grude is in the heart

End of 2011 is Nigh

2011-12-27T13:44:00.002-08:00

Hey Peeps,
Thought I'd do an end of the year round up.

This year was in fine form for Dave and I. We both had full-time work which was a big difference from 2010. We've settled in to our Chinatown pad and finally got a couch. No more camping chairs for these folk! "moving on up, moving on up"

The biggest news of the year was Dave popping the big question. And I said YES! We then went into planning madness, which got me overly stressed out, and decided to post-pone until the summer of 2013 to take the pressure off.

Fircom was a big part of my year. It's took the year to find my feet and now I'm pumped about being able to create big changes in the infrastructure and stream-line the administrative processes in 2012. It was stressful to get back into a career path, but my love of non-profits came back and with it my confidence.

Dave and I went on a few vacations this year which was huge for us. In April, we spent a week traveling to Oregon and Northern California to visit our friend Amanda. We saw sea lions and the dramatic Oregon coast. We played croquet and took long leisurely bike rides through the rolling farmlands that feed most of North America. We discovered a deep love of all things Portland - a hipsters paradise.

In the fall, I went to PEI for the United Church National Camping Conference. I spent a few days ahead of time discovering sleepy little Charlottetown - claim to fame, Birthplace of Confederation. Apparently, if you want to start a country all you need is kick-ass parties for two weeks and everyone's on board. I stayed in a hostel for the first time and was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness and friendliness.

Dave made a trip to his parent's new town, Sarnia, ON. It had been two years since he'd seen his family and he had a wonderful time exploring with his parents and visiting his niece and nephew and drawing together.

Personally, 2011 was the year that I decided to do something about a couple of issues I have been carrying with me. I am taking the time to sort out my feelings about these so that I can let them go. Getting married has really shone a light on areas that I need to work on. Dave and I had our first meeting with a financial planner. Planning a future isn't going to take care of itself and we are investing the time and money to figure out what are dreams are and how we want to achieve them.

I am excited for 2012. Each year holds surprises and I'm sure next year is no different.

Big kisses and hugs to all my loved ones!

Margo

Northern California

2011-05-22T08:25:00.011-07:00

Dave and I had a magical time visiting our friend Amanda at her new digs in Northern California where she has moved to-to be with her husband Spencer. She lives in a small town called Cottonwood which is in the San Hernando valley. This valley grows most of the produce you probably purchase in the grocery store.

They have an acre and put it to good use with a massive croquet set-up in the backyard. I was also smitten with the horses who hung around on the other side of their fence. We went for a ride in Spencer's muscle car - so loud, so fun, so powerful! We tried American delicacies, like In and Out Burger - thumbs up! There were Boggle tournaments, bike rides down country lanes, and a lovely afternoon spent chillin' by the Sacramento River. I was very sad to leave Amanda, but we only had two days and then it was off to the Oregon Coast.

Road Trip - Part 1 Portland, OR

2011-05-08T08:28:00.007-07:00

The first day of our road trip took us to Portland. We left Vancouver at midnight and drove through the night until 5am when we slept in the car in a rest area. Not as bad as I had thought it would be - just very very cold. We got a few hours zzzzzs and then rolled into Portland for 9am on Saturday morning. We spent all day wandering the city: Powell's Books (the best book store ever!!!! It's two stories and covers a whole city block), Ping for lunch (good Asian fusion in Chinatown), meandered through the cities core and waterfront, and then went to Washington Park to visit the Japanese garden (nice, but small). We checked into the Hilton at 5pm and decided to have a short nap before heading out. Then we woke up four hours later. We ran out to nourish ourselves and called it a night and the next morning headed to N. Mississippi street for coffee and reading in a hip cafe and some shopping. By noon Sunday we were on our way to Cottonwood, CA to see our friend Amanda.

1. View from Washington Park's Japanese Garden. That's Mt. Hood in the background.
2. This photo of Dave doesn't do anything to represent the wonderful, huge, packed Saturday market they have in Portland.
3.These two houses were near N. Mississippi street. Cute! I want to live there!
4. Powell's Book Store. Dave and I spent half the time there just looking for each other as our phones were off to avoid roaming charges.

Fircom Office, Mumma's 65, Chicken Finger Perfection

2011-03-07T20:18:00.006-08:00

Okay people this is where the magic happens - the Fircom. I get to sit by the big windows and look out over the alley behind the church. There is a Montessori daycare below us and on Friday's they practice the recorder - cute. On most days, someone cries and they all stampeded into the gym around noon at which point I close the door.

I've got a couple of plants I'm trying not to kill and every morning I refill the water jug on my desk. It's nice to use a real jug and glass all day. CBC Radio 3 has started popping up for chunks of time during my day - not totally sold yet, but I like 50% of the music.

