dear google calendar

you have changed my LIFE. i'm in LOVE LOVE LOVE! it's so organized, so colour-coded, so handy!!! plus, i can share my calendar with important people (ie. the boy) so that they can be made aware of certain events (ie. family birthdays) and thus the burden of responsibility for remembering said dates, events, social outings, is shared (ie. reduced nagging!)

muy fantastico. late entry today, but not much going on round here last night. we kind of did this faux-camping thing in the roomie's room. we lay on her bed and lit candles and put witch-hazel-soaked cotton pads on our eyes and idly blabbed and drifted in and out of sleep while the boy noodled on his guitar. this is AFTER i ate my weight's worth in tortilla chips, alternating dips in a reassuring cycle of habenero salsa heat tempered with full-fat sour cream cool. and three pieces of the roomie's leftover goat's cheese, basil, and chicken pizza. this was all after my pms-induced pleas for dial-a-steak were shot down.

despite the torpor of yesterday, this week is jam-packed with social outings. plus i get to visit my doctor today and plague her with my hyperactive, hypochondriac-driven, hystrionics. ie. my eye has been feeling funny since sunday morning...it feels kind of bruised and i get a little twinge of a dull ache when i close it shut or rub it or prod at it (as i've been doing). so i've somehow convinced myself that i have an african bot fly laying eggs in there. the boy says that if a million bot flies emerge from my eye in a rupturing stew of pus and swarming appendages, that he will welcome them with open arms and love them like they were his children. it's strangely comforting. i also may or may not have ringworm on my face. ringworm is NOT a worm, it's like a skin fungus (does that make it MORE or LESS gross?). i suspect i get it from touching books and rubbing my face in passing at the public library. either way, i've been aggressively treating it with alternating tea-tree oil and this steroid cream i have lying around. i suspect my treatment might be *too* aggressive considering i haven't ascertained that it's anything other than a patch of dry skin.

on that note, for dinner tonight i'm making tilapia fillets braised on the stove with grape tomatoes, arugala and chorizo, served with orzo pasta. i WILL NOT give in to pms cravings and eat a ridiculously over-priced and under-portioned nascar ice cream bar from 7/11 (chocolate cookie, vanilla ice cream, caramel, nuts, coated in chocolate, if you're wondering)

fin.

feast!

we feasted at oyster boy last night. we had 1 1/2 dozen oysters on the half shell, some steamed clams, some baked oysters (baked with champagne and brie) and some of their crispy onion rings with jalapeno-lime aioli. it was delicious and relaxing and ever-so enjoyable. i love that place to pieces. i feel so comfy there. if i could book that place out for a wedding reception i would, but it's not big enough for a dance floor. i think ideally, i'd love to have a wedding reception (or just a plain ol' party) that consisted of my favorite things to eat from around the city: fish'n'chips from harbord, thai food from jean's, oysters from oyster boy, pizza from mamma's pizza, red devil cupcakes from the babycake company, sheet cake from dominion's...etc etc.

this week is jam-packed already! it's going to be crazy...what with work, and the roomie potentially starting work, and then i have 3 separate lunch dates this week, and a birthday dinnie out, courtesy of the boy, and then my montreal friend is coming down for the weekend, and i might have a hoo-ha on saturday, and then there's daft punk on sunday. i also have a doctor's appointment and i've got to finish this work for the professor (who is only HALF done the paper...what a slacker-face!) thank goodness it's a long weekend. i can't WAIT for friday!!!

today is my long day, so i packed a dinner of grilled chicken caesar salad. and a tonne of fruit and some nachos and guac for if i get EXTRA hungry. although it's so hot out that i don't foresee myself stuffing my face. but we all know how quickly THAT can change!

fin.

m-r-i

these are my two favorite non-relatives in the whole, wide, world. i don't have many people i consider friends, but the ones i got, are beyond precious. there's a curious and magical alchemy that happens when the m, the r, and the i get together. it's a bizarre mix of zaniness, wacky hijinks, and non-stop blabbing about all and sundry. last night's episode featured a short jaunt to the annex, which inspired the usual annex-tirade (we hate the annex) that's de rigeur whenever we're in the bloor and bathurst area.

here's a picture of the "wu-tang forever" sign with its' contextual surroundings. i really need to get more pictures developed. it sucks. i have a whole album from our europe trip still to be catalogued and filed away. and i keep accumulating pictures without ever developing them. so now i'm up in the hundreds of dollars of pics to process. yikes! i also need some picture frames to put up around the house. and drapes. i want some drapes, dammit!

today is a lazy day. we did some cleaning, ate a spartan breakfast (i overate like crazy last night) of boiled eggs and toast and i'm going to futz around in the garden and do some errands while the boy does his guitar lessons. i'm celebrating the fact that it's a three paycheque month (!!!!!) with a treat dinner at oyster boy tonight. i LOVE oyster boy, and there's something about the muggy heat of august that cries out for sucking back dozens of cold, crisp, briny shellfish on the half-shell. with a cold beer. i don't drink, but i definitely appreciate the circumstances that are conducive to quaffing cold, alcoholic beverages.

fin.

parenthood

the movie, was one of my fav movies as a kid. it's got a stellar ensemble cast and a sprawling multi-generational storyline (i love both those things in combination but i'm more iffy once you add in the x factor of period-piece into the mix). my youngest bro has been living with me for the past month and i've gotten some serious faux-parenting experience.

so far, i feel i've been handling it well.

teenagers-on-the-brink-of-adulthood might just be my forte. they're cogent, lucid (for the most part) and you can reason with them (for the most part). i think most of the credit has to go to my mum and stepdad for putting down a good base, but they raised a good kid so i just have to do some checking-in every now and then. we've had a series of talks lately (the family's been concerned about him dropping the ball on university). i find the rest of my family really prone to stressing unnecessarily and really fear-driven about stuff so it's probably best that i'm the one bridging the gap with the surly teenager, since i'm surprisingly (for all my high-strung, type A personality ways) low-key with the approach (SHOCKING!)

