summer solstice

yesterday was the summer solstice which always leaves me feeling bittersweet. even as you're quietly awed as the seemingly endless day inches slowly into twilight, you know that this is the turning point, where you start to feel the sun gently extricate itself from your fingers, eluding your grasp, leaving in its place the quickening dark that hints at winter.

the schmoozing went well, although i've just about given up any hope of a chance at working at the toronto star or globe & mail or any of the media outlets. a woman from the star spoke at the event and she said it's really tough out there for news librarians. as news organizations continue to centralize and lay people off, they're simply not replacing people. although she did mention a friend who finally got a job working for e-talk daily (which would be SO.MUCH.FUN!!!. just imagine me "researching" celebrity pop culture all day...although if i got stuck with the can-con, imagine instead me struggling to stay awake as a i troll the internet in search of pictures of kim mitchell's younger sister or tidbits about michael buble where he DOESN'T come off as a giant boob, or info on feist where she's not a pretentious, self-involved twat).

thanks to momma d, i also had an in with the film reference library lady, which would be another awesome job. ideally, and i've said this before, i would love to be a pop culture librarian, which is hard, because the only university of popular culture of any repute is in bowling green, ohio. i'd also love to be a librarian at some kind of culinary archive or something, but again, there's not much of that around these parts.

last night i ended up grabbing chinese bbq takeout on the way home. tonight my brothers, rei, and the roomie are going up to markham for a chinese banquet for my grandma's bday. feastus-maximus! then we're going out dancing at supermarket for that hip hop night i adore, called "never forgive action". and my littlest bro is also moving in tonight for the summer (he got a job as a camp counsellor downtown).

fin.

lateness abounds!

yet again! so yet another short post.

questions:

a) does the fact that i have absolutely no interest in pride make me a latent homophobe? my principle objections are: the music, sweaty naked people, and hordes of drunks.

b) am i ever going to see my friend schmee again?

c) will i be able to pull off schmoozing at my professional event tonight with aplomb and grace?

i'm not sure if i'm going to be ambitious enough to try to make dinner. we shall see. if i do, it's going to be pasta with fried eggplant, tomatoes, olives, and these oven-roasted hot chili peppers packed in oil that my supervisor gave me.

i lub her!

fin.

subway etiquette

yes folks, it's the de rigeur toronto ttc rider's rant about how other people have no subway etiquette. as i was getting off the subway yesterday i was held up by a doddering old lady, with a cane, unsteadily trying to weave her way out of the path of exiting and oncoming passengers. she was OLD, folks. like 80+ old, and all the other passengers on the train with a seat are much younger. i almost lost my s**t. as i'm getting off and pass the lady, i raised my voice and shouted, "will SOMEONE give up their seat for this person?!?" and stared at the seated people until a young man sheepishly and shamefacedly got up. i also got some nasty glares but i can deal with that. it makes me want to puke the way people can be so rude. i want to cuff them all upside the head.

in more positive news: WE FOUND THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!!! it was parked on the corner of the danforth. i got a butterscotch sundae and the roomie and the boy got a swirled chocolate dip cone. i suspect that the ice cream truck is probably pretty low fat because soft-serve is probably soy milk or something. the dairy percentage in that crap has got to be pretty low.

we're also dealing with this weird pipe issue, where every now and then, the pipes start making this shuddering racket, that will only be alleviated by turning on the taps all the way. it's pretty freaky because the noise is so loud and the walls start shaking something awful - it feels like the pipe is going to explode. apparently there's air trapped in there or something.

dinner tonight is huevos rancheros. i made the tortilla chips, deep frying cut up corn tortillas, and we nibbled on some last night...they're SO MUCH BETTER than store bought. so corn-y! i'm running late so i'll put up pics of last night's dinner tomorrow.

we love freaks and geeks!

i borrowed the entire first season from the library. we had started watching "firefly" but i couldn't handle the heavy whedon-sci-fi epic in the summer time. funny, heartfelt, awkward, teenage coming-of-age in the 80s however? sign me up!!! we've only watched 2 episodes so far but it's got so much heart that i was totally won over. seth rogan's awkward one-liners are hilarious. i'm really hoping that lindsay weir ends up with nick andopolis (who is totally sweet and kinda goofy and obsessed with building the ultimate drum kit) instead of daniel desario (played by james franco as this show's jordan catalano character...hot but a big dummy). little sam weir is the cutest! i'm kinda glad the show only lasted one season, because i don't want to see that kid grow up. it would just be bad. like, kevin-arnold-at-the-end-of-wonder-years bad.

