Daniels Spectrum wins award, Beth cuts back on wine LOL

Our very own Daniels Spectrum, the fantastic new arts centre just down the street on Dundas East, has received an international award - well-deserved. The place is always humming with artistic activity of all sizes, shapes, ages and colours. A treat.
http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2015/03/regent-parks-daniels-spectrum-receives-civic-trust-award

The sun! Melting the piles of snow in my yard, nibbling at the edges. I am wearing a new pair of Gap jeans bought for the trip, worrying about the muffin top spilling over the waistband - all the chocolate and red wine that got me through February. Speaking of which - I just read another article on drinking, and have decided - yes I have! I know you don't believe me! - to try to cut back on wine. The recommended limit for women is 10 drinks a week, which is what I've had by Thursday with the weekend still to come. It's my only sin, bon dieu, but still, it seems strange to work so hard at keeping fit and serene and eating healthy foods and then slugging back too much wine. So I'm going to try, first, to limit myself to two glasses a day. That's fourteen glasses a week. And then try to cut it back a bit more from there.

Maybe. Maybe not. It's SO delicious and warms the bones with a delicate inner fire. And when I'm out somewhere, it's part of the scene, and often it's free, which means dive in headfirst. This will be an adventure in restraint, not my strong point. Stay tuned. (I can hear my close friends laughing. Lynn Blin, this means you.)

Just finished reading - skimming - a new memoir from the library, "The Splendid Things We Planned: a family portrait" by Blake Bailey, getting very good reviews. It's quite something - the story of two sons born to fairly normal middle-class parents, one, the writer Blake, also fairly normal, and the other, his older brother Scott, a masterpiece of screw-ups. If you ever start to feel that your sibling is something of a drag, read this book and marvel that one human being can wreak such havoc. It's devastatingly honest, with the two brothers sometimes passed out on the floor - oh their poor parents. Half way through, I couldn't take it any more and skimmed the rest, then read the end in detail. I do that quite a lot. A good read, though, if you want to keep your own family in perspective.

Work is winding down - the U of T advanced class ended yesterday, the Ry one next Monday, the home one tomorrow; the big editing job for Lina is done, her memoir with a copy-editor on its way to publication. Now to extricate myself from everything else, pack minimally and say goodbye to Booboo for FIVE WEEKS. Heartbreak. But once I'm in Paris, I think I'll recover.

Cutting down to two glasses of wine a day will be even harder there, though. Maybe I should reconsider.