last night i met one of my bro's co-workers, this kid aidan, who was hilarious. he dresses like a sk8r boi, is pants at guitar hero, and ate his FIRST blueberry like, two days ago. he also thought that guacamole was "too crazy" for him. he was polite, so i guess that's the most you can ask of someone.

as they were leaving, i was reduced to shouting "don't drink and drive!" "uhhh...bros before ho's!" at their retreating backs, dip-setting out of my house.

tonight i'm going for dinner at harbord fish'n'chips (yay!)


fin.

grown up christmas...

so...the funding for midwives in ontario got released last night and was being over-night couriered...so sometime today my roomie will find out if she has a job or not. it's like grown-up christmas. she's stressing really hard. i think she's more nervous about actually GETTING the job and then having to practice. even though she's amazing at her job and is always near the top of her class and is beyond capable. i'll keep my reading public updated!

is this bad luck? a preview of yourself in your wedding dress? it's kind of too good NOT to post, imo. i ripped a page from "tyra banks' america's next top model school of mall-grade modeling advice" and opted for an "editorial" style shoot, complete with awkward angles and a sneak peek at my world famous "monster" calves. i am NOT smiling with my eyes though. not for less than $10 000. i think if i'm going to pull this off, i really need higher heels. it's going to be a b***h to walk in, but for the dress to have that real effect, i think i'm going to need some patent stilettos.

last night's dinner turned out awesome. the grilled eggplant was only *slightly* less good than the deep fried stuff, so i think i'm going to stick to the winning formula (especially if i have a heavy plate of deep fried on deck).

tonight is going to be a laid back night...i picked up a 9-5 shift at the public library for tomorrow, but they're short-staffed so i'm working the position above my current one, with a $20/hour wage, which is the only reason i decided to do it. i also found out august is a 3 paycheque month! sweet!!! i LOVE 3 paycheque months. more than christmas.

i went to canadian tire yesterday to get myself and the boy a fishing license and some new fishing line to re-spool our rods. i LOVE LOVE LOVE canadian tire. i think it's a sign of what stage at my life i'm at that my three favorite stores are: canadian tire, target, and home depot. canadian tire has the MOST of the stuff i need right now though. if i win the lottery, i'm going on a shopping spree at canadian tire. so many rubbermaid storage products! so many life jackets, camping equipment, coolers! canning jars aplenty! be still my heart! i pledge my everlasting allegiance to the mighty canadian tire dollar!

tonight for dinner i think i'm going to keep it easy and make nachos with shredded monterrey, scallions, homemade salsa, refried beans, sour cream and guacamole.

fin.

celebrity gossip did me in again!

this is a pic of last night's dinner. i ended up tossing cooked penne with zucchini ribbons i had sauteed in roasted garlic butter, and some chopped oil-packed, oven roasted chilies my supervisor at work gave me, along with some good pecorino romano.

*BEEFY UPDATE*

i can't reiterate enough how much i enjoy my job. which is good, since they've hired me on for 20 hours of work a week this coming fall term. and i'm also hoping to be able to do 7 hours a week at the public library. i'm hoping my classes are as low-intensity as last term's were. i WAS counting on sunday shifts at the public library (where i get paid time and a half for a 3.5 hour shift) to give me an extra boost so that i could drop one of my public library shifts during the week, but because toronto city councillors are lily-livered weaklings who can't approve taxes, toronto is cash-strapped and is forcing all of its' services to downgrade and the public library has stepped up to the tune of 1.3 million.

wow. toronto is probably the complainiest city i've ever known. a bunch of ingrates! largely prosperous, but always wanting more more more of everything! it's the same thing no matter what you're doing...it was bad when i was promoting and throwing parties, it's bad if you're a homeowner, it's bad all around. it's like, no one can reconcile living in a quasi-socialist society with the fact that maybe, just maybe you won't be able to buy your flat screen hd-tv if you also want you kids to enjoy a free public school education that's consistent and get decent health care.

it's not like i'm letting the government off the hook either. the amount of mis-handling and mis-management is atrocious. you know what, stephen harper? i'm kinda sure we didn't need to spend x billion on those arctic military ships trawling those icy waters for terrorist polar bears. but that's just me.

the point is, i'm a tortured union steward. torn between my innate fiscal responsibility issues, common sense, and my leftist, blue-collar sympathies. i'm like a considersably more winsome and gamine karl marx, if you will. ha!

tonight for dinner we're having fried rice with pork stuffed eggplant pockets. i usually deep fry the pockets, but we've been pushing it on the deep fried front lately, so i think i'm going to try baking them. i predict complaints. either way, the stuff gets soused with thai sweet chili dipping sauce, and that stuff has the power to make an entire fascist military's sins seem palatable.

fin.

you know what i'm sick of?!?

i'll tells ya. recently, dr. rei was trying to tell me this story about how, due to over-fishing in china, an overgrowth of plankton and algae has given rise to GIANT 400 lb squids that are terrorizing the strip of ocean between china and japan. as she was trying to impress upon me the grotesque enormity of an armada of half-tonne squids with trailing tentacles, my only comment was to interrupt with an exasperated, "i'm SICK of everyone trying to blame chinese people for EVERYTHING!"

and you know what? i AM.

i'm also not impressed with the conservative government's idea to spend close to half a billion dollars funding faith-based schools in ontario. whatever happened to PUBLIC EDUCATION?!? there were stories all up in the newspapers the other day, about how people of the hindu faith can't afford the $8000 tuition for private hindu schools and are feeling the pinch. well you know WHAT? i'd LOVE to send my (fictitious) kids to HARVARD or the LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS but i can't afford that either! whatever happened to SAVING for your kids' education? sheesh! it's like no one wants to work anymore. technically, it's the catholic school board's fault. i say cancel the catholic school board, separate church and state, and throw all that money into PUBLIC SCHOOLS. and if you want your kid to go to a specialized institution, you can hold a billion bake sales and pay for it your damn selves.

