Happy New Year!

Was Christmas only a week ago?  It feels like ages.  We've had a humdinger of a holiday so far, and what's best - there's still 4 work-free days to go!  

There was a lot of upheaval leading up to Christmas - the Dotytron's sister's pet cat was in and out of emergency and we didn't know if she was going to come to the farm or not and there was a lot of re-jigging and constantly changing plans to make sure that we'd get to spend time with her over the holiday.  It all worked out in the end, and we made it to the farm, a day later, but still, enough for us to revel in the stillness and beauty of rural Ontario (despite the presence of 3 dogs, turkeys, a couple of sheep, and a murderous rooster).  

The Boobla on Christmas morning, after opening his present from us - the classic Fisher Price Popcorn Popper, which he loves.  He's also wearing the hat I knit for him.

Scenes from the Farm.  Farmer R got the Big Yam this camo fleece suit for his birthday, and he was wearing it at the farm.  That's him and Farmer R doing man stuff in the family room.  So cute!  I love that photo.

3 turkeys in a barn.  This is shortly before I almost got beat up by a rooster.  The Big Yam was standing up, just surveying the scene and this vicious, bullying rooster just up and charged at him.  The  Big Yam freaked out, started crying, the Dotytron picked him up, and I ran at the rooster, who retreated for about 2 seconds and then came at me.  I ran away with my arms in the air, screaming.  That guy was tough.

We came home to a Christmas miracle: snow!!!  So we unpacked the car and promptly borrowed our neighbour's sled for some Big Yam sledding.  So grateful that we have an awesome hill AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR STREET.  Yay Lil' Ugmo!

Christmas with my family was a hoot.  This is the only decent photo we got with all the cousins.

Because my family believes in age-appropriate play.  This is how we treat the younger generation.  We followed this up by playing Cards Against Humanity with the kids present.  Then we all took turns timing each other in how long it took for us to put together a Melissa and Doug puzzle, marketed for children aged 3.  EVERYONE was timed, down to the youngest kids up to my brother's girlfriends.  It was awesome, and very typical my family.

My sister got the Big Yam this t-shirt, which is obviously the best t-shirt of all time.

On our way back home, we stopped at Phoenix for breakfast.  This is a sign of how far the Dotytron has come in his Chinese appreciation.  He was ALL OVER the weird, HK-style cafe offerings.  So stoked about getting chicken teriyaki with fried eggs and condensed milk toast.  I had the spicy satay macaroni soup. It's surprisingly comforting.

This is the quilt I made for the roomie's baby T.  Finished just in the nick of time!  The pattern is a simple one that I made up, making use of colorful scraps I had on hand in my stash.  

This adorable baby is the adorablest.  But she looks tired because she isn't sleep-trained.  LOL!  The roomie is always like, "T just went down for a 20 minute nap" and the Dotytron was like, "That's not a nap.  She's just spreading out her night's sleep over the course of an entire day."  I keep threatening that we're going to kidnap her for 3 nights and return her to the Roomie and L'Armi sleep-trained but the Roomie won't hear of it.

We spent New Year's Eve with our Magnetewan cottage crew - minus Pingy.  We had finger foods and talked about the Idle No More movement and Indigenous rights in Canada.  We also talked about the arts and it was precisely the kind of conversations that I love.  I've known Montréal I and the Roomie since university and feel so grateful that we found each other.  So many nights spent talking deep into the night.  So many more of such nights in our future.  Feeling lucky to have them.  Our New Year's breakfast with them was: nduja scrambled eggs, bacon, the Dotytron's waffles, and rye toast.

Last night's dinner.  I've been craving red meat like mad lately.  

We sent the Big Yam into daycare today.  The Dotyron and I are going to see a movie at our local with some free vouchers we got from a botched Dark Knight Rises screening in the summer.  

Saw a bunch of movies over the break...will review tomorrow.

Fin.

"are you racist?"

i composed this post on monday, before finding out about poppa. thought i'd post it anyway.