The Mumma turns 65 in three days. We had a sumptuous feast at the Tamarind Hill Malaysian Resturant in Uptown New West. Super delicious. I'm sure we will go back again. We had Tuxedo cake at Mom's before hand and gave her-her present which she liked.

This picture is askew because I was so hurried to go back to eating that I knew I had to jump up and snap a picture before I tore that chicken to shreds. Dave's new best friend, cajun rub. The yam fries and lemon mayo with a crisp juicy salad was perfect. Kudos to the chef.

Comings and Goings

2011-02-27T20:54:00.005-08:00

Sadly, Dave and I's friends are down by 100%. We lost Amanda!!
That's not totally true, we do have other friends, but Amanda was our 3rd musketeer. She got her visa and moved to California to be with her hubby. (big sigh). We had a lovely time having a good-bye dinner with Amanda, her hubby Spencer, and Amanda's sister Hannah at Lana and Corey's house in Poco.

Jo and I looking very much like sisters - my hair is tucked behind my neck. Jo and Dave were up to visit last weekend and Allison, Dave, Gus and Jo and Dave and I went to Nuba for delicious, healthy gluten-free Lebanese food. Sadly, I had to jam on them after because I had an art lesson, and they continued on to the seawall to check out the Olympic village development.

Dave used his parent's x-mas present, a gift card to Canadian Tire, to get us a toaster oven. We lugged it home in the snow today and promptly set it up and made toast to christen it. Then we made pita pizzas for dinner. It's next to our other new addition - the green lamp!! Now we don't need to turn on the overhead fluorescent light. Woot, woot! The kitchen is coming together.

This is the original cover photo from the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Fabulous read! It's got me excited to run again. I had pretty much given up on running because of knee pain and, honestly, I've never understood the appeal of running a marathon until I read this book. I can't wait for the spring. I'm going to try shoeless running. I'm pumped.

Cottages!

2011-02-06T22:08:00.002-08:00

I've spent the past week reading books on Cottages. So far my favourite is Havens and Hideaways: Cozy Cabins and Rustic Retreats by Jo Denbury. I pretty much want to live in all of the buildings. It's been a real inspiration for how I want the Cottage decoration to go.

It has also been a wake up call to the fact that I am not going to have The Cottage at Fircom "finished" by May 1st. It's going to be an ongoing task of upgrading features over the next three years, but the ground work is solid.

I am bookless at the moment. I tried to start reading a non-fiction book called The Last Child in the Woods. It's been putting me to sleep real fast. I need a new piece of fiction. Any recommendations?

Things are going well. Dave's working and training. I'm working and drawing. My weekly drawing class is turning into a wonderful get-away from it all moment. I feel tucked away in the second floor of Melissa's house among the easels and charcoal. I put a new drawing up on the fridge every week and it's inspiring to start learning something totally new to me - developing an artist's eye.

Today I saw Inside Job. It's a documentary about the most recent financial meltdown in the US. It was very insightful/disgusting/ludicrous. I thought I understood what had happened with the sub-prime market, but this really laid out the fallacies and policies that created the recession. I recommend giving it a watch if you get the chance. I find myself wondering how I ever believed that you can change the system from within. Politics feels very useless these days.

We had Amanda over for dinner Saturday night and Sunday afternoon I had coffee with Summer at the Art Gallery Cafe. Lovely!!

Everyone have a great week!

Found my phone!

2011-01-23T17:52:00.002-08:00

It was tucked in a couch at Moe's Furniture. We were looking for couches for the Camp.

The Good Word

2011-01-23T11:05:00.003-08:00

I got chastised by brother man about my lack of blogging. Truth be told I am off of most social media. I deleted my Twitter account. Facebook isn't getting much action. The voyerism has passed. I now have Facebook e-mail me in Gmail when I get a message so that I don't have to check it. Every once in a while someone will post something amazing that really inspires me, but for the most part it's just chatter and doesn't hold much value to me. That said, I will not be getting rid of my account as it is a good way to contact people without having to collect phone numbers and e-mails.

Speaking of phones, I lost mine so if you have been trying to reach me that is why I have not responded. I have taken this as a sign that it's time for me to get an Iphone. Dave is also taking this as a sign that it's time for HIM to get an Iphone. I'll send you all an e-mail once my phone number is connected again. In the meantime e-mail me or call Dave.

I've been reading lots lately. I finished Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom - the guy who wrote Tuesdays With Morrie which I loved. This novel was not as good but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It made me cry as his books are wont to do. Dave asks why I read books that make me cry? I think I enjoy feeling sadness, or intense emotion, or maybe because they are books about loving others deeply. It reminds me to be grateful for the people in my life. The Five People You Meet in Heaven was given to me by Eric.

