template hell

So I haven't blogged in a while, and it hasn't really been on purpose, but it kind of has been. I've been wanting to start a new blog for a long time now and I finally got a domain that I liked and that was also available. Now that I've gotten the perfect name for my new blog, I'm in search of a new template. The Cutest Blog on the Block is great and all, but just not what I'm looking for. There are tons of templates on other sites that are more "me", but they're all adapted from Wordpress and therefore screws up when you use them on Blogger. Blah! Soon, soon I will have the perfect template and then I will reveal my new blog to the masses! Well, maybe not masses, but at least to the people I know who follow my random postings.

Anyone know any web designers that wouldn't mind helping a girl out by tweaking some templates???

hello? is it me you're looking for?

I have been searching non-stop for the past week or so. What have I been looking for, you ask? Let's see....

1) A new apartment
My sweet deal of an apartment is coming to an end. The original plan was for me to live in my amazing apartment until they tore it down for condos. There was no definite timeline as to when this development would start, so my rent has been below market price. The floor isn't finished and some of the lights don't work, but it was a good trade off for the low rent I'm paying. Unfortunately for me, the plan has now changed and condos will not be going up any time in the next five years. Therefore, my landlord is now looking to renovate my place and start charging market rent, which I cannot afford. Bah. I am now looking into room share options on Craigslist. I'm looking for December 1st so probably have better luck after the 1st as a lot of postings are still searching for November 1st tenants.

2) A kick-ass internship
Next week is intersession week at GBC and that means there will only be another seven weeks of school after that for this term. I've been told that where your career goes post-school depends greatly on where you do your internship. I will be sending out resumes and filling out applications like mad once I get back from Cuba. I will also be shamelessly asking friends and family for any and all connections they may have to the event planning world.

3) Volunteer opportunities
Volunteer opportunities are all over the place, however they are not always in fields I'm interested in nor are they always taking place when I'm available. I'm signing up to volunteer at as many events as my schedule will allow. Upcoming events for me include Nightwood Theatre's 4x4 Festival and the Mary Lynn Higgins Youth Fund 4th Annual Pub Night and Silent Auction.

So if you know of any amazing people looking for a roommate or have any connections to event planners that are looking for interns and/or volunteers, drop me a line.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in my never-ending search!


Feeling: a little overwhelmed

Listening to: kids screaming from the daycare across the street or cats being skinned alive, I can't really tell which.

a new countdown

My 30 Days have been down with for a couple of weeks now and it feels great. I've hit the "couldn't care less about you" phase and from past experience, this phase should last for a couple of years. The couldn't-care-less phase doesn't mean that I really don't care. I just don't care about what you had for dinner, what you're doing, who you're seeing, etc. I do care in the sense that I wouldn't want you to get hit by a car or catch H1N1. It's a sublime phase to be in. It allows me to focus on other things such as my new countdown: 10 more days until Cuba!

One of the assignments in the 30 Days was to research weight loss/get healthy plans, decide which would be best for you, and start following through on one. Seeing that I was planning on heading down to Cuba, I figured it wouldn't hurt to actually do that assignment. I didn't bother researching anything; every girl knows how to lose weight in a healthy way, we've been reading about it in women's magazines since we were thirteen.

My current weight is 130 lbs and that's probably not going to change in the next two days. My goal is to be at 120 lbs because 1) my doctor told me I should lose a few pounds to be at optimal health and 2) I would like to lose 10 lbs. I suppose I should say that I would rather lose inches than weight. I've started with small changes that will eventually get there.

I could go on and on with reasons as to why it'll be hard for me to get to my target weight, but let's be honest, I'm not at my goal weight because I'm lazy and I LOVE food. It doesn't help that the cold weather makes me feel like baking more either. Last week I baked three batches of brownies, two batches of cupcakes, and a batch of cookies. Thank god I work in a restaurant and have co-workers to feed my creations to. I am now eating the apple crisp fresh out of the oven. Okay, now on to the list that apparently appears in every blog I write...

Things I'm doing and have done to reach my target of 120 lbs:

1) Increase physical activity

I am now playing volleyball on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. I love volleyball. Yesterday was the third game day in a row that I didn't get hit in the face with a ball. Amazing! What's not amazing? How ridiculously sore I am all the time. It's totally my fault though because I never stretch properly.

2) Eat less crap

I could cut out junk food completely and be a miserable bitch. For the sake of my friendships and mental health, I've opted to just eat less crap. Stop snacking on bread and fries at work and only buy single portion bags of chips and treats if I'm really craving. Eat more fruits and veggies.

3) Eat at home more

I don't have a deep fryer so eating at home helps with list item #2. Since I live on my own, my fridge isn't all that well stocked. I buy things in smaller portions so I can't just reach into the fridge and pour cream into my sauces because I only have cream in the fridge when I know I'm going to use it (mostly for baking and chocolate making). The portion of protein on my plate is smaller than one you would find eating out and the veggie portion is much larger. It also helps me save on money therefore allowing me to go to Cuba!