R&R acres was blissful as always. such warmth! we drove up on thursday night in the middle of a rainstorm that broke just as we were about a half hour away from the farm to this:

that's either a sign of the apocalypse or the hand of god welcoming us to farm country. as soon as we got off the 401 onto trafalgar to head up north, i could just feel all the dirt, soot, and stress get tornadoed out of the way by the gusts of clean air filling our lungs and our un-air conditioned car.

before we left we stopped for a quickie road dinner at this place, the burger's priest, yet another participant in toronto's gourmet/specialty burger shoppes (it's a scene that's reaching, if not has reached, critical mass). the burger's priest is a worthy contender. much better than great burger kitchen (which i've pretty much renounced now for their inconsistency), the burger shoppe, and a lot of the other choices out there.

the burger's priest is a tiny little place, with counter seating for about 4 and a bench or two outside. it also has a very limited menu, consisting of a burger, cheeseburger, double patty burger, or the veggie option, which is two portobello mushrooms sandwiched together with a filling of cheese, then breaded and fried. you can also get the regular meat burger with the portobello fried patty on top. there are also fries, and chili cheese fries. the chief hook here is that the meat is freshly ground, an hour before being griddled and oh, what a difference this makes!

the patty is loose, very very very juicy, and while i'd still have to say that five guys burgers and fries is still the best burger i've ever had, this one is similar. the five guys burger is a bit brawnier, on account of the american tendency to fear e. coli and cook the meat all the way through. the burger's priest patty is tender bordering on tartare, a little small, but very tender and flavourful. the toppings are minimal, which i like, and my only suggestion is that the patties could use a touch of salt. i'm realizing that i much prefer griddled patties than grilled ones. something about that crust you get on a griddled burger is magic.

the chili cheese fries were also good - the fries are a little limp and potato-y:

most of the weekend was spent napping and reading lazily on the porch swing, letting dogs lick our plates clean, eating grilled meat cooked over an open fire on their argentinian barbecue, gobbling pies heaped with fresh cream, starting our day with big bowls of saugeen country organic yoghurt, eating vegetables picked from the garden, playing endless games of fetch with the dogs, watching bob the cat act crazy, cooling our feet in the stream, herding the sheep back into the barn, and small visits into town to check out the gun club. we did a bit of work, too - we weeded the veggie garden for about an hour, but that was probably the only time my muscles were called upon to do anything other than sit and bask in the hospitality of our hosts.

this is violet, she stinks and eats poo, but has

very cute eyes:

our lunch on friday - cheese & pates i had brought:

cooling my piggies in the stream:

R built an argentinian style bbq - i'm so jealous:

this is roxy, she's got the crazy eyes:

this is bob the cat, he's a character. a total joker:

on sunday we emerged onto the lawn after dinner to find

the sheep had broken out of the pen and had invaded:

the presence of the fatburger meant that this time there was no shooting guns or riding ATVs, but next time, i'm so there! there's a big part of yours truly that's a bit of a country redneck - i like doing farm chores and being around animals and i want to go hunting and shoot a deer and mount its skull on my wall - my only problem is i like talking too much. i'd be the loudest, and consequently the most unsuccessful hunter, ever.

being in farm country means that you're exposed to a radically different view point and you realize just how wide the urban-rural divide can be. the night we arrived, our host R was hanging with his helper, a young kid (like, 19) from the next concession over. farm country has different schooling levels - for kids like this one, whose goal in life is to continue his family's farm, they do a very basic secondary school education. this kid was barely literate. the other week when R drove him into toronto, he'd never driven under an overpass before and was suitably wowed. he's a bit thick, but sweet. the conversation was pretty hilarious. i went to bed early but was filled in by the dotytron after.

i did catch an intriguing snippet of conversation and made a note to ask the dotytron about it later, as i was nodding off to sleep in our room in the bunkie. the windows were open to let the night air in and i heard the kid and the dotytron walking out to do some drinking in the barn. i heard the kid ask the dotytron, "are you racist?" the dotytron's reply was a little too muffled for me to hear so i suppressed a giggle and asked the dotytron later, as he stumbled into bed smelling like a distillery.

apparently his response was a slow, "noooooooo...are you?" lol! apparently the kid wasn't racist but he hasn't been around many other cultures. the kid was totally baffled by city folk and our motivations. and he's a bit thick. that's what a lifetime of being understimulated will do for you, i suppose. R and the dotytron spent most of their drunken night sipping tequila and trying to get the kid to understand certain basic concepts, culminating in R saying, "these are city folk! why, sometimes they even vote liberal!" which completely flummoxed the kid. it was pretty funny.

