Category: Friends

A confederacy of dunces

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Had dinner and a quick drink with CBGB last night at Volo. I needed to unwind after a long week at work (which isn’t done yet…see below) and a quiet, snowy evening with some friends and tasty beer was a proper way to do it.

.:.

Before I sacrifice what’s left of this weekend on the altar of work and the MBA, I thought I’d throw up a couple of thoughts. It may be the last you hear from me for a few days.

  • This just in: Toronto city councilor Rob Ford is a screaming idiot. Not just for this latest nonsense, which shows that his approach to debate is roughly that of a six year old. The man is in the hall of fame for terrible elected officials. It’s embarrassing to live in a city where people continually vote for him.
  • Holy crap…my Canadiens are leading their division! Meanwhile, here in the land of altered reality, people are still talking about the Leafs making the playoffs.
  • I find this map of religious majorities in America very interesting. Anyone know of a Canadian version? [via Richard Florida]
  • I’d used Bloomex a few times for flower delivery and thought they were ok, but they messed up my most recent order — and the customer service followup — something fierce. Luckily Nellie’s an understanding wife who doesn’t demand flowers on/near Valentine’s Day, and so she just laughed it off. I won’t bother going through all the details; I’ll just leave it at this: do not, under any circumstances, use Bloomex. The service they gave me was truly one of the worst customer experiences of my life, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It didn’t cause me harm or anguish or anything…it was just staggeringly, monumentally incompetent. Avoid them at all costs. Warn your friends.

.:.

Guns scare me. Texas has adopted the “castle doctrine,” which means you’re now justified in shooting someone if you feel threatened in your home; there’s no longer much expectation that you take reasonable measures to avoid the threat. You can just shoot it. Some have gone vigilante and extended this to their neighbourhood, like this guy who shot two men in the back because they robbed the house next door, despite the imminent arrival of police and the pleas of a 911 dispatcher.

Militarism scares me. When the Chief of Defence Staff says democratic debate on Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan is emboldening the terrorists to attack our troops, it reeks of the same low scare tactics we’ve heard from the United States in recent years. As POGGE put it when this story came out last week, “I think we’ve just been told to shut up and salute.”

American military integration scares me. While a recent deal struck between Canada and the US is intended to let troops from either country cross the border in case of a civil emergency, the potential ramifications of misuse are staggering. There was also no debate on the topic — the deal was signed a week before the story broke — which strikes me as unusual and troubling. This could be a very big help in an actual emergency, or a very ugly tool used for political/military purposes.

[tags]bar volo, rob ford, montreal canadiens, toronto maple leafs, bloomex, castle doctrine, joe horn, rick hillier, american military integration[/tags]

This title should have been "a lassi for my lassie," but she drank beer instead

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Last night seven of us went to Indus Junction to celebrate Nellie’s birthday. It was very, very tasty…I think we tried five different appetizers and five mains. The vindaloo shrimp appetizer was excellent, as were the vegetable dumplings and the paneer & cauliflower dish. The vindaloo salmon was good too, and the soft garlic naan and dhal mahkni. A few of us had dessert; the rice pudding was apparently quite good but my double-fudge tart was just too much chocolate (!) for me.

All in all, good food, good spot, good service. We’ll be going back, I think.

.:.

The Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators early last week, but that was when Heatley and Alfredsson were injured. Last night the Senators, with their top line intact, hung a 6-1 loss on the Habs. Glad I didn’t stay home to watch that one.

.:.

It sounds more and more like Godspeed You! Black Emperor is over, finished, kaput. Granted, A Silver Mt. Zion is still active, but I’ll miss the bombast.

[tags]indus junction, montreal canadiens, ottawa senators, godspeed you! black emperor[/tags]

"I left my thimbles and socialist reading material at home."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

.:.

Wow, three days without blogging. That’s probably a record. I can explain: busy Friday, busy Saturday and today I feel like ass.

Friday I was at work until about 7:30, and by the time I got home all I really had the energy to do was eat and watch Friday Night Lights and The Wire.

Yesterday we intended to see There Will Be Blood but when we got to the theatre we found that the new Eye Weekly film listings had lied to us. No wonder Torontoist hates them. No other showtimes worked so we had one last meal at the Biryani House in Roy’s Square. It’s closing in two weeks (moving just around the corner onto Hayden Street) to make room for 1Bloor. Mmmmm…samosas and pakoras and shrimp masala…tasty. After lunch we walked back down Church street, cleaned up a little and waited for CBGB to arrive. They joined us for dinner and a couple of tasty drinks at Smokeless Joe (hence the picture above), then back at ours for a bit.

All was going well until I woke up this morning stuffed up, with a sore throat and a pounding sinus headache. Last night I had nothing; by this morning I was deep in the throes of a cold. Shitty. I feel very unpleasant right now. As such we did next to nothing all day; I have no energy. My day has been limited to lots of basketball, football and movies.

.:.