4) Drink more water
Zero calories, zero grams of sugar, zero grams of sodium. Takes up lots of room in your stomach. Perfect.

5) Sleep

I have a problem with reading in bed and then looking at the clock to discover that it's 3 a.m. I'm trying to get to bed earlier so I have more energy to do the things listed above. I'm way more likely to skip volleyball and grab junk food when I'm tired.

I am super excited to pack my vacation suit case. Must buy sun screen!!

Screw you frost warning!!

Feeling: annoyed at Blogger for the random spacing between the paragraphs of this blog.

pink

I put a pink streak in the back of my hair after a couple years of solid black locks. I now remember a few things about having pink hair.

1) It's a pain in the ass to maintain
Pink washes out of my hair so quickly that it turns a strange orange shade before I know it. It looks great the next day after a fresh dye job, but I should be dying my hair once a week or so to maintain it. I just can't really be bothered. I will live with the strange orange shades.

2) Sometimes I look stupid
Usually when I'm carrying my hot pink gym bag, listening to my iPod that's in a pink carrying case, and when I'm wearing a pink top. Yes, I do all those things at the same time. I realize that I'm doing all those things at the same time, but I'm not buying another gym bag nor am I buying another iPod case, and some times I just want to wear that pink top. Oh, and it's raining today so I'm giving my eyes a break from contacts and opting to wear glasses today. I just looked in the mirror and realized that I'm wearing my dark pink/red glasses. I am now reaching for my copper pair of glasses.

3) People have weird reactions
Little girls tend to stare; I think mostly because they're attracted to hot pink as a colour. Some older people will give me disapproving looks (surprisingly, my mother has not said a word about it) when I'm on the streetcar. I last noticed this when I was sitting behind four punk rockers that were loud and obviously hadn't bathed themselves in recent days. I hope that old woman was able to distinguish me from them. Other times people will pause and have to think for a moment, as if asking themselves, "did I really just see pink hair or am I going nuts?" I like to let them think that they're going nuts.

wy and the never ending butt dials

If I had to guess, I would say that I get three to five butt dials per week. Now given what a butt dial is, I know that my friends don't mean to do this, but it annoys the crap out of me!! Sometimes I will have seven missed calls from the same person because they keep jarring their phone around just so that it ends up dialing my number over and over and over and OVER again.

I believe the frequency that I get these calls is because of my initials making me the last entry in most people's phones. Does this happen to my brothers too? I doubt it happens as much to Peter as P lands in the middle of the alphabet. Maybe Andy gets lots of butt dials too because he's at the top and at the bottom of the alphabet. Bah. So irritating.

I don't know which I find more annoying. 1) Being butt dialed repeatedly for fifteen minutes or 2) being butt dialed and then being left a three minute message of nothing but either a cell phone being jostled around in a handbag or a message of someone else's random conversation. Sometimes the conversations are funny and entertaining, but that's super rare. Use the key lock on your cell phones people!!!!

Mood: slightly agitated

Listening to: Virgin Radio 99.9

morning observations

I am currently* on a GO train heading to school from Mississauga. I was visiting family yesterday, hence the rare morning commute to school today. I figured that since it will take 30 minutes to get to Union Station, I might as well utilize the mobile capabilities of my laptop and blog about some things I noticed on the bus and the train. Note that it is a rather dreary rainy morning today.

1) People are inconsiderate
When I got on the bus in the morning, I noticed there were three or four people sitting in the front half of the bus that had their bags and other miscellaneous items on the seat beside them. Not really a big deal until we got to a bus stop that had about ten passengers boarding the bus. The aforementioned riders made no attempt to move their belongings to free up seats until they were asked to by a new passenger. Most of the bags were moved and all was dandy except for this one girl. She rolled her eyes at the person asking her to move her stuff and then moved her book bag and umbrella begrudgingly. WTF? Did your mother not teach you any manners? Were you raised by wolves? Did you pay for two seats? The fact that she was so dim as to put a wet umbrella on a dry seat is another matter.

2) Big man & a little umbrella
I am carrying a smaller travel umbrella today because I didn’t want to haul around a golf umbrella with me yesterday when there was only a risk of showers. However, today’s forecast definitely called for rain so if I were at home, I would have most definitely toted my golf umbrella with me and probably my rain boots too. Now, I am all of 5’2” and a compact travel umbrella almost does the job of keeping me dry, but my feet and pant legs still get a bit of a splashing depending on how hard it is raining. If you are the slightest bit taller than 5’2”, why the heck do you even OWN a compact travel umbrella? There was a man waiting on the train platform who was probably around the 5’10” mark. His umbrella was smaller than mine and he was more than just splashed from the chest down. Now maybe I’m making a sweeping generalization with the next statement, but most people do not enjoy going to work in damp clothing.

