BREAKFAST WITH BOU

I’m writing this from my hotel room in Toronto...a way station, as it were, on my journey to the Canadian Maritimes. Tomorrow, I am off to Saint John, there to spend another week cleaning up after the Elephant Parade at the Great Corporate Salt Mine.

That’s not really a good analogy, come to think of it. My role is closer to hammering corks into the Pachydermatous Bung-Holes in order to prevent an Elephantine Evacuation of Excrement. So far, it seems to be working...but my team and I are there to make sure that them corks stay firmly in place.

I’ve got a nice chunk of Brie with my name on it, sitting on a tray, awaiting my slavering jaws. A Cheesy Nightcap, let’s call it. The only decision I need to make is whether to wash it down with the half-bottle of Ontario Merlot that sits next to it, or save the wine for later and just snarf up some fine Toronto Tap Water.

Tasty, to be sure...but it doesn’t compare to the meal with which I kicked off the day.

This morning, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I enjoyed a superb breakfast in the company of the most lovely Boudicca, her three boys, and sister Morrigan. Absolutely delightful.

SWMBO and I, being the parents of girls, don’t often get to hang out with families whose offspring are all male. These little guys were delightful...well mannered, blessed with photogenic Good Looks (as if that were a surprise, considering their Momma), and with hearty appetites. Bones did a respectable job on his French Toast (which in France is called...“Toast”), while his older siblings did serious damage to various stacks of chocolate chip pancakes. No bananas, though.

Considering the fact that the Boudiccan Brood was up until after 11 p.m. the previous night whilst being entertained by a certain Grouchy Individual, the boys all had their game faces on. Not a cranky moment amongst the lot of ’em.

I’ve never regretted being the patriarch of an All-Girl Clan - hell, in Chez Elisson, even the farookin’ cats are girls - but if I had had boys, I could have done a lot worse than having kids like this.