Went to get my passport renewed this morning. Many thanks to my friend Luisa for the advice about filling out my passport application online. When I arrived at the office, the room was packed with waiting applicants and a sign warned everyone that because of the high volume of passport applications, there was no guarantee that you'd be seen at all on the same day.

I started wishing I had brought my laptop after all. But then I took my printed application and documents to the pre-screening and was told that because I had filled out my application online, I would be fast-tracked. I was directed across the hall (to the room filled with waiting people) and stood for maybe 20 seconds before my number came up on the screen. Total time in Passport Office: 15 minutes at most.

So my advice to those who need to get a new Canadian passport and want to minimize the hassle (at least in Toronto):

1. Do your application online, then bring the printout with you. I had some trouble with the Passport Canada site (it was SO SLOW and hiccupped at least once) but it was well worth the hassle in the end.

2. Make sure you have all your documents and payment with you.

3. Go in the morning.

I took the photos above and below at my dentist appointment last week, when my dentist gave me a partial crown to help fix a cracked tooth. The crack had been causing me pain for the past six months every time I ate or drank anything slightly savoury, sweet, hot or cold. Yes, I said EVERY TIME. Above photo: My dentist has removed the old filling and bits of tooth around the crack to make room for the crown, then taken a 3D image of my remaining tooth. In this photo, she starts to create the partial crown.

I had to book the appointment so far in advance because it took up a 4-hour time slot, and my dentist is very popular and therefore hugely busy. I love my dentist, Dr. Carolyn Poon Woo (the best dentist in Toronto, in my admittedly somewhat biased opinion). It was also fascinating watching the whole process. In this photo, my dentist has created a computer model of my new crown. It took about 15 minutes for the actual crown to be sculpted in a machine:

Meanwhile, however, I feel incredibly lucky that I live in a place and time that this can be fixed at all. And I can EAT WITHOUT PAIN NOW, WOOHOO! You have no idea how happy this makes me. I'm going to send a gushing thank you note to my dentist.

I'm lovin' this spring weather. Above: a female red-winged blackbird on our niger feeder. Thanks to my friend Peter Kotenan for the species identification!

I've already seen a wide range of birds (and the occasional frustrated squirrel, as evidenced above HAHAHAHA) on and around our feeders including blue jays, sparrows, goldfinches, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, juncos, and mourning doves.

A question for you gardener types:

Sunflower husks tend to accumulate beneath the Squirrelbuster feeder, which hangs from our gingko tree; Jeff cleared away a 2-inch layer recently. Will these hurt the growth of our tree?

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