June 9 to 15: Toronto trip

Hey Syd,

Next few entries are about your first trip to Toronto. Daddy and mommy have some great memories of Toronto and a lot of incredible friends that live there too.
- Daddy actually lived in Toronto for about three years. He started there on a co-op internship with Campbell's Soup, and rented a basement suite at 62 Redcar avenue in Etobicoke. For seven months my life was centered around the less than glamourous Etobicoke area, until mommy and Uncle Ian moved down for a month and we moved downtown (which was a totally new adventure). We have many great friends from that co-op time (including Ed Wu, Kelli Tomlinson, Colin, Rob Hird, J.P. to name a few) but our two best friends were and are still Kelly O'Flaherty and Ming Lee (who you got to meet along with Charles).
- After graduating university and staying home for four months in Edmonton to coach the Eggos (to a provincial championship and just to hang around with Auntie Christina who I love too much and our band of little sisters who are still some of my favourite people in the world like Spring, Ashley, Killer, SarahJ, Turd, Alex, Nat, Jess, Mouse, Claire, Tash, Emma, and more) I moved back to Toronto to work for Campbell's full-time. It last less than two years as I was incredibly home sick, I missed your mom, I was becoming a fat-lazy slob, and I really didn't enjoy the work. If it wasn't for people like Kelly, Ming especially (re: Niagara), Carrie Muldoon and Beau Hatcher, I would have left after only a few weeks
- Fast forward through a few years and through Nintendo I had the chance to fly back and forth to Toronto three or four times a year. I also developed a lot of great friendship with our Pr agency folks (Jen-Lisa-Lena-Dave) and our sales staff (Craig-Nancy-Jason-Scottie-Max-Lisa- and even that guy Toim), but the one guy that became one of my best friends in the world in Randy Careilli. We had all the same interests, career aspirations, and drive to be one of the best in the business (in fact, we both were awards "Top Marketers in Canada under 30" a few years back by Marketing Magazine). The Pat Lee signed Megatron and Optimus Prime Transformer artwork in our house is from a direct promotion that Randy and I did together with Dreamworks.
- Recently, one of your mom's best friends (Uncle Kurt) moved to Toronto. He was and still is a wonderful friend to your mom. He and Bruce had us over for frequent dinners or gatherings at their incredible places in false creek. I know your mom misses them.

Some pictures attached of our first two days includes:
- Dinner with Uncle Randy at Masa, our favouite tepanyaki joint in Toronto where Randy introduced me to Dragon rolls, rainbow rolls, and sushi pizza. You had teriyaki beef and enoki mushooms for dinner... plus randy's serving of green tea ice cream.
- Dinner at Messini on the Danforth with Kurt and Bruce. the best greek fries and gyros ever... my mouth waters just typing that.

We miss you guys a lot. Can't wait to see you again, hopefully we can make this an annual trip!