tonight for dinner i'm making ricotta and mozzarella stuffed zucchini blossoms with a zucchini ribbon - parmesan and garlic penne.

fin.

the wonders of tantric bum chakras

as evidenced by the perpetual youthfulness of one gordon sumner (that's sting to you, me, and the rest of the world). we saw the police last night at the acc and it was a great show! it's the first big concert i've been to in a long, long while. the acc is so cavernous that it's kind of hard to get a vibe going in there...i think i'd much prefer everyone to be on the same level, no chairs, pushed in cheek-by-jowl a la wembley or something...it's so much more hype! but the police were polished performers with nary a wrong note and thankfully (for my poor catalogue of their repertoire) they stuck mainly to the hits. sting's voice is so distinctive and evocative.

i'm feeling kind of lethargic lately, something i'm putting down to the poopiness of the weather and the horribleness of my diet of the last little while (thus the late entry). my lovable supervisor brought me a stuffed eggplant for lunch which was absolutely delicious - a mini eggplant, stuffed with a savory meat mixture and sauced liberally with a thick, reduced tomato sauce lashed with fresh basil. she's managed to single-handedly turn me around on the inclusion of breadcrumbs in meat mixtures (meatballs, meatloaf), which i used to snobbishly turn my nose up at, sniffing "filler!" with disdain. breadcrumbs, soaked in milk or water really do result in tenderness and softness, without any of that tough brawny bounce of 100% meat. i'm sold!

finally, i'm obsessed with edward tufte. i can't reiterate enough how much i adore his treatise on the failures of powerpoint. a sample quote (on the frequent and ubiquitious habit of printing out powerpoint presentations as handouts and slides *cough* UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO'S FACULTY OF INFORMATION STUDIES *cough*): "the resolution of printed-out slide decks is remarkably low, approaching dementia" DIVINE! the over-reliance on powerpoint's banal and punishingly uninformative and overly reduced bulleted summations is something that i've been railing about since i started school last fall. it seems to run rampant at the Faculty of Information Studies and is commensurate with the paucity of actual, graduate-level learning to be had there. in place of rigor, we have endless streams of content poor slides with insulting clip art.

it would be one thing if my faculty just KNEW this, but no, they have to be u of t smug about it (while managing the simultaneous feat of being u of t painfully-out-of-touch) and the students for the most part are, i hate to say it, kinda lame and (imho) total dumBies (hard "b" sound...rhymes with gumby), preoccupied with nattering on about word limits and formatting, instead of producing anything interesting.

but i'm not bitter. ha!!!

tonight for dinner we're having long beans, tofu, and pork stirfry in chili black bean sauce on steamed rice.

fin.

chat-fest 2020

last night was fun! we were small in number but large in spirit. we basically sat outside and gabbed for 5 or 6 hour straight and ate good food - basically my favorite favorite favorite way to spend an evening.

there were a lot of hilarious moments and lines...so many that i can't even remember them all.

suffice it to say that i suspect mitch albom KILLED morrie, for fodder for his pap book - which is really a thinly veiled amalgamation of every blandly obvious motivational life snippet to ever tumble from some idiot's lips.

in other news, while vintage trawling with dr. rei yesterday i found my wedding dress. oh yes. all i have to say is: 80s silver lame (i don't know how to put accents in here). tight, ruched, and featuring a collarbone-framing riot of silver bow-like decoration. FAB-U-LOUS!

i keep flip-flopping on the whole "to marry or not to marry" issue. as dr. rei said, there's no good reason to do it, and no good reason NOT to do it. more than anything, it's an ego-issue. everyone ALWAYS says they're going to have an "unconventional" wedding, but few people pull it off. i have some STELLAR ideas to show peeps how it's done. as long as there's no slow dancing, expectation of speeches, schmaltzy and maudlin sentimentality, forced-kissing, stupid games, or me having to make a (un-funny, totally serious) spectacle of myself, i'm IN!

i wasn't completely pleased with my layered semifreddo dessert last night. it needs some kinks worked out. the ladyfingers were frozen too solid for the rest of the dessert. i think instead of coffee (which has too high a water content and subsequently freezes too icy, i'm going to soak the ladyfingers in a milk-coffee-kahlua mix and hopefully the fat content in the milk and the alcohol content of the kahlua will prevent the iciness. i'm committed to perfection (or so my resume boldly claims!).

today i'm having my fam over for some wading pool action (my sis is up visiting with the kids) and playing in the park and then a bbq at my pad. we're having: dilled deviled eggs (i LOVE deviled eggs!), portugese-style grilled chicken (marinated in chilies, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, wine, and a whole host of other goodness), with a bean and grape tomato salad in mustard-dill vinaigrette, my famous garlic bread, corn on the cob, and for dessert, that espresso mascarpone cookie layer cake.

unf unf unf!

fin.

that's my boy!

took my little murderah bumbacat, smudge to the vet yesterday. ooooh boy! he was PISSED. i had him in the carrier and he was freakin' tits - snarling, doing that low whiny rumble, and hissing like a madman. i was getting a lot of looks from other clients.

when i finally get into the examination room, the vet comes blithely in, notes the sounds coming from the carrier and asks, "oh, is he scared?" me: "uh no, he's just ANGRY". the vet kind of chuckles and coos at smudge and then tries to get him out of the carrier. it required holding the carrier at a 90 degree angle to dump smudge out. when the vet tried to pet him, smudge attacked him. back claws kicking, teeth bared, hissing, boxing at him with his paws. so the vet goes away for 15 minutes to try to get smudge to "calm down". comes back in, no dice. when he tries to examine him again, smudge goes berserk. it was awesome! so vet goes away and comes back with these thick, leather, elbow-length gloves to hold him. STILL can't do anything. he fought with smudge for a good 10 minutes trying to "tire him out" and eventually had to call in TWO assistants just to give smudge his shots: 2 to hold him down, one to administer the injection.