R&R are a good mix - people from the city who've traveled and then embraced farm life. the male R loves to hunt, so he's for gun registration and gun control, but against the nanny state and bans on certain types of guns, which i can understand. it's totally different living out there, where raccoons and weasels will sneak into the barn and kill all your ducklings and eat the eggs. kind of libertarian, i suppose. he's rough around the edges and has some views i don't necessarily agree with, but at the end of the day, it takes all kinds, and he has always welcomed us with a warmth and hospitality that's seldom seen in the city. they're good peoples.

friday dinner: maple-mustard pork grilled on the argentinian bbq

w/ salad

friday dessert: raspberry cardamom frangipane tart

saturday morning breakfast: apple cinnamon fat baby

saturday night's dinner on the bbq

saturday night dinner: venison kebabs, pork kebabs,

kohlrabi & beet salad w/ sour cream and dill, scarlet runner beans &

grape tomato warm salad, sweet potato fries w/ basil mayo

saturday's dessert: sour cherry pie

sunday breakfast: steak, eggs, bacon, chimichurri

as you can tell, we ate a LOT of meat this weekend.


for dinner tonight i wanted to swing the pendulum back so we ate a nicoise salad with bagna cauda and the last of my jarred italian tuna. nom nom. we're going to the cottage for a week on saturday, which means that my diet will again degrade into a non-stop parade of chips and grilled protein - so i'm trying to stockpile veggies whilst i can.

fin.

hello farm, here we come!

eek! so excited to bust out of dodge and head to farm country and R & R acres! ehmdo is joining us up there on saturday...can't wait! i want to go for a canoe ride on the saugreen river and shoot guns (the dotytron already said i'm not allowed) and ride ATVs (the dotytron already said i'm not allowed) and eat (allowed) and read (allowed) and do farmy type things (allowed).

so the dotytron is signing his contract with the TDSB today! wahoo! and joy of joys, the other private school he likes has agreed to continue to have him on for morning work. wahoo! now he just has to negotiate a raise or something. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!? this means that conceivably, for the first time since starting our respective second career strategies, WE'LL BOTH BE MAKING FULL-TIME MONEY. wahoo! well, technically only for like, 3 months until i go on my mat leave, but still. wahoo! wahoo! wahoo! it's going to be a hard year for the ol' dotytron though. he basically has 45 minutes between schools and he's teaching a full course load at both, and at the private school, he's teaching grade 8 science (we kind of thought they would just have him on for music, but no). the 45 minutes will mostly be taken up with travel time. in a lot of ways, it's harder than if he had tried to duke it out and get by with supply teaching - at least he would have had a bit more flexibility to hang with me and the fatburger...but this is good. he can do this.

i mean, it's not like it's going to be that hard for me. contrary to what my academic book club would have you believe. as i told the dotytron last night, "those honky grandmas be trippin'!" j/k. they're all really lovely. and i don't actually believe that it's going to be easy for me. i just don't like going to into things assuming it's going to be all THAT hard.

they just have a different approach than i do. ultimately, it's whatever you're comfortable with, but i just don't personally see the point of reading all the books on WHAT-IF and WHAT-TO-DO-WHEN scenarios NOW before the little one appears. that to me, is a recipe for stressball city, and i just think that life in general is SO FRAUGHT and there's no way to predict all the little and big curve balls that COULD be thrown at you - i mean, i'd rather meet the little fatburger and then see what's what with him before going into research mode. like, if he starts acting weird and i suspect autism, THEN i'll go into research mode, instead of preemptively scaring the pants off myself and worrying unnecessarily.

my friend C in the book club is doing a tonne of research before her baby is born. she wants to be armed and ready with research when she's sleep deprived because her mum is staying with her and she said her mum has all kinds of crazy ideas about parenting that she wants to be able to refute with studies and her research. so i asked what kind of crazy ideas her mum had, and C said that her mum believes that all babies are manipulative from birth, and that you can't go running to them all the time and that you have to set them up on a feeding schedule and NOT feed on demand. C said that all the books she's said refute her mom's advice and when she brought it up at her prenatal class everyone laughed at her mom's opinion and said it was crazy.

well, guess what? I AGREE WITH C'S MOM! babies are terrorists! and i DO NOT negotiate with terrorists! i'm also not about to be bullied by someone I DON'T KNOW. babies ARE manipulative! they're self-interested, the way we all are. and i just feel like you kind of have to get them onto your schedule or else you end up in attachment parenting/how-do-i-wean-my-4-year-old-off-of-night-feedings land. get the little bugger on a schedule that makes sense for your own life, so you're not a no-sleep boob machine, with some flexibility built in.

then the other part of me feels like by NOT researching like crazy i'm tempting the fates and that the other shoe is going to drop and the little fatburger is going to be nothing but trouble and colicky or have any number of other issues. that's stupid superstitious, right? i dunno! *knocks a billion pieces of wood nervously* i'm not being flippant. i'm not being smug. there are tonnes of things that can/will/probably go sideways - i'm just going to face them when they're presented and not before.