tonight for dinner we're having cedar-planked lime-ginger marinated salmon with sweet potato fries and roasted ontario asparagus. viva l'ete!

fin.

the next tiger...

so, i've totally fallen in love with the driving range. according to the boy, i was doing pretty good for a first-timer...i managed to knock the ball into the 100 yard range a couple of times. the thing i like about it, is that it's a mental game. every single time you tee up is an opportunity to make micro-adjustments and get it right. and it's just you against yourself. i definitely like it better than most team sports, where things are happening really fast and your movements have got to be really instinctual. golf seems really cerebral and i totally dug it. the plan is we're going to hit the driving range a couple more times and then play a round on a par 3 course. as you can see, i totally don't have appropriate golf attire. i'm hoping i can raid a used clothing store for a totally 80s, vintage, preppy, lacoste-laden look, suitable for a woman named dottie buffington III. go big or go home, folks.

it was a pretty physical weekend all around, which i loved. we biked to dinner on saturday night and biked home from the movie. we also biked to golf and back, played a round, and then played dodgeball. we won the final game, but it was close. final score was 9-8 and it got ugly. we had a good lead going in, but then we lost our heads and started playing too defensively and the opponents started gaining ground. my heart was POUNDING during that final game but we made quick work of them. for once, **I** wasn't the one having rage blackout issues. and you know there's something off when **I** am the calmest person during the game. that team in particular makes us SO MAD. the game started off fine. then they called an out on one of our players (he was holding two balls). now, i've got the rules. simple possession of two balls at one time by one person doesn't qualify as an out, but they do have to put one of the balls down. and if they make a catch while holding another ball, the catch is a wash. but they started flipping out and calling it an out. and that's when our team LOST IT. they were also calling outs on stupid stuff like if one of our players accidentally slid over the line by half a foot. and they were CHEATING again like CRAZY! they weren't abiding by the first off, first on rule. and when we had established that we would let them call their own outs and we would call our own, they kept trying to argue our outs for us. in the end we won, but it was so ugly that it marred the victory for us. because i just know that they don't think we won fair and square. they probably think we won through cheating, which is just annoying when they're the cheatiest team around. so aggravating! if we meet them next season, we're just going to kill them with kindness. and then CRUSH THEM.

you know what's NOT aggravating? hilary duff's dress at the mmvas. gorgeous! i just need it to not be strapless. what a fun, kicky little number.

today is my long day, so i'm packing a red cabbage and beet borscht with dilled sour cream (can be eaten hot or cold!) for dinnie along with my by-now requisite cheddar and onion sammy.

fin.

o, mein papa

fathers of the world (except kim jong-il), i salute you!

the rosebud was delicious! four people, 3 cocktails, and a bottle of wine cost $310 after tax and tip (although now i'm agonizing that we didn't tip enough...why am i so bad at the maths??? why???) and we each had 3 courses. to start, i had the chicken liver and cognac pate, which came (properly) in it's own little wee crock frosted with a 1/4 " layer of chicken fat, which cleaved in big shards like ice beneath the pressure of my knife to yield buttery, smooth, rich and flavourful chicken live mousse with a slight acidity from the booze to cut the unctuousness. this was served with thin crostinis that had been seasoned. i can't reiterate enough how much i love it when places take that extra little step to season their toasts. just a soupcon of salt makes all the difference.

the boy had an heirloom beet and arugula salad with goat's cheese. the arugula was bitter and spicy, tempered by the sweetness of the beets and the balsamic vinaigrette in which it was dressed, and complemented by the disc of faintly barny goatcheese that had been crusted in nuts.

for a main course, i ordered lamb rack with mint sauce and peas. the lamb was cooked perfectly medium, capped with a chewy, sizzling, lip-smackingly good layer of crunchy lamb fat, properly seared. the sauce was the star of the show: a rich, dark, thickly viscous lamb glace, punctuated with breathy shots of julienned mint, the pop of green peas, and chunks of crunchy-soft roasted potatoes, perfect for chasing the slick, flavour-packed jus. delicious.

the boy got braised short ribs, which were two sturdy, beefy little numbers, the meat properly falling off the bone with a neat pile of caramelized shallots.

the desserts were pretty standard, an airy, bittersweet chocolate mousse shot through with espresso undertones and a fairly standard (though very custardy) creme brulee, topped with a layer of burnt sugar that was slightly too thick for my liking.