Eric runs the YAYAs (Youth and Young Adult Ministries) for the Vancouver-Burrard Presbytery. Camp Fircom and the YAYAs share an office. Once I finished the Albom novel he lent me The Shack by W.M. Paul Young which apparently was a big hit in the religious and non-religious world in 2007. I am plowing through it. It revolves around a man whose daughter was kidnapped on a family camping trip and after tracking the killer to a shack deep in the Oregon woods, the police lose the trail and never recover her body. The novel actually does a good job of not lingering on this part, instead moving into how he and his family cope with their anger and sadness. Three years later, the father gets a mysterious note from god inviting him to to the shack.

The novel has an interesting take on god, jesus and the holy spirit. Interesting to me as I know next to nothing about religion, maybe it's nothing new, but I'm enjoying the messages about love and relationships being the most important parts of life. Working at Camp Fircom is giving me the opportunity to learn more about Christianity; however, organized religion seems to have the same problems and power dynamics as most organizations which leaves me cold.

I also read The Book of Stanley by Todd Babiak - a Canadian author. This was something I found at the Vancouver Public Library, also about religion except more tongue-in-cheek. A retired Edmonton flouriest with terminal cancer is given supernatural powers and he takes to Banff where he meets with a motley crew of disciples to form a new religion. If only Stanley could figure out what he is supposed to do with this new god given gifts. I love reading Canadian books. One of the disciples comes from Montreal and as the author describes her eating at the Faubourg food court my mind is giddy thinking "I've been there. I love that Thai place".

I am heading in to work today as I am taking next Thursday and Friday off. Thursday I am having a rod put in my tooth because my crown keeps falling off and then Friday Dave and I are using a Groupon to get a three hour spa treatment. My first couples massage. Should be fun.

Hugs and Kisses,
Margo

Fircom

2011-01-09T18:12:00.006-08:00

Hey folks,

I know it's been a while. I've been busy with my new job!!!!! I'm the new Executive Coordinator for Camp Fircom - a United Church summer camp on Gambier Island. I started in early December and it's been going great. Everyone is really nice and it's a fantastic change of pace from student unions.

Fircom has just undergone a 7.5 million dollar renovation and this summer is the grand opening. We will be getting rentals up and running, along with four weeks of summer camp for the 2011 season. On the second day of work, Jeff (the Executive Director) took me out to Gambier to get inspired by the sight.

I've attached some pictures of the outdoor eating patio with an outdoor fireplace, the inside of the new dining hall, Jubilee Hall (green), the view from the main field out into the Howe Sound, and a fantastic dinner Dave made of quinoa and carrots, salad, and salmon with a cilantro sauce. Seriously tasty.

Bisous.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad

2010-11-27T08:37:00.003-08:00

I am a loyal follower of the blog Lake Jane and she recently posted an amazing roasted cauliflower salad. I made it last night with some tweaks. I put in peas and white onion instead of green beans and shallots, and I just plum forgot the feta, but it was super delicious and will now be our go to recipe for cauliflower.

In Lonesome Dove

2010-11-27T07:46:00.005-08:00

First off, my apologies, Sherry is spelled with a y not an i. Sorry Sherry.

We had a couple of snowy days this week. Quite unusual for this time of year. If our heating had worked it would have been awesome. As it were the caretaker lent us a space heater and Dave and I huddled around it like a camp fire taking turns warming our hands and bums. Problem is solved now. =)

Dave's friend Lindsay is arriving today for a three day visit. She works for Winners and has a work conference starting Tuesday. We've put together a fun filled weekend. The first thing on the list is taking her to Finch's for the most delicious sandwiches in the whole world! I'm so excited.

I am more than halfway through uploading my old CD collection to my laptop. Currently, I am listening to Garth Brooks Ropin' the Wind. "Papa loved mama, mama loved mennnnnnnnn, mama's in the graveyard, papa's in the pen." Every once in a while I'll put on a cd that really blows Dave's mind. Didn't see that one coming, did you Dave? Well you can thank Joanna for the love of classic Garth.

Still no decorations up in the apartment. Amanda was not susceptible to my paper decoration making plans. Drat! Luckily, Allison is all about the crafty goods so we have a date to make decorations next Friday. The holiday season is rapidly filling up with parties and get-togethers. I have a cookie making date with Sandra and an As Seen on TV gift exchange. I've never had a cookie making day which I see as an integral part of womanhood.

No job for me yet. I got turn downed for the last position I had an interview for. No interviews lined up at the moment, but I am applying lots, and generally feeling upbeat about the whole thing.