smudge basically didn't get seen properly by the vet because he wouldn't let them near him but the vet says that any cat that puts up that good of a fight is healthy. that didn't stop mr. schiesty from trying to bring him in for a $500 "teeth-cleaning". i don't know if i'm going to bite on that one. it's a lot of money and smudgie's teeth seem pretty clean to me.

i was simultaneously embarrassed/proud. like when your kid takes a massive vomit ON someone you don't like. it's amazing.

tonight i'm having my male doppelganger and possibly dr. rei over for dinnie. we're having a tomato-basil ricotta tart with a big salad and a new dessert i'm trying: a layered semifreddo. ladyfingers soaked in coffee and rum are layered with a chocolate-hazelnut semifreddo and a sweet cream semifreddo. it's like a frozen cappuccino.

fin.

banged up

in the the past little while, i've managed to: form a GIANT blister on the back of my right foot, stub my toe and cut a little bit of the cuticle, and burn my right arm with hot pasta water (nooo!!! not again!!!).

i'm a hurtin' unit right about now. also i think i've temporarily fixed my computer problems. i have a cpu that runs HOT (eff you, athlon!), so basically, it had gotten to the point where if my computer restarted and rebooted (on its own) say, 10 times in a day instead of 20, i was considering that a good day. i opted to take the side off of my computer and it seems to help it cool it down a bit. i also don't run my computer all day anymore but turn it off when i go to work. that seems to help a bit too. but it also means mad dust up inside so i gotta go get some compressed air, STAT.

p.s. i LOVE compressed air.

tonight is a lowkey night. i gotta take my cat to the vet and then i'm going to come home and do some prep work (i'm having my male doppelganger over for dinnie tomorrow, and my whole fam over for dinnie on sunday).

i finished reading sarah dessen's book "dreamland" ages ago, which officially brings me up to speed on her entire body of young adult work. this one was a little harder to get behind. it's about a girl whose sister runs away, so she's feeling a lot of pressure to carry the weight of her family's expectations and does things she wouldn't normally do (sign up for cheerleading, etc). then she hooks up with this mysterious dude (with the laughable name "rogerson biscoe"!!!) who smokes pot and has dreads and turns out to be abusive. it was kind of a dark text and i think it's hard for me to appreciate or understand how people stay in abusive relationships. i can understand being physically outmatched, but how people continue to put up with it boggles my mind. all it would take would be one time and i'd f**king lay into the bastard and make him so sorry. i'm more about the elaborate revenge techniques. i wouldn't hit back, but i'd set fire to every belonging, clip mousetraps to every finger, toe, and his d**k, slip lsd into his morning coffee, etc.

i was bad at ate square boy at like, 11pm last night so i'm feeling gross and repentant. tonight for dinner will probably be a grilled cheese sandwich or something.

fin.

LATER, layton!

so, for the past week and a half, as i'm biking along wellesley on my way to work, i'm pretty sure at around wellesley and bay, i see jack layton (also on a bike).

now, i'm a pretty strong ndp supporter and i don't want to shatter anyone's illusions, but jack layton bikes like your sissy grandma. dude is SO SLOW. so every morning, i'm zipping by him, dinging my bike as i pass, thinking, "LATER, LAYTON, EAT MY DUST!".

also: jack layton (or his doppelganger) wears black tapered faded levis. wow. no wonder the ndp shows so poorly every election. their leader is biking around town like a geriatric with two bum knees sheathed in heavy metal skid jeans. wow.

today is a long day, i packed the rest of the boy's malai kofta roti from ghandi's for dinnie (we went halfsies - i had sag paneer). ugh. one more long day and then tomorrow is FRIDAY! woop!

fin.

take THAT, bugaboo stroller crew!

as faithful readers know, i've been on a constant mission for zucchini blossoms for the past month or so. this weekend's planned mission to st. clair was aborted due to inclement weather and the fact that when i called ahead, dude at the store said he didn't have any. last week at riverdale organic farmer's market, i was told i had to come early (i usually meet the boy there at around 5pm when i'm done work). this time, i sent the boy to the market alone. his mission: be there for the start of the market (3pm) to grab 'em while the getting was good. he arrived on the dot, the guy with the blossoms was just setting up and as he unloaded the basket out of the truck, the boy pounced on them, found out how much they were (5 for $1) and started shoveling them into a bag, just as the rich cabbagetown/riverdale moms with their thousand-dollar strollers started to coo and chirp behind him, "ooh, what are those?" "how do you cook them?" etc. i was so proud of him. i'm sorry to sound like a jerk, but when it comes to zucchini blossoms i think they should be allocated on the basis of skill (like communism!).

we had them with a pasta with spicy cured sausage, arugala and grape tomatoes. the zucchini blossoms were FANTASTIC. and i'm already hungering for more.

today i'm meeting my deadbeat dad for lunch and then meeting h and dr. rei after work for ghandis rotis and to check my library co-worker's gallery exhibit.

fin.

reasons why i love my job

1) my supervisor is bringing me a piece of osso bucco that she made for lunch today
2) see reason #1

me and my supervisor are kindred spirits...we love tripe, bone marrow, zucchini blossoms, baking...the list goes on and on (in case you haven't noticed, the theme of the list is "things karl lagerfeld likes to yam").

in other news, while in the states, i bought a set of jersey sheets (t-shirt material). holy effin eff! how did i live so long without their loving embrace?!?

short post today...celebrity gossip came and bit me in the ass and left me with no time. i register for courses on thursday...eek! and i took on some extra work from that prof i was doing research with before. it's piecework, so i can do it at home on my own time. sweet!