overall everything, including our friends' dishes, were all well prepared and uniformly delicious. the style of the food doesn't make it the kind of place where i'll necessarily be running to go there again, mainly because it's on the opposite side of town. it's a great first-date kind of joint, where you'll pay medium prices for well executed, thoughtful, though slightly unadventurous food.

today we're going to shoot a bucket of balls at the driving range with the boy's dad. F.U.N.!!! i've never golfed before but i'm tremendously excited. then it's dinner with the boy's family, then dodgeball, then post-game food at duff's, then home.

what a day!

fin.

dear sister

so i finally got around to watching the snl "dear sister" digital short 'pon de youtube. HI-larious. i know i'm hopelessly out of date but i kinda got a hot-on for andy samberg. although i thought the natalie portman rap wasn't that funny.

last night's "scene not herd" series was predictable/fun/entertaining as always. the best one i saw was for this song called "sta passando novembre" by eroz ramozotti. it was beautiful and sad and touching and sweetly tender:


the other one i loved was called "the owl" by i love you but, i have chosen darkness. this one was beautifully stark and effective, mostly for the depiction of the owl alone. the music melded amazingly with the visuals, creating a nearly unbearable tension that mounted and mounted without the exhalation of release:


finally, the last one i really really liked was called "peace and love" by a band called quasi. it had cute round animation and if there's one thing i'm a sucker for, it's cute, round animation. plus when the characters finally come together, it's the cutest embrace ever! like brancusi's "the kiss" (grade 12 art history say what!):


there was an AWFUL one from the scissor sisters (i can't believe people listen to that generic crap), the constantines (ditto) and emily haines and some other loser from broken social scene. indie music is poo. the emily haines one was just plain BORING and utterly generic and the apostle of hustle tune, "national anthem of nowhere" sounded like s**t. literally. the levels and engineering on the tune were crap, unless it was MEANT to sound like it was recorded 5 rooms down from the mic, in which case, that's the stupidest idea i've ever heard. also, there was a predictably, self-indulgent lame-ass tune featuring the most generic, elevator-innocuous electronic music noodling beats, courtesy of everyone's favorite borderline autistic dorkface, thom yorke. the programme calls his style "plaintive", i call it "whiny" and "dull". i don't think "plaintive" can be used as a favorable adjective. as soon as i heard the keening, indecipherable mumbling of a male voice over those utterly banal beats, i just KNEW it had to be radiohead or a side-project, and lo and behold, 3/4 of the way through, we see thom yorke, half catatonic, curled into a embryonic rigor mortis, plunging into a pool of water. *YAWN* i'm sorry, but thom yorke needs to go away now. actually, he should've gone away like ten billion years ago and left his keening middling-ness off the airwaves and music enthusiasts-cum-lately's "best of" lists.

today i'm working a shift at the library (just a half day, yay!) and then coming home to get a crash course in bike mechanics from my housemate (my friend renting the apartment upstairs). then me and the boy are going to a place called the rosebud for dinner, followed by a short film festival "midnight mania" series called "creepy".

full review of the rosebud (with pictures!) to follow.

fin.

let the weekend begin!

i'm homeward bound to chill with dr. rei before we go to the "scene not herd" show of the worldwide short film festival. i'm a festival regular now, going on five years. "scene not herd" is a showcase of music videos from around the world which makes for a visually and aurally entertaining show.

that is a variation on the outfit i'm wearing. it's a little blurry and i'm scrapping the short-shorts in favour of dark denim capris. i was hamming it up last night, wearing a cut-off piece of the boy's trousers on my head and arm...a kind of nouveau kkk/nazi cross...it's a line i'm developing for target.

i was so excited to start mowing last night's dinnie i almost forgot to take a shot. thus the large, unsightly, dinosaur-chomp taken out of my sammie. the spooge coming out the top is the scallion mayo making a run for it. i ended up scrapping the bottom half of bread because it was getting too bready. the miso-carrot vinaigrette was aight. it could've used some fresh ginger but i was out. otherwise it was sweet and slightly acidic with a good shot of the miso-fermenty-musk/funk to give it some character.

tonight for dinnie i'm making braised sausage and artichokes with lemon and sage and roasted asparagus. and i think after the movie i want to go to greg's ice cream for dessert.

fin.

the sarah dessen oeuvre

"that summer" was sarah dessen's first novel and in my opinion, it shows. it's a story about the "summer that changes your life" and is a rather flimsy tale about a girl, haven, whose sister is getting married, dealing with her father's remarriage and the reappearance of the boy who her sister dated. not a lot goes on and the characters aren't very well drawn or interesting. if i wasn't so doggedly committed to reading everything she wrote, i doubt i would pick it up otherwise and i know i wouldn't read it again.

