Saturday, update, etc.
Yesterday morning my LJ Reading List seemed to be composed of equal parts "Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize, WTF?" and "James Bacon ends Octocon feud, yay!", leaving me with a general impression that it would be totally justified and everyone would be utterly delighted if James Bacon were to win next year.

I've been generally not too good this week, with all the ills that flesh is heir to, my flesh anyway, leg, back, insomnia, blood pressure. However, it occurred to me that I never mentioned here that I am generally better. I posted about having that weird blood pressure chest thing and being exhausted all the time. I had that all summer, but it went away around the time of Worldcon. I felt as if I'd finally had the right cup of tea and sit down. I still sometimes get the chest thing, and have had it this week, but not all the time. I should probably go to the doctor again, and Z is nagging me to, but I'm in my typical state of either being OK, in which case, no point, or being too ill to be able to face the doctor. I know: I should go.

Tuesday, the day wasn't raining, I went on a series of long bus rides to the West Island location scouting for the book. The trees are amazing colours. I had some good location thoughts, but the best bit came when I was changing buses and found a magic corner and knew exactly what, in terms of the mythology of the ILE universe, would be there. I now need a 1983 Montreal bus map. It's possible I can get one, I have two different leads on one. If anyone has one -- or any bus map from the early eighties -- let me know. But whether or not, I might have looked as if I was just sitting on buses, but in fact it was extremely productive.

Yesterday I had dinner with Z in Le Unique, a restaurant on Beaubien near Beaubien metro. This is on Z's way home from work. Unique is a genuinely unusual Italian restaurant. They make their own pasta, and they make awesome unusual kinds of pasta in delicious weird sauces. (Giant ravioli isn't that unusual, but giant sachetti, the shape of a Werther's Original but the size of a Mars bar?) I had what might have been the most purely delicious meal I've ever had. I started with three perfect oysters, served with parsley, lemon wedges, and salt (and with optional hot flakes and parmesan which I didn't use). Z had a delicious charcouterie plate, of which he was kind enough to share bites of prosciutto and rosemary pork loin. Then he had canneloni and I had giant ravioli stuffed with confit de canard, pine nuts, and mushrooms, in a marsala sauce, served with roasted peach slices. For dessert we split a creme brulee. We also split half a litre of lovely Italian house red wine. All of this, with tax but before tip, was $67. Service was excellent and friendly, they remembered us from last time and spoke English right away, though the menu is bilingually Italian and French. Le Unique is a great addition to the list of awesome places you can have a great meal for $30/person. I'm only sorry I found it too late to put it in the Anticipation restaurant guide -- even though it's absolutely nowhere near the Palais. (It's three metro stops north of the Farthing Party hotel, and it's one block from the metro.)

Tor.com posts: Zenna Henderson's People stories, The Pride of Chanur, Chanur trilogy, Chanur's Legacy, Delany's short fiction, Walter Jon Williams This is Not a Game, A Gift From Earth.

And in other vaguely interesting news, I've signed contracts for the Spanish (Factory of Ideas) edition of Ha'Penny.