3) Going to high school in the suburbs is not fun
On my way to the bus stop, I saw a bunch of teens standing in the rain at a random street corner. I didn’t know why they were all congregated there until a school bus pulled up and they all hopped on. I have always lived very close to my schools. My first elementary school is across the street from the home that my parents still live in and I’ve never lived farther than three blocks or so of any other school until I got to college so taking a school bus to school is actually a foreign activity for me. Then I saw another teen being dropped off at the school bus stop after the bus pulled away. You need a ride to the school bus stop? How far do you live from your school? He then hopped back into his mom’s car and asked to be dropped at the next stop to catch up with the bus.

I hope that these observations are rare. I really don’t want to have to do a morning commute ever in my future.

*typed on the Go train and later uploaded while not paying attention in class

other people's food quirks

I am home sick for the first part of the day so I figure I can fill in some of my waking time with a blog. I will be returning to bed to hibernate until I have to work at 6 o'clock. Hopefully the extra rest will have whatever it is that I have to pass over relatively quickly.

To go along with my previous post about my food quirks, I've decided to blog about the food quirks I've noticed in some of my beloved friends and families. Instead of naming names, I will just number the quirks and you can guess who the quirk belongs to.

1) Tomatoes in various forms
I have a friend who does not eat raw tomatoes, but eats bruschetta, salsa, tomato sauce, and ketchup. I understand that raw tomatoes are very different from tomato sauce and ketchup, but the tomatoes in bruschetta are raw too.

2) Stop touching!!
Another friend habitually separates her food so the items on her plate are not touching. I believe this is due to her having a mild case of OCD. Ideally, she would like her food served on separate plates thus ensuring that nothing would touch. She pushes the meat, the starch, and the veg away from each other so there's a small defined space between all the items on her plate.

3) Why aren't you touching?!?!
The same friend also wants ALL of her food touching, if it's meant to be touching i.e. pad thai. If a dish should be mixed thoroughly and it's not, she will take a minute to stir all of her food together.

4) Smaller pieces, please!
Another friend has the compulsion to cut up her food into little pieces all at once, much like a parent would do for a small child at the beginning of a meal. She does thing when dining in the company of people who know her well and have come to expect this. She has told me that she does not do this when she is out eating with people she doesn't know very well and when she's out at a fancier restaurant.

5) Guinness and girly drinks
I have a male friend that used to drink pints upon pints of Guinness. To give you an idea of this man's physical size, he could probably kill me with two or three good swings. I actually started drinking Guinness because this friend insisted that it was so delicious and I eventually forced myself to like it. While he would be drinking a pint of Guinness, I would sometimes order a girly cocktail. He would then take a sip of it and steal it from me claiming it as his own. He would never order himself a girly drink, but would happily rip them out of my girly hands.

6) Starch, veg, then meat
I have a friend that would eat all of the starch, then all of the veg, and then start working on the meat. I always found it odd because he is the only person I know that eats that way. Most people I know, regardless of their other food quirks, would eat things somewhat evenly. I don't know if he still eats his meals like this, but I always thought it was weird.

These are all of the quirks I can think of right now. Time to head back to bed.

some people should get hit by cars

I'm super lucky when it comes to work because I live on Richmond Street pretty much two blocks directly north of my place of employment. I can walk to work in under ten minutes and there have been times when I've gotten out of bed literally 15 minutes prior to my start time and have made it to work with time to spare.

I always walk on the west side of Brant Street because there is a crosswalk at Brant & King that makes crossing the street super easy compared to jay walking. I get to the crosswalk, push the button to make the lights flash, looks to make sure cars are stopping and then cross. I use this crosswalk at least once every shift that I work, twice if I'm heading to work from home.

Now what boggles my mind is the amount of people who do not know how to use a crosswalk. I am not even slightly exaggerating when I say that every time I approach this crosswalk, there is some idiot who doesn't know how to use the crosswalk and nearly causes a traffic accident. People will stand at the crosswalk without pushing the button and then look at traffic. Cars will slow down, but the person won't start crossing so the car starts moving and then the person will start crossing at the same time that the car started moving and then there is the start/stop motion that confuses the shit out of everyone on the road. Push the frickin' button and then cross the road. Bah!

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Day 19

I am a bit behind in my "assignments." I still need to make a happiness collage which is basically anything makes me smile and gives me joy. I also need to write a "Dear Asshole..." letter that I haven't gotten around to yet. I'm scared of the hand cramp I'm going to give myself writing that letter. I like how the authour specifically writes "NEVER show him the letter!!" Can you imagine getting a "Dear Asshole..." letter from your ex? No thanks.

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I know this post is really random and poorly written. To be honest, I'm blogging really because I feel that it's been too long since I last blogged. I will have a better post soon.

Day 5

Day 5 of my 30 days to curing a broken heart and Day 3 of the U.S. Open. The last two days have been good. Some tears welled up, but I forced myself to hold them in since crying would mean breaking rules from Day 3.