"keeping the moon" has an awful title but is more fluffily readable than the last. there's familiar ground being retread here: a girl going through awkwardness, comes into her own during a summer of new friendships and a boy. i dig the whole teenage-portentousness-of-summer thing, i think i'm still guilty of it to this day, romanticizing summer. there's something about summer that to me, just makes it seem possible that anything can happen, particularly in the romance and adventure department. there just seems to be more opportunity to DO stuff in general. i enjoyed this one, but not as much as "just listen"

"someone like you" has a "best friends going through a teenage pregnancy" theme, mixed with a dash of "teenage girl getting into a regrettable relationship" and "teenage girl breaking away from the ties that bind her to her parents, only to gradually make her way back through the exorcism of the regrettable relationship" the slight change in subject matter (ie. not so romance driven) made it more enjoyable than "keeping the moon" or "that summer" and i liked the way the characters developed and were written.

finally, there's "this lullaby" which i LOVED. it's about a girl who goes through relationships and chews boys up, a serial monogamist who never really allows herself to get close to any of the boys she ends up with, until she meets this musician, dexter, who blows through her defenses, and despite all her efforts to rationalize how wrong they are for each other, makes her take a chance on love. it SOUNDS incredibly cheesy, right? it's not! (at least, i don't think so). the characters were so sweet and well written, especially dexter whose personality jumps off the page. they felt really real and the romance plays out in this sarcastic, guarded, jokey way that i found really endearing. dessen also frames her lead character's resistance to love within the framework of a deadbeat dad. maybe i liked it because the lead character is like me. it's by far the toughest girl that dessen has ever created. usually her lead characters are about mousy "good" girls who have to try hard to have their voices heard, whereas remy, the lead in "this lullaby", is a confident, brassy, whip-smart chick who just doesn't know how to let her guard down. it was an absolute delight to read, and it became my new favorite...it's definitely one i'll be re-reading again.

so my personal ranking of sarah dessen's young adult work reads thus:

1. this lullaby
2. just listen
3. the truth about forever
4. someone like you
5. keeping the moon
6. that summer

i still have to read "dreamland" and then i'm completely caught up, but right now i'm going through a non-fiction phase.

i LOVE how much pleasure reading i'm getting to do this summer!

update: last night's dinner = SUCCESS! but i implore you not to underestimate the ease with which one can bread and deep fry a poached egg. to quote julia roberts in that timeless french classic, "pretty woman": "slippery little suckers" *horse-faced - but beguiling! - smile* i wasn't careful and broke a couple of yolks. it's hard getting the eggs poached firm enough so that you can handle them, and underdone enough so that the yolks will still be runny when re-cooked during the frying process. the garlic scapes were an unparalleled success and overall the dish was restaurant worthy to the extreme. i added some oven-roasted ontario asparagus to up the veg quotient.

i was feeling guilty because yesterday i basically ate sugar all day. the party was a huge hit! the ladies at work should definitely start a side business doing corporate events because it was the nicest, most diverse and pro spread i've seen at a work gig. they really know how to entertain! plus there was dominion slab cake of the calibre that i'm particularly susceptible to: cheap, fake, airy and loaded with a creamy (whipped cream?) frosting that isn't that gummy, thick, overly saccharine grout-like stuff that is the go-to frosting for most mass-produced cakes. deelish! needless to say, i ate way too much sugar. i nearly scrapped dinner (since the day was already a write-off) for burgers from this new burger place that opened up in leslieville, "the burger shoppe", but stopped myself since i really want to try deep-frying poached eggs. in other news: operation hijack the ice cream truck was a bust. we couldn't find it anywhere! so my craving for soft-serve chocolate dip remains unsatiated.

tonight for dinner we're having simple grilled salmon on a bun with lettuce, tomato, and scallion mayo with a side salad of baby greens, tomatoes, cucumbers and a miso-carrot vinaigrette.

fin.

work/play

for the shower today, i volunteered to do some cooking, so i made: jerk chicken on naan rounds (it's an island theme), smoked salmon with herbed cream cheese on crostinis, mini chorizo and cheddar quiches, and banana-walnut cake squares with brown sugar frosting. it's going to be quite the spread. the party will probably last until lunch, which means i get like, all morning off (because i'm helping to set up the party too).

in the past few weeks i've read almost all of sarah dessen's books, i'll do a bulk review tomorrow.

