Category: Friends

Like sand through the hourglass java applet…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Damn you, JR. I have now wasted countless hours playing with sand. Curse you…and your little blog too.

.:.

Our movie-watching has dropped off so much lately I’ve downgraded our zip subscription to 2 films at a time (max 5 per month). If you ignore September in our movie-watching last year (where we saw 13 during the film festival) there’s a fairly clear downward trend in how many we watch per month. I suspect it’s all the good TV we’ve been watching that’s occupying our time. Still, 144 movies in a year is quite a bit.

2006films.PNG

[tags]sand, movies[/tags]

"That's called a hangover, Amigo."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

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.

.:.

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.

.:.

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]

Final thoughts on our holiday trip

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It seemed like we were gone longer than nine days. Some parting notes & elaborations:

  • First of all, travel: flying on WestJet kicked ass. Both legs of the trip were on time, smooth, entertaining (seriously…the staff is actually friendly and quite funny at times) and free of incident. Our rental car and hotel room were the same, a claim my brother could not make.
  • Spending time with my family is, as always, the thing I look forward to the most. I only get to see my family once or twice a year at most, and wish it were more, so the visit — especially over the holidays — is always rewarding. Endless games of crib with my dad, silly laughter with my brothers, delicious treats prepared by my mom, gentle ribbing with my sister-in-law and SWMNBN and lots of playtime with my fantastic nephew and two nieces.
  • Speaking of my nephew and nieces, my oldest brother and I agree: my other brother and his wife have raised the three best kids we’ve ever seen. I saw plenty of not-so-good kids on this trip, and it made me appreciate even more the job their parents have done.
  • The time Nellie and I spent with my brothers and their lady friends for dinner a few days ago was especially memorable as we had yet another great meal at Da Maurizio and found a new wine bar (which I’m pretty sure was called Mosaic wine bar, though I can find no trace of it online).
  • Halifax now feels so different than when I lived there…perhaps it’s because I now have money and can afford to visit nice places, or perhaps it’s because those nice places have sprung up in recent years. Perhaps it’s because friends like MLS live there now. I don’t know…for the first time since I moved to Toronto I felt like I could live in Halifax again.
  • Finally, according to my siblings, I apparently still come across as surly. I’m a little surprised at that; I’m genuinely very happy. Sarcastic and introverted, sure, but I love every minute I’m awake. I just don’t want people — especially my family — thinking I’m depressed or despising everyone. My life, compared to most of the planet, is remarkably easy; to paraphrase David Cronenberg, the reason I can be so dark is because I’m so well grounded in what’s light.

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]

Readying for takeoff (from the hotel, that is)

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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]

"I'd call that a philosophical argument."

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Last night we had our (heretofore) annual Swiss Chalet festive special. We watched Love Actually but not Die Hard as there’s some debate as to whether or not it’s a valid Christmas movie. We had many chocolates and other such delicacies. After everyone left I wound down the evening by watching the recorded Canadiens game (they won again) until about 2 AM and went to bed. Unfortunately, how late I went to bed seems to have little to do with when I wake up, and I was out of bed by 8 AM. Just as well; I have a ton to do today.

.:.

Over the weekend we managed to squeeze in a long film (though not so long as its predecessor): Manderlay (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It didn’t have the same impact as Dogville, since the set was neither as stark nor as surprising as in the original, and the Iraq metaphor was a little too blunt to be as clever as I think Von Trier wanted it to be.

Ultimately it’s hard to compare the two films fairly as I saw them under such different circumstances (film festival crowd at the Elgin theatre vs. my living room) but I don’t feel Manderlay had the same punch that Dogville did.

[tags]xmas party, manderlay[/tags]

Making with the festive itties

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We popped ’round to CBGB’s place last night for their xmas party. I think in theory it was a tree-trimming party, but the kids (their nephew & nieces) took care of the heavy lifting, so the rest of us just ate and drank and admired the decorating job. The nerds were well represented; KittenWhiskers was holding it down.

.:.

We didn’t get home that late, but then I spent an hour IMing with two friends, so I didn’t get to sleep ’til after 2. Then the furry agitators woke me up, meowing for food at 6 AM. Nellie got up to feed them, but I never really got back to sleep, so I’m on 4 hours of sleep now. Thankfully I don’t have anything important to do today. I’ve finished reading all the stats I need to read and I’m taking today off before starting the final assignment tomorrow.

[tags]xmas party, fuzzy bastards, sleep deprivation[/tags]

At the end of the day they choose the nerd.