how can the books tell you anything that works? that's why people have to read so many. it's not like babies/people are like simple machines. they're incredibly complex machines. that's why you only have to read ONCE about how to install a light fixture or how to fix your fridge. but with people? to me, that's like reading a book on "how to be in a relationship with the dotytron" - like, him specifically. that's what's happening here. there's no way of knowing what the little being is going to be like, want, need, what their personality is going to be - so what's the point of reading books on how to manage it? i've learned how to be in a relationship with the dotytron by being in a bunch of relationships. i've learned how to i, karl lagerfeld esquire, exist in a relationship. and i think our whole lives have been about preparing us to be us, and then as an extension, us in various scenarios. us as workers, us as colleagues, as friends, as sons/daughters/aunts/uncles and now, parents.

life is a crazy roller coaster. you just have to faith and hope for the best and feel grateful for when things go your way for a bit and be strong when things don't go your way for a bit. be worthy of love. and give love in return.

that's my parenting book. right there.

on a less serious-o note. the dotytron makes me laugh like no one else. as you may or may not know, i'm the budgeter in the family. i do the all the financial wrangling and budget-setting. this summer, the dotytron is getting one paycheque from the one private school which covers all his fixed expenses and making up the rest with his private lessons. anyway, with my super-conservative budgeting, it basically left him with like, $20 spending money for july and august.

i was doing the number crunching yesterday and it turns out that we have a little more scrilla than i had anticipated. so this is how the exchange goes down:

me: "guess what? i did the number crunching and it looks like you'll have more scrilla than we had originally thought!"
dotytron: "sweet! i'm going to buy myself a gujin!"
[note: he's wanted a gujin for a long time. they cost about $800]
me: "well, don't get too excited, it's only like, a few hunny more"
dotytron, continuing as if i hadn't said anything:
"a $24 gujin.
...in the form of a lapel pin"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol! does anyone else find that funny? so funny!

in other news, s-dawg has been pissing me off lately. he just likes to complicate things for the sake of complicating things, but without getting in on the ground level.

so he waits for a plan to get organized, and then SWEEPS IN WITH HIS OWN AGENDA and changes everything. it's intensely irritating.

here's how it went down.

1) dr. rei, hanbo, and a bunch of us had been talking for the past couple of months about going to see the blue jays game in the AYCE seats. i had also invited our cleveland friends H & A to come too, but they're out of town that weekend.

2) i realized that the game is the day after we come back from the cottage so i send out an email to my fam outlining that these were the plans i had in play and wondering what my sis was saying (if she and the fam were heading out early, etc.) and if they wanted to join in if they were staying in town for the day.

3) then my mum busts in out of nowhere and says we have family in town (family i barely know) and we should take them out for dinner

4) i'm like, uh, not really - i'd rather do something fun with my friends before my birthday on the long weekend, i was just checking to see what the general plans were so it wasn't the USUAL disorganized CF it always is with my family

5) then big d busts in and says we have no plans with family (lol!)

6) then my sis says she's in. and the outlaw bro is in. but what to do with the kids?

7) i don't want to re-number these, but point #3 should really say that c-hova says he's going to see drake and is out

8) my mum volunteers to watch the kids.

9) s-dawg busts in and says that he can get us seats at the 1st or 3rd baseline, 4 rows up and that the kids would have fun at the game, too.

10) i say: great! so we can all go to the game together!

11) s-dawg then says that he can't get tix for everyone, just the family.

12) my mum then decides that she wants to spend time with the fam-bam so she's going to come now

12) i ask s-dawg why he's trying to plan a SEPARATE, personal family outing when the original plan was based on me wanting to combine both things and get everyone together

imo, s-dawg is just complicating things for the sake of complicating things and hi-jacking the original plan. in his opinion - i'm throwing a "hissy fit" because people aren't going along with my plan. i think this is a spurious accusation because a) with my plan, we all get to do the same thing and hang out together; and b) the original plan was MY PLAN!

i liken it to this: last week when s-dawg had plans to see the UFC game with his friends, he invited us along. if we had then decided that we didn't want to watch the UFC game at bo-pie and then split off to watch the game from montana's because they had a bigger screen, leaving the friends he had ORIGINATED the plan with at bo-pie, that would have been a bit of a hi-jacking and rude. that's what i feel is being done here.

in the end, it looks like we'll all be at the game, but my family will be in the blinging seats and me and the dotytron etc. will be in the nosebleed seats pigging out on hot dogs and nachos. it's probably for the best because i care about baseball only marginally more than i care about the world cup and i'm really in it to sit in the sun and hang out and stuff my face with people i like. bonus: dr. rei's dad might be joining us too! it just sucks that i won't get to sit with my sis and her family.

anyway, he's been really bugging me lately (there was a whole incident with my cell phone that i never bothered recounting here) so i'm just kind off him at the moment.

