The funeral was on Friday afternoon. I slept in, while Una went to the reading of the will. At the funeral home, the service was relatively short, considering that the service had to be done in both English and Chinese. It was similar in tone to the funeral service for Una's father, who passed away a few years back, and grandma was buried at the same plot as Una's father. After the funeral was a 4 p.m. dinner reception, and then according to some strange tradition, we all went back to Una's mom's house for a post-dinner get-together.

After extricating ourselves from the family group grope, we met one of Una's friends that night at a coffeeshop. From there, we cruised some of the bars in Little Italy. Una's friend is an architect with his own interior design business. At one of the bars, he saw a big metal counter, did a double-take and said "oh my god!". Turns out he designed and built it when he was fresh out of architecture school. We hunted down the owner, who told us he bought it at a scrap yard for $300 (the woman who originally commissioned the piece had paid $4000 for it). We ended up at a place called Diplomatico and had yet another late night snack.

We overslept Saturday, then went down to the Beaches (on the shores of Lake Ontario) to a greasy spoon diner that Alvin liked alot (which is a little strange, since he's a vegetarian, and can't touch most of the stuff). We stuffed ourselves mercilessly, while catching up with some of Una's grad school friends. We ate so much that we weren't hungry until 9:00 or 10:00 that night. We met another of Una's friends at 4 p.m. on Queen Street (all this had to planned with clockwork efficiency), where we gabbed until 7, then went home. We were actually thinking of going out again that night, but instead decided to pack and get some rest because our flight itinerary had shifted to an earlier departure time.

Sunday: When we got to the airport 60 minutes early, we had to wait in line for a half hour to check in our luggage before they told us that since we had a new itinerary, we had to be reticketed (in yet another line). We now had half an hour to get on our flight, so I cut in line and harassed the woman behind the counter until we got our new tickets. We didn't have time to check our luggage in, so we ran to the security checkpoint (cutting into line again), and found out that the metal cleavers that Una's mom had given us as a gift (don't ask - we don't know why either) would not be allowed onto the plane as carry-on. So I ran back to the counter where you could make a last minute check-ins. No one was there to slap a tag onto the suitcase, so making an executive decision (and hoping Una's mom doesn't read this), I threw the cleavers into the trash, and ran back thru security, and then onto the plane with a few minutes to spare. (long inhale of breath). Besides all of the above, it was an uneventful flight back, and the end of our adventures (for now).

Randy - 11/2/97