a toonie

A toonie is what one of my colleagues gave me yesterday as a contribution to a gift for another one of our colleagues who is having a baby.  A toonie.  That's 2 dollars.  One coin.  That doesn't even cover the gas it cost me to drive to the mall to get the damn gift.  I mean, really, it's insulting, no?  I went on this rant with my mother yesterday and she pointed out that I don't know everyone's situation, and so shouldn't judge.  The thing is, that I know how much this woman makes, and so I judge.  Her situation is obviously that she was raised by wolves or something.  I understand you might not want to contribute - so don't.  Don't sign the card, and don't waste my time with a toonie!  And then, to top it off, I had to miss the damn meal where we gave her the gift today because I got stuck in a meeting.   But all was not lost, because I did accomplish quite a few things on this fine Friday:

• Booked my ticket to New York, and on points to boot!  I leave in 6 weeks.  More details on this trip to come in a future post.
• Had lunch with Christie, who just came back from NYC and so had some great tips.  Including where to get the best pancakes.  Now if only I could remember what that place was called.
• Bought a new pair of glasses.  My old ones are very old and not at all cool.  So I got a new pair.  As pictured here. The pink on the inside is pretty awesome.  As a bonus, the store was having a promotion/sale/charity thing where if you bring in 10 items for the Food Bank, you get 100 bucks off the frames!  Such a great idea.  

They are called Holland Park.  They are rad.

• When I got home I went for a great run along the river.  It was a full moon and a chinook.  Pretty great. 
• After the run, I rewarded myself with a burger and fries from Boogie's Burgers.  I wish I had taken a picture of the burger.  It was damn good.  And the fries were also awesome.  I recognize that eating like a glutton after going for a run is somewhat counter-productive, but it's a Friday night and eating a salad just felt unfair.  Plus I have absolutely no veggies in my house right now.

goddamn you mother nature pt. 2

On Sunday morning this is what I saw when I walked out of my house. Keep in mind that it was April 3rd. It was all kinds of awesome.*

A good 20 cms of snow had fallen since Friday night. I could only take the picture on Sunday morning because it was too depressing to leave the house on Saturday. One - because of all the snow, and two - because I was very hungover, thanks to celebrating JM's 35th birthday on Friday night. I won't get into any of the gory details of the night, but needless to say on Saturday I would have paid 100 dollars for someone to hand deliver me a quarter pounder, fries and fountain pop.

And yes, that is my spanking new car. Love it.

* incidentally, if I look back at previous posts, there was a similar bad news snow story in April of 2010 ... not sure why I was surprised this time around. I'm a sucker I guess.

eat something ... please

So The Bachelor is on tonight and I just realized that I didn't post a recap from last week. That was due to a variety of issues, including but not limited to:

1) the fact that it was Valentine's Day and I was striking against all things involving romance;

2) HC forgetting to PVR the early episode meaning that we made our pizzas, packed them up and took them over to SS's place to cook, resulting in a lot of commotion and me forgetting to take note of everyone's witty comments; and

3) sheer laziness on my behalf.

So I don't have a full recap. Instead, below is an email train between myself and RB, which I believe captures the sentiment of the day after.

RB:

It's dinner time on the yacht! Britt is wearing an indefensible peach negligee thing.

Did you watch the bach last night?

Me:

I did. She had horrible platform flip flops too! Screw a lack of chemistry, she should have been sent home based solely on her horrible fashion choices and bad hair!

RB:

It was gross- and made me realize I need a b**b job STAT

Me:

Shut up.

You are nowhere near as skeletal as Britt, so that ridiculous outfit would not hang off you like it did her. Seriously, I was wishing for an interactive tv so that I could feed her the salted caramel chocolate I was eating in honour of VDay.

RB:

Yes, I watched her push her food around the plate and was willing her to EAT SOMETHING!

Me:

Any thoughts on final 2?

RB:

I like Shawntel ALOT

ME:

Yes me too.

RB:

Her and dentist I think?

Me:

Not a fan of the dentist … she seems very unhip. Bad mom hair and overplucked eyebrows. I also don’t really see their chemistry, but he seems to like her.

RB: I don’t mind her… she’s kind of the odd duck there- which is interesting

Who is your #2?

Me:

I think the other Chantal … despite her crazy.

RB:

mmm… shes way too over the top for me… too needy. Interestingly neither of us said “em”

btw I have watched a sum total of 3 episodes of this bach. He’s creepy.

Me:

I think he has Emily on a pedestal … won’t work.

He is very deliberate in his speaking patterns – no emotion ever. His voice doesn’t chance no matter what he says, it’s almost like someone (Chris Harrison perhaps) is feeding him lines.

That said, I think he’s the best looking Bachelor they’ve had on the show.