tonight for dinner, if the boy can find zucchini blossoms at the farmer's market, we're having tempura battered, mozzarella, ricotta and basil stuffed zucchini blossoms with squid, chorizo and arugala penne. if there isn't any, i'm making fried rice with pork-stuffed, tempura battered eggplant pockets with sweet chili dipping sauce.

fin.

sometimes, a picture just says it all...

harbord fish'n'chips was as reliably, earth-shatteringly awesome as ever (my abuse of adverbs knows no bounds!). the batter is so crispy and light that i end up eating more than any mere mortal should. i also can't get enough of "planet earth". it's KILLING ME. how can the earth be so cool? how does earth run t'ings so hard? je ne sais pas.
across from harbord fish and chips there's this wall of kid's graffiti featuring the standard line up of trees, houses, the peace sign, and of course, "wu-tang forever !!" hi-larious. i've been eating there for ages and only noticed it last night. i kept getting the giggles over it.


in other news, i've done a lot of reading lately but haven't had a chance to post my reviews. i'm currently reading edward tufte's "the cognitive style of powerpoint" and it's making me SO SO SO happy, as it's basically a reinforcement of everything i've been saying about powerpoint (albeit in a less vitriolic, more eloquent and persuasive way, minus the liberal dose of slang). i LOATHE powerpoint. i hate it when people reiterate the headings on the screen and i find it makes for (generally) hopelessly banal and uncreative presentations. well, edward tufte agrees! i'm going to quote from it whenever i can this year in school (faculty of information studies professors by and large worship at the altar of powerpoint). there's nothing i love more than being able to to turn to established authorities as backup for my s**t disturbances.

today is my long day. i prepped ahead and made a sri lankan beef curry with rice (which is what the house family is eating). alongside salad and lots of fruits.

fin.

that be the stuff, yeah...right there

i got to dance my ass off last night and it felt gooooood...two nights this week (it's a record!) we showed up at around 11:30, the place was EMPTY. i was freaking out and apologising, figuring it was going to be a dud night, what with aaron la crate playing at footwork and all. so we chilled for a bit, and then dougie boom came on. he plays really bad techno. like, REALLY bad. i mean, i don't really go for the seriousness of techno under the best of circumstances, but what dougie boom plays is the WORST. so we went for a brief little walk outside, come back and the place is ram-jiggedy-jammed.

sixtoo came on and laid down some nice stuff - dancey, hard, large bass. then came "the jokers of the scene". i HATE those guys. they place the worst-sounding, clowny s**t ever. but people EAT it up. it's SO BAD. they're lame. so we went for another walk, at this point, the boy went home cuz he wanted to catch the subway and me and the roomie were contemplating it, because we had no idea when tittsworth was going to come on (note to promoters...the headliner should come on BEFORE last call). finally, i was like, you know what? i paid $10 to come out and i've had a few too many lackluster attempts at dancing lately...i'm STAYING, dammit!

and boy, did it pay off. tittsworth was awesome! so many tunes i wanted to hear got played. it was very similar to the two most recent mixes of his that i heard (his mixing skills are insane though...seamless...which is a nice surprise considering other peeps - flosstradamus for one - get bigged up and their skills are novice at best), i'm not sure if tittsworth always plays the same set, or if that's just what he's doing nowadays. either way, me and the roomie were lovin' life...we pretty much stayed to the almost-bitter end and i worked up a good sweat. SCORE!

came home, got a good night's sleep, ate a big breakkie (peameal, over easy eggs, toast, standard sunday morning juice) and now i'm doing some futzing around the house, puttering, prepping dinnie for tomorrow, running errands, then relaxing. we're having dinner with our buddy aaron tonight at harbord fish'n'chips. mmmmmmmmmm. then strawberry mousse pie for dessert. it could've used just a touch more gelatin, but it comes our super light and packs a bright strawberry punch. the recipe is a keeper fo' sho'.

fin.

twilight zone theme

the stars have aligned in mysterious ways this weekend. not only is it my female doppelganger's birthday on sunday, it's my male doppelganger's birthday today (happy birthday lindsay and attila!!!) not to mention, that i've finally had a few pics taken of me recently where i DON'T look like complete ass. dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuun. weeeeiiirrrrrdddd.

i didn't go out last night instead opting to do a long yoga session and watch some heavy nature s**t (snow leopards galore!) on my beloved "planet earth" (the brits have received a temporary reprieve from my de rigeur vitriolic disdain based on the strength of this one documentary) in combination with qt with the boy.

i'm still trying to rally troops to come see tittsworth. the mixes are so.much.fun!

peep this mix: tittsworth june 2007

if that doesn't make you want to shoop, then i'm sorry, you're suffering from some kind of nervous condition that has severed the connection between your ears and extremities.

today i'm working a shift at the library, then going to meet my friend d for some shopping and ice cream in her hood (yonge and eglinton). we're going to go to la paloma for gelato and en route hopefully hit this store that my supervisor at my other job tipped me to. apparently they reliably have zucchini blossoms. i LOVE zucchini blossoms and they're very hard to find. i'm crossing my fingies.

if all goes well, dinner tonight will be ricotta-mozzarella and basil stuffed, battered, and deep-fried zucchini blossoms with a pasta of bucatini tossed in an italian sausage tomato-cream sauce. for dessert a strawberry mousse pie in a graham cracker crust.

fin.

cruising the myspace strip

sorry folks, i got caught up listening to tunes 'pon de myspace so i ran out of time. i'm doing some research on the opening acts for daft punk...to say i'm hype for this night might be the understatement of the millenium. it's going to be le bonkers. it's going to be a proper RAVE.

i'm feeling much better after the haggardness of yesterday...it was ROUGH. i got super-tired right after lunch but then i picked up steam...good thing too, as the public library was a right gong show. i spent the whole night practically on the circ desk. insane in the membrane.