last night's dinner was delicious! italians are to meatballs as dwarfs (apparently you don't pluralize dwarfs as "dwarves"?) are to fantasy warriors. the meatballs were so tender and delicate. mine always turn out to be hulking, burly, chunky and squat little numbers (like me!). the salad was a nice complement to the heaviness of the pasta. i was a little worried that the cumin in the dressing would be overpowering, but there's just enough to ground the crunchy, crispy, bright freshness of the salad and round it out. it's definitely going on the roster. i always need new salad ideas.

tonight for dinner we're having breaded, deep-fried poached eggs (YOU HEARD ME. BREADED DEEP-FRIED POACHED EGGS!!!!!) on creamed spinach on ace focaccia toast. i'm trying to avoid dessert, although if it's stinking hot, we might raid the grocery jar for the change that we've been saving and accost the ice cream truck on our way to/from the park. we've been stockpiling the change for just such an occasion. and if you can't hijack an ice cream truck in the summer, then you're basically letting osama win.

fin.

things that are good

ribbed:
- condoms
- the banding on socks
- me during rib-fest

things that i abhor ribbed:
- PAPERCLIPS

the hunt for a smooth paperclip is dictating the course of my day at work. i loathe ribbed paperclips. i don't know who ever came up with the notion, but that person should be stabbed. the ribs just catch and tear at the paper and it drives me bonkers. and yes, this is actually something that bothers me. we all have our issues, i just happen to have exponentially more than most people.

today i'm going to work and then meeting the boy at the farmer's market. then some grocery shopping, home, making dinner, and hopefully doing some dodgeball practice in the park. i'm liking this sunny but low-humidity weather we've been having. delicious.

tonight for dinner my lovely supervisor at work gave me a jar of her tomato sauce and meatballs. i can see lovely leaves of basil floating around in there and she's italian so i have high, high hopes. we're going to be having it with pappardelle pasta and a big cucumber, orange pepper, celery, cumin and mint salad, al fresco.

fin.

i'm running late!

quickie post:

- dinner with my grandparents was hilariousness as per usual, but ratcheted up a notch by the presence of dr. rei. she was also invited to the next to-do, having made a good impression on my grandpa through the machiavellian coaching of the boy sitting next to her: "grandpa doesn't have dessert! SERVE GRANDPA HIS DESSERT!" - needless to say, grandpa was thoroughly charmed at her filial piety. my stepdad was also on point. quote of the night being (as he's arguing with my brother about his favorite bone of contention: his cell phone plan): "i'm just going to take your suggestion and switch to a pay as you go. AND THEN NEVER ANSWER THE PHONE." !!!!! there were also the usual slanderous slurs against mainland chinese people.

- dodgeball was bittersweet. by all rights, we won our game, but we're fixing it slightly because we really want to face this team we despise, who we won fair and square against (even though they cheated like d**ks) and then had the GALL to give us less than 5 spirit points. EVERYONE GETS FIVE SPIRIT POINTS.

dinner tonight will be jerk chicken with coconut rice'n'peas and some random veggies.

fin.

bust-fest 2010

trying to find a place to go dancing in this city is brruuutal. well, at least it was for me, the roomie and the new bffffff. we all had VERY different agendas though and very different expectations. surprisingly, for all that i'm a hard-ass, picky mofo, i'm the most flexible out of them all. we got turned away from one place because i was wearing running shoes (which is probably my ONE sticking point: i really resent some lame club stuffed with 905ers telling ME how to dress. like, i'm sorry i'm not wearing head-to-toe aritzia and stilettos so that there's no physical way for me to outrun some lame-o computer programmer/investment banker looking to roofie me). then we tried a bunch of other places: too long a line, music isn't good, cover is too high, etc. etc. the new bfffff basically just wanted to be able to do the bump'n'grind and get some action and the roomie basically wants to be able to hear "it takes two" for less than 5 dollars in a club that's full (but not too full) with no dress code and no line. c'est impossible!!!

i saw a cute boy but as per usual he had a short weaselly friend cock-blocking him. what is WITH short boys with a touch of the chatz (those who know, know) thinking that talking obnoxiously is working for them? p.s. dude, you're not funny. now let me get my mack on.

last night's dinnie was fun fun fun!!! i'm bummed my fam missed it, because we went to the park after dinner with my friend who moved in upstairs (AWESOME!!!) to play frisbee and they were having a "summer solstice dance" in the hockey rink at withrow park. it was a bunch of kids dancing to a dj and there was a beer zone and everything for the grownups! my niece would have had the best time. boo. in other news, holy s**t: chocolate pudding pie is my new demi-god.

