shopping day no. 1
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Heidi works at Mountain Equipment Co-op, and we had a tonne of things on our list to stock up. Almost all of it was stuff for Ken, but Mari and I bought some thin woollen garments for cold weather that seem really good. I plan to use mine for cycling to work in the hilariously brief cold spell come January/February.
Trust MEC to have the only booties that we could find that would fit Kenny's feet. They're small wrap-around fleece jobbies that have a velcro strap. I'm not sure how well they'll hold up once he's actually running around in them, but they were just the thing for keeping his feet warm while carrying him or pushing him in the stroller.
Naturally, we also bought a backpack. I can't even count how many we have now. Let's see... there's the "grocery backpack" (which we use about every weekend or two). And the two book bags with internal compartments suitable for books, paperwork, various small debris, two water bottles and even a purpose-built area for a laptop; two small day-trip packs that are not large enough for books but can carry the essentials while commuting via subway, for instance (we use this one so frequently that it was a second of these that we bought today). Then there's the larger travel backpack that's suitable for a weekend trip. And the lightweight shell backpack (no internal pockets) that we bought when one of us was travelling without a backpack for some reason -- it's good for stuffing with spare clothing and the like, or for picking up restaurant take-away. Both this one and the book bags make good carry-all camera bags when on a larger trip if you use a padded insert designed for lenses etc.
But I digress.
We then went on to a baby consignment store to buy some more things for Ken. Warm clothes, rain clothes, wind clothes, you name it.
Then we went to a computer store and bought one of the little Acer microPC's that have come on the market recently. As noted in this journal before, it was actually Mari that was pushing me to buy one of the things, on the grounds that we could use it while travelling. We've recently found that travelling with Ken means that we have to discard as many bulky and weighty things as we can. This has even meant not travelling with either of the laptops we've already got. The thing seems to have a surprisingly good keyboard, and the display (at about 9") is just large enough to be useful when writing or using a spreadsheet or using webmail or surfing. It's an "Aspire One"; we bought the Windows version (with a hard drive).
Our one mis-step today was eating at a place called Sushi-Katsu on Lonsdale avenue. A real mixed bag, both in service and in the quality of food. Heidi won't be giving the place a second chance.