Dave got a shift supervisor position at Starbucks. Go Dave! It's in Tinseltown next door. He's got a three minute commute. Dreamy!

I'm reading The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. Recommended to me by brother Dave, and to him by dad, I am really trying, but it pretty much goes against most of my ideas about the world. Not totally sold on his reasoning yet. Can't wait to have a juicy chat with brother man about it.

Dave and I went had a steam, hot tub, and swam some laps at the YMCA. Fabulous. Anyone who wants to go with we still have lots of guest passes so hit me up.

Here's Dave playing around on Twitter this morning.

Bisous!

November Slice of Life

2010-11-22T13:15:00.007-08:00

Yesterday, Dave and I went to my sister, Allison's, house for Sheppard's Pie. They had a crackling fire going and it felt like Christmas. I said we could only come over for a bit, but once we were warmly ensconced on her couch we stayed for hours. Dave got to watch his football team play, NY Giants, and then we watched the American Music Awards. There is so much good fodder to make fun of on music awards. Justin Bieber cleaned up. Oh Beebs!!

We walked all the way to Allison's and then back. It's about an hour each way. It is so cold here. Dave gets the Smarty Pants Award for wearing his long underwear. My thighs were frozen, but it felt great to be outside. We also turned on our heat for the first time (trying to save pennies) only to discover it is hot water heating (included in our rent) and currently isn't working. Luckily the building is quick on their feet and had it partially working within three hours. They also lent us a space heater until it's fully solved.

Our friend Amanda is coming over this evening. I have a secret plan to make Christmas decorations tonight which I am hoping she is into. Since we are on a tight budget we are going for the little kid Christmas style of cut out snowflakes on the windows and construction paper chains on the walls. I'm thinking of making hot cider and cajoling Dave into making his chili.

Dave has an interview this afternoon at the Starbucks in Tinseltown (right next to our apartment) and another tomorrow at Old Navy. Wish him luck!!

My job hunt is ongoing. I was really getting down for a while, but the last four days I have gotten back on the horse. Someone out there wants to hire me, they just don't know it yet. I'm fabulous!!!!

I forgot to take pictures, but Dave and I have been making some delicious meals. Allison recommended White Water Cooks and it is a super tasty cookbook. We made the lamb burgers with eggplant spread, fresh tzatziki, and feta with a green salad of lettuce, Gorgonzola, and carmalized pecans. Sweet mother of pearl, it was good. We also made a Torta Rustica which has layers of roasted zucchinis, eggplant, red onion, potato, and red pepper with goat cheese and mozzarella and then you make a roasted tomato sauce which the torta is laid on and then drizzle it with a lemon aioli. It was the most amazing thing I have ever eaten. Seriously. My sister, Katy, came over to help us eat it and we were all blown away. Sadly, the recipe for the Ymir Curry Bowl left a lot to be desired. Bummer, cause my friend Molly lives in Ymir, BC so I was hoping to serve it to her next time I see her. Ymir is very close to the White Water ski resort where the cookbook comes from.

Dave's mom, Sherri, asked if we were worried that the birds who hang out on our building rooftop, right outside our windows, would come in the apartment. I didn't think so, but the other day I was taking pictures of one bird and then another bird promptly came to join him. I stopped taking pics and they went away. Attention whores. City birds, go figure.

Anyways, I best be hopping to it. Love to you all.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T21:28:00.010-07:00

Halloween was a double header this year. On Saturday Dave and I went out to Celebrities and danced danced danced. On the way home we ran into a rowdy party of bananas on Granville street. We joined in dancing for a few songs and it was great to feel like you can live in a beer ad. Who ever organized it had gotten a bunch of boomboxes together so the music was traveling around you as people (often bananas) danced around.

The next day Amanda came over and, after much dancing and silliness involving a fake witches nose, we went out. Only to shortly come back due to sore feet and then were waylaid by ordering pizza and more dancing. A good time had by all.

What's going on? Subtitle: A little Marvin Gaye goes a long way

2010-10-24T22:10:00.004-07:00

It's been a while since I've written anything. Semi-lost interest in it.

What have I been doing? Lots. I've been getting down to the brass taxes of what's going on in my life. I've taken a really nice trip down memory lane and was happily surprised by all I got to remember.

I got my final boxes of stuff in the whole universe out of Lori's attic. It turned out to be five boxes, much more than I was expecting. After bringing it home it took over the living room. It was my pictures and mementos that I've kept since elementary school.

I have all my report cards. I took heart in my early leadership skills being noticed, but was also called out by my teacher in grade six for being too-blunt and needing to learn to be a follower sometimes. That particular report card must have gone missing, because I have a second sixth grade report card marked 'duplicate'.