Day 4 involved buying a new journal and writing how about how I'm feeling for no less than 15 minutes, and then writing about how I'm feeling about him for no less than 15 minutes. I was surprised how easy it was to write continuously for over 15 minutes. My hand was cramping by the time I was done with writing about my feelings. I think that's part of the reason the book says to write for 15 minutes. By the time you're done writing about you, your hand is cramping, your brain is somewhat exhausted, and you really don't want to think about more feelings and write them down. In addition to writing about my feelings and my feelings about him, Day 5 has me "being my own best friend." Now when I write, I am to include all negative lines that I direct at myself and leave a space in between each line. I am then to go back to the first line once I'm done listing these negative thoughts and write a reply to them as if it were my best friend saying those things about herself.

For example:

Negative line:
I will never find anyone who will love me.

Response:
That is a lie. There is someone out there who will love you more than you can imagine. You just have to kiss a bunch of ugly frogs before you find him.

I need to decide when I will write daily for the next 25 days. I figure it's best to get into a routine and write at the same time daily, but with school and work starting up again, I don't know if that will be possible. First thing in the morning will not work because I have 8 a.m. classes. Before bed would work, in theory, but considering that I will sometimes have to work until 1 a.m. and then go to an 8 a.m. class, before bed will also be a no-go. I'll probably sneak in quiet journal time in between classes and shifts.

I am now watching the U.S. Open live and I am LOVING it. I don't have cable hooked up yet so the lovely T.V. that I bought off of Bradley is just sitting there. I will get around to it soon. My plan for today was to set up the live stream from usopen.org and unpack the rest of my boxes and clean up the main floor of my apartment. So far, I have set up the live stream...

30 days

30 days. I have 30 days (according to this self-help book) to cure a broken heart. I feel so pathetic when I'm in the self-help aisle of a book store. Like I should have a giant bag of yarn and three pet cats with me. Regardless, I hit the depression stage of this most recent break-up over a month after the actual break-up. There are two sides to every story, but to be honest (which is part of the "healing" process), it all blew up because of something that I did. I had my reasons and they seemed right at the time, but as the old saying goes, hindsight is 20/20.

So I am now on Day 3 of said book and today was my last crying day. My eyes were intensely swollen over the last two days because I would sporadically cry and when I wasn't crying on my own, I watched sad movies to ensure a constant stream of tears. Hey, if I only get three days to cry, I made sure to compete with Niagara Falls. Yesterday was spent with family so there were no tears until I was home late a night.

This book is structured in a way that you only read one chapter per day of the 30 days. With each chapter, there are new rules that you are to put into place for the remaining days. Rules for Day 3:

Rule #1: No Contact
Easy enough. Oh wait, no contact also means no contact with his family, friends, coworkers, and anyone else I met through him. Um, uh....okay....two and a half years means there are a lot of friends in the picture...will do my best to adhere to this no contact rule. So if there are any of his friends reading this, I'm not being flaky and ignoring you, but I kind of am. Sorry, it has nothing to do with you. We'll catch up in October. I'm giving myself a pass on the people that I will see on the street due to the proximity of our work places. That is something that is totally out of my control.

Rule #2: Go Right Ahead, Think About Him
Obviously, this will happen. Here's how this rule goes: everything I think of him through rose tinted glass and remember him as being a loving person , I am also to come up with a memory of a time when he was unloving, inconsiderate, dismissive of me, rude to me, etc. This rule shouldn't be too hard to follow.

Rule #3: No Revenge!
It's crossed my mind. I could run a smear campaign. I could be an evil vindictive bitch. I choose not to.

Rule #4: No Driving Past His House or Work
I would be too digsusted with myself on how pathetic I would have to be to do this, so this won't be an issue. Once again, work is really close together so I'll be walking by it frequently just to get to where I'm going.

Rule #5: Avoid His Usual Hangouts
Looks like after school drinks will be at Betty's for the first month. I am slightly irritated that this place was actually my usual hangout first and now I'm avoiding it.

Rule #6: Every Day, every Night, an Affirmation
This is what the book says to repeat every morning:

I have the power to transform today's pain into tomorrow's wisdom, and I love myself enough to choose to do exactly that. There is joy waiting for me. I deserve it. And I will be healthy enough to recognize and embrace it when it comes, and know that if this is what it took to find it, it was worth all this and more.

Okay, now I feel really pathetic...but I'm not crying =)

my food quirks

Since Toronto is under a tornado warning and we're all being advised to stay in, I figured blog before I head to bed to read. A note titled "25 Random Things About Me" was going around on Facebook and as I was writing my 25 random things, I noticed that nearly half of them were food things. I then decided to scrap the random food things from that list and make one that's only random food things about me. This is the list and I have no idea now many points there will be. Let us being...

1) I detest wasabi
Contrary to what my dining companions believe, it's not the spice that I don't enjoy. It's easy enough to adjust the heat level by how much wasabi you put in your soy. It's the mustard flavour that I don't like. Horseradish, Dijon and grainy mustards are also a no go. I do like plain old yellow hot dog mustard.

