Except that she decided to surprise me first and arrived in my apartment on Thursday night rather than Friday. Not one to be outdone, this one. It was a bit of a problem because I�d left Thursday night to prep. That�ll teach me to procrastinate. Anyway, I was really glad to see her, and we had some fun in the sack to boot.

So I went to work the next day with a smile on my face. I still hadn�t told her what we were doing for the rest of the week. She was beginning to think we were just going to stay in Toronto the whole time. She went shopping and got her new leather coat fitted while I was slaving in the office. Actually, she came by and I showed her around the place.

That night, I went home and took her out to her favourite steak house. After that, I had a bit of time to finish my packing. Well, I did have to go to the can to pack the box of Godivas and the bottle of Mumm�s. She still didn�t know where we were going but was pretty aware bye then that we weren�t staying.

We went out at around 10:30 and flagged a cab. When I said Union Station to the driver, she at least knew we were going somewhere by train�or subway, I guess. Actually, at that time of night, it could only be the overnight coach to Montreal so the cat was out of the bag at that point.

We got to the first class lounge and were immediately shuttled in to our stateroom on the train. Well, you know, it�s pretty friggin� tight in there. Even the hallways are claustrophobic. The stateroom had bunks, not a nice big double bed like they had on �North Bye Northwest�. We managed to snuggle anyway. When I hucked out the Champagne and chocolates, she got really cozy. I ended up sleeping on the top bunk that night. There just isn�t enough room for a couple of fifty-year-olds in those things. We had good sleeps, at least.

We arrived in Montreal at 08:30a.m. the next day. The weather was pretty crisp but I�d expected that. We got into the cab and went straight to the hotel. It was farther from the center of town than I had expected. That was OK, though. It was a pretty snappy hotel and was right next to the Metro. Well, they let us into our room right away so we lounged around all day and screwed a lot.

So my next surprise was about to be revealed. I gotta tell you that Luvofmylife is no sugarplum. She�s pretty persistent and had been working very hard to pry every bit of information from me for weeks. She�s uncomfortable with surprises. Must be the German heritage.

When it got dark, we jumped into a cab that took us down to the Complexe Desjardin where a whole section of town is connected underground. It was all part of my plan. We went to a great restaurant there. That was a lot of fun since we had such a great waiter. Then, we wandered underground for a while until we arrived at the Place des Arts. Luvofmylife was pointing at all the posters and the fact that they were doing I Pagliacci. Then we went through the entrance. ~hehe~

That was fun too. We hadn�t been to an Opera in a long time. They performed Cavalleria Rusticana first. (They�re usually done together because they�re both relatively short.) The performances were pretty good, actually. Luvofmylife�s a trained soprano so she was pretty tickled.

I got seriously laid after that. Don�t get me wrong, I don�t do these things just for that. Doesn�t hurt, though.

The next day we spent the whole time in Old Montreal. Old Montreal is almost 300 years old in some places. It was a walled city in the 17th century. Some of the streets are reminiscent of Montmarte in Paris. I could just lay down and die happy in that place.

Anyway, as we were walking past Notre Dame (almost all French Canadian cathedrals are called Notre Dame de something or other) and there, at the entrance was a sign announcing that the Orchestre Philharmonique Du Nouveau Monde was performing Mozart�s Requiem at�now! We darted in and were treated to something�magical. The Lacrimosa makes me friggin� weep.

The next day was made up of shopping downtown and dinner at one of my favourite places anywhere. Instead of ordering from the menu, though, I just asked the waiter to feed us good things. When he regained consciousness, he promptly recruited just about every waiter in the place and we were very, very well taken care of. I love when things just happen.

The next night we went back to the Vieux Quartier to the Centaur Theatre to see an adaptation of a Michel Tremblay play. It was quality stuff.

And last night, we boarded our first class car on the train and were wined and dined �til we got home. When we woke in each other�s arms this morning, I gave her a kiss and dragged my ass off to work. She�s back in Niagara now and I miss her terribly.

I spent a ton of cash but it�s a tiny price to pay for the quarter century that poor woman has had to put up with me.

Arc