It’s good to be back in the city and have a proper meal. Tonight was our first Winterlicious meal — at 1055 with T-Bone and her friend — and, while not without quirks, it was nice to eat a real meal again. I’ll give more detail tomorrow.
[tags]winterlicious, 1055[/tags]
Today was an easy day. The day was spent working on probability, mainly questions using uniform and normal distributions, so I breezed through it. Strangely we were done before 4:00 so we’re gonna be behind from this point on. Not sure I like that idea. Anyway, we have a small social event tonight, then dinner, then I’ll do a few questions, and maybe even hit the gym or watch 24 before finishing up my work for the night.
I’ve not had too much trouble with the food yet. For lunch I had a huge pile of rice, broccoli, pasta (containing meatballs, which I avoided) and some celery/yogurt salad. Sounds bland, but wasn’t. Breakfast: lots of eggs and a soy drink (need protein, right?) and some french toast. And, cough cough, an apple pastry. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a couple of snacks throughout the day, but at least I haven’t dipped into the ice cream yet. My friend Russ, resourceful man that he is, secured 4 cans of Diet Pepsi for me, one of which I am sucking back right now; the other three have been duly stashed.
[tags]stats, probability, normal distributions[/tags]
All checked in and ready to go. Pretty soon I’ll head up for lunch, which should be interesting. It occurred to me the other night that this’ll be my first week being purely vegetarian. They do a pretty good job of offering lots of food here, but even as a meat-eater it was tricky to fill a meal sometimes. I believe they have veggie-burgers at dinner, as a last resort. God help me if I have to fill up on ice cream sandwiches the whole week…
[tags]mba, vegetarianism[/tags]
I’ve noticed a spike in the amount of junk mail arriving in my (paper) mail box over the past week or so. It seems to be mainly flyers for two things: gyms and junk food.
The eternal struggle continues.
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We made our winterlicious picks today: 1055, Canoe and Savoy with T-Bone, and Jump with another friend. We start the night I get back from my stats course and end shortly before Nellie’s birthday dinner. It’ll be a fortnight of decadence, without a doubt.
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This movie looks horribly inappropriate. I can’t wait to see it. Super bonus points for using a Black Keys song.
Any bets on the Oscar for best song going to “It’s Hard Out Here For A Nympho”?
[tags]junk mail, gyms, junk food, winterlicious, black snake moan[/tags]
Busy day yesterday. We went downtown to see a movie, heading first to Cora’s for brunch, but the lineup was halfway to Hamilton so we settled for Milestone’s instead. While I normally despise that place, there were no Bellini-sucking wankers at 11 AM. Anyway, it served it’s purpose: fast, and close to the theatre.
We were there to see Children Of Men (imdb | rotten tomatoes) at the Paramount. It was as good as the 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes suggests: interesting, compelling, action-packed, terrifying, cautionary, visually stunning, well-acted, and a little too familiar to feel entirely like fiction. Highly, highly recommended. When I re-do my best-of-2006 list in a month or so Children Of Men will be on it.
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Last night CBGB has us over for what they called the veggie fiesta. Basically, they cooked us an amazing meal: we started with the smoked cheddar and Roquefort cheese we brought along from Pusateri’s (as well as some Prosecco), then had asparagus wrapped in a phyllo pastry, followed by a salad with green mango & chilies (with a very nice white), a red curry for the main (with Nellie’s favourite: a Tedeschi Amarone) and an amazing strawberry/rhubarb pie topped with ice cream (with dessert wine). It was a better meal than I’ve had in a lot of restaurants. If I keep eating like that I’ll forget that I ever ate meat.
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OK…have to go shake Nellie out of bed and get ready for the Raptors game this afternoon.
[tags]cora’s, milestone’s, children of men, pusateri’s, strawberry rhubarb pie[/tags]
Highlight of my day: Canada winning gold for the third straight year at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Montreal Canadiens prospect Carey Price was named to the all-star team, named best goaltender and named tournament MVP. Forward Jonathan Toews, also named to the all-star team, was so excited that he dropped the F-bomb live on TSN immediately afterward.
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Today — day 5 of vegetarianism — was the day I discovered the veggie burger at Harvey’s isn’t bad. Good to know that I can still get a decent junk food fix if need be.
In recent days I’ve realized that a lot of the food I find the most satisfying has little to do with meat. For example, we’re about to get some dinner at C’est What before we go to the movies, and I can still have the yummy antijitos and yam frites.
[tags]canada, wjc, vegetarianism, veggie burger, harvey’s, c’est what[/tags]
Nellie and I just had a scrumptious feast: 3 kinds of swiss chocolate, 2 kinds of cheese (including an amazing smoked English cheddar), herbed focaccia, a baguette and strawberries (all from Pusateri’s), crackers, olives (which I don’t like, but Nellie digs) and a Tomasi Amarone that I gave her for Christmas last year. It was all deeeeliiiiiish.
[tags]best ploughman’s lunch ever[/tags]
It seemed like we were gone longer than nine days. Some parting notes & elaborations:
And that’s it. I’m glad to be back home after nine days away, but already I’m trying to figure out how to see my family next year.
Here’s the flickr picture set.
[tags]westjet, family, halifax, da maurizio, surly[/tags]
After last night’s eating extravaganza we slept like babies. I woke up around 9 AM, called mls to schedule brunch and got cleaned up. We met her and baby Kennedy at Cora’s where I had the biggest banana & chocolate crepe I’ve ever seen. It was nice to see her (and meet Kennedy, obviously) if only for a few hours. Full once again, we picked up another DVD on the way home and retreated from the cold wind into our hotel room. I’m just charging up the blackberry while I type this and Nellie packs. Can’t wait to get back to Toronto!
[tags]halifax, toronto, cora’s[/tags]
We just got back from dinner at Da Maurizio — and after-dinner drinks at Mosaic* (sp?) — with my brothers and the ladies who love them. Dinner was, as always, impeccable. Sweet saucy shrimp, pumpkin-filled ravioli and duck breast in a citrus sauce, and a stuffed chicken breast.
It was great to spend time like this with my brothers et al. We do it too rarely, so I’m happy when we do it at all.
* Mosaic is apparently a joint effort between Da Maurizio and Seven wine bar.
[tags]halifax, da maurizio, mosaic wine bar[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 