Last night we needed comfort food and so went to Fieramosca, where the usual debauchery ensued. Funnily enough CBGB walked in and were seated next to us part way through the evening, even though neither of us had any idea the other would be there. We ate, drank and laughed long into the evening. Consequently neither Nellie nor I got up until after 2PM, which actually works out pretty well, since we’re heading out around midnight to take in some Nuit Blanche exhibits.
Category: Friends
Vindaliciousness
Won’t be writing much tonight. We just stuffed ourselves stupid at Indus Junction with T-Bone. Had a drink at The Paddock first, which was quite cool, except that we were quite literally the only people in the place. Maybe that’s what made it cool.
Anyway, maybe it was the vindaloo shrimp or the vegatable baji or the aloo tikki or the malai kofta or the salmon vindaloo or all the rice & naan, but my stomach is stretched to the limit right now.
Still…want more. Gimme.
[tags]the paddock, indus junction[/tags]
Thick but spritzy-clean palate
Apparently the summer decided to grant us one last beautiful weekend before fall arrives to spoil the party. Yesterday we took advantage of likely the last lazy, hazy summer Saturday of the year: we slept in, picked up fresh vegetables and some dessert at the market, walked over to the Bay and bought some new bed stuff and cleaned up the balcony. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening sitting outside, reading, listening to music, snapping the picture you see up there (note HMCS Charlottetown in the middle-right of the frame…not sure what she’s doing there) and enjoying a Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale until CBGB showed up. Nellie barbecued some rainbow trout, which we ate with maple-glazed carrots, peas, potatoes, two bottles of wine, some Mill Street Belgian Wit beer and the afore-mentioned dessert, an apple strudel. There wasn’t much time left in the evening when they left…just enough for me to pull the trigger on the new computer I’ve been thinking about ordering, and crawl between the comfy new duvet & pillows.
Good day, that.
[tags]last day of summer, great lakes pumpkin ale, mill street belgian wit[/tags]
"It makes me aerodynamic, for fighting."
We saw Pineapple Express (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday. I guess I liked it…I wouldn’t say it’s a great movie by any means, but it was very funny at times. I probably would’ve been confused by the movie’s style had I not known David Gordon Green was the director. He injected some of his style into an otherwise typically Rogen/Goldberg script, which worked for some scenes and made others feel odd. It gave the movie a pretty uneven feel, but the funny moments were good enough to make up for it. Some surprisingly prolonged fight scenes too.
After that we met up with CBGBLB and some of CB’s family for dinner at beerbistro. Much tastiness ensued…for the second straight night. I watched a little Olympic action and then slept like the dead, fortunately nowhere near all the explosions. Check out the pictures and video of that at Photojunkie.
[tags]pineapple express, beerbistro, toronto propane explosions[/tags]
Cry havoc…
…and let slip the dogs of my brain dump:
- Tonight we dined at Lobby with T-Bone for Summerlicious. Meh. Not great, and the service was a little sketchy. Plus…$80 for a bottle of wine that tasted like water? Alrighty then.
- I bought tickets for 50 TIFF films today. I look forward to being able to use them some day. We had to buy a weird combo…30 pack plus two packages of 10 rather than the 50 pack.
- I hope the rumours about Apple punishing Rogers are true. It’s rare to see condemnation so universal as what Rogers has been enjoying the last couple of weeks. I’ll be curious to see the uptake of the iPhone this weekend; I’m pulling for New Coke-like sales figures.
- Someone’s affixing stickers to Toronto Sun newspaper boxes describing the contents therein. Where can I donate labels & toner?
- I’m with Michael Arrington: voicemail should die. Until every voicemail system in the world is converted to unified messaging (like my home phone, which emails me with the wav file when I get a voicemail), I will continue to ignore my voicemail messages until people stop leaving them for me.
- I can’t wait for the new David Simon (writer of Homicide and The Wire) HBO series Generation Kill. Check out the trailer yonder. [language NSFW]
[tags]summerlicious, lobby, tiff, apple, rogers, toronto sun, voicemail, generation kill[/tags]
Three weeks of mornings
Now that I am in full scramble mode to write my final term paper, I have resigned myself to the likelihood that I will not have an evening off* until Jul 24, the evening it’s due. Last night we had a drink and dinner at the Auld Spot with CBGB and got caught up on baby Liam’s feats of strength, and then came home to tie off some small errands.
This morning we had brunch at Toba with my friend Joe and his girlfriend, then grabbed some pretzels, cheese & strawberries from St. Lawrence Market north and visited the Vu condominium sales centre. We’re not looking to move any time soon, just wondering what’s out there in the neighbourhood. Already we feel like we want more space.
