Back to Jamie Chew
If you're confused about anything that's mentioned in Jamie's blog, e-mail me at jjchew@math.utoronto.ca and I'll add an explanation below.
Jamie: our son and protagonist, born 2003-11-11.
John: our son's dad and son's blog's coauthor.
Kristen: our son's mom and son's blog's coauthor.
Hisae: (a/k/a Tai-Tai) John's mom. Known to her grandchildren as Tai-Tai, so named by her eldest grandson Ian for reasons that were clear only to Ian as a toddler.
Jack: (a/k/a Ho-Ho) John's dad. Known to his grandchildren as Ho-Ho, so named by his eldest grandson Ian after his tendency to say "Ho, ho!" to small children.
Laraine: Kristen's mom.
Rod: Kristen's dad, married to Nicole.
Ted: John's younger brother, married to Alice (Alissa), father of Ian and Amy.
Jennifer: Kristen's younger sister, married to Jason, mother of Rebecca (Becky), Anna and Owen.
Michelle: longtime family friend, married to Tom, mother of Daniel (John's godson) and Ross, sister of Kelly, Gary and Tobin.
Gary: rents basement apartment, brother of Michelle, married to Ayami.
Rika: rents a room from us.
Christine and Andy, Debbie and Jeff, Gail and Jeff, Leslie and Peter, Luisa and Reid, Mark, Ruth and Kaarel: college (posl)friends living in Toronto.
Fulton: (a/k/a Poslfit House or the Bees' Knees) Jamie's house, named for its east-west street.
Browning: (a/k/a House of Insanity) Michelle's house, also named for its east-west street (one block south of Fulton). Their house can be reached via a two-minute walk through the alley that runs down the middle of the block.
Pearls: Jack and Hisae's house, named by Ted for its preponderance of pigeons and squirrels, a five-minute walk in the direction of the Danforth.
The Danforth: the major commercial street in our neighbourhood. Runs east-west, is the fourth block south of Fulton. The Danforth is the nearest source of good food, good coffee, books, toys and clothing.
Broadview: the name of the nearest subway station, and of the major north-south street that runs from near our house to the station. Broadview has buses, streetlights, Sobey's (a 24-hour supermarket), a small Loblaws (another supermarket), and our family doctor's clinic.
Jackman: a residential north-south street one block east of Broadview, that takes us past Daniel and Ross' school to the Danforth in the vicinity of the Big Carrot, Timothy's and the Second Cup.
The Big Carrot: large health food store on the Danforth.
Timothy's: cafe, source of best local hot chocolate.
Second Cup: cafe, source of best local coffee and pastry.