The first movie we watched today was Stranger Than Fiction (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which, based on the ads, I’d all but dismissed as typical Will Ferrell clowning. It was, in fact, very funny, clever and sweet. Ferrell is so good at the subtle humour he showed here and in Winter Passing that it kills me to see the ads for crap like Semi-Pro. A few times in this movie I laughed out loud, and I rarely laugh at Will Ferrell movies.

We also watched Marie Antoinette (imdb | rotten tomatoes) this evening. The first half was interesting, but it completely lost steam in the second half. It was like watching a dessert cart being paraded around…it looks lovely and inspired at first, but after you stare at the same sweets for two hours it loses something. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it that much to begin with; Sofia Coppola had me in the first half, but lost me again in the second.

I forgot to blog last week about Italianetz (imdb | rotten tomatoes), yet another foreign entry at a past film festival that I wanted to see. The story was about a Russian boy set to be adopted from an orphanage by an Italian couple (hence the title) but who worries that he has a mother somewhere that, should he go to live with another couple, he’ll never see again. The plot takes him on his search for her, but the real star was Russia itself: a dirty, drunken, stormy, barren, corrupt plain of despair…that one little boy refuses to give up on. Worth watching, if you can tolerate the dodgy subtitle translations.

[tags]friday night lights, the wire, there will be blood, eye weekly, torontoist, biryani house, 1bloor, smokeless joe, stranger than fiction, marie antoinette, italianetz[/tags]

Underwhelmed

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I believe this is the second time in a week that I’ve quoted Sloan. Anyhoo…

I was pretty sick yesterday so I couldn’t do much other than lay on the couch and watch the Canadiens lose in OT (boo!), watch Team Canada win in OT (yay!) and watch some movies. Both Letters From Iwo Jima and World Trade Center were disappointing. I don’t understand the hype about the former — is it really that groundbreaking to show a war from the other side? — and the latter was so overwrought in the second half that I could barely finish it.

I’m feeling better today though. Just got back from having brunch with CBGB at Joy Bistro.

[tags]letters from iwo jima, world trade center, joy bistro[/tags]

They both involve snapshots

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I’m making the most of my MBA-cation. I got so many little things done tonight my hand is sore from checking things off lists. Tomorrow I’ll finish my Christmas shopping, and then tomorrow night, the last hurrah before I get back to the studyin’, we’re going to the Whippersnapper gallery with CBGB to see the photoblogger exhibit.

And then…back to tax shields and dividend policy.

[tags]whippersnapper gallery, corporate finance[/tags]

Ow! Yawn. Hooray!

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m very excited, Internet. I finished my latest assignment this afternoon and, while I’m sure I’ll have to fix a few problem following my review in a few minutes, that’s it for me for the MBA for a little while. OK, only eleven days, but still…I’m looking forward to not reading finance for a week and a half like you can’t believe. Should give me time to finish up some shopping and knock off a few other niggling tasks.

.:.

Last night was my company’s year-end party, so we had some folks over for a pre-event drink or two, then had mingling & dinner & such just a few blocks away, and then back here for another drink or two. T-Bone somehow managed to get home even though standing seemed a struggle, and I somehow managed to knock over a pepper mill which knocked a martini glass off the counter which sent glass shards flying in all directions. Oy. In my haste to extract a cat from the glass minefield and clean it all up I got a piece stuck in my foot. I couldn’t reach it so I had to sleep (not very well, mind you) with it stuck there until Nellie woke up enough to pry it out with some tweezers. On the plus side I managed to clear some room in the liquor cabinet by finishing off the lingering drops of two different bottles of scotch: a 10-year-old Macallan fine oak and a 10-year-old Bruichladdich. So yeah, a fun night. Looking forward to next year.

[tags]walkin’ on, walkin’ on broken glass[/tags]

That was my first pomegranate foam intermezzo

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Last night, to celebrate CB’s birthday we had dinner at Canoe. It was, as always, spectacular. This was our first time getting the tasting menu. It would take too long to list the full details of everything we had with all the wine pairings, but here’s the brief overview:

  • our amuse bouche was shaved carrot, mushrooms, caper berries and beans and a chocolate sauce
  • next up was warm goat cheese on bannock with shaved black truffle and vanilla foam & veggies on lentils
  • the salad was warm lobster (which I normally don’t care for, but this was quite good) with a dill pickle tartar & lemon thyme
  • the intermezzo was a pomegranate foam with olive oil and a light salt on top
  • our main was a BC sablefish with a black mustard dressing. CB had the same thing with foie gras on top. The others had caribou.
  • dessert was a quince bread pudding with fruit and candied almonds, paired with a 2006 Fielding Estate Select Late Harvest Gewurztraminer

It was an excellent, excellent meal. I can’t imagine Canoe ever falling off my list of favourite Toronto restaurants.

.:.

Today’s been a busy one. We have people coming over in a couple of hours so we’ve been scrambling to get stuff ready, and to run all the errands we didn’t have time for this week. We just carried our new chairs home; of course it’s the coldest day of the year on the day when we have to be outside carrying packages…so it goes.

OK, must shower and throw together a playlist.