2) I like my cereal soggy
I will pour milk over my cereal and wait until it softens before taking the first bite. Sometimes I'll pour milk over cereal as soon as I get out of the shower and then go get dressed. I also prefer to have fruit in my cereal. Usually a sliced banana.

3) I have a massive sweet tooth
Wheel that dessert cart my way! I will eat almost anything that is considered a dessert.

4) I peel red grapes
I will sit in front of the T.V. with a bunch of red grapes and peel each and every one of them before eating. I don't do this with green grapes. Only the red ones because I don't like how the skins make your mouth pucker.

5) I forced myself to like olives
I used to despise olives. One day I decided that I was going to like olives and proceeded to eat half a jar of them. I did this because I was told that you have to eat seven olives in a row in order to acquire a taste for them. I now very much enjoy olives.

6) I also forced myself to like Guinness
I did this because I was told that Guinness has less calories in it than beer. Yes, that is a very superficial reason, but considering that I'm not a huge beer drinker, I figure it wouldn't hurt. I now also very much enjoy Guinness.

7) I love beets
I love beet salad, roasted beets, pickled beets, beet juice, beet soup. I love beets.

8) I think smelly cheese is delicious
Stinky, smelly, creamy cheeses are the best. I was reading a book and the author referred to this type of cheese as "death cheese." To him, this type of cheese is what the inside of a corpse's mouth would smell like after weeks of decay. I also like cheeses with mould in them. Bring on the blue!

9) I gravitate towards braised meats if they're on a menu
Lamb shanks, osso bucco, braised short ribs...mmm....I think it's because I don't braise things at home so I always order them when I'm out.

10) I eat the green stuff and the yellow stuff too
The green stuff inside lobster heads, also known as lobster tomalley. I gross out many co-workers when I tell them that I eat the green stuff. They chalk it up to me being Chinese. The yellow stuff is inside the crab heads, also know as crab mustard. If it's a big crab with a big shell, I like to put a scoop of rice into the shell and mix it all together with the mustard. So good....*drool*...

11) I'm only dependant on coffee when I'm in school
Before September of 2008, I drank coffee every now and then. I didn't NEED one every morning, or every day for that matter. Upon returning to school, I found that I NEEDED coffee to get through the day. There were some early classes that required a morning pick me up, but in most cases, I was just so bored by the content of classes that I relied on coffee to keep me awake through classes.

12) I love rice
I had to stop making rice at home because I can't eat just one cup of cooked rice. If there is a pot of rice around at home, I will eat no less than three cups of it and there is really no point in make just one cup of rice. I get my "rice fix" when I'm at family meals and when I'm eating out.

13) I like liver
Pâté and foie grais are amazing. But I limited the amounts I eat because "too much of a good thing" definitely applies to this delicacy.

14) Paula Dean grosses me out
Seriously? This woman's cooking is the nasty shit ever. Yes, I know butter added flavour, but on top of the copious amounts of butter she adds to everything, does she really need to cook all green vegetables until they're GREY?!?! Barf.

15) I am incapable of making just one serving of fruit salad
Whenever I make a fruit salad, I always end up with a massive bowl full. This is mostly due to the fact that I believe a fruit salad should have lots of different fruits in it. Fruit salad that is almost completely comprised of melon is lame. I am now eating my way through a big bowl of fruit salad I made yesterday that has blueberries, strawberries, peaches, kiwi, and oranges. I was going to add green grapes, but that would have been too much green in the salad and I also believe fruit salad should be well balanced in regards to colour.

16) I add fresh produce to canned foods
I add more mushrooms to cream of mushroom soup and frozen peas to canned beef stew. One of the grosses things that I love eating is probably canned beef stew (with frozen peas tossed in, of course) over instant noodles. This is something that my family and members of my extended family did (and still do) when I was a child. When there's nothing in the house and I have no idea what to have for dinner, it's not uncommon for me to run out to the corner store to pick up a can of stew and a pack of noodles. I purposely don't keep those two things in my apartment because I'd eat it WAAAAYYYY too often if I did.

17) Root beer is my favourite soft drink
Does Hires still make root beer? I never see it anywhere anymore so I now drink A&W root beer, but Hires was better. Barq's doesn't quite hit the spot.

I may add to this list later, but that's all for now. Over and out!

ancient chinese secret

I was at King's Noodle House earlier this week having a bowl of congee because I was too lazy to cook anything at home and I wanted to buy some oranges. The lay out of the restaurant have several smaller 2 and 4-top tables against the walls and four large round tables that can seat up to 10 or so. When solo diners come in, they often seat them at these round tables with other people dining on their own.

So there I was sitting at one of these round tables happily eating a bowl of congee with bbq duck (I friggin' love bbq duck) and reading a NOW magazine, and over hearing the other patrons' conversations at the table. I couldn't help listening in on some older Chinese men who were commenting on how "many gwai lo know how to use chopsticks now." I looked around and saw a few non-Asian people in the place and they were all using chopsticks. I was chuckling inside because these Chinese men appeared to be slightly astonished and a little irritated about this. I guess in their mind chopsticks are only for Asians. Sorry dudes, ancient Chinese secret no more.


