Category: Daily life

Clear plates, full tummies, can't lose

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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]

Bring the sked

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Travel plans for the fall* are coming together. We’re very excited.

.:.

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]

Suck it, winter

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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]

Shaved Head, one last time

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s been a very sports-oriented weekend thus far. Tons and tons of March Madness basketball and some hockey games. Tonight’s Canadiens/Leafs match is pretty much make-or-break for both teams’ chances of staying in the playoff hunt. Montreal’s still without their #1 goalie, so if they lose tonight, I think they’re all but done for the year.

Last night we took a break from the madness by having dinner and a beer at Volo, and watching a few episodes of Entourage. I haven’t been feeling great for the last 24 hours (don’t know if it’s the crazy weather changes or lack of sleep or what, but I’ve got a perpetual headache right now) so I don’t think the rest of the weekend will get much more adventurous.

.:.

One thing this tournament has reminded me of: I despise the word (and I use the term loosely) “stick-to-it-iveness”. I’ve heard it more than once*, and it drives me nuts. I have no problem with new words entering the everyday lexicon. What I do have a problem with is a using a disjointed mash-up designed for the addle-minded rather than suitable existing words.

Sigh…et tu, dictionary.com?

* It’s quite possible that whoever’s saying it is the same guy who keeps pronouncing “eschews” incorrectly. Somewhere that guy’s English teacher is cringing.

.:.

You may or may not know that the Rheostatics are, in my opinion, the most truly Canadian rock band of the past two decades (that’s right, more Canadian than The Hip); you also may not know that on March 30th they’ll play ostensibly their last concert ever, at Massey Hall. I didn’t get a ticket for that, but I did get a ticket for smaller show at their most recent and regular home: the Horseshoe. If you’d like a ticket of your own, you can get one from Six Shooter.

Anyway, the excellent Canadian indie music download site Zunior.com has something very cool on sale right now: a Rheostatics tribute album. It has songs by 13 artists, among them The Weakerthans, Weeping Tile, The Inbreds, Barenaked Ladies and Cuff The Duke. It only costs $8.88 and the proceeds go to charity; for a few extra bucks you can download the songs and get the CD. Quel bargain.

[tags]march madness, leafs, canadiens, sticktoitiveness, rheostatics, zunior[/tags]

Hee hee…that picture looks like half a fishy!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Had a nice, relaxing weekend, in part to finally give my back a chance to fully heal. I’m terrible at resting injuries, and a back problem only gets better when you leave it alone for a while, so I spent the weekend with my ass stuck firmly to the couch (much to the chagrin of the cats) watching an entire season of Oz and a fair amount of sports.

Speaking of the cats, I’m obviously spending too much time around them, since this comic my brother sent to me seemed as insulting as it did funny.

.:.

RFID technology’s been around for a while now, but now it’s as small as powder.

The world’s smallest radio frequency identification tags have been unveiled by Japanese electronics firm Hitachi. The minute devices measure just 0.05mm by 0.05mm (0.002×0.002in) and to the naked eye look like spots of powder.

Freeeeaaaaaaky.

[tags]back pain, cats, rfid[/tags]

The pain is ridonculous!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Maybe it’s because I’m tired, maybe it’s because I’m in caffeine withdrawal (no diet pepsi at all yesterday), maybe it’s because I’m catching something (I seem to be skirting the edge of the flu that everyone else is catching), maybe my body has finally started rebelling against the lack of meat…whatever the case, I have a wicked rippin’ headache.

You know the gnome from the Travelocity commercials? It feels like he’s inside my head, trying to get out using a jackhammer and a gong.

[tags]headache, travelocity gnome[/tags]

b Profitable

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Here’s how today went:

  • Got haircut
  • Rousted Nellie out of bed and got some breakfast (well, brunch; it was after 12 by this point) downtown at b Espresso Bar. I like it there
  • Stopped in at Henry’s to see if they have the wide-angle lens we’vebeen looking for. They do. We shall go back soon and see if they’ll take our old camera on trade
  • Went to the condo sales centre. We just wanted another look at the model suite similar to our unit, but Nellie was convinced they wouldn’t show us if they knew we’d already bought, so we pretended to be in the market for a new condo. We had a look around, and also got an updated price list. This was interesting, as the one remaining unit like ours listed for $53,000 more than we paid, and our particular unit’s much better (much higher, 400 sq. foot balcony, higher ceilings, better finishings, etc.). Nice to know that 3 years of waiting has paid off fiscally…so far
  • Watch Montreal lose to the Islanders
  • Tried to nap
  • Bought groceries
  • Worked on paper for MBA course
  • Wrote this

.:.

After giving the Arcade Fire‘s Neon Bible several listens, I’m convinced it’s at least in the same ballpark as Funeral and has the potential to be just as good, if not as…I don’t know, epic. It has two brilliant songs, “Intervention” and “Antichrist Television Blues”; are they as good as “Neighbourhood #1” and “Rebellion (Lies)”? I’ll need a few hundred more listens to know for sure.

.:.

How cute is my wife? Tonight, while I finished up a paper for school, she watched Pretty In Pink in the other room. Wait, wait, that’s not the cute part (in fact, I find everything about that movie fairly repulsive, especially Molly Ringwald). Here’s the cuteness: when I took a break and went into the bedroom to watch a bit of the Raptors game, she slid a piece of paper under the door that said, in huge letters, “Je t’aime”.

Awwwww.

[tags]b espresso bar, henry’s camera, spire condominium, arcade fire[/tags]

CBGB & a CBB

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I slept for 11 hours last night. That’s about 4 hours more than I usually sleep, even on weekends. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m getting sick; I feel like ass today, all stuffed up and headachy. My back isn’t bothering me yet, but it was pretty bad last night. This weekend could be a boring one as I really want to get this healed up.

.:.

Last night we went to C’est What with some friends, caught up, had some food and a drink or two, took a stroll by the new condo,  and went up to the Danforth for some dessert. Not that I needed any after the chocolate brownie bomb I had earlier in the day, but I soldiered on for the sake of comraderie.

[tags]c’est what, le gourmand, chocolate brownie bomb[/tags]