Friday Five

1. My allergies are killing me.  The week started with me getting over a cold, and then wondering why it was taking so long to feel better, then realizing that there was a big ol' oak tree shooting pollen over my back door and deck.  I have most of my energy back, but the itchy eyes, stuffy nose, and scratchy throat, despite prescription allergy meds, is very annoying.
2. Alex is coming home for three days to study for his final exams.  I can't believe that he's finishing his first year of university.  He broke a bone in his foot (long-boarding) while we were in Rome, and so we're going to drive to Kingston to pick him up tomorrow morning as he can't manage public transit with his crutches and bags. I"ll drive him back to Kingston on Tuesday so he has a day to prep for an exam on Thursday.
3. I've been remiss on blogging about our trip.  I had hoped to more-or-less liveblog while we were there, but difficulties with network access through my iPhone were extremely annoying.  Despite a long call with our service provider here in Canada, we were unable to get my phone to do any data transfer, and I didn't feel like paying the exorbitant rates for the hotel access.  So I want to try to post at least some of the highlights over the next week.
4. Keep Toronto Reading is a wonderful festival happening this month in my beautiful city.  I haven't managed to attend any events yet due to sickness, but I've been participating via Twitter (#ktr2010 and #keeptorontoreading).  Next week there are some author events that I'm planning to attend, including Michael Crumney (Galore) and Linden MacIntyre (The Bishop's Man).  
5. Today's to-do list:
   • Make bread
   • Organize Alex's room
   • Pick up prescriptions
   • Go to Service Canada to get CPP info
   • Return library books
   • Pick up a video or two for tonight
   • Tackle some of the ironing pile
   • Tidy main floor
   • Clean Michael's bathroom