in less drama news - there will be minimal to no drama at the farm and i'm mucho looking forward to it.

have a nice weekend everyone!

fin.

meanwhile, back from the farm

so the farm was the funnest ever! we were on our very best behaviour and i cooked my little heart out so that we could ingratiate ourselves on our host L and possibly be invited back in the future. *crosses fingers* there were some startling revelations and some hardcore over-sharing, chased with lots of over-eating, one of the most taxing hikes in recent memory that quite nearly broke my spirit (but was fun nevertheless) and endless rounds of game playing and late night guantanamo-style interrogation sessions of "would you rather/who would you do?" that kept me up way past my bedtime.

we learned a new game! it's called werewolves (also known as mafia) and it's WICKED fun. i'm not a very good strategist though so i wasn't the best at it...and i'm definitely not the sharpest tool in the tool shed when i haven't had enough sleep. so that's why i suck at it. that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

S made the dotytron one of the bestest presents ever! it's a candy wreath! just try to picture how my imagination was set afire at the introduction of such a wondrous and crafty item into our lives:

oh hai! i has talented friends!

i've slowly been getting my life together today. unpacked, did some laundry, tidied up after montreal I, did some dishes, set up the new toaster (what a beaut!), did some online shopping with gift certificates and now i'm gearing up to head out into the cold cold world and do some grocery shopping.

tonight the hamcamp klik is ushering in goosetang '09 with our much anticipated 'arry 'otter (sound out every word preceded with an apostrophe in the paragraph to follow with an atrocious cockney accent) movie night which will also be our inaugural time hanging at bwong's house. not only will we be hanging at bwong's 'ouse, but 'arry 'otter movie night will be prefaced with us gorging our faces at chinese all you can eat (AYCE for short) 'ot pot (big steaming bowl of broth, into which you dip all manner of raw meats, seafood, dumplings, noodles, veggies. i'm bringing some 'omemade 'arshies for 'ot 'hocolate, and some frozen balls of new york times 'hocolate 'hip 'ookies for baking off at bwong's 'ouse. should be epic win! i think we're going to watch the last few 'arry 'otter movies which hanbo has never seen. this will also be a good refresher for dr. rei, who likes to watch movies but apparently forgets them immediately following the viewing (lord of the rings, anyone?)

okay...movie review time. "slumdog millionaire" was good, but not great. it's one of the most highly-reviewed films of oscar-bait season (it's been getting A+ and 5 stars) and is based on the book "Q & A" by vikas swarup. it's about a poor dude from the slums of mumbai, who somehow gets onto india's version of "who wants to be a millionaire" and answers all the questions correctly. the film (and book) trace back through his life and track the events that gave him the knowledge to do so. my one complaint about the film is that there was a bit of a tonal issue. it's presented in a hyper-realistic fashion, but at the same time, some of the events stretch the limits of the plausible. if it had been filmed in a magic-realist fashion, i think i might have been able to buy it a bit more. also, it's about the poor kid's rise to triumph and it's supposed to be a heart-warming little number, but some of the experiences are pretty grim and harsh and bleak and hyper-real, which fights against the uplifting climax of the narrative and creates a jarring and incongruous tonal disjunct. the film is gorgeous though and mimics "city of god" in it's ability to show the seething slum life of the 5th largest city in the world and the unprecedented growth that has occurred within a generation's span.

"the curious case of benjamin button" (hereafter referred to as, "the movie"), has the opposite problem...the tone is right (magic realism) but it's very cold and almost too clinical, the director (david fincher) doesn't do a good enough job of coaxing the emotion of the story and the actors. that the same screenwriter penned "forrest gump" is obvious in the heavy-handed use of a (somewhat pat) recurring motif) and in the way the story unfolds (going from event to event in one "extraordinary" person's life) and in the use of the main character's narration to guide the story.

cate blanchett and brad pitt never really seem to overcome the limitations of their movie star faces (titters broke out in the packed audience i sat in when cate blanchett's daisy remarks, upon seeing benjamin at the prime of his life, inhabited fully by the brad pitt-ness of brad pitt, "you're perfect!") to imbue their characters with, well...character. the best moments of the film are the side stories, but the romance between the two leads is the central thread that connects the events of the film - daisy's life parallels benjamin's and it is to her that he keeps returning, and it falls short. by contrast, benjamin's brief dalliance with tilda swinton's character is much more believable. as a whole, i generally found the side characters and supporting stories much more engaging than the central one. the film was also wicked overlong and there were too many montages and scenes that dragged.

okay...grocery shopping time!

fin.