sunday breakfast is going to be a cheddar mushroom omelette (fritatta) with toast and an apple-cucumber-carrot-ginger juice. today me and the boy are going for a bike ride through the city and then it's dodgeball playoffs and then dinner up in markham for my grandparentals anniversary. busybusybusy.

fin.

let the rain come down

i narrowly missed being a foolhardy and overly ambitious biker tossed about in that vicious storm yesterday. i left work 5 minutes early, unlocked my bike, hopped on, and was pulling out of the driveway at work when the wind knocked over 4 of those metal barricades (the kind police put up to herd people into place) and the lightening flashed ominously. i ran my bike back over and locked it up and had started running to the streetcar when the rain started pelting down. i was soaked, but all in all i got off lucky, because i had heard reports of golf-ball size hail in barrie.

i like the camaraderie that natural events bring out in people. usually i'm the one blowing wide the shields of urban aloofness and the buffers of privacy with strangers i'm sharing close spaces with. i cheerfully blab about the ridiculous argument i just had with the boy, or comment on people's groceries or otherwise try to connect with people in my trademark cheerfully obnoxious way. but storms and blackouts and 5 feet of snow suddenly make for shy commiserating smiles and tentative feelers of conversation from people sympathetic with your sudden, shared plight, be it being drenched to the bone, or studying and planning your tactical attack on the driveway after a heavy snowfall. i love it!

this weekend is turning out to be a spectacular bust. i prepped all this food to host my sis and my outlaw bro and family for dinner, but now they're not coming because they're all being felled by some kind of weird stomach bug that's systematically working its way through their poor digestive tracts. meanwhile, my mum is sick and my bro isn't feeling well either. the end result is i have tonnes of food and no one to share it with. the mitigating factor is that i don't really feel like socializing with non-super-close friends (ie. i just don't want to invite over random acquaintances) because i want to be comfy tonight and schluff out. it's a difficult bind i'm in.

anyway, here's what's on the menu: grilled lemongrass and ginger chicken wings. hasselback potatoes with bacon and scallion sour cream. ginger-lime marinated grilled wild pacific salmon with scallion aioli. bean and grape tomato salad with mustard-dill vinaigrette. chocolate pudding pie with whipped cream (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) if anyone reading this feels like coming over to eat, and won't expect much from me socially, you know how to get in touch!

if there's one thing i believe in: it's the power of chocolate pudding pie.

fin.

happiness is

this!



this is the fat chinaman (aka "little ze") in action. cutest baby ever! and this isn't just a proud, doting aunt talking. when we were walking around the unionville festival with the little meatball in his stroller, his chubby little legs basking in the humid sun, i overheard many a remark about what a cute little bugger he is. there are some people with discerning baby-taste in unionville, lemme tells ya.

last night's dinner wasn't that photogenic, but it sure was tasty! i was going like a madwoman last night, on account of having bitten off a lot in the next few days. i'm having my sister, outlaw brother and their brood over for dinnie on saturday, then dodgeball finals, then my grandma's birthday feast in markham, then i have to make a bunch of hors d'oeuvres and little sweets for a co-workers bridal shower we're doing at work next week. add to that that i'm working a 9-5 at the bibliotheque tomorrow and it's a little bit stressful. ah well, such is life.

tonight is takeout night! i think i'm going to pick up chinese bbq on the way home and then start prepping all the food i have to make in the coming days.

fin.

landlord tenant act...

use it! me and the boy have been living in our place for around 3 years. originally the rent was listed at 1300 for our place, but i bargained the landlord down to 1250. when we went back to school, it coincided with the roomie needing a place close to her school placement so we took her in. this past march, the landlord said that because we had an extra person living there, they were raising the rent to $1350. i happened to mention it to my mum last friday at dinner, and my mum (who is a real estate lawyer) hepped me to the fact that that rent increase is not kosher. i looked up the landlord and tenant act and boy, was she right! the most he can increase the rent from a year to year basis is 2.6%, which would have made the increase to $1282 or something. the landlord tenant act also says that tenants can sublet to additional tenants as they please and the landlord can not "reasonably" object. having 3 people in what is billed as a 2 bedroom apartment is so not unreasonable. so i called him last night and we hashed it out. i really really really like our landlord and this apartment and he's always super stressed out and stuff, so eventually i agreed to $1300. i don't mind paying a little bit more a month to keep things civil and easy-going between us.

last night's dinnie turned out really well. my bbq sauce supplies the smokiness that is missing when you do pulled pork in a slow cooker, instead of the technically-correct long smoking with some kind of wood chips.