Anyway, it occurred to me that the only leisure time I’ll have in the month of July will likely happen before noon on Saturdays and Sundays…so I enjoyed the hell out of this one.
* except the two Summerlicious dinners next week. And the FC game two weeks from today.
[tags]auld spot, toba, vu condominiums, toronto fc[/tags]
"Wow, that's…really warm."
I spent yesterday eating great food and enjoying even better company. First, squeezed into a solid 10-4 block of meetings, was lunch with William Azaroff. I had only spoken to William through his blog, Facebook, Twitter and over the phone once or twice, so it was nice to finally meet him in person. We had lunch on the garden patio at Fieramosca, and I could’ve happily stayed to chat and bask in the wonderful weather (and food!) for much longer than the two hours we spent there. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to catch up again in a couple of weeks when I’m in Vancouver; I guess it depends on how married I am to my hotel bed after six days of hiking.
After work T-Bone had some people over for a barbeque. I was concerned about the weather — thunderstorms were forecast for the evening — but sunshine carried the day and the rain held off until after everyone had finished their rather sumptuous feast…and then it really came down. I lost count of how many shrimp I ate. Other highlights of the evening: free shots of Carlsberg at the pre-bbq LCBO run; PC being, um, doused by his 2-year-old son; Nellie and I dominating at SceneIt?. We were pretty tired though, so even though we got home shortly after midnight it wasn’t long before we both crashed.
Today’s been…well, honestly, today’s been an exercise in avoiding the inevitable: a paper that’s due Monday. Here’s hoping I can kick my own ass into gear.
[tags]william azaroff, fieramosca, carlsberg, sceneit[/tags]
I realized two minutes later that it was "balcon"
The warm (and by warm I mean screaming hot) weather has made for a very fun 18 hours. After leaving work yesterday I arrived home to a barbeque in progress with Nellie and CBGB. We made veggie burgers and drank (among others) Bavarian Weissbier and took solace in the cool breeze on our balcony. Sometimes that breeze was almost too much; at one point it blew some Tostitos out of the bowl and sent them skittering across the balcony. After our guests left we cleaned up (barely) and watched Battlestar Galactica. Getting! So! Good!
Nellie had to get up early for a hair appointment, so I used the morning to clean up (read: recycle the beer bottles), catch up on my news addiction, run some errands, buy more of that weissbier and take some pictures of all the puppies down the street at Woofstock.
Playing with dogs is good for the soul, even if my cats did look at me askance when I got home. Now I’ve finished off the list of little things that I need to get done before settling in for a long afternoon of MBA and Euro. Life could certainly be worse.
[tags]weihenstephaner hefeweissbier, battlestar galactica, woofstock, euro 2008[/tags]
Indiana Jones and the Ill-Advised CGI
Just got back from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (imdb | rotten tomatoes), following brunch with CBGB at Eggstasy. I felt pretty much the same about brunch as I did about the movie: it was what I expected, just like every time before, except for one little wrinkle.
When we arrived for brunch we were seated near the door. The crowds on weekends at Eggstasy are such that you don’t argue about where you sit, you just sit. So sit we did, and eat, and everything was fine. Good food, everyone’s order showed up as planned, quick turnaround and off to the movie. But it was cold when we ate, being so close to the open door & windows; not cold enough to put me off the meal, just enough to make me notice.
It didn’t stop there: when we got to the theatre it was freezing. Cold enough that the girls kept their jackets on and my nose felt frosty for the first half of the film. Somebody got a little anxious with the a/c, methinks. Anyway, the film: it was a good old-fashioned Indy movie, no doubt about it. It started fast & never really slowed down, it was exciting and funny, it gave the whip and the hat starring roles…everything I’d expect. It definitely got a little weird toward the end, but I can live with that. There was just one little thing that bugged me: this unfortunate tendency to use CGI even when the story doesn’t really need it. Indy’s Indy because he bashes things and jumps off of stuff and makes with the smart-ass, not because he gets help from CGI ewoks monkeys. That sequence added absolutely nothing to the story, and it looked ridiculous.
All in all the brunch and the movie were good…the cold air, the a/c and the CGI just left me feeling a little cold.
[tags]indiana jones, kingdom of the crystal skull, eggstasy[/tags]
Empty (ostrich) nest
The sexy & beautiful* girls are gone, flown back to Halifax. I miss them. It was nice having them here, and they were gracious guests: when we got home today there was a charming note and a funny list of rules on our message board and cold beer in the fridge. They’d even cleaned up the fresh cat puke.
I hope we’ll get to see them in October when we’re in Halifax. And they’d better buy some message boards; I have a few rules of my own. They involve the words “handsome” and “pipe-swinging.”
* Rebecca made me say that part. It was one of the rules. Not that they aren’t sexy and beautiful.
[tags]house guests[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 