Category: Daily life

Spiderpig

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

More progress from a daily-life standpoint: I actually got to the gym this morning. The plan was to go yesterday morning, but the Monday Night Downstairs Dance Party ™ made that impossible. I didn’t know how much energy I’d have at 6AM, especially since I played ball for two hours last night, and even more especially since I haven’t run in months, but I kept it light (just 1.5 miles). I was worried about the pain in my knee at first, but it turned out to only be bruised from last night (must’ve gone knee-on-knee with someone and not noticed at the time) and not a strain. I’ll go again tomorrow morning; gotta work myself back up to at least 3mi/5km if I’m to lose any weight at all.

The tricky part is cooling down before I have to strap myself into a suit and walk out into the Toronto summer. Yech.

Movies, exercise…I’m almost starting to feel normal again.

.:.

The ending of this trailer for The Simpsons Movie made me howl. H-O-W-L.

[tags]exercise, fatblogging, simpsons movie[/tags]

Some of us work, Bluto

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Last night the people downstairs decided to have an incredibly loud party. Until 1:30 AM. We managed to remain nice while still getting them to keep it doown. The worst part of all: the godawful shitty house music they were playing.

Needless to say we had difficulty getting up this morning. There’d better not be any noise tonight; I’m getting up at 6 to go for a run.

.:.

The weather for this week’s round of basketball was much nicer than the last time we played. We only had a few people out, but it was good fun.

[tags]animal house, basketball[/tags]

Happy Canada Day!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

What a nice weekend so far. Yesterday Nellie and I slept in a bit, then got up and went back to our old neighbourhood to have some breakfast at Eggstasy and buy some new a/v-related furniture (stands for my side & rear channel speakers, and a new TV/component stand) at Bay Bloor. It was a beautiful day, and one of the first we’ve had in a long time to just spend at our leisure. We ran a few more errands, chilled at home for a bit and went to Fieramosca for dinner with Nellie’s mom and her boyfriend. When we got home the full moon and the wind created an amazing effect on the lake, so we sat outside (despite the cold wind) before heading to bed.

Slept in once again this morning before finding some brunch at the Irish Embassy — I was craving fish and chips, of all things — and saying goodbye to Nellie’s mom. Since then we’ve been trying to muster the energy to finish putting together the TV stand and set it all up, but have been unsuccessful so far.

.:.

According to Gothamist, the Copacabana is closing. This truly is the end of an era in Manhatt…wait a second. The fucking Copacabana is still open?

[tags]canada day, eggstasy, bay bloor radio, irish embassy, toronto, copacabana[/tags]

The best defense against ribs

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Normally after I write an exam I’d just come home and crash, but today I had things to do. I dropped my stuff and went up to the office; I wanted to get moved into my desk so I could hit the ground running Tuesday morning. I shared a brownie with T-Bone, caught up on some email, waited for Nellie so I could show her my new floor and then headed home. On the way I bumped into two of my classmates on Bloor; they’re hanging around the city for the weekend.  Now I’m home, catching up on a bunch of stuff, waiting for Nellie and her mom (who’s visiting) to make pizza. Tomorrow, when I have more energy we’ll visit the Distillery District.

.:.

If I lived in London today, I’d buy one of these t-shirts.

.:.

Thank goodness the Toronto Ribfest has moved out to Centennial Park (wherever the hell that is). I don’t think I could bear to have it just around the corner on Front Street this year.

[tags]keep calm and carry on, london bomb, toronto ribfest[/tags]

A wider platform at Union Station would probably solve about half of those

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

That wasn’t taken today, but it could have been if I could be arsed to find the camera. I believe that’s St. Catherine’s in the distance.

.:.

Yesterday, the good: since my team is moving from one office building to another (just down the street) we had to be packed up and out of the office by noon. One meeting later and the six of us were off to T-Bone’s house for a bbq. We sat in her back yard, had steaks and veggier burgers (ok, I was the only one who had the veggie burgers), and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. Well, proximity to the sunshine anyway; half of us burn within seconds in the hot sun.

Yesterday, the bad: too little sleep Thursday night combined with a few suds and embarassing activity (see below) made me exceedingly tired and I crashed around 10:30.

Yesterday, the ugly: Dance dance revolution. That is all.

.:.

The TTC is removing signs from their escalators that say “walk left, stand right” as there are growing concerns that such a policy causes injury. I have two problems with this.

In fact, last year alone, 138 people were injured on TTC escalators, with 50 ending up in hospital.