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We’re a bit dozy today. We were out until 2:00ish last night celebrating CB’s birthday with dinner at Rain and drinks at the Chez Victor bar, and didn’t end up going to sleep until 3:30 (see below). We feel fine (which I suspect is better than how CB’s feeling this morning) but we’re still just tired. We’re trying to figure out how we can not go outside at all today. So far it’s our inability to conjure groceries from the air that’s getting in the way.

By the way, driving through clubland at 2 in the morning gives you a brief but entertaining glimpse into the drunk, retarded & homogeneous segment of our population.

.:.

Because I was still completely awake when we got home I decided to watch the Leafs/Canadiens game, recorded earlier in the evening. It’s the first time I’ve been able to watch a Habs game in hi-def, and what an amazing game it was. The Canadiens were atrocious in the first period, just pathetic. Down 2-0 nothing early, and it wasn’t even that close. They managed to claw back into the game though, on the back of Saku Koivu, who practically willed two shots into the net. It went to overtime, then to a shootout, where Sheldon Souray (of all people) scored the winning goal.

Honestly, the Canadiens were lucky to get this one. They twice spotted the Leafs 2-goal leads, were outshot (and outplayed) badly in the first and parts of the second, and watched the final Leafs shootout attempt go off the crossbar. What really seemed to give them life was Francis Bouillon knocking Darcy Tucker out with a straight right to the nose after Tucker had run him into the boards. There were a bunch of big hits all night, and Mike Komisarek had an all-out war with Mats Sundin, so passions were running high…it must’ve been a hard loss for the Leafs to take.

.:.

Stephane Dion, Liberal party leader. I certainly didn’t expect that, but I can’t say I’m disappointed. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next election though. As Rick Mercer put it,

“Liberals see a saviour who will bring them back to power and the Tories are rubbing their hands in glee over the prospect of heading into battle against a French guy who has a dog named Kyoto.”

Please god…no more dog jokes.

[tags]rain lounge, maple leafs, canadiens, stephane dion, liberal party, rick mercer[/tags]

"My painting went from gentle sweeping strokes to stabbing motions."

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There was snow this morning for the first time. Not a lot, just a little bit in the air. Now that it’s December and there’s a bit of snow in the air, I’ll allow myself to feel like Christmas is getting close. T-Bone and I were talking yesterday about how we’re feeling stressed, like we’ve left gift shopping and decorating far too late because the merchants have been decked out for the season since Nov 1…or earlier, if you’re The Bay.

.:.

Speaking of Christmas-overload: the Globe and Mail discusses the now-ubiquitous Christmas Musak. I suppose it’s not fair to pick on yuletide Musak though; it’s awful all year round. Instead, what worries me is that I’ll have to hear the same shit Christmas music every day for the next month; “Wonderful Christmas Time” by Wings, anyone?

.:.

Met M2, KP and DI for some food & drink last night at the Rebel House. I haven’t seen them in a long time, so it was good to catch up and have a few laughs.

.:.

If you liked Shaun Of The Dead, you’ll be as excited about Hot Fuzz as I am. Check out the trailer(s). Bonus points for excellent use of an Eels song too.
[tags]snow, christmas season, musak, rebel house, shaun of the dead, hot fuzz, eels[/tags]

I'll just have to find some other trappist ale

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

We had dinner at Volo tonight with my university friend Farmboy and his wife. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm…pasta n’ beer. I’m sad, though; they no longer carry the delirium tremens.

.:.

Kristen Bell: even hotter in high definition. Hooray for technology.

.:.

It would seem that …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead might be self-destructing. I’m glad I saw them when I had the chance.
[tags]bar volo, kristen bell, and you will know us by the trail of dead[/tags]

Bring on the downtime

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Since I’ve gotten ahead on my reading & assignments, I’ve decided not to do any school work at all until Tuesday. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.

It’s a busy weekend anyway; we have dinner at Cava tomorrow night with friends and dinner with other friends on Monday. That leaves tonight and Sunday for going to movies, catching up on Deadwood (I watched 3 episodes last night) and generally lazing about.

More good news: it’s supposed to be 11 degrees tomorrow too, and my cold seems to be on the way out. Huzzah.

.:.

Spoke to my friend the constable last night. She’s loving her new job, maintaining law & order in the far north. Well…”far” is a relative word, I guess; while she’s not in Melville Island or Inuvik or even Deline, she’s further north than most people ever go. She’s certainly further north than I’ve ever been, by about 800 km. Anyway, she loves it there and she loves what she’s doing, and she’s even adopted a dog, so good for her.

[tags]slacking, the great white north[/tags]