tonight i'm going to try to catch some of the dusk dances at withrow park. basically, for a week during the summer there's a group that organizes groups of dance performances in parks throughout the city, there's several in each park and there's a tour leader that walks you from site to site. it's all FREE! then i'm going to possibly go to the el mocambo to check out this dude named arun branch and the halfway tree. he does reggae. it sounds okay to me...but not that hype. according to the boy, anthony braxton once said something along the lines of, there's people who do stuff that's "fresh", and they're the ones who are restructuring music, and then you got your good traditionalists who are doing stuff within an established idiom. people who are traditionalists who are AMAZING would be sharon jones and the dap kings. this dude isn't a very good traditionalist. he produces what sounds to me like very mediocre, well-trodden reggae. but it's for my doppelganger's birthday...so i'm probably going to go at least for a little bit.

i REALLY want to go dance to tittsworth tomorrow night, but i don't know if i can find anyone to go with me.

that's a shot of me and dr. rei from the chromeo show!

for dinner tonight we're having a spice-rubbed grilled salmon with curried vegetable couscous.

fin.

hurrrrrting...

got home just after 2 last night, asleep by 2:30, up at 7:00 to start work. ugh. midweek shows are the worst! don't let anyone tell you different.

however...last night's show was also THE BEST! the place was packed to the tits. i'm so glad we had our tickets in advance because they only released like, 70 at the door, and it was for $25 or something crazy. the party took place at spin gallery, which is usually used as a gallery space and gets special licenses to serve alcohol when they use it as a venue. i paid FIVE DOLLARS for water, little mini bottles of evian. what a RIP! we came in to some weirdly minimal fake-ironic band that were totally annoying. when flosstradamus came on, they kept stuff mostly housey, but when they played daft punk and randomed it up a bit (ie. dropping "groove is in the heart" !!!!! and "push it" !!!!!!!) it was beyond hype and i brucked out largetime. they turned the crowd into a seething, sweaty, hype mass for chromeo who blew the place apart. they're such a FUN band. i'm in love with dave 1 (pictured above...he's even hotter in person)...they're both total charisma. pee thug works the vocoder, synths and talk box, while dave 1 plays guitar and sings...they've been best friends for forever and bill themselves as the most successful arab (pee thug)/jew (dave 1) collaboration in history. dave 1 is also doing his phd at columbia university in french literature (!!!!!). swoon.

i've had a thing for middle-eastern dark-haired boys lately. and by "thing" i mean: "ravenous desire for"

the party was so hot and steamy that the sweat was collecting on the overhead pipes and dripping back down onto the dancefloor. also: hipster kids stink like the douches they are. like seriously folks, if you're a stinkbot (i am not, thankfully *knocks wood*) then PUT ON SOME ANTIPERSPIRANT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE, wanksters! sheesh! most of them look like they've stepped out of the same american apparel ad...le boring. the point is: me and dr. rei danced our butts off and had a fabulous time and we needed a grand slam of a night like that cuz we hadn't had one in a while.

today i'm an idiot and i signed up for extra hours at my branch...which means i'm going on 4 hours sleep and undertaking a TWELVE HOUR WORK DAY. and i'm having LUNCH WITH MY DEADBEAT DAD. i'm a masochist. i think i'm going to cancel lunch with my dad...a girl can only take so much.

last night's dinnie was tasty as all f**k. i dunno what i'm eating tonight...probably a plate of hurt with a side of whiny petulance and mad dog tired grumpiness.

fin.

on the run...

busy busy busy! non-stop action around these parts, although the roomie forced me to do some yoga on monday when i came home frazzled and irate and set the stage with candles, mint-essence air spray, and non-vocal music and it actually kinda worked. so i did it myself last night and it does help me to unwind a bit (i have a total tendency to get VERY wound). it's very mother earth (aka sarah mclachlan)-y which i have an innate tendency to associate with flakebotness but if it works, it works, i guess.

in other news, we over here have discovered bbc's "planet earth" series and i'm officially obsessed. it's a documentary of footage of the earth with state-of-the-art technology and unprecedented camera techniques. amazing! we saw this leopard that lives in eastern russia, of which there are only FORTY left in the world. and there's this crazy scene of a great white shark chomping on a seal that's depicted in all its slow motion, thrashing, water-droplets-raining down glory. there's also all this fantastic time-lapse business, and if there's one thing i love, it's a well-executed time-lapse. one drawback: it's narrated by david attenborough, who makes it a little stodgier and fussbudgety in that classic british documentary narration way than the footage calls for. he also anthropomorphizes the subjects and infers human qualities into a lot of behaviour that's not necessarily substantiated - making it seem like he's taking narrative liberties.

tonight i'm going to see chromeo with dr. rei. they're a fun, 80s revival-esque kind of band that really commit to their personas. it's going to be douchebag central in there, but what can you do. 

we're having bucatini with pancetta, caramelized onions, black pepper and parm with a big salad tonight for dinnie.

fin.

professional navel-gazing

here is a new york times article entitled "a hipper crowd of shushers" that was featured this past weekend - yet another mass media rumination on how librarians are cool and don't wear buns and cardigans and glasses, etc. etc.

i mean, REALLY. it's beyond annoying. what other profession is so preoccupied with fretting and analyzing themselves? just DO YOUR JOBS, already! the resulting denials and attempts to show how "cool" and "hip" librarians are is even worse. just read the article, i mean, tattoos = cool, does it? and djing = cool? is the whole world in the throes of 9th grade-dictated social organization or something? the back and forth on this issue: "librarians are cool!" "but articles that talk about how we're cool still seem to suggest we're dowdy and repressed!" and the defensiveness on the part of the profession is as bad as discussions on canadian national self-identity. quit navel-gazing and just go out and DO IT! the more you endlessly yammer, the more you come off as whiny, defensive weirdos, in my opinion.