While the TTC recognizes the lack of signs is unlikely to change escalator-use habits, removing the signs may protect the commission in the event of a lawsuit.

First, I have yet to hear how many of the 138 injuries had anything to do with walking on escalators.

Second, expecting litigation is a bit much. The TTC is no more subject to litigation over people walking on their escalators than the provincial government is for allowing drivers to pass one another on their roads.

[tags]bbq, ttc, escalators[/tags]

We'll keep the spider that bites the lady that cleans the couch that swallowed the fly

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Three things about the condo:

  1. We have a new couch. It’s big and squishy.
  2. We have a giant spider (seen here) living on our balcony. I’m not particularly fond of spiders, but he’s eating the swarm of insects that seems to frequent the area, so he can stay. Click on the picture if you want to see a higher-res version.
  3. Cleaning lady: best invention ever.

.:.

CBGB came over last night while I was at work and taught Nellie how to make GB’s excellent veggie burgers. I got home in time to enjoy the beautiful weather on the balcony with them. We actually spent the whole night out there, ate some pizza from Amato, and even saw some unexpected fireworks. It was a nice end to a long week.

.:.

Violent protests in Halifax? Ontario supporting public transit? Yesterday was topsy-turvy day, apparently…

[tags]condo furniture, spider, cleaning lady, amato pizza, fireworks, halifax protests, ontario public transit[/tags]

Is 36,000 BTUs enough to cook eggplant?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s been a busy weekend. Yesterday we got up early, went to St. Lawrence Market to pick up some shrimp and scallops and fruit, ran a few errands, picked up some shirts we ordered from American Apparel, did some work (schoolwork, in my case) and went over to CBGB’s place for a barbeque. The barbeque fun didn’t stop there; we zipped around the corner to Home Depot and ordered a barbeque of our own: this one by Vermont Castings [pictured at right].

.:.

The party at CBGB’s (in belated honor of GB’s birthday) was a lot of fun…a packed front porch followed by a packed backyard patio, great food, cold beer, many laughs, and a slight overindulgence in the desserts. What’s better than that?

.:.

Today’s been great so far too: I slept in until 9:00 (the cats practically kicked me off the bed after that), got up, read the paper, went out to find some breakfast and came back raving about the perfect weather: it was warm but not hot, and breezy enough to keep the smog off. I collected Nellie and we headed off on a stroll to the Distillery District. We had a peek in a few galleries, stopped at the Mill Street Brew Pub for some brunch, got some amazing chocolate at Soma and wandered home along the Esplanade, popping up to Front Street so that we could see all the dogs at Woofstock. Now, sadly, it’s back to reality as Nellie has to work all day and I’m catching up on a bunch of stuff. It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning though…

.:.

My comment spam problem is getting worse and worse. Most of you never see it (unless you subscribe to my comment feed) because the comments are buried in old posts, and the vast majority of it gets caught, but when you get 1300/day a few are bound to slip past my spam filter. What does slip past is often very nasty too, so if you’re reading the comments and you see unpleasantness, I apoligize.

[tags]st. lawrence market, american apparel, home depot, vermont castings, distillery district, mill street brew pub, soma chocolate, woofstock, comment spam, akismet[/tags]

"Ow! My tailbone!"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Not much to post tonight. Too tired. It was a long day at work. When the cleaning staff is waiting for you to clear out it’s time to go home. Clearly I didn’t play basketball tonight (it was cancelled anyway on account of how fracking cold it got outside), and clearly I didn’t finish my paper when I got home either. Guess I’ll have to do it all tomorrow night or else I’m out 15 marks. All I had the energy to do tonight was eat something, read a few feeds and watch the penultimate episode* of The Sopranos.

OK, need some sleep. It’s gonna be another long one tomorrow.

Is it July yet? If I paid someone enough, could we make it July??

*holy crap, by the way.

[tags]sopranos[/tags]

Stoopid WordPress

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Gar. I had a long post all written up but WordPress (or possibly my host?) decided to cack and it disappeared. I can’t be bothered to remember it all or write it all again, so here’s the summary version:

  • We had dinner last night at Fieramosca with CBGB. That was great.
  • I got my hair cut today and ate some gelato. That was great.
  • I realized today that I have a paper due next week, and I haven’t even started it. That sucked.
  • Darth Vader’s a jackass.

Blargh.

[tags]fieramosca, gelato, darth vader[/tags]