Mood: amused

Listening to: buckets of rain fall from the sky

to all you asshole "cyclists" out there

Yes, this will be a bit of a raging blog entry. I have witnessed a few "cyclists" in the past two days who have irked me enough to blog about it. This is not about cyclists who wear helmets, have lights, use their bell, ride on the street, and obey traffic laws. This is about the assholes that fancy themselves as cyclists, but are just really dicks on bikes.

1) Ride your bike on the street - NOT THE SIDEWALK.
The sidewalk is for pedestrians who are WALKING, hence the name. The only people who should be riding on the sidewalk are children. Just because you have a bike with wheels that are under 61cm, it doesn't mean you can ride on the sidewalk . If you're too chicken shit to ride your bike on the road, then DON'T RIDE A BIKE. Don't ring your little bell to get pedestrians to move out of your way.

2) Don't ride like a psychopath
I was riding in the passenger seat of my friend's car along Dundas Street last night and some fucker was riding recklessly. This fucking eejit was zooming between cars stopped at a red light. I nearly opened my door into him when he flew by my side of the car and I could have killed him. Maybe not killed him, but it would have probably been the most painful lesson he had ever learned. As I am fuming, I wish I had actually opened the door, but I'm glad I didn't. Someone else can open a door into him. What a fucking twat.

3) Obey traffic signs and laws
I was walking on Queen Street and a person on a bike ran a red light and nearly caused a collision between a streetcar and a car. Do these people not understand that pedalling through a red light can result in serious bodily harm to themselves and others? Don't glare at drivers who start driving when their light goes green when you evidently did not have right of way.

I own a bike, I have lights and a bell, I wear a helmet (I have no intentions of going brain dead from falling off my bike) and I stop at stop signs and red lights. I try and defend cyclists when I'm talking to drivers, but the stupid assholes on bikes makes it really hard. Toronto needs to start issuing tickets for these jerks.

Okay, I think I'm done now. ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

mushroom & asparagus risotto with side of out of shape legs and confusion

I figured that since Ontario asparagus is in season, I should get my fill of it while it's fresh, local and cheap. I jumped on my bike for the first time this year and pedaled to the grocery store and got the necessities and started cooking as soon as I got home and unloaded my groceries. Things I did not have for this risotto: dry white wine, fresh cracked black pepper, and butter. I still have to get a pepper mill and I'm still deciding if I really want that gorgeous pepper mill at Canadian Tire that costs $60. I don't know if I'm willing to pay that much when one can get perfectly good pepper mills for less than $30. I need to find the perfect spot in my apartment with good lighting for better food porn shots. The middle of my living/dining room floor seems alright, but the food is a bit lost with all the white. I am not willing to buy more dishes for the sake of better food pics.

mushroom & asparagus risotto

buttom mushrooms, Ontario asparagus, arborio rice, extra virgin olive oil, Campbell's low sodium chicken broth, fresh grated Parmesan

Biking to the grocery store was harder than I remember it. My thighs were burning when I got home and it felt like my legs were going to give out. I suppose it's not too bad considering it's the first I've cycled about 9 months. It was great last year biking to work, but now that I live only two blocks north of work, it's a little pointless to be biking. It'll be good on nights/days when I'm scheduled for shorter shifts and I can go meet up with people around the city. I now have it locked up outside of my front door. The other bikes in my row of houses are just locked to street signs so I'm guessing that means that the occasional weirdos that roam this area at night are not interested in bikes.

Now to the confusion part. I now have a downstairs neighbour (who I will now refer to as DSN). It wouldn't be so confusing to me if downstairs was in good condition, but it's NOT. It's a long story as to why I'm in the place I'm living now so I won't get into, but the apartment I'm in is in much better shape than the one downstairs. There is so much stuff a.k.a. junk down there that I don't understand why anyone would move their stuff in there before getting rid of the junk. There is construction equipment, a bed with a stained mattress (*barf*) from the previous tenant as well as a ripped leather couch, a huge office photocopier and bags of garbage. There isn't a stove down there and the bath tub/shower are in a different room from the toilet. I am so confused.

Some of my stuff was (and still is) downstairs so the plan was for DSN to help me move some stuff up yesterday before he moved his stuff in. We spoke on the phone on Wednesday and from what I gathered, he was going to move stuff in the mid-afternoon. I waited around until 2:30 and finally texted him asking him when he was planning on moving stuff. The reply was between 5 and 6pm. I went out and ran some errands and was home until 6:30pm and then I left to meet Jen for dinner. When we got back to my place after dinner, my DSN was just sitting on the steps and I couldn't tell if he had gotten into the apartment. He called the landlord and he let him in so that kind of worked out. I don't know if he was expecting me to be home ALL DAY or not, but he didn't sound pleased when I told him I wasn't around to move stuff until next Sunday. As there are no curtains on his windows, I peaked in earlier today and saw shit loads of shoe boxes. I mean shit loads, upon shit loads of shoe boxes. I am so very confused.

