The Godfather, The Queen, The Slayer, and The Chef

Several weeks ago, Jeanette's brother Mike and his wife Krystal made us an offer we couldn't refuse: they asked us to be godparents to their daughter. Last weekend, we made it official by participating in MacKenzie's baptism. Appropriately enough, the event took place on Mother's Day and our niece looked adorable in her baptism best.

Her godparents were looking pretty cute too...

...but all eyes were on MacKenzie, who seemed to love her frock and all the attention. She smiled and cooed all through the ceremony, and then giggled her greetings to adoring guests at the reception that followed. We were thrilled to see the family, especially so considering that we hadn't been to Harriston since Thanksgiving. After a long, snowy winter, we were thrilled to spend a great day with an array of mothers, godly and otherwise.

Our jet-setting continued over the Victoria Day weekend, though this time we headed in separate directions. Jeanette headed to Manhattan for work, while I flew to Ottawa for a reunion with my beloved "Scooby gang".

It has been a vampire's age since we were all together, so we celebrate like we did in the old days -- with a pot luck dinner and episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Some of us even caught up with Buffy's "season eight" in comic book form.

The weather also cooperated enough to allow us time for some lakeside hijinks...

... some bird-watching...

...and some watching of damage done by birds. Check out this tree pecked to pieces by a pileated woodpecker (say that five times fast):

And speaking of unusual meals, during my flight back to the T-dot, I read a fascinating article in The New Yorker about up-and-coming Chicago chef Grant Achatz. During my experience without tastebuds, I often found myself wondering how a professional chef would cope in a similar situation. Well, lo and behold, this article describes that very thing.

Achatz underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment roughly around the same time I did -- and continued working even after his taste disappeared. It's a fascinating story with some interesting information on oral cancer that challenges conventional theories about how taste works. Curiously, sweet was the first taste to return for Achatz and the article suggests a link to our hominid ancestors to explain why, and yet my experience was the exact opposite. Could be that I'm the next step in human evolution... or at the very least, the missing link.