i would like to draw your attention to the one pearl i gleaned from the muckish dreck passing for journalism, and this is: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY HAS LIBRARIANS!!!!! can you say dream job? i've been joking for ages that i'd love to be a pop culture librarian - imagine working for the magazine bible of popular culture?!? *swoon*

i think my supervisor at the public library made a passive-aggressive comment about me not doing my job properly last night. i could have misheard her, but i'm not sure (i had asked to leave two minutes early to try to beat the storm home - i rode my bike). it was something to the effect that yes, i could go, but now SHE would have to be left doing the final closing tidying up of the branch (which i had already done, to the best of my abilities). it was a little weird if she did make the comment for a few reasons: a) she could have just told me to not to leave early, b) she knows we're under-staffed. there are supposed to be two pages at night to tidy up the branch. now that it's summer, the library is busier than ever, and filled mostly with kids, who are notorious mess-hounds. furthermore, i have a 3 hour shift on mondays, 1 hour of which they had me on desk, half an hour they had me scheduled doing another public service assistant job, so that leaves me with an hour and a half for shelving and doing a clean up at the beginning and end of my shift.

meh.

tonight for dinner we're having falafels.

fin.

hilarious run-ins with the bluehairs

dinner last night was the bomb. the boy's nany and papa live in a condo complex with a bunch of other seniors. their apartment features nany's needle-pointed pillow with the endearing slogan "screw the golden years" lovingly festooned upon it.

as we're sitting down chatting before dinner is served, we hear a knock on the door. nany goes to answer it and the resulting exchange goes something like this:

elderly neighbour-man (enm): "hey __ do you have any alcohol?"
nany: "sure! what would you like? gin, vodka, whiskey..."
enm: "well, what do you think would be good to give to a vomiting dog?"
nany: "i'm not sure, but i think 4 ounces should do it"
- at this point, there are interjections from us sitting in the living room listening to this and everyone starts piping in with suggestions (most of them to the effect that the dog should be taken to a vet, and not given alcohol)
somebody asks, "does the dog vomit often?"
enm: "well, no other than the time it ate some crack in the barbados" (!!!!!!!!!!)

i almost died laughing.

another choice moment is when the boy is pouring wine at dinner. he goes around and pours a standard pour, the glass is about half full. nany looks him square in the eye and says, "__, i asked for a GLASS of wine" at which point he obediently tops her up.

hilarious.

today is my long day so i'm packing an egg salad sandwich and that cumin-dressed cucumber, celery and red pepper salad with the fresh mint.

fin.

cooperation, makes it happen

cooperation, working together! (that's a line from a song from an old sesame street skit). team danforth really pulled it together this morning and we cleaned up the house like crazy. moved some junk that we'd been holding for my buddy up to his apartment, rearranged some furniture, positioned this new antique refrigerator chest the boy's parents gave us (i love it!) and generally tidied up like a team. it was awesome! the organization and mobilization made my organization and mobilization-loving soul very happy indeed.

last night's concert was very pretty and nice, but i wasn't keen on the venue. it's in a converted courthouse (and is called, somewhat non-creatively, the "court house") with soaring ceilings and kinda stuffy, aspirations-of-grandeur decor. when we showed up, there were two lines. upon inquiring, i was asked if i had a reservation. "no," sez i, "i have a ticket". well apparently, people who reserve a table (with a $15/person minimum!!!) get seats and the rest of us poor schlubs who have already shelled out $35/ticket have to go up to the mezzanine or stand at the back of the room like the lowly plebes we are. i was a little irate to say the least. YOU KNOW WHY JAZZ IS A DYING SOUND? because of that faux-elitist bulls**t. how 'bout we try to make a VIBE happen first? ugh. i abhor places that try to mix dinner and entertainment. either the DINNER should be the entertainment, or the ENTERTAINMENT should be the entertainment, not both. unless you're serving nachos and fries and wings. but places like the court house don't have the good sense to do that. instead they serve a poutine with "duck confit, maple syrup jus and goat's cheese". good lord, man! that sounds AWFUL!

last night's dinner was so simple and easy and tasty and good. buying mussels at a restaurant is probably one of the biggest ripoffs imaginable. we got 3 lbs of mussels and 2 lbs of clams for $15. that's usually what you end up paying for ONE pound of mussels, and seriously, mussels are one of the easiest things in the world to prepare. it's a crying shame.

in other news: ESPRESSO MASCARPONE ICE BOX CAKE IS THE BOOM BOOM. it took me 15 minutes to make and probably about as much time to demolish the whole thing if common sense hadn't taken over. delicious!

this morning for breakfast i made fried peameal, over easy eggs, toast, and the infamous carrot-beet-apple juice. for dinner we're going to the boy's nany's house. i'm hoping for a roast but as usual, i'll be happy scarfing down anything an old lady cooks for me.

fin.

cinematic orchestra

was more cinematic than i would've liked. i can't imagine that i used to willingly PAY to hear that kind of stuff. it was hopelessly generic and unmemorable. it's "cinematic" alright, but not very evocative, it sounds like a lot of sub-par jazz rip-off noodling. but i do love the harbourfront bandshell as a setting for shows...i wish the city would let it be used more, and later! dancing outside late at night would be lovely.

on fourth of july eve, my sis and her fam took us to her friend's house on the shores of one of the finger lakes for the annual "ring of fire". it's awesome. the lake association gives everyone with frontage on the lake 2 red flares (and then people buy more) and at 10pm on fourth of july eve (aka july 3rd) everyone lights their flares so the whole rim of the lake is softly glowing and outlined in red. at the same time, people are pulling up deck chairs and having bonfires and doing fireworks. and when i say "doing fireworks" i mean: spending tens of thousands of dollars on REAL fireworks, NOT the rinkydinky burning schoolhouses that you get from the convenience stores in toronto. like, symphony of fire fireworks, disneyworld fireworks. it was buckshot. i LOVE fireworks! and i LOVE sitting by lakes and watching fireworks with people i like in deck chairs. it even made MY cold, blackened heart stir with furtive, nascent nationalist sentiments, and i LOATHE nationalism. it's just nice when people come together to do something (barring genocide and fascism).