On another note, I am volunteering at the Hope Volleyball Tournament on Centre Island this Saturday. I was a lot more excited about volunteering before I received an info sheet saying that volunteers should catch the 5:30am ferry. Are you kidding me? The tournament doesn't start until 9:00am!! Geez!

inDulge

Now I know that in my previous post, I was planning at getting a move on getting rid of the 10 pounds that I gained over the past few months, but sometimes a girl just has to give into her cravings. The Leslieville Cheese Market opened up around the corner from me about two or three weeks ago and it has been calling my name since. Upon leaving work, my plan was to eat steamed asparagus and a grilled cheese sandwich. No asparagus appeared on my walk home so I picked up some avocado and headed to the cheese shop in hopes of finding something I would want. Today's lunch consisted of:

1. Organic baguette
2. Camembert cheese
3. Hot sopresatta
4. Cherry tomato & avocado salad with Briannas Dijon Honey Mustard dressing

Gareth's mom introduced me to Briannas Dijon Honey Mustard dressing with avocado at the cottage over the Victoria Day weekend. I am now in love with this product line and will be sampling my way through the other varieties. It's a toss up between the blue cheese or the creamy French as to which I will try next.

Steps: 16,607 from 3:00pm to 2:00am. I put my pedometer down to put on my jacket in the morning and forgot to clip it on before heading out.

Mood: calm

Listening to: the humming of the refrigerator

little legs on a quest for basil

I was cut early from work this evening so I decided to just chill out at home instead of trying to find someone who had the night off that would want to go for dinner. My plan was to go to The Kitchen Table to pick up cherry tomatoes, basil, balsmic vinegar, bocconcini, and some milk for tomorrow's cereal. Organic 1% part skim milk was on sale for $1.99 (score!), but there wasn't any basil. So I got everything else and made my way up to Queen Street thinking that the fruit market at Portland would have basil. Maybe it did, but it was closed. That place keeps such erratic hours. I passed by a Wine Rack on the way back to my place so I decided to stop in and now I'm sipping on some Sawmill Creek Autumn Blush. The guys that were working there were in the midst of kicking out a drunk bum and telling him never to come back. I appreciated the live entertainment. Anyway, I ended up going to the Fresh 'n' Wild at King and Spadina for basil which basically had me walk in a loop from work, to home, and basically almost back to work again. In the end, I got my basil and had the lovely salad pictured below.

I sliced the cherry tomatoes in half so I wouldn't be chasing them all over the plate. Drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic reduction.

I had pulled some meat sauce out of the freezer so I had that over whole wheat spaghetti as my main course. I usually make a big batch of meat sauce, eat three meals of spaghetti with meat sauce and freeze the rest for later. I don't have a microwave right now so I do have to plan ahead if I want to eat the frozen stuff. I pulled this out of the freezer three days ago and let it thaw in the fridge and reheated it on the stove.

I cooked my pasta for 11 minutes because I like it a little past al dente. I use two jars/cans of tomato sauce (what ever is on sale) and add browned ground beef, onions, mushrooms, garlic, and fresh herbs and simmer for an hour or so. Sometimes I'll use hot Italian sausages instead; I pull the meat out of the casings and brown it like I would ground beef. By adding all the extras to store bought sauce, it really stretches it out to multiple filling meals. I'll cook once and eat at least six times.

As for the "little legs" part of this post, it is referring to my little legs, of course. A few of us at work started wearing pedometers because we were curious as to how many steps we took in a shift. I put my pedometer on when I got to work at 10:30am when I got to work this morning and just unhooked it from my belt before I sat down to start this post. So far today, I have taken 11 526 steps which equal 8.06km and 439.53 calories. I recently stepped on my bathroom scale for the first time in months and I discovered that I have gained back the 10 lbs I lost last summer. Time to get stepping!! Regular progress reports to follow...

eggs & laundry (not necessarily in that order)

As I no longer have en suite laundry, I now use the laundromat at Queen & Spadina. I don't really mind hauling my laundry two blocks considering that it is warm out and there is no snow on the ground. I plan on researching some wash'n'fold'deliver services come the winter time. Sure, going to the laundromat isn't as convenient as having en suite machines, but it sure cuts down on the actual time I spend doing laundry. After my first trip to the laundromat, I figured out my system.

1. Wash whites, brights, and darks that need to go into the dryer.
2. Once that load is done, load delicates and items that need to line dried into the wash.
3. Load first load(s) into the dryer.
4. Wait for first load(s) to dry, second load(s) to wash.
5. Fold dry clothing and remove second load(s) from washer to be hung to dry at home.

I got two loads of laundry done in about an hour and fifteen minutes and it cost $7.00. I love look of the vintage dryers there. Probably not good for the environment, but I can use two of these huge machines and have dry clothes in 12 minutes. Now if you weigh that against the time it takes a load to dry in a machine at home (at least 40 minutes) then it may all work out to be the same environment wise.

