Category: Food / drink

pH rising

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

For the two weeks I was in France I barely drank any diet pop. That was a pretty change for me; I usually drink 2 or 3 cans of Diet Pepsi in a given day.  However, nobody likes acid reflux, and while I’m not one of those people who believes the urban legend about Aspartame causing brain cancer, I do realize that pop consists of little other than chemical-polluted water and there are better things I could be drinking. This week I’ve had just one can per day, and by this weekend I should be pretty much phased out of it. I might have the occasional one, but I think my days of 3+ cans are gone.

Let’s see if work and the MBA (and the lack of sleep those things can produce) cooperate with that plan.

[tags]diet pepsi, aspartame[/tags]

Les vacances sont fini

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

My parents have flown back to Nova Scotia, so the vacation is now officially over. We’ve set about recovering from the time away and resuming our daily lives. We both have tomorrow off and plan to relax a little, but soon it’ll be time for the office and the gym and groceries and bills and blah blah blah.

We had one last farewell to the festivities last night, having dinner at Fieramosca with my parents and my aunt and uncle from Guelph. Now every member of my immediate family, and Nellie’s, has been there with us at least once. It was, as always, a terrific evening and a good way to cap things off.

Actually, getting my parents to the airport on time was a bit of an adventure. We booked a car from Autoshare to drive them and Nellie went across the street to pick it up. After fifteen minutes she still hadn’t shown up (the car is parked right across the street) so we were all puzzled. Ten minutes after that I was starting to get a little worried, but five minutes later she appeared. See, the downtown core was slammed today: Nuit Blanche has shut down some streets and both the Toronto waterfront marathon and the Run for the Cure were on today. This meant road not only closures, but also that thousands of people who’d just finished running were trying to drive out of the city…and we were already thirty minutes behind our (conservative, admittedly) schedule. Calling a cab would’ve taken too long so we drove anyway; after crawling along Queen Street we thought we were home free on University…until we saw that Word on the Street was blocking the entirety of Queen’s Park. Apparently it’s festival weekend in Toronto. Anyway, after a slight diversion around WotS we booted up Avenue and cruised to the airport, arriving in plenty of time for their flight. We think.

.:.

I saw some really great places on our trip — highlights include the view from Domme, walking around the old centre of Sarlat, the rooms at the Relais Franc Mayne and pretty much all of Paris — but the five days spent at the chateau with so many friends and family, in such a phenomenal location, for such an auspicious occasion, is really what I’ll remember about the trip. It was just one great memory piled on top of the next. As I said before, it was a once-in-a-lifetime happening. I can’t believe it’s only been a week since we left. Already I miss it terribly.

.:.

One more good thing about France:

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 227
  • Weight this week: 221.5

Yup…I actually lost weight, despite a steady infusion of pain au chocolate and booze. I may have lost even more than those 5.5 pounds but put a bit back on once I arrived in Toronto.

Clearly I need to spend more time in France.

.:.

Given how many times I’ve watched these two movies, I can’t believe I didn’t notice this before now:

“The (toy) bear that Jack Ryan brings home to his daughter at the end of The Hunt for Red October is the exact same bear that Bruce Willis brings to his son in Die Hard (both films were directed by John McTiernan).”

[via John Sakamoto]

[tags]fieramosca, autoshare, nuit blanche, toronto waterfront marathon, run for the cure, word on the street, relais franc mayne, domme, sarlat, die hard, hunt for red october[/tags]

All back full. Cap'n, say again? I said all back full!! All back full, aye.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Well, that week at school didn’t do me any favors in the weight loss category.

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 223
  • Weight this week: 227

Yup, gained 4 pounds. That is a suck. I guess that’s what comes from a) not having access to the gym anymore, and b) being vegetarian. The veggie options there are so bland that I end up getting dessert or grabbing an ice cream bar in the afternoon.

I don’t like my odds of keeping weight off while on vacation, either. This could be a bad few weeks.

.:.

On a note unrelated to weight, we had brunch at Toba with CBGB today. Well…brunch for them, early dinner for us. We’ve been up since 4:00, so tucking in for pancakes at 11:30 just seemed weird.

[tags]fatblogging, toba[/tags]

The fake empire

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

.:.

