Today as I was reading my uncle’s WWI book I found something in one of the later chapters: a TTC transfer. It was from June 2004, and was printed at a station nowhere near my home. I remembered that Stanzi borrowed the book a few years ago; I guess she never made it past the Battle of the Jutland.
Two seconds later I picked up my Blackberry and noticed a new email…from Stanzi. Quel coincidence.
[tags]coincidence[/tags]
Watched Show Me (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, a low-budget Canadian film. It was interesting if not plausible, and well-acted if not well-written.
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We also went out for our last Winterlicious dinner last night, to Jump with our friend CH, and were happy with the way the event ended. We had a great time: the service was great, our drinks were very tasty, and the food was quite good, especially my celery & parsnip bisque and my chocolate/espresso cheesecake.
And so it’s over for another season. The final tally: 1055 was poor, Savoy and Jump were very good, and Canoe was excellent. I think that next time we’ll keep it to one or two restaurants; the value for money doesn’t always seem as great now that we’re more or less limited to vegetarian options.
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Today is sports marathon day. Right now I’m watching the end of the Raptors/Clippers game; after that I’ll slip over into the recording of the Canadiens/Penguins game, and then at some point tonight tune in to the Superbowl (hopefully I can avoid Billy Joel singing the anthem and Prince performing at halftime). Nellie’s been forced to set up temporary residence in the bedroom.
[tags]show me, winterlicious, jump cafe, raptors, clippers, canadiens, penguins, superbowl[/tags]
We have landed at The Auld Spot for a drink and some food with CBGB and friends of theirs. The drink is much*-needed.
* as in, unbelievably much
[tags]auld spot[/tags]
First of all, some big news: my oldest brother is now engaged!!! Everybody pop over to his blog and say congratulations to TimmyD and She Who Must Not Be Named.
Needless to say we’re extremely happy for both of them. We adore SWMNBN, and love how happy she makes my big brother, so we couldn’t be more pleased. Huzzah!
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We tried a new place for Winterlicious last night: The Savoy. T-Bone joined us once again, along with her friend AS. We had a MUCH better experience this time than we had at 1055. My wine (can’t remember what it was…something Tuscan) was really good, my starter salad was excellent, my mushroom risotto wasn’t bad (I don’t like mushrooms, but even then…pretty decent) and my creme brulee was just right. The service was also very good, and best of all our table was in an enclosed booth, so the four of us felt very private and cozy during our meal. To top it off, it was actually cheaper than the typical ‘licious meal — $25 instead of $35 — so we definitely felt like we got our money’s worth.
The Savoy could very well become a neighbourhood joint once we move into our new place.
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I seem to have buggered up my knee somehow. Tried to run on it Sunday afternoon and had to hobble to a stop after 45 seconds. This happens occasionally; hopefully a day with the knee brace should fix it up. But of all the weeks not to be able to exercise: Winterlicious week. Deadly.
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This post on the Showcase Sideshow blog makes an interesting observation: the quality of Mexican directors right now is pretty impressive. It’d be pretty tough to find a better trio of films than Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro), Children Of Men (Alfonso Cuaron) and Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) in theatres right now.
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Holy blessed mother of hotpants, this Washington Post story takes climate change denial to a whole new level of silliness:
Hardison, a parent of seven here in the southern suburbs of Seattle, has himself roiled the global-warming waters. It happened early this month when he learned that one of his daughters would be watching “An Inconvenient Truth” in her seventh-grade science class.
“No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation — the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet — for global warming,” Hardison wrote in an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board. The 43-year-old computer consultant is an evangelical Christian who says he believes that a warming planet is “one of the signs” of Jesus Christ’s imminent return for Judgment Day.
His angry e-mail (along with complaints from a few other parents) stopped the film from being shown to Hardison’s daughter.
The teacher in that science class, Kay Walls, says that after Hardison’s e-mail she was told by her principal that she would receive a disciplinary letter for not following school board rules that require her to seek written permission to present “controversial” materials in class.
Seriously…if you’re the school how can you discipline a teacher for that? You’ve opened the door for teachers to be disciplined for discussing anything, since there’s always some nutbag parent who’ll get their knickers in a twist. Teaching evolution? Sex ed? Geology? Astronomy? Prepare to be disciplined. Hell, if a kid’s parent works for Verizon they’re even likely to complain about the math.
[via Cinematical]
[tags]engagement, savoy restaurant, winterlicious, climate change, inconvenient truth, frosty hardison[/tags]
Would it be wrong for me to buy this t-shirt? ‘Cause I really, really want one.
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So, 1055 last night: my meal was ok, but not great. A simple salad to start, then butternut squash ravioli cooked in brown butter sauce, then an apple tart with caramel sauce. Nellie’s meal was ok too — she had the goat cheese, salmon and “chocolate” mousse — but it was T-Bone who had trouble. She couldn’t have any wine last night, she didn’t think her duck breast was a duck breast at all, and the “chocolate” mousse on the menu turned out to be white chocolate. I find that bizarre; how does “Belgian Chocolate mousse with Merlot poached pears and vanilla sauce” translate to white chocolate, which really isn’t even chocolate at all? Shouldn’t you at least warn people? Anyway, T-Bone doesn’t like white chocolate so I ate most of it and gave her some of my apple tart.
I also had trouble getting a glass of wine, and the service was just on the verge of being inattentive. All in all, I got the sense that 1055 is a place that tries hard but just doesn’t have the talent level to back it up.
[tags]i hate your kids, 1055, winterlicious[/tags]
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]
Damn you, JR. I have now wasted countless hours playing with sand. Curse you…and your little blog too.
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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.
[tags]sand, movies[/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]
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]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 