Sorry about the brevity and vapid content of my recent posts. The confluence of work & school have (rightly) cut into my blogging time of late. Shortly I expect to rant about politics & work (which, really, are kinda the same topic). Stay tuned.

Speaking of politics, if you need something to read you could always head over here.

The new Nine Inch Nails disc (metacritic | pitchfork) is good. The new Spoon disc (metacritic | pitchfork) is gooooooooooooooood.

I read the Globe today for the first time in months.

I thought I’d miss it.

I don’t.

She’s back.

Not a week after Purolator failed me so badly with my copy of With Teeth (which I’ve finally started listening to this morning, by the way), they’ve made up for it by delivering season 3 of Six Feet Under, a day before it’s released to stores. Not that I’ll have a chance to watch it any time soon, but it’s nice to have it in my hands.

Breakfast this morning with Mr. & Mrs. CBJ, then watched Canada lose to the Czechs. I can avoid the unavoidable for a few more hours, but I have to start that accounting assignment sometime. Might as well do it tonight while Nellie watches 3 hours of Survivor.

I’m eating some little Japanese sweets called (I think) Shiroi Koibito. Whatever they’re called, they’re good. I’m wishing now that I’d stuffed some in my pockets yesterday to have with the wine.

On a related note (ahem), weight is still 220. I’m hoping that by Tuesday I’ll have the time & energy to get back on a treadmill.

Last night, post wine festival, we opted to just relax and watch one of the Zip movies on hand. Smoke (imdb | rotten tomatoes) is one that I’ve wanted to see for years. It had the expected great performances by Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing and Forest Whitaker, and very early career roles by Harrold Perrineau and Ashley Judd. There’s more plot & story than I had expected; for some reason I thought that it all took place in the cigar store, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, pretty much the whole movie takes place in conversations, two people at a time. There’s not that much more I can say about it, except that you should see it.

Oh, and have some wine on hand; it’s just that kind of film.

Whew…thatsalotta wine! Together with Mr. & Mrs. CBJ and a friend of theirs, we hit 14 of the 21 Sante locations: Chapters, Dinah’s Cupboard, Birks, Jeanne Lottie, Lovecraft, Paper Things, Pepper Mill, Simone Marie, The Cookbook Store, The Kitchen and Glass Place (I didn’t forget those last two names; that’s really what they’re called), Thomas Kinkade Gallery, Travel Choice, Whole Foods and Williams-Sonoma.

What did I learn? Well:

• I like pinot noir more than I thought.
• If you stand still long enough in Yorkville, you’ll see a couple of famous people. Bob Hoskins walked by us near Whole Foods, and I think Jamie-Lynn DiScala (Meadow Soprano) walked by us too.
• I like dessert wine more than I thought
• If you hang around a wine festival long enough, you’ll run into the Modern Mod
• Belgian chocolate + ice wine = DROOOOOOOOL
• Always hit the jewellery store early on. If we’d visited Birks at the end of the trip, after several glasses of wine, I might well have walked out with one of these bad boys.
• Thomas Kinkade’s paintings are kind of freaky, especially when they turn the lights down
• If you stand still long enough in Yorkville, you’ll see a procession of models. As we were standing there 7 goregous young girls in designer clothes walked by, trailing after some guy with a camera. It was a bit surreal.

It was an entertaining enough way to spend the day, even if the crowds did get a little out of hand toward 5:00. But we were happy to get home, relax and get some food in our bellies. Plan for tonight: relax. No booze, just junk food and some movies. And (sigh) accounting.

Last night we met our friend CBJ for dinner. CBJ’s an old friend from university, now living south of the border, who returned to Toronto for another university friend’s wedding. After Nellie, CBGB and I had a few drinks at the Duke of York we strolled across the street to meet CBJ at Fieramosca. Another friend from university showed up, and we proceeded to gorge ourselves. I had conchiglie with sausage, rapini & sundried tomatoes in an olive oil & garlic sauce. Whatever pinot grigio Nellie ordered went well with it, but I couldn’t resist ordering the new Chianti that he recommended. I know, I know, Chianti didn’t seem to go, but he’d just gotten it in that day and man, was it good.

As always, the dinner at Fieramosca ends with shots of Limoncello. CBGB joined us at our place for a drink (we each had a different single malt) before we all turned into pumpkins. In just two hours Nellie and I are meeting CBJ and his wife to go drink wine all afternoon. I have no problem with this, but those two have a wedding to attend at 6:30!!

Today was a good day. My copy of With Teeth finally arrived, as did my copy of Spoon‘s Gimme Fiction. Two movies — Unforgivable Blackness and George Washington — arrived in the mail too. Now, if only I had time to listen to / watch it all…