If it’s August, it must be Aurora

Yessiree Bob, it’s that time of year again. The time of year when yours truly exchanges a whack of emails with Sandra and we pick the hottest possible day of the year to put as many knitters as we can in the upstairs of Tove’s shop (Needles and Knits) in Aurora, Ontario, then complain about the heat like we didn’t know it was coming. We wind up the evening with a discussion about how next year we will not make the same mistakes and this year, my friends, this year we have learned our lesson. This year I will go here:

Tuesday August 21 at 7pm

Aurora United Church, Basement Social Hall. 15186 Yonge Street, Aurora.

It will be cool, it will seat more people and we can have a proper yarn party without melting. We will still be able to go to the shop (because it’s one of the best shops ever) but we won’t poach in the upstairs, because you know what?

Sandra and I can be taught. (Slowly…apparently.)

That’s all for today, since really, I should be picking up a knitting friend from the airport, and I have to allow time to get lost and still be there when her flight comes. (Pearson International and I have issues. Does anyone remember how to get back onto Scarlett Road from Terminal 1?)

58 thoughts on “If it’s August, it must be Aurora

  1. As I recall, packing a gallon of Yellowtail helps. Then forget your driver’s license…

  2. I clicked on your link to ‘lots of knitters’ and the old post fortuitiously was the one where you were planning the gansey with Beth Brown-Reinsel’s book. I have been thinking of that ever since that post, and this last week I actually (finally( cast on for it! I am loving it, and it is lovely. Thanks (belatedly) for the gansey intro. And keep cool!

  3. Kinda foggy, myself, but didn’t you blog a while ago – like years – about your eventual success at to-ing and fro-ing from the airport?

  4. Rams has it right – lots of wine…
    You forgot to mention that they should email Nancy at nmcinnis@aci.on.ca to confirm a seat. we are limited to 140 people.
    We obviously do learn slowly…
    We have a hat collector in place as well, so start that charity knitting!

  5. But linking to the smug post about how Rams and Rachel H. will be smacking their heads for something to rag you about because you’re taking care of the gansey?
    Color us unsmacked.

  6. But will they throw underwear at you they way our crowd did? For if not, how “cool” could it be?
    You know I’m trying to cover up my jealous. I just got to see you and already I want to go again. I’ll have to go re-read my own blog post about your visit, and that is just a wee bit pathetic, you know? But hey, Aurora folks, you have fun!

  7. Ha Ha!! I remember that post. I even remembered the name of Scarlett Road!!! Be careful driving…..

  8. I personally would just continue to get lost the same way every time I went to the airport…after all, it worked eventually… (We share the same learning curve, as you can imagine…)

  9. Drat! For just a moment I got so excited about you being in Aurora, Colorado (though briefly disturbed about why I didn’t know sooner) that I almost called and cancelled a bona-fide date tonight.
    That’s just how much you mean to me.

  10. Bummer – I will be at the cottage!
    Best of luck at the airport – it’s like a black hole. Many times I have ALMOST forgotton to note where I parked and I have nightmares about that. Finding a silver sedan at in the Pearson parking lot??? Impossible!

  11. Dude, I think you can get onto Scarlett road from Dixon. It’ll be a right onto Scarlett Road (from the airport. Left from Scarlett onto Dixon).
    And Dixon? Doesn’t that turn into Airport Road?
    I used to live in Etobicoke – and worked immigration security (don’t ask) the summer I was 18.

  12. Would love to come to that basement in Aurora, and then to the yarn shop for more fun!
    On those rare occasions when I adjust my future plans based on past experience, I feel as if I should put a big red star sticker on my calendar to mark the day! For just a little while, I feel as if I have it together.
    ~ Dar

  13. oh! a nice cool basement with knitters and wine….
    sounds so very lovely, an added bonus of out of town friends. have a terrific day
    Love and Laughter,
    Amy

  14. Hey–Just an idea about the airport–do you know they have a special cell phone parking area? When the person you’re meeting arrives they call you on your cell (assuming you have one) where you are quietly knitting in the special (I’m assuming cheaper) parking area (where you’re not allowed to leave your car). Then you drive to the arrival level where they meet you and get in your car and drive off. I don’t know the actual directions from there, I only follow the signs to the 401. Good luck. Marlyce

  15. Yes, to answer Marlyce’s question – they do have a cellphone waiting area – I think it’s pretty new, but very nifty. Just follow the little cellphone/P signs.
    It’s probably too late, but just in case it’s still helpful – To get on Scarlett road, follow the signs to get to Airport Rd, and turn right when you get there. Airport Rd turns into Dixon, which bends and turns into Scarlett, so just stick with it. I just did this the weekend before last, and if you can just follow the signs to Airport Rd, it’s all easy from there on.
    Good luck!