it wasn't all sunshine and roses though. our ride down there was marred by a tactical error on my part that raised the simmering-beneath-the-surface ire of my outlaw brother. we took two cars down to the lake. i had made my award-winning potato salad and a spinach salad and dessert (which i carried in my lap). i packed up the food and put the salads on the backseat of my outlaw bro's car. well, apparently it sloshed around and got potato salad "all over" his car. then he flipped out and then he gave me the finger as he drove by. it was ugly. in my defense, i NEVER put food on the floor of the car. it's gross! especially if it's in tupperware! how was **i** to know that tupperware didn't form a tight seal? and my outlaw bro, incidentally, LOVES my potato salad, so you'd think he'd be glad that the essence of something he loves would be soaked into the cushions of his car. right? right?

tonight i'm going to see bill frisell at a new venue, the courthouse. i lurve bill frisell. most of his later stuff has been meandering, porch guitar music in the country-style. love!

i switched last night's dinner. we ended up having steak sandwiches on toasted baguette with arugala, sliced tomatoes and st. agur cheese. with grilled asparagus. delicious!

tonight we're having the steamed clams with toasted baguette and salad. i also made a surprise dessert for the boy, who's been pestering me for this "caterpillar" dessert his mum used to make him as a kid, consisting of nabisco chocolate wafer cookies, sandwiched with cool whip and then frosted with more cool whip and frozen, so the cookies get kinda soft and squishy. my variation features espresso, whipped cream and mascarpone, and the cookies, layered into a dessert. i have high hopes.

fin.

look at that form!

well, i played my first-ever 18 holes of golf over the weekend at a course in the town my sister lives in. it was hella cheap! $55 US for two people AND a cart rental! i'd love to be able to say that i played awesome and that i'm a natural, but that would sadly not be the case. i shot 190 on a par 4. however, i AM good at driving a golf cart. my short game sucks balls. and, as you can see, my follow through needs a bit of work. i was feeling rushed and nervous from having people playing behind us and the pressure to play more quickly than at the driving range, where time is on your side. it was still really fun and i'd like to definitely play some more. maybe sniff around on craigslist for some used clubs or sumpin'.

this is a picture from my dinnie at "cracker barrel" which is supposed to be an ye olde tyme country store-style franchise. so you walk in through the "general store" where they sell rockers and miscellaneous americana from the ages (ie. saltwater taffy standing cheek by jowl alongside pez dispensers and the like). the offerings are mostly down-home cooking. i had country fried steak. GENIUS. it's a piece of "steak" (more akin to hamburger or a thinly pounded and tenderized steak cutlet) that's been breaded and deep-fried and is served with a gravy that's so thick and globby, you can stand a spoon up in it. it comes with three sides so i had fried okra, hashbrown casserole (!!!!!!) and mac'n'cheese (!!!!!!!). you'll notice an appealing beige-y palette to the plate with a noticeable lack of items deriving from a fresh, unfried, or vegetal nature (save the okra, which has been aggressively cooked into submission). cracker barrel is AWESOME. but you have to have a deep-seated love for the craptacularly salty, ultra-large-sized and carb-loaded to appreciate it (and if you don't have such a love, even buried deep down in your health-loving soul, you and i are probably not very good friends).

that's a pic of my niece in a rare moment of quiet good humour, and my nephew, whom i dressed up in a spare tutu (thereby breaking my poor outlaw bro's heart). my 3 year old niece is making me question my desire to ever have children. she's a handful. a willful, stubborn, talkative, opinionated little person who can be really funny, but who can also at times be a real whiner. i love her, but i also love being able to give her back.

tonight i'm headed to harbourfront for the "beats, breaks, and culture" festival to see the cinematic orchestra for free! i LOVE free ish! this is what we had for dinner last night. it cooked up pretty quick and was tasty and summery and light. for dinner tonight we're having either shrimp scampi with lots of garlic and chilies, or steamed clams/mussels in white wine and garlic. either way, alongside we're having toasted baguette and salad.

fin.

mini vacay, hey hey

the vacation recap is going to be spread out over a few posts as my 5 days spent in sleepy, small town, upstate new york left me with too many observations to mull and stories with which to regale. i will say this: i LOVE small towns and i have a very large soft spot in my heart for americana. i don't know why, but canadiana has much less of an effect on me (in my weaker moments, i suspect that this might be related to the relative strengths of the respective nations' regional cuisines, and if that is the adjudicating factor, then i regret to say that i pledge my allegiance to the flag and amber waves of grain).

in related news, this post is a shout out to bob evans, bulk sausage maker and restaurateur, who passed away recently and who is responsible for a product that i hold near and dear to my heart. i have no idea why canadians don't see fit to carry bulk sausage in their grocery stores, but i will say this: american grocery stores (even in teeny tiny little small towns with populations under 10 000) have got us BEAT. the selection! the grandeur! the regional specialities! for a city that's as multi-culti as toronto, why can't i find dulce de leche in my iga? so while i'm busy half-masting my personal flag to great bulk sausage makers recently departed, i will also take a moment to pledge allegiance to wegmann's grocery stores and the exhaustive glory they contain within their brick walls.

finally, here is a picture of a baby wearing freakishly oversized senior citizen sunglasses that's pretty self explanatory.

tonight for dinner, i'm giving my gut a rest by making angel hair pasta with chopped tomatoes, basil, balsamic and olive oil and a large salad.

fin.