Wyoon, Dreams and Saerak there, and stayed with Saerak at a hotel near Charlotte Airport. Good fun, and Athra was his usual self. The Khajiit even met Fireflicker the Dragon!
Derecho came out to visit later in the month, and he took some really good photos of Athra out at the Scarborough Bluffs. I used a different outfit for Athra this time (the same outfit I used with Ryme the Raven at Sarasota a few years ago), and Derecho loaned Athra a cape. Wow, that worked with that outfit so well. I’m in love with some of these photos!
December
Went to an offsite work event and rode in a N. American school bus for the first time ever. So… uh… yay?
Didn’t do Midwest FurFest this year because of how bad it was for me last year. I don’t feel that I really missed out.
Aeto came to Toronto for a week for work, and came along with Babs, Scani and myself to see Cats (the stage show, not the new movie). Followed that up with dinner with some more folks, and then back home. Also bought a cake that evening from a vending machine in the PATH! The cake actually wasn’t that bad either!
Went back to the UK for a very quick trip to see family for Christmas. Not only do I have a nephew there now, but I also have twin nieces. While I was there, saw Come From Away again with parents. They’d never seen it before, and definitely enjoyed it.
Now, as I finish off writing this, it’s New Year’s Eve and I’ve been out for a quick dinner with Babs. Spent the rest of the evening watching Netflix, but I’m not going to stay up to actually watch the time tick over to midnight.
The coming year
Only a handful of plans compared to last year.
- Furnal Equinox, since I’m staffing it still
- AnthroCon
- CanFurence, perhaps going there again
- FanExpo, since I’m not doing DragonCon two years in a row
- Renaissance Faires, because Athra needs to get out there again
