From CNN: researchers find another reason to eat dark chocolate
Chocoholics were given further reason to rejoice Saturday when a small clinical study showed that dark chocolate improves the function of blood vessels.
Sweet. I know what I’m having for breakfast tomorrow…
[tags]dark chocolate, green and blacks[/tags]
Today wasn’t quite as nice a day as was forecast, so we stuck to doing some errands, cleaning and (in my case) watching more basketball. We traded in a bunch of loose change ($120 worth, in fact), picked up our tickets for the two documentaries we’ll see at this year’s Hot Docs (Let’s All Hate Toronto and Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib) just before we move, got some excellent snacks at Cobs Bread, picked up a few groceries and got home just in time for the opening tip of the Florida/Oregon game. Since I finished my case study yesterday I can now relax until the season finale of Battlestar Galactica tonight.
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Speaking of basketball, I’m doing quite well in my March Madness pool. I’m currently in 3rd, but I can take the $600 prize if Florida beats Georgetown in the final. If my calculations are correct there are also two other scenarios where I’d finish 2nd (for which I’d get $200) or tied for 2nd ($100).
I’m also doing well in my other (non-money) pools. I’m leading my NHL pool; some other guys got within half a point of me, but I’ve gotten some breathing room back, mainly by adding Jordan Staal to my lineup the other night. I’m starting to love that kid as much as Don Cherry does. In my NBA pool I’m only four points back from the leader, but I don’t think I can catch him. I probably could’ve if any of Pau Gasol, Paul Pierce or Dwayne Wade had been able to play a full season, mais c’est la vie. I’m just hoping to hang on to 2nd place.
[tags]hot docs, let’s all hate toronto, ghosts of abu ghraib, cobs bread, battlestar galactica, march madness, hockey pool, jordan staal, don cherry[/tags]
The three funniest things I read yesterday:
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AOL picks the top 25 sports movies of all time. Apparently AOL knows nothing about the genre; no way does Bull Durham (or any other sports movie) beat Hoosiers, no way does White Men Can Jump beat When We Were Kings, no way does Friday Night Lights finish 25th, and no way does Eight Men Out get left off the list entirely.
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Breakfast On Pluto (imdb | rotten tomatoes) has been sitting next to our TV for six weeks. We just never got around to watching it, until earlier this week. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t that good either. Cillian Murphy was excellent playing Patrick “Kitten” Braden, but mainly I hovered between dislike and disinterest for the film. I’m glad we didn’t waste a TIFF pick on it a couple of years ago.
[tags]scott adams, ahnuld, lolcat, cheezburger, sports movies, breakfast on pluto, cillian murphy[/tags]
I love love love spring. It was so nice out today that T-Bone and walked up to Summerhill and did a little food shoppin’ (some light rye, some banana loaf, some wine from the Loire Valley). I decided that we should just snack for dinner tonight so I popped over to Pusateri’s for some cheese and fruit, picked up a book (Friday Night Lights, the book which the movie was based on and the show was inspired by) at Indigo and returned home to blast some Hidden Cameras. I figure gay church folk music is well suited to the early days of spring.
I also sent off my first maple order of the season today. For some reason I thought this year’s order would be smaller, but I must’ve hit 60 litres easily. My poor dad.
[tags]spring, friday night lights, hidden cameras, maple syrup[/tags]
Travel plans for the fall* are coming together. We’re very excited.
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Our schedule for the next little while is becoming very clear. I actually don’t like having this many plans; I prefer to stumble into each day and do whatever, but that’s not in the cards right now. This weekend I have a paper to write for my course. Next week we have a busy social calendar and then I’ll finish off as much of my course as I can before we take possession of our condo on the 9th. Around this time the NHL & NBA playoffs begin. We’ll be cleaning, painting, etc. for the next two weeks (and ignoring most of the Hot Docs festival) until our actual move-in; a few days after the move I go away on course for a week. No sooner do I return than the social activities of May (the Santé wine festival, a reunion in Niagara-on-the-Lake with some Dal alumni friends, Victoria day, GB’s birthday) begin. June is fairly light, though I disappear for another course toward the end, and nothing’s really planned for July or August. I suppose I should be using that time to do the giant integrative paper that’s due in the fall, since September (between an abbreviated film festival, another week away on course and two weeks of vacation) is a write-off.
*Yes, we plan this far in advance. Make fun of us all you want; it was taking our time with planning and research that made the Rockies trip our best vacation ever.
[tags]vacation, sante festival, dalhousie university[/tags]
I don’t think it’s any secret that I like animals. However, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m an animal activist, especially when people who describe themselves as such claim it’s better to euthanize this polar bear cub than to raise him in a zoo. Now, I don’t think animals should be in zoos in the first place, but if the cub was born in a zoo and was rejected by his mother, I can only think it would be better off experiencing a life of some kind than to be put down because it’s not living the predictable life.
If the question were whether we should be going into the wild to adopt abandoned bear cubs, I’d say no, that’s disrupting the natural cycle. But, as I said, I also don’t think we should be putting animals in zoos, so until that practice ceases I don’t think we should be euthanizing healthy zoo-born animals just because, all other things being equal, they’d die in the wild.
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There’s a new crosswalk in the Annex. Why is this interesting (to me, anyway)? Because I (and many others) damn near died crossing the street there to get to the Dominion. I don’t get back up to that neighbourhood very much anymore, but at least on the few occasions when I do (like the occasional concert at Trinity/St. Paul’s, or when I want to trade some coins for cash) I won’t be muttering “This &%#$ intersection needs a crosswalk!” as I dodge Hyundais.
I expect a hallelujah from Duarte on this. Stanzi and T-Bone used to live over there too; I suspect they dodged cars there more than once. It’s like a Toronto rite of passage.
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Actually, one good reason to go back to that neighbourhood: the Hot Docs documentary festival. If you live in Toronto and you haven’t been, you owe it to yourself to go. I’m bummed that we won’t really have time to see many films this year as we’re moving right in the middle of the festival. Too bad; I really want to go see the reaction to Let’s All Hate Toronto.
[tags]knut, polar bear cub, annex crosswalk, hot docs, lets all hate toronto[/tags]
No, this isn’t another post about how sick I am. It’s about the music that’s waiting for me to preview in my download folder. I’ll try to check it out tomorrow at work; I have no meetings scheduled, so it should be a listen-to-tunes-and-get-shit-done kind of day. Fingers crossed.
I’ve already taken quick breezes through the Apostle of Hustle and Ted Leo and nothing really jumped out at me, but I need to go back through them.
[tags]apostle of hustle, clinic, dalek, lcd soundsystem, low, ted leo[/tags]
Today it was -10 with the windchill in Toronto.
Tomorrow it’s supposed to be +6.
Thursday it’s supposed to be +18, but rainy.
Saturday it’s supposed to be sunny and +13.
It would appear that we are in, as Dick Cheney would say, the last throes of winter. I love seeing the little sun icon paired with a positive number in the weather forecast.
Now…to get healthy enough to actually get outside and enjoy said weather…
[tags]spring is coming[/tags]
Staying at home today. Feel as if my gastrointestinal system is under attack. Will try to gather enough strength to drag ass to the drug store and collect some supplies. #1 on the list: Gatorade.
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Today’s picture over at Daily Dose of Imagery has a nice picture of our new condo building. Well, I guess the picture is of the red Mini in the foreground, but you can see our building in the shot.
[thanks Jen!]
[tags]gatorade, daily dose of imagery, spire condominium[/tags]
I don’t know who or what has climbed into the lifeguard station that is my guts, but it is throwing EVERYBODY out of the pool.
[tags]evacuation[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 