tonight the roomie is coming back from hippie-ville, CA. we're having chicken cordon bleu done on the grill. grilled skinless, boneless, chicken breasts, topped with a slice of proscuitto and swiss emmental and cooked with the lid down til the cheese is melted, alongside grilled mushrooms brushed with butter and sauteed spinach. i might make a rhubarb pudding cake to use up some of the rhubarb i have kicking around.

fin.

hopping on the 2.0 bandwagon

well, i've been successfully convinced that this whole internet thing ain't half bad. yesterday at work we had a big presentation on "neat sites" which were all 2.0-centred (for lack of a better description). there was some AWESOME stuff on there! aggregation and personalization are the wave of the future! but it's a lot of work to stay on top of it. the woman who presented has an rss feeder that logs like, 200 different things (if not more) and she admittedly spends a LOT of time on the internet. i don't think i'm the kind of person who wants to invest that much time, i prefer like, top 10 digests of stuff so i can scan the best of the best. a lot of the sites in the presentation were in the prototype, "beta" phase, so we'll have to see where they go from there, but some of the interesting things were: image search engines that try to match images instead of text (hello, online shopping help!!!), rss feeders, airplane ticket aggregators which search ALL sites for the lowest fare rates, google map mashup sites that allow you to create your own mashups (HELLO TRAVEL ITINERARY!!! i'm going to cross-reference any future trip i do with all the restaurants/stores i want to hit to make easy and personalized travel maps). i came away completely inspired and promptly came home and set up a new gmail account and my own igoogle home page. ta-da!!! i never thought that person would be ME, but it is!

last night's dinner was so yummy! the eggplant dip was simply oven-roasted eggplant that i peeled and pureed with roasted garlic, some of the roasted garlic oil, tahini and salt and pepper. it tasted VERY eggplanty in a round, rich way with just a hint of the bitterness that you get from eggplant. my olive tapenade was briny and bracing as always, and the warm chickpea salad was fresh and bright with a long, lingering, slow-burning heat. the fried haloumi was fresh and squeaked in my teeth. we've had problems with haloumi being too salty, but this stuff was very mild and fresh tasting.

tonight for dinner i'm making pulled pork sandwiches on a kaiser (a pork butt that i've simmered all day in the slow cooker with my chipotle bbq sauce) with the last of my award-winning potato salad and a red carrot, green apple and red cabbage slaw. i *might* make a rhubarb pudding cake if i have the energy, but we'll see...too much dessert this week!

fin.

i want to know what love is

i want you to show me. the boy showed me last night. i came home to the best prezzie ever: homemade cookies! it was awesome considering i came home fairly famished. he made chocolate-cornmeal italian sandwich cookies with an orange butter filling. usually i'm not a fan of orange and chocolate, but the filling just had the floral essence of orange from the zest and i enjoyed the combination immensely. the cornmeal definitely gave the cookies a nice crunch. they were VERY labor intensive as well...he had to ROLL OUT COOKIE DOUGH and cut out the rounds with a cutter. i think it's the sweetest gift in a tie with the time he brought back a double for me to try.

this weekend we watched "knocked up". judd apatow is a great director/writer. he invests a lot of heart into his movies and all the characters are very endearing. i read some hetero-normative stereotyping going on that i found a little distancing, keeping me from LOVING the movie, but i really really liked it nonetheless and found it very funny. the odd thing is that i can watch other things (ie. "the forty year old virgin") and stuff like that won't bother me because i can suspend disbelief, but for some reason, i read this film as advocating a kind of adult "progression" (read: good job, upward mobility, commitment to the nuclear family) for men that put me off a bit. it's a small quibble though, because it was hilarious and i would watch paul rudd in anything. judd apatow's wife, leslie mann is a great comedic actor. i'd highly recommend it, probably the funniest movie i've seen since "the 40 year old virgin". it's slightly smarter and a bit of an evolution from the tone of that flick too, and miles above stuff like "wedding crashers" or "old school" or "taladega nights". the pop culture references are right up our alley (and by "our" i mean my pop culture obsessed family).

tonight for dinner we're doing a mezes meal. roasted eggplant and tahini dip, olive tapenade, warm chickpea salad with chilis and feta and pan-fried haloumi with pita.

fin.

canoe

dinner at canoe with my mum and my sis was loads of fun! it was my second time eating at the restaurant and experiencing things from an outside point of view. i'm not going to lie, it wasn't NOT awkward a little bit, seeing old co-workers and having to put on "co-worker face" and be all nicey nicey. the service was a little over-the-top and too effusive to feel genuine and nice, they were laying it on a little thick. the clientele seemed to be on the old, conservative, and white side, and that was reflected in the menu, which didn't take many creative leaps. it was a good, standard, "fine-dining" restaurant, with a somewhat indiscriminate approach (ie. you kind of get the same things from most "fine dining" restaurants of a certain quality). nothing was stand-out, but nothing was bad.