RB:

I loved Andrew Firestone

Rich said he should send the rest of the girls home after he saw him with Emily…said he acts like an idiot b/c he’s smitten

Me:

Sounds like you and Rich had a pretty romantic Valentine’s Day last night, watching the Bachelor …

RB:

After I inhaled peters drive in…yes…

Me:

Nothing says I love you like onion rings and a chocolate banana milkshake!

RB:

Wrong. Chocolate Strawberry.

Even hotter and sexier with 2 kids in back of car with milkshake dripping EVERYWHERE.

Me:

Ran into so and so last week. Is it mean of me to say that I don’t like her hair?

RB:

No, this would be mean

Ran into so and so last week. Is it mean of me to say that I don’t like her?

Me:

So to recap, you are mean and I am polite.

RB:

Correct.

some boots and some books

So I made it through the weekend with my mom. I have some new boots (pictured at right) and a new winter coat to show for it. And I think I only snapped at her once. And we had some good talks. And some good food. And some good wine. So all in all, a good visit.

I also lent her a book, which brings me to my latest reading list. I've been on a non-fiction/memoir kick of late. Here is what I have been reading:

• Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man by Bill Clegg. The author is a literary agent who has a seemingly great life, but is addicted to crack. The majority of the book chronicles his paranoia as he met with dealers, got high, had sex with random men, moved from hotel to hotel and thought he was going to be arrested. The paranoia part was interesting. The reviews talk about how it's a great account of "one man's descent into the hell of addiction." And while it certainly is hellish, I still don't know that I understand how someone can get there and live there and think that it's a better way to live than clean. I suppose they're so messed up they can't really make that distinction. So a hellish life, certainly. But how he got there, I still didn't get it after reading the book.
• Open by Andre Agassi. This is the book I lent my mom. She took it back to Ottawa to lend to my dad, because I think he'll really like it too. This was a good book. Fascinating really. I always wonder with memoirs how revisionist they are - did he really have second thoughts about proposing to Brooke Shields as he was proposing to her, or is it just easier to remember it that way 6 years later. At any rate, how he became the famous athlete we all know is a great story. It's one of those books that you look forward to getting back to reading after you put it down.
• I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. HC read this book while she was in Palm Springs and kept BBMing me little tidbits. She told me that all women should read it so we know what assholes men are. The book is made up of anecdotal stories about Tucker Max and his friends out partying, drinking to excess, sleeping with random women and insulting said women and others. I think a lot of people would find it offensive and shocking. I can't say I really did. A lot of the stories were quite humorous, which I think was the intention of the book. And while Max speaks abhorrently of women, a lot of the women seem to act equally ridiculous, so whatever. I didn't finish it though, mainly because I got bored of all the poop stories. I don't really enjoy reading about disgusting bowel movements. I will say however, that I really do hope that they serve beer in hell, because I'm pretty sure there will be a reserved seat at that bar for me.
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I haven't been at my best lately and so thought I would take a shot at reading a quasi self-help book. I started reading it a few months ago and am only on page 91. There goes my attempt at self-improvement. The book jacket describes it as a woman's 12 month adventure "test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier." The problem is that she starts it in January and frames "becoming happy" like a New Year's resolution. As such is just become a check list of things to do. Reading it just made me feel bad about myself because my closets aren't organized and I'm not very efficient on weekends. Thanks tips, I don't need a book to tell me that. And now it's being turned into a TV show, starring Charlotte from Sex and the City. I'm pretty sure I won't waste PVR space on it.
• Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The subtitle is "the inside story of how Wall Street and Washington fought to save the financial system - and themselves." I think this is a book I'll be reading for awhile. It's 500+ pages on the financial crisis. Lots of concepts that I don't fully understand, but I'm trying. When you read about people taking helicopters to work and thinking that a $30 million a year pay cheque being fully explainable (really?) you can begin to understand why middle America is so upset. And why they hate the bailout. And why they hate Obama. And how it came to be that there was an legitimate campaign ad centred around one of the candidates, who for some reason had a shot at actually becoming a US Senator, declaring that she was not a witch. Okay that last bit might be a bit of a stretch, but it is all connected. And the the book is interesting. Not riveting though. But then again, I'm not sure any book on the financial system would be.

So that's me. And those are my mini reviews. Oh and tomorrow's high is -33 with the windchill. Awesome.

I made this

So there is a record salmon run this year ... no one really knows why. I ate lots of it whilst in BC last week - on the awesome patio at Sandbar in Vancouver and on an even better patio on Gabe (BB even caught it himself)! So when reading the Globe and Mail on Saturday morning, I spotted Lucy Waverman's recipe for roasted salmon, I decided to give it a try. And it was delicious. Here is my version next to the picture from the paper. Impressive, non?