  16. Ahhh. Makes me feel much better when a native Torontonian gets lost leaving the airport!
    Liters of wine sound like a grand plan indeed.

  17. Really, if you just started out by calling the police and asking for an escort to and from the airport, you’d probably save a lot of time. Maybe with an *open* liter of wine in the car and no license. That should do the trick. Although it may be hard to then get rid of the police…
    Have fun up in Aurora! (Gee, popular name; one in CO, and we’ve got one in OR, too.) Try not to melt, and enjoy the butter tarts! (When it cools down again, I am *so* totally gonna make some. I just have to try out about 8 different recipes I Googled to see which is best. I may gain 100 lbs. or so. Oh, the sacrifices.)

  18. nope. can’t help you on directions. but wish that could pop by. unfortuantely there are too many variables on my end!

  19. Oooh! I can’t believe you are doing a talk while I’ll be visiting in Ontario! My heart is pounding with excitment. We will be in the South Hampton area. Anyone going from there? Not sure if I’ll be able to convince my hubby to let me drive by myself at night in uncharted territory.

  20. Best of luck with the airport. Ours here has yet another construction project, this time installing light rail. The way to anywhere changes each time I go there. Be sure to allow for that when you come to Seattle in September.
    Hope the day of your get together is hot so you can revel in your basement local and everyone can praise your eventual brilliance.

  21. Ooooo, wish I could go!!!
    And are you gonn be in the southcentral Pennsylvania area soon?!?

  22. I hate, hate, hate Pearson. So does my mother. Just ask her about the time she had to run from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 with four children (ages 8, 7, 5, & 4) and a three month old baby. We had twenty minutes to catch our next flight. We missed it and ended up spending six hours in Terminal 2 until we could catch our next flight. So fun.

  23. I doubt that the problem is with Pearson. I have lived near my local airport (and been there every couple of months) for the past eleven years. Still can’t figure out a foolproof way to get in and out, or how to reliably find the ticket desks (why oh why oh why would someone build an airport where you have to drag suitcases upstairs only to go downstairs again to check in? And put all the coffee shops and bars beyond the security checkpoint?)

  24. Damn, I got all excited when I saw that header because there is an Aurora ILLINOIS (Colorado too & maybe other states) & my DD actually lives in the town right next to it. I hoped for a brief moment that you were appearing at Fringe: a Knitting Salon there & I had somehow missed it. Imagine my disappointment when I realized my mistake!

  25. I hate to sound smug, but all other shortcomings of Atlanta aside, our subway system – which is still pretty small – does go all the way to the airport and runs right through downtown, midtown and two of the larger suburban business communities all for $1.75 US … and you can get off the train and onto a bus and not have to pay any more fare.
    Granted, we need a lot more track miles, but it’s an absolute godsend for getting to and from the airport. Because I think road planners are all on crack when they try to design routes to and from airports.

  26. My husband and son won’t let me forget the time we were frantically circling, running late for our flight and looking for the parking for US flights (before the new terminal and all the signs changed). I saw the sign directing us at the last possible moment, and it was the French version I saw first. Naturally, I yelled out, “Etats Unis!” and could not understand why my husband just stared at me and kept driving. Cannot live it down.

  27. AHHH Nuts! I was hoping to come to that but will be away on vacation. I was even preparing myself for the roasting upstairs of the yarn shop. Guess it’s better at the church.