There are neon athletic participation certificates - I took part in everything possible. The flyer for the school play, "The Secret Garden", where I wanted to wear my knee-length socks rolled down to my ankles in a fat roll and my sister's convinced my best friend to advice me otherwise. It worked. Very diplomatic.

I have an invitation or a thank you card from Molly, Allison, Jana, Rachel, Annie, Lisa and Dave's weddings. I've got tickets from film festivals, concerts, raves, plays, hockey games and the Olympics. I decided all of this stuff was too fantastic to be thrown away, and unearthed a mammoth scrapbook fleetingly started four years ago. All the postcards that family and friends have sent me on their travels added great beauty to the scrapbook, and sometimes a laugh. Please keep sending them.

Dave has a bad cough. I am googling cures. I have come across one where you suck on lemon wedges that are covered in black pepper. This could be a cruel hoax, but I think he should give it a go. His cough is keeping him up at night and that's never good.

Today we left the house around 1pm and Dave helped me put up posters at the Carnegie Centre for a free Cultural Democracy lecture series in November. This gave me a reason to explore all the nooks and crannies of the Carnegie. This four-story, historic landmark sits on the corner of Main and Hastings. This is the busiest corner in the downtown eastside which has a large homeless population. It overfloweth.

There are people everywhere. Maybe one or two seats were available in the library - the newspaper section was bursting. Downstairs people were watching tv or playing pool. There are services on each floor. The large spiral staircase running up the front of the building feels as if it would fall apart under my feet, very strange slant. I went to the Carnegie years ago. Aldea and I would come for lunch. I didn't see what was on for today, but it smelled delicious. $5 for a tasty meal. I was surprised by the amount of Chinese residents playing a game whose name I don't know in the main floor lobby. Looked like they were having fun.

After that we bused over to Kitsilano and went for a walk. Dave broke in his new fall boots and we searched for a cafe. We went to many, many cafes. We strolled right into Point Grey and once you get that close to UBC there are students hunkered down for four hours of studying. Independent cafes fill up fast there. We will have to visit again.

Eventually we found our own corner to be ensconced in. Dave got a crispy, sugary, buttery, cinnamon bagel for 99 cents that was superb. How did I ever forget about cinnamon and sugar and bread? It's just so right. I started reading "A Confederacy of Dunces". I'm on page 34 and I'm not totally sold yet.

After reading for an hour we moseyed back to 4th Ave in Kits and went to Los Margaritas for Mexican. Now that I've had great Mexican, Los Margaritas is dead to me. They taste like the 90s. Their drinks were excellent though and they continue to rock the chips and salsa: warmed chips, spicy pureed salsa, means that we will go back for a drink to two.

!Bisous!

p.s. the musical title is in reference to my current hobby of listening to all my cds, mainly purchased in the 90s and early 00s. I have some gems I'd totally forgotten about. Marvin Gaye is forever, for always. Portishead, Dummy is still sexy. I've also been visiting the 80s. So good. Soo good.

Chinatown Apartment

2010-10-07T14:01:00.001-07:00

Chinatown Apartment, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

This is our dining room which looks into our kitchen. The open format was what sold us on the apartment.

Dinner with The Twins & H-bomb

2010-10-07T13:59:00.001-07:00

Dinner with The Twins & H, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

Dave and I had our first dinner party in our new apartment. Katy, Rachel and wee Henry came over.

Getting Psyched for the Gym

2010-10-07T13:58:00.001-07:00

Getting Psyched for the Gym, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

Dave was testing out the camera because he needs pictures for his personal training website. I liked this one the best. You can see the construction of the new roof for BC Place has started. It looks like robots have taken over the stadium.

The new rec centre next to the Olympic Village is beautiful (you can't see it. It's behind us.) I've started taking yoga classes and because the centre is so new there are only two or three people ever there. I love having all the room in the world to stretch out. The view of False Creek is very calming too.

Greek Red Lentil Soup

2010-10-07T13:54:00.001-07:00

Greek Red Lentil Soup, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

I got this out of the Rebar Cookbook. I had been meaning to try it for about a year. We usually use our red lentils for Peanut Curry Soup, but we decided we needed some new gruel. The salty feta adds beautifully to the rosemary, lemon, and carrot. Delicious!!!

Another Old School Dave Photo

2010-10-05T22:00:00.001-07:00

1976_Dave_Grandma_GrandpaGlobe, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

I recently got our scanner working and finally got around to scanning the photos we took from Dave's parents in the Soo. You follow the link below this post to our Flickr page to enjoy more. This is Dave with his grandma and grandpa Glode in 1976. He already looked like he was going to be a big guy.

