Anyone who knows me well knows that one of my favourite places in the entire world is the Royal Ontario Museum, aka the ROM. Anyone who knows me well also knows that one of my favourite activities in the world is knitting.

Last Friday, those two things combined in a most excellent way.

I have a new friend who is a PhD student at the ROM, and is able to get a guest in for free. He (yes, he) asked me to teach him how to knit, so we agreed to meet for a knitting lesson at the ROM. After grabbing a quick bite to eat in the cafe, we navigated to a corner of India, where we settled into a pair of comfy armchairs next to Buddha, who was in the process of enlightenment, according to his card. My friend picked up knitting in no time, and we sat and happily knitted away while ROM visitors wandered by no doubt wondering what in heck we were doing there.

We've decided to make knitting at the ROM a regular institution. This time we're heading for the top floor, where I think we might knit in Textiles, which seems appropriate. I would love to knit in Dinosaurs, but dinosaurs apparently don't go in much for armchairs.

Knitting, at the ROM, with a guy, seems like a trifecta of awesomeness which simply cannot be topped. I'm pretty stoked about it.

Last night, I went to the Royal Ontario Museum. The ROM, as it's known (pronounced like "bomb"), is and always has been one of my very favourite Toronto destinations.

Back when I was a student, admission on Friday nights was free. These days, to my grudging surprise, it's half-price. I suppose it's because they have to pay for their fancy-pants new crystal addition:

"The ROM at Night: a thing of brave beauty?" by Flickr user livinginacity

Which, I have to admit, looks amazing, despite causing a hike in Friday night's prices.

I was feeling bored and restless last night and in need of a change of scene. I didn't feel like sitting home by myself trying to work and getting distracted by the internet. Thankfully, the ROM is only about a 15 minutes' walk away. And even though I didn't really have the $10 admission fee, I went anyway.

The dinosaurs weren't available last time I was there, because they were being put into their new home in the crystal. Now they've finished assembling all their bones, so I spent the good part of my evening wandering around marveling at things like chasmosaurus:

"Chasmosaurus" by Flickr user PhylG

Which looks much more impressive in person, I assure you.

And glyptodon, which is my new favourite extinct animal:

(Image courtesy Wikipedia.

He's a mammal. He's in the armadillo family. He's much larger than he looks in this photo. Glyptodon's Wikipedia page has this to say about him: "Flatter than a Volkswagen Beetle, but about the same general size and weight, the Glyptodon is believed to have been an herbivore...."

I want one. If I had one, I would keep him in the garage and call him George.

And, there was my now second-favourite extinct animal, the giant ground sloth:

(Image courtesy Wikipedia)

He's also much larger than he looks in this photo.

I left much cheered up. Seriously, how could you not when things like this used to roam the earth? I like God for being this creative.