After laundry, I walked home and hung stuff up to dry, installed a closet rod and unpacked a lot more clothing, and then went to work. I wanted to close because I'm going to the cottage this weekend, but I lost the draw. As I did not plan on contending with co-workers on closing, I did not plan on dinner. Solution: white rice with two over medium eggs and soy and broccoli with oyster sauce. I'd take that over a T.V. dinner any day. I now want to eat the rest of the blackberry yogurt in the fridge, but I will save it for breakfast.

hands that heal

My left hand is wrinkled, dented, cut and swollen. The result of three and a half hours shucking oysters to help the wholesale department fill their orders (being Mothers' Day tomorrow, all the major hotels upped their usual orders). I am not accustomed to shucking for that long. I am contemplating sleeping with a sock on my left hand after I slather hand cream all over it.

and the winners are...

Spaghetti with meat sauce and peanut butter cookies!!! I've been in my new apartment since April 17th and it took me until today to break in the kitchen. I am very relived that the stove and oven both work properly.

I've been very slowly getting my place together. All of my books are still downstairs in the basement of this place, but at least everything is under one roof. There have been many opportunities to get my place all set up, but let's face it, I am the worst procrastinator I know. I kept saying that I would use a raining day to get everything set up or that I would just go on a whirl wind cleaning/organizing spree, but neither of those things have occurred. I'm heading to Muskoka for Victoria Day weekend so my goal is to have everything in place by then. That will give me around eight days. Here's hoping.

I want to revamp this blog. The grey is too blah for me now and I'm over the pink. I will need for assistance for customization as I am not very versed with html. I need to think of some new clever theme or title and pick a colour scheme that reflects that. *sigh* I feel very uninspired right now. But on the bright side, I'm having a cold glass of milk with a freshly baked peanut butter cookie. Maybe I will be inspired tomorrow...

sick and tired

I am sitting in Leadership class and am bored out of my skull. This is easily the most useless class in the program I am taking. I understand the purpose of having a leadership class in terms of professional development, but this class is horrible. I am not learning anything in class that I can't learn out of a text book.

I've spent at least 14 of the last 24 hours sleeping because I've been sick since the weekend. I went to see my doctor yesterday and prescribed me Coactifed. This drug knocks you out so I'm not taking any during the day and now I'm suffering from my symtopms. Running nose, sore throat, pain in my ears. Bah. I guess I'm lucky in the sense that I only get sick one or twice a year, but when I finally do get sick, I might as well be dead to the world.

vision

I can't see very well without corrective lenses. It isn't really all that big of an issue except that I am not a person who leaves her glasses in the same spot every day. For instance, I usually leave my glasses beside my pillow on my bed or on the floor before bed because I will generally read at least a couple of pages before sleeping. However, I am sometimes to tired to read and just toss my glasses haphazardly onto the floor before crashing into a deep sleep. When I awake, I have no idea where on the floor my glasses are. I then have to fumbled around and feel the items around my bed until I find my specs. My vision isn't horrible, just minus 3.75 in both eyes with slight astigmatism in my left eye. Things get blurry from three feet and further but I'm by no means incapable of functioning without my glasses.

Anyway, going back to how I don't keep my glasses in the same spot. Sometimes I leave my glasses in the bathroom and don't put them on when I take my contacts out before bed. When I do this, I wake up not remembering that I left them in the bathroom the morning before. I then fumbled around the floor a bit and after I conclude that my glasses are not on the floor, I lie back down and think, "Shit. Fuck. Where the HELL are my glasses?!?!" Then I get up and look for for them in the usual places. Usually I find them within three minutes of leaving my bed. Usually. I once spent a week without them. Not really a big deal as I also wear contacts, but it makes reading in bed difficult.

Weirdest place I've ever found my glasses: in a sock in washer. I suppose I put them in a sock one day because I forgot the case for them and put them in the sock to keep them from getting scratched and just didn't need to go looking for them later.

I am seriously contemplating corrective laser surgery.

busy as a bee

2009 has proven to be a bit challenging as far as my schedule goes. My week is comprised of five days of school, usually five days of work, two days of volleyball, and a day to spend with family and/or friends. Feeling a little stressed out, but on the bright side, I'm almost at the half way mark of this semester and April 17th is the magic date.

The other magic date right now is March 7th. That is the day I will fly out to Flagstaff, Arizona with Mimi and Claudia. Fun times!! No annual winter trip to NYC this year and no trip to a hot tropical locale, but I'm going to see the Grand Canyon. Horseback riding is in the plans and that's all I really know right now. After three nights in Arizona, we will be driving to Las Vegas to stay at the MGM Grand for three nights. So excited!!! Maybe I'll win a million bucks at the card tables or the slots. Wishful thinking? I hope not.

Time to go study for a law quiz. Blah. At least I'm actually interested in the subject.