Prosthetic Fingers & Minimalism

2010-09-19T14:03:00.005-07:00

I've been working on my typing skills for job interviews and am in the testing phases of a prosthesis for my pinkie. So far I am using a small rubber finger meant for sorting paper. I cut it so it just reaches down to my top knuckle for dexterity and stuffed the tip with toilet paper to make my right pinkie as long as my left. It hasn't increased my typing times yet, but I think with some time I could get even faster. I bought the Mavis Beacon Types software and now that I am learning =+-_[]{} and such my little pinkie is working over time.

In other news it seems like a new trend has appeared for the Dunnet family - Minimalism. It's all anyone is talking about. Anyone being Brother Dave, Rachel and Katy. I clicked on Rachel's Facebook post link that was talking about Minimalism and it took me to the blog The Very Small Closet. I started reading past articles under May 2008 and it has really energized me. I have already tossed two pairs of shoes (well, I actually but then in a bag for a clothing swap, although maybe that is beside the point).

It offers great descriptions on how to grow your wardrobe and identify your style (who you want to be and how you want to be received by others). The author talks about planning to have ten outfits. I started doing the closet audit and realized there are five tops that I actually want to wear right now which all have a similar simple look so I'm happy with my starting point. It's time for us to unpack our winter wardrobe and put away our summer clothes so it's great timing for these articles. I am excited to see how everyone's experiments with Minimalism goes.

The Very Small Closet

Lovin' Skype

2010-09-17T14:00:00.003-07:00

I know the posts have been down right non-existent these days, but we finally have the wireless internet hooked up in our new pad so I promise there will be more to come.

After many fudges by Telus we are back on the internet, in the virtual world of tubes and stuff. I told Mom about my terrible Telus service experience and she said she'd had the same sort of problem. Does anyone else use Telus? It's such a monolithic company I don't think anyone knows what's going on there.

Last night, Dave and I chatted with Brother Dave in Japan over Skype. I had used it once before to chat with Joanna, but this had an added impact because Brother Dave is half-way around the world. (I don't know if Japan is exactly half-way around, but you know what I mean.) Dave and I could see Kaz chasing down plastic balls and throwing them under the coach in background and, man, he is really moving now. No more uncertain, precarious foot steps, this kid is truckin'.

Dave and I are going to be sharing my Skype account, margo.dunnet, hence the reason we are listed as "dargo". This is Dave's new name for us, like when we make up household rules. They are now Dargo's rules. I still feel it's important for us to maintain separate personalities, but I like Dargo as a representation of our common ground. And, this way we don't have to sign in and out of Skype for separate accounts as we only have one computer.

Bisous

Dave's Photographs

2010-09-14T19:39:00.010-07:00

There has been a heavy emphasis on the outdoors this summer. That's what Vancouver, and BC, are really all about. Here are some of the pics Dave snapped in August.

Our recent camping trip to Golden Ears Provincial Park

Coming along the Seawall towards Third Beach. Almost there.

I'll never get enough of Third Beach. NEVER!

Burnaby Mountain at Sunset. Dave and I spent many an evening there while living in New West.

Dave, Amanda, and I on Burnaby Mountain

The West End viewed from the Burrard Street Bridge

Yaletown across False Creek

These all remind me why I love this city so much. There is so much space to be outdoors and to walk for miles and miles without a bad view anywhere. We now have the internet again. I'll try and post some pics of our new apartment soon.
Bisous!

get your boogie on

2010-08-22T08:50:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I like to dance in the morning. Nothing beats getting my boogie on in the kitchen as I make coffee. Chromeo was recently in town and I didn't have the cash to check them out. Booooo. Next time I will make it a priority. Or maybe I will visit them in Monteal and check them out on their home turf. Check out this song by Chromeo and get down with your bad self.

What's for Dinner?

2010-08-21T15:18:00.002-07:00

By request of Allison, here are our classics on the "what's for dinner" menu:

Pita Pizzas - grab some toppings and cook them in the toaster oven.
Eggs and Toast - Is this cheating? Breakfast for dinner will never go out for style for me.
Smoked Salmon with Penne - Any tubed pasta will do. Add some smoked salmon (or previously frozen salmon tips for the cheapies like me), a cup of sour cream (for 4 people), pepper, and dill or marjoram. Mix and enjoy.
Pecan Crusted Chicken Tenders - pulse 1 cup pecans, add two slices bread, cut chicken and sprinkle with fresh Thyme, salt and pepper, dredge through frothed egg whites, then coating, drizzle tab of olive oil on them, bake at 425 for 12 min on parchment paper.
Tacos - enough said!
Burritos - It could be meat or mashed up black beans or refried beans. We toss cumin, paprika, chili powder, cayene, garlic powder and a bit of onion powder on whatever meat or veggies we are cooking up. Just say NO to pre-made mexican seasoning packets. Too much salt.

