Monday we met at Top of the Park to see a couple songs before heading home. I was up fairly late packing for the next morning's trip to Ottawa for the Ottawa Linux Symposium.
The trip was routine: my ride to the airport picked me up at 8, the flight left at 10:15, and once in Ottawa I hopped on the bus downtown; by 12:30 I was sitting down for lunch in the Byward Café. The conference wasn't starting till the next day, but I registered and spend a little time book-shopping. Is it my imagination, or has the Francophone bookstore in downtown Ottawa (Librarie Du Soleil) just gotten a comic-book buyer with taste closer to my own?; this year they have a zillion things I'd love to read. Some restraint will be required to stay within the limits of my backpack (my only luggage on this trip) and my budget.
I'm staying at a B&B that's maybe a couple miles south of downtown--thanks perhaps to Canada day on Sunday, most closer places were filling up by the time I looked. So I figured it'd be fun to rent a bike for my commute. I wonder what the university will say when I give them the bill for that? I know they'd cover a car in the same situation. The bike is a so-called "comfort" bike, which I'm finding a little uncomfortable. But it works. I was surprised that they didn't include lights (or even reflectors)--that seems like a dumb omission if they're renting out bikes overnight--but they had some cute LED headlights and taillights for very cheap.
I rode down the canal a little ways, found a tree to sit under, and read a new acquisition, "Inventaire avant Travaux", the sixth in Dupuy and Berberian's "Monsier Jean" series. I really love the previous albums in the series, so though this one was well done, it wasn't really up to my expectations. I felt like it revisited a lot of ideas they'd covered before without advancing the story much.
I had a beer and some pizza at the pre-event pub night, then headed to the B&B around 9:30. They had a key waiting for me in a box outside, and I found my room without any trouble.
Today was the first day of the conference; my short bike ride in was fine, though the weather's been very hot and humid, and I arrived a little sweaty.
My limited patience for talks ran out by the afternoon, but I managed to learn a couple interesting things on the way. I got both lunch and dinner in the food court of the mall attached to the conference center, so I basically spent the whole day in the mall.
I left for the B&B a little earlier than last night, so got a chance to catch up on a little work (and on this blog!). But now it's almost midnight and well past time I put myself to bed with a comic and read myself to sleep....