da | mangos

Sunday, I was visited by friends Sadelle and Ann from Vermont, who came to Toronto for the 9icb conference. Ann's work (middle-school) paid for their travel, all the better. We spent the evening Sunday catching up, talking gender theory, and so on. They are involved in so many cool things: they started a Gay / Straight Student Alliance which is now the largest in the state and they're part of Bennington Pride Coalition which is quite strong- (the group's first public event this year was in April, and they're hooked into the progressive religious community in Bennington as well). I'm sure there are other things that when I heard them I went "wow" but I'm afraid I don't remember them.

The theme of their visit was quite possibly "Mango." We went out to a chinese restaurant within walking distance (review to follow, for locals). One of the dishes we got was chicken with mango; surprisingly delicately flavoured (not one-dimensional mango or very sweet at all). It came with five large mango halves (thirds, more likely) with lots of good stuff piled on top with a mango sauce. Yum.

Sadelle and Ann brought two mangos from Kensington Market which we had yesterday morning with breakfast; a "Sweet Mango" and a regular mango for taste comparison. Mmm. Happy taste-buds. I liked both, and the sweet did have a different flavour (more intense, as well as more sweet).

In the morning, I had to leave my guests early because of an 8:30 meeting, so we had an hour of chitchat while I was becoming caffinated. Hopefully I didn't do to many dopey things. I remember trying to convince them to take leftovers with them, even though they were going to try and get sushi on the way (in Niagara Falls; I had even helped them plan that the night before. Duh.)

The visit was great, if too short. I keep thinking they should meet other friends of dan's and mine; at minimum, I'm trying to convince Sadelle to get herself an LJ-name so she can follow fine folks on my friends-list.

A funny moment; after settling in, they said, "Wow, you read Bitch Magazine? How cool." They started telling me they had discovered it about a year ago and I said, "Um, I know, dan and I told you about it last summer." Heh.

I got a few photos of them, with Rover, which I hope to post tonight.

There are other things I was going to post, but I'll do that tonight, since I've stretched my lunch break as it is. (

elbie_at_trig and I went for mulligatawny and fried dumplings off-campus, and talked about graphic novels, assimilation in Canada vs. US, grad school, and the fact that he's now a truncle (a word I just coined; he doesn't expect to ever become a quadruncle, even though I think that makes a better word).