[tags]canoe, tasting menu[/tags]

If there were a market for sleep, I'd be a buyer

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m tired. More tired than I should be. We went out for dinner last night with my old friend CBJ and his wife. They swung by to see our new place first, then we supped at beerbistro. We weren’t out that late, but I just couldn’t get my ass in gear today. I’m feeling awfully lazy and run-down. Apart from taking out the recycling and starting some laundry the most ambitious thing I did today was watch Jaws. Nellie, however, went to the One Of A Kind Show with CB; now that they’re home GB will come over to join us and we’ll watch the new Battlestar Galactica movie.

Oh yeah:  an hour ago the Snowbirds were flying around over Lake Ontario, and they actually swung around right in front of us…closer than the air show planes in the summer. I guess they’re here because it’s Grey Cup Sunday.

[tags]beerbistro, jaws, one of a kind show, battlestar galactica razor, snowbirds, lake ontatio[/tags]

Don't judge me. It felt like hand-stitched butter.

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I needed to ease out of the work week and into the long weekend in tasty fashion last night, so we had some dinner and a couple of drinks at Volo with CBGB. A little veggie pasta, a Black Kat stout and a Mill Race and the unwinding was underway. We couldn’t muster much more energy than that, though, and with a busy weekend ahead of us we decided we’d better relax and catch up a TV backlog. And so we did.

This morning we got up and had breakfast at Eggstasy. Poor Nellie, she just can’t seem to get servers to understand the following:

The Toronto definition of eggs “over hard” does not equal the consistency to which she wants her eggs cooked, which is best described as “shoe leather.”

She asked for “fried, over really hard, nothing runny, no liquid whatsoever, completely cooked all the way through” and the server wrote down “over hard.” Of course, they came back all runny inside; she sent them back and when they returned they were still too runny. Now, granted, she’s very fussy about her eggs, but given the painstaking and blunt description she applies each and every time, I’d expect at least one cook in 10 to get it right. Sadly, it never, ever works. Anyway.

Our purpose today was shopping, so after a quick stop to look at some Herman Miller chairs (I want!) we went to Harry Rosen. I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say when I left 90 minutes later picking up my credit card required oven mitts. It’s official…I have a weakness for two things: chocolate and nice clothes. I’m kind of worried; now that I’ve tried on a Canali suit I can’t go back. From this day on it’s a descent into Brioni territory, and that way lies madness. Anyway, it’s all stuff I needed (or at least wanted a lot) and I’m considering it an advance on my bonus. I hope.

We got home and ran a few more errands (finally getting a frame for the art we bought from a Parisien wine bar, picking up some wine & snacks, etc.) in preparation for tomorrow’s work. We figure it’s time to finish painting the joint, now that all the repairs are complete (hurrah!), and we’ve enlisted GB’s expertise to get us over the goal line. Wish us luck.

[tags]bar volo, eggstasy, herman miller, harry rosen, canali, brioni[/tags]

Dan Dickinson's Day Off

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Yes, just like Ferris Bueller, except I wasn’t pursued around the city by a sex offender.

Around 2:00 yesterday afternoon I got the best news I could possibly have received: my class got an extension on our assignment. I had my weekend back! Oh, frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!

After plowing through a bunch of work and a last-minute crisis (deftly handled by T-Bone and, in a supporting role, myself) I arrived half an hour late to meet Nellie and CBGB at beerbistro. A glass of Stiegl Pils and some frites later I put the Blackberry away and settled into the weekend. I had butternut squash ravioli with sliced plums (delicious!) paired with a Brooklyn Brown Ale (ditto!) and a piece of chocolate swirl cheesecake for dessert. We all called it an early night after that; it was a long-ass day and we had plans for the early morning.

Today’s been both productive and relaxing; it’s like found time for me, so I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. We got up early and hit St. Lawrence Market for some pastries, seafood, tofu and vegetables, then grabbed ingredients for dinner at the Dominion on the way home. We sucked back the pastries while we watched Friday Night Lights and The Office on the PVR. Next leg of the trip was to walk up to Henry’s and collect some prints we’d ordered online. We’re planning to put some of our pictures on our walls, so we got some B&W prints from recent trips.

After dropping those back at home we struck out for MEC to buy me a jacket, stopping at Chapters on the way back and then grabbing lunch (all-day breakfast, in truth) at
Over Easy. On the way home we bought some picture frames for some of the afore-mentioned pictures and picked up dry cleaning. Back out we went to the {shudder} Eaton Centre, grabbing some more picture frames and a very nifty little charging station at Pottery Barn before escaping the mall as rapidly as possible. One last stop at The Bay for towels and our credit cards were begging for mercy.

Home again we gave the place a much-needed clean and then turned to neglected email accounts and feed readers. Tonight we’re laying low, enjoying the pardon (ok, reprieve) and looking forward to tomorrow.

.:.

Good luck, Atlantic Canada. Hold on tight.

[tags]ferris bueller, beerbistro, st. lawrence market, friday night lights, the office, over easy, eaton centre, pottery barn, hurricane noel[/tags]