That's all I can remember for now.

P.S. I am loving Jo's list. It all sounds so scrumptious.
P.P.S. Allison, I want to know what's on your list too!

Vancouver 2010 Pride Parade

2010-08-06T14:49:00.001-07:00

IMG_0521, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

I think this picture about sums it up. It was a total extravaganza.

There were dykes on bikes, chicks dressed in western saloon get-ups, gay volleyball teams, rainbow flags, scantily clad people everywhere, and pumping tunes. Our Mayor was dancing in a sweet feather boa with the rest of the City Council. All the politicians, big companies, unions, and, of course, LGBT groups come out for the event.

Dave and I went down to Rachel's apartment in Yaletown for brunch with Katy, Dave Holzer, and Allison and then we headed on mass down to Beach Avenue to watch the parade. Everyone's feet gave out about half way through and we all scattered. Dave and I cut back up to Robson which is where the parade starts and found that you could get a way better view up there. That's where we got this pic of one of the last floats. Celebrities is one of the best gay bars in town, and true to form their float was rockin'.

Anonymous Messages

2010-08-05T21:17:00.001-07:00

Anonymous Messages, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

It's nice to know that someone out there is thinking about everyone. I don't know if this movement has a formal name, but I would call it the Happiness Movement. There was a club at the Dawson Student Union that's purpose was to make people happy. They gave out smiles, hugs, and candy along with other volunteer efforts. They began as an off-shoot of a McGill club. It's nice because I hear we're in a time of great pessimism, and yet, somebody is putting out love. This was on the big notice pole just off Robson at the beginning of the West End.

Early Summer Round-Up

2010-07-20T11:55:00.015-07:00

We got ourselves an apartment in Chinatown that we'll be moving into some time in September. This shot is from the New West boardwalk at night. I'll miss it.

Molly Baxter and her hubby Graham had an adorable baby girl. Her name is Yohla Birgitta Baxter Merth. She's as cute as a bug in a rug. Sadly for me, they moved up to Wymer and now I will need to drive seven hours away to see her. They are living in a small town and Molly has already had to shoo a Cinnamon Bear away from the kitchen door. Yikes!

I finally went to Stepho's on Davie Street. We were wandering by one day just before 5pm and there was no line-up. This is a miracle not to be ignored. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I've been in a grass volleyball league with my friend Linda. It's coming to an end in a couple of weeks which is too bad cause it's been great to get back into the sport. I am in the blue shirt, in case you can't tell. Dave came and watched. He really enjoyed all the spandex.

Virgin Radio does a month of movies in the park at Second Beach. We went last Wednesday with Todd and Amanda to see The Goonies. Somehow Dave and Amanda had never seen this masterpiece. For shame!! They duly loved it and now all is right in the universe. I had forgotten just how awesome Chunk is. In two Thursdays they are going to do The Karate Kid - can't wait.

On a recent walk through the Pacific Spirit Regional Park I started counting slugs when Dave nearly missed one with his big clod-hoppers. Now it is an on going game. This one is from the country. Much larger than the city slugs we have seen. Sometimes I still enjoy touching their antenna which then shrink up into their heads. Is that cruel?

Summer is finally here!!! We are trying to hit the beach at least twice a week and having great success at it.

Our attempt to camp at Golden Ears Provincial Campground was thwarted so we decided to adventure through the Frasier Valley on the Lougheed Highway. We found a place to rest our weary heads at a First Nations campground. Turned out to be the loudest, party campground I'd ever been too. While I slept through the morning, Dave got up early to brew some coffee and get a fire going. He said at one point he looked around and the only people up were a few men drinking coffee and staring at their fires in silence. It felt right. Then he went to the lake and snapped a few pictures.

When life gets too hot you gotta cool down. Nothing like a dip in a glacier fed stream to lower your core temperature.

Popcorn Berzerker

2010-07-05T14:09:00.006-07:00

In our attempted frugality popcorn has made a resurgence as a household snack. Iso bought a brand new Toastess air popper so that we could all move away from microwave popcorn. Apparently the bags have harmful chemicals that get cooked into the popcorn. When we were young we had a plastic microwavable contraption that worked brilliantly but has long since been lost in moves. It probably gave us cancer too.

However, the new air popper is a mad man. I should have guessed by the funky brand name I had never heard of. At first everything is going great and the bowl is filling up, but then new kernels that pop hurtle themselves out and explode into the bowl. Pow pow. Popcorn everywhere. Pow pow pow. Popcorn rebounding off the bowl at my face. Pow pow pow pow. I grab a cutting board and try to deflect the strays back into the bowl like I'm playing table tennis. Pow pow pow pow pow. The kitchen is a mess and the bowl is half-full of popcorn and half-full of kernels that got shot out the machine. Dave refuses to use it but I get a small thrill from battling the popcorn. Pow pow. Take that popcorn!