my first course was a ricotta gnocchi in a truffle foam with crispy sweetbreads. this was my favorite dish of the night. the gnocchi were tender with the slightest bit of bouncy resistance to the tooth, the truffle foam was rich and soft and round, and the crispy sweetbreads added little textural punches. as a second course the kitchen sent out a complimentary bowl of this new soup they're putting on the menu. it was shredded rabbit with celery, meyer lemons, some kind of foam, and a mushroom-cream stock. this dish didn't really meld together all the disparate elements in a cohesive way. i tasted rabbit (which really upholds the "tastes like chicken" standard description) and then the crunchy bits of celery, and then the rest of the dish tasted like lemon cream. it was far too rich, and the amount of soup was far too much. drinking whipping cream just isn't my style. my main course was the "roasted suckling pig" where the server claimed that they use "every part of the pig" which is totally untrue, but whatever. they're trying to ride the whole provenance/local/ethical bandwagon and they're not that kind of place so i don't know why they bother. anyway, it consisted of pork loin (overcooked) on a bed of spaetzle (underseasoned and a little tough) mixed with bacon, with some braised pork belly, random cookstown baby vegetables, and a little torchon of pork on top of a soft cracker and pommery mustard. this was another dish that was kinda meh. it wasn't the kind of thing were i ever closed my eyes and just lost myself in the dish and generally, for those kinds of prices...i certainly expect to!!!

the rest of the weekend was spent hanging with the family. we went to the unionville festival, which resulted in my little nephew being rather unimpressed at being subjected to the scorching heat. my niece got her face painted, but it was generally too hot to have fun, we were all wilting in the humidity.
today is my extra-long day and i'm packing a simple dinner of spinach salad with poppyseed dressing, fruits and veggies, and some potato salad. i might buy a falafel to supplement my dinnie if i get super-hungry, but i over-ate on the weekend and haven't been feeling like eating much since.

fin.

it's official

a) it's STINKING hot in the city. we don't get much a/c at my work because they're doing renos and everyone is going bananas and wilting on a daily basis. i've had a few comments on how i stay looking so fresh and peppy and i'm like, dudes...i used to work the hot line in a KITCHEN, ain't nothing gonna hold me down...i got to keep on movin.

b) looking after a 3 year old and a 1 year old is the most tiring exercise there is. my niece is pretty good, cuz she's getting to the age where she's very in control of herself, and can sit and play and be preoccupied with something, while the 1 year old has learned the power of mobility and makes you EARN the babysitting time. it's also exhausting dealing with two separate and equally demanding voices and personalities. i try to be a no-tv babysitter, which makes it harder, although i can fully understand the temptation to plop the kids down in front of the tube to just give you a few minutes' respite from the constant chatter. my poor stepdad! he's going bonkers looking after the kids!

c) there's a kid who comes into the public library with the best shirt ever. he's like a 12 year old, very nerdy, with a shock of hair and a loping, slow gait. he always wears the same yellow t-shirt, that says (in helvetica, all caps): "time is an invention". it SO AWESOME!! i like him based on the strength of that shirt alone.

this weekend i'm up in markham with the family. which means loads of gratuitous eating and a lot of slothing it up. tomorrow is supposed to be nice so i'm hoping we can go out and do something (maybe the island?!?). tonight me, my mum and my sis are doing a girl's night dinner at canoe. i feel weird going back to the place i worked, especially as i have a lot of bad feelings associated with the chef there, who i'm going to name by name: BOM TRODI (i WAS going to name him by his full name but the boy just informed me that if he googled his own name - and he would because he's a raging egomaniac - my blog might show up). he's a giant baby. there, i said it. he basically insinuated that i was faking with my foot thing and he made some really sexist and gross comments to me. he's also one of those people, where, when their face is at rest, their mouth hangs open a little bit and you can see the bottom teeth. do you know what i mean? it gives your face (especially when you already have a fat-man-baby face) a particularly slow, stupid and perpetually confused expression. he was also a label whore to the extreme. so he kinda worked out and then would strut around dripping in lv and lacoste and prada like he was pharell's little bro. brrrrutes!!! one of those people who lives way outside their means. but i do have good friends still working there. and i'm going to blog extensively about the food.

fin.