  28. My Birks and I will be there! It can’t be any hotter than last year!!!
    Do we have to tell them we’re coming?

  29. “Does anyone remember how to get back onto Scarlett Road from Terminal 1?”
    …um…no, but if you hum a few bars…
    b’doom ching!
    But seriously, Ladies and Germs…

  30. Don’t get me started on that airport. Just thinking about that airport raises my blood pressure. Just. Don’t.

  31. I am SO THERE. And a basement this time, how refreshing! A church basement though, does that mean I have to keep my swears at home? I’m not very good at that.
    Anyway, looking forward to it!

  32. Well, you now know my connection to Brampton and Toronto… Now I will share my nice experience in that LOVELY airport. I was doing double duty by visiting my future in-laws and working on the laptops of our sales guys in their convention. Unfortunately, the folks in the airport kept grilling me on why I should be the only person working on the machines when there were perfectly good Canadian citizens who could do the same. (SIGH)… 90 minutes later, and I was freed! I still remember that creepy interrogator. He looked like Simon LeBon on a bad hair day.
    =:8

  33. i loved last year! yes, it was hot but so totally worth it!
    sure it will be cooler in that basement. whatever, great that you are coming again.
    and yes, people do need to rsvp. look for sandra’s post.

  34. This is totally off topic but I caught the end of Restaurant makeover on the Food Network tonight and saw this little guy named Hank. I totally recognized your nephew. And then when I saw you come in the restaurant after the reveal, I yelled : “I KNEW IT!”, which freaked my boyfriend out a little 🙂

  35. I find Toronto to be fairly easy to get around (although sometimes at a very, very slow pace). My biggest problem is remembering that Lake Ontario is to the south, since where I live, the Lake is north. This can really mess with your sense of direction!

  36. Pearson. Last time I went to T.O. with a big suitcase I took the bus and subway to my destination (Yonge and Eglington) and was pleasantly surprised by the experience. It was fast, clean and hassle-free.

  37. YAY!! Mrs. Pearl-McPhee can be taught! YAY!! But it helps if you’re in a hot room, to bring a huge, huge, huge, huge amount of ice and put it in an equally huge bucket or cooler. For ice to melt, it must absorb lots of energy, ie: heat, therefore, as it’s melting, it will absorb heat and water has a very high heat capacity. As soon as the water gets kinda around room temp, pour it outside and return with more ice. I do it for my room at least.

  38. I know exactly one way in and out of Pearson, I can only get there from my father’s house if I try from any where else the confusion in unspeakable. Now that I work in the tower at a northern BC airport every time I fly home to Toronto I just close my eyes and let whatever nice person has picked me up deal with the mess on their own. But hey at least I come bearing hand knits.

  39. After 30 years, I am convinced that they will never fix that aspect of Pearson Airport. We will forever get lost coming and going from the airpot. It’s taken me just as long to figure out how to figure out the 401. Godspeed, Mrs Harlot, Godspeed.

  40. Hi Stephanie,
    I have no clue on the directions, as I’ve never been there. But I commiserate with you on the getting lost part. This happens to me *all the time*. I’m fairly smart, good in school, but I can’t navigate. Period.
    It is very impressive and inspirational that you allow extra time for the inevitable. I’ll have to start doing that too.
    Take care,
    Rosane.

  41. Hit Airport Road and head south – it will eventually turn into Scarlett. All will be fine.

  42. I seem to be in the minority here, as my experiences of Pearson have been uniformly positive. Last summer, as I hobbled through the terminal door leaning on my cane, one of the red-jacketed staff asked if I could use some assistance, and promptly whisked me into a wheelchair, through the checkin process, through security and out to my gate. You wouldn’t see that kind of efficiency at my home airport.

  43. SFO is pretty bad, too. I swear the approach roads etc have been under construction since 1969. It’s been different every time I’ve ever driven there. Best move is to spend the night before one’s flight at one of the airport hotels that offer longterm parking for one’s car and a van to take you to the airport for departure and pick you up when you return. . . but if you’re “just” trying to pick up a friend who’s flying in, that hotel plan won’t do.

  44. Hey! I grew up in Aurora! We’re planning a trip back there this fall to visit my parents and some friends, and also to visit T.O. where I lived for 16 years.
    I will definitely go to Needles and Knits, now that I have a recommendation!
    Looking forward to your Seattle visit!
    Kim

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