It is all very reminiscent of the movie Real Genius with Val Kilmer when the house explodes with popcorn. Yes, it's just like that.

Ahoy!

2010-07-05T11:11:00.006-07:00

Over the Canada Day long weekend I sailed to Gambier Island on the Sunshine Coast with friends. The voyage set sail on Friday and returned Sunday night. At first I wasn't sure where Gambier was despite knowing the name well. It's tucked behind Bowen Island which doesn't seem that far because Horseshoe Bay is about 45 min from Downtown. However, from the Burrard Civic Marina it takes anywhere from four to five hours to get to Gambier. While sailing is beautiful it's not always speedy.

The sailboat had a small cabin that somehow managed to fit all of our camping gear. The two outside benches held the five of us snugly, but we were seven on the way home so people took turns hanging out at the front. S, who owns the boat, spent time below deck floating on the luggage and reading ELLE magazine. When the winds were gusting people would switch spots or climb onto the gunwale to make sure we didn't tip. Crouching on top of the boat with my hands holding on for dear life and the wind whipping over me I could tell why people love sailing. I was slightly nauseous on the way there and had to focus on the horizon but did much better on the way back. In fact, it seemed like the sailing was what made me sick because I felt fine when we used the motor.

P brought Ipod speakers and it felt at once natural and bourgeoisie to be cruising through the waters of English Bay listening to tunes. The bay was jam-packed with boats. I continuously felt like we were going to crash. It was hard to gage how fast other boats were going. The freighters in the harbour loomed above us making us a tiny speck in comparison. They were enormous navy and red ships with their ten-foot names announcing foreign homelands. As we rounded Light House Park the boat traffic thinned out and from there it was smooth sailing to Gambier.

Gambier was surprisingly quiet for a long-weekend. There was only one other group of campers on the island which is probably due to the lack of running water and other amenities. It only cost $5 per person per night to camp which you deposit into a heavy vault structure. The only other inhabitants were the raccoons. The camping sites had big signs that said, "Raccoons were here first" and I tell you, they will be there last too. We were very attentive about hanging our food from trees and strapping our coolers to the table at night, but despite our best efforts, the raccoons got away with five hot dog buns the first day and a big Hala bread the second. Apparently they are carb fiends. At night we heard them shrieking and fighting in the woods and S said that last summer they woke up to find a tent splattered in raccoon blood. Yuk!

The island was a rustic paradise. There were clams and oysters for the eating. The water was a cold, clear green. I would have liked a bit more sunshine but otherwise wouldn't have changed a thing. First camping trip of the summer. DONE!

third beach

2010-06-24T15:43:00.003-07:00

There isn't a spot I like more than 3rd Beach in Stanley Park.

Release the feet!

Back in the Kitchen

2010-06-16T14:19:00.010-07:00

For months Dave and I have been talking about making our granola again. It was a stand-by in our Montreal apartment and there is nothing else we'd rather have for breakfast. It just felt like too much invasion or extravagance to make it at my mom's but today we finally did it. I am now adding homemade granola to my most comforting smells list. I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow.

We have gone back to the Rebar Cookbook recipe. We tried Everybody Likes Sandwiches latest granola recipe but it's not for us. Jeanette gave fair warning it wasn't a sweet recipe and she was indeed correct. Our Rebar granola is a bit sweeter than usual because I can't find unsweetened medium/coarse coconut anywhere, only fine unsweetened or coarse sweetened. Grrr.

Rebar's Cranberry Hazelnut Granola

Ingredients:
3 cups large flake oats
1 ½ cups barley flakes
½ cup oat bran
1 cup unsweetened coconut
½ tsp salt
1 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup water
2/3 cup maple syrup (or honey, or a combination)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried blueberries

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, water, honey, and vanilla. Combine the wet and dry mixes and stir thoroughly.

Spread the mixture out onto two baking sheets (or do it in two batches). Bake at 250°F for 20-30 minutes. Stir the mixture every 10 minutes to ensure even baking and remove from the oven when golden brown. Cool and stir in the dried fruit. Seal and store for up to 1 month.

Helpful hint: Other seed/nut/fruit combinations
Almonds, wheat germ, dried cherries
Pecans, flax seeds, dried mango
Walnuts, dried apricots, and figs

We got inspired for lunch today and make breakfast wraps to use up what was in the fridge. We sauteed some yellow pepper, red pepper, and potato and then added four eggs with a bit of salt and pepper to make a