"Politics did not help my marriage."

Well, this entry was certainly a few days coming. Such is life, though.

Book Expo felt a bit more subdued than the mayhem of past years, but there was still some great stuff to be seen. I met William Gibson (looks unwell these days, but is super-friendly) and Guy Gavriel Kay (nice goatee!), which was the sort of recovering-SF&F-fan splooge that surely had the convention janitors living in fear. Naomi Klein was exactly the sort of benevolent presence I would have expected, and Jean Paré was a very kind old lady. I also got to hang out with Expo fixtures Robert Sawyer and Will Ferguson for a bit (a prequel to Happiness?! Definitely the best find of the show), drank an unwieldly amount of free booze (mimosas and keg beer are somehow the fuel of trade shows), and picked up a bulging backpack of novels, history and cookbooks. Oddest of all, Jean Chrétien was there to plug his upcoming memoirs. Love him or hate him, dude has charisma. He's much easier to understand without a microphone in his face, too. I had no trouble understanding him in either official language (though the monolinguals in the crowd seemed rather miffed that half of his speech was in French. Tough luck, kids). He also gets the best catering. Asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon? Weird, but damn tasty, as were the samosas.

Highlights of the haul:

• Don DeLillo's Falling Man
• Advance copies of Ferguson and Gibson's fall releases
• Martin Neufeld's (the original Hugging Busker) biography (yes, I got a hug)
• A vegan cookbook for KJ
• Klein's Fences and Windows
• Dr. Marcone's (the catshit coffee guy from Guelph) book
• The Heavy Metal Colouring Book (toooo funny)
• Assorted indie novels

Post-Expo, I had a lovely dinner with Steph at Spring Rolls (havoc! Havoc and Thai food!), and then caught a Go train down to Oakville to spend a day and a half with KJ. Not a lot got done. I lost horribly at Mario Party 8 (Wii and I just don't get along, it seems), we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (in short: nice fight scenes, a few good laughs, but a lousy ending), and I did my best to catch up on the sleep I'd lost over the course of the rest of the weekend.

Tonight was a fun one too, a wonderful break from all the work I've been doing lately. Our dearest Ailish is Ireland-bound, so we saw her off in a flurry of pizza and hair. It's really best not to ask.