Met up with T-Bone today for lunch at Volo before our movie. Our screening was at the Ryerson theatre at 3:00, and we figured if we left around 2:10 we’d get in line with lots of time to spare, so we met at 1:00. Lots of time, right? Not so much. Just like the last time I was there they were short-staffed, and 45 minutes after ordering our food still hadn’t arrived. It showed up a few minutes after 2:00…but they brought me the wrong dish. Fortunately it only had salmon in it (and it wasn’t half bad) but T-Bone’s food wasn’t great. They knocked the price of my meal off the bill and forgot to charge me for my first drink, but I didn’t feel too bad about it. We wouldn’t have had time to correct it anyway. As it was we had to scarf down food and drink, and got to the Ryerson just in time to join the end of the line entering the theatre. Too bad; T-Bone’s first experience at Volo wasn’t a very good one, and it’s gone from being one of my favourite places to being a little sketchy.

The movie we saw, however, pretty much made up for it. I was kind of worried about Battle In Seattle (imdb | rotten tomatoes)…the title seemed corny (it was later explained in the film), it was a director’s debut film, I’m not typically a big fan of either Charlize Theron or Woody Harrelson…I’d kind of set it up in my mind to be rather bad. However, it turned out to be the great film festival movie. Not a great film…a great film festival movie. I’ll explain.

This was, according to Noah Cowan, the world premiere of the film. As such the director Stuart Townsend was there, as were some of the actors: Woody Harrelson, Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Andre Benjamin and Charlize Theron, Townsend’s girlfriend. This is one of those experiences you have at the festival that you don’t get when watching a movie normally, when a director is living or dying with his cast and crew, surrounded by hundreds of movie fans. You get to see a visceral, engaged audience react to a film, and you get to see the director absorb that reaction. For Townsend today, it was quite a reaction indeed.

The film was about the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, and the violent confrontations that resulted…dramatic and emotional subject matter, to be sure, and particularly interesting to me as the issue of WTO patent regulation was the topic of my big paper last year. At the end of the film, as The National sang “Fake Empire”, the crowd stood, turned to Townsend and applauded. They stood and clapped for five minutes as he waved, thanked the crowd and hugged a weeping Theron. That, that moment is what you get at a film festival and nowhere else…seeing a man who has worked for five years to perfect a vision, and is witnessing for the first time the realization of that vision. It was pretty moving; not quite like seeing Hotel Rwanda a few years ago, but emotional nonetheless.

I’ll be interested to see how the film is received outside of that situation. Was it a great film, technically speaking? Not really. But for two hours this afternoon, it was a classic.

[tags]brian mulroney, volo, battle in seattle, stuart townsend[/tags]

The calm before the boring, boring storm

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Pretty good start to the day: went over to Barrio to have brunch with CBGB. We ate our fill (I had waffles covered in…well, everything; Nellie had princess pancakes) and caught up with them. Then Nellie and I strolled down Queen Street and checked out a bit more of Leslieville before hopping on the streetcar.

Next stop was UpCountry, where I was all set to be super-bitchy with some staff (I had hissed ultimatums prepared and everything) but the manager happened to be in today and he seemed reasonably confident. He promised delivery this week and apologized profusely, both of which were new events for us. I won’t declare him actually helpful until the bed we picked out is in our bedroom, but if that doesn’t happen this week as promised then I’m bringing the pain.

Then a quick hop over to {shudder} the Eaton Centre where we grabbed some shoes. We’re both in need of some footwear for our upcoming trip, and just wanted to get it over with. I managed to get in and out without throttling any teenagers; I guess those nine beers at brunch took some edge off.

Now, with all that fun out of the way, I’m looking at a day of financial risk management quizzes and work emails. Yaaaaaay.

368 days from now I’ll be done the MBA. Not that I’m counting.

[tags]barrio, brunch, upcountry, skechers, eaton centre, mba[/tags]

"Should I run?" "Yes!"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

BlogTO used one of my flickr photos as a headline picture yesterday. Seeing that was a nice way to start off the day.

.:.

Nellie, T-Bone and I saw Superbad (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. Holy mother of god, it was funny. It was incredibly crude to the point that Jonah Hill’s character became kind of unlikable (although one of the best parts was hearing how many variations of “vagina” he could come up with) and there were too many scenes with the two cops, but those were small complaints in the face of pretty much nonstop laughter. Describing it as a cross between American Pie (minus the toilet humour) and The 40 Year Old Virgin is actually pretty accurate. If you can deal with ridiculously foul language, go see it. If you can’t, relax and then go see it.

.:.

We had dinner and a couple of pints at Smokeless Joe’s after. I love that place. I love sitting at the bar and listening to the blues and eating green pesto pasta and chatting with the friendly staff and drinking beer that I can’t get anywhere else. I’m glad it’s closer to us…now if only it weren’t smack in the middle of clubland.

.:.

I previously blogged about Walk Score, the site that tells you how pedestrian-friendly your home is. A friend recently brought it up again, and the scores coming out (our new condo, for example, scored only 80/100) led me to think they’d fixed their previous data issues (see the comments in my original post) so I gave it another whirl. Lo and behold, our condo scored a 95/100. I guess the data issues have been solved.

[tags]blogto, superbad, smokeless joe’s, walkscore[/tags]

"The feel-good media moment everyone's looking for."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

No better way to shake off a shitty day than to read this headline from The Onion: U.S. To Re-Hang Saddam Hussein.

Most observers considered Hussein’s execution, which was carried out by Iraq’s interim government and broadcast in grainy, amateur footage, to be creepy, gruesome, and generally lacking the sense of triumphant catharsis authorities had hoped for.

To remedy the public relations failure, Hussein’s body has been dug up from its burial place near Tikrit and wired together by U.S. Army forensic experts to ensure that it holds its shape during the ceremony. The re-hanging, which will be aired on all major networks and accompanied by a 30-minute retrospective highlighting the many reasons why Hussein was a terrible person deserving of this ignoble end, will be “brighter, cheerier, and more upbeat,” than the first attempt.

Thanks Onion.

.:.

Some advice: never, ever order a shrimp dish from a takeout thai restaurant. It’s just asking for trouble.

[tags]onion, saddam hussein, bad seafood[/tags]

MBA: DO NOT WANT!!!1!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Had a nice, quiet little birthday dinner last night at Fieramosca. Perfect way to end a nice, relaxing birthday: good food, good wine, good friends and perfect patio weather.

Before dinner Nellie took me to Bay Bloor Radio and bought me my birthday present: some outdoor speakers so I can get my music fix on the balcony. Thanks baby!

.:.

It’s almost torture to see the film festival lineup announcements appear in my inbox and feed reader. This year I have a course right smack in the middle of festival week, and we leave on vacation immediately after my course ends, so the best we can do this year is one or two films on opening weekend. No frantic schedule-wrangling this year, which is always half the fun.

Next year, when I’m done this freaking MBA, I’m taking a week off and watching 30 films, even if it kills me.

[tags]fieramosca, birthday, tiff07, toronto international film festival[/tags]

A few more broken limbs and hellish weeks at work should do it

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Status du fatblogging:

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 229.5
  • Weight this week: 226

Uhhh…ok. Not being able to exercise all week clearly didn’t hurt me as much as not having time to eat normal meals helped me. Still, that’s not sustainable. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to run again once the swelling goes down and I’m in the hard cast.

.:.

We’ve eaten two straight meals on the balcony. The weather’s been perfect for it, and now that we can grill things without fear of explosions I think we’ll be out there even more. Nellie popped down to St. Lawrence Market yesterday for some fruit (which we had this morning with breakfast) and some tofu. We heard there was a booth there that makes tofu palatable, so we tried a place called Ying Ying Soy Food. It was actually really good; one type Nellie grilled in bbq sauce, the other was left plain, and both were tasty. Throw in some grilled veggies and bread and a bottle of white…’twas a good night.

.:.

One more thing: happy birthday, T-Bone!!

[tags]fatblogging, bbq[/tags]

Can we rig up an LCD and a bar fridge in the bathroom?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Playing basketball for 2 hours in crazy-ass heat takes a lot out of you. We had a lot more people out tonight, including some people we didn’t know, so we ended up playing full court for a while. Now I am teh tired. I want to eat, watch The Shield and shower all at the same time.

.:.

I think the lightning fried my network card. Nellie can connect but I can’t, and we’re using the same router. It just…stopped. However, I can’t be arsed to fix it when I get home this late.

.:.

In unrelated news, I would beat up a nun for some chocolate right now.

[tags]basketball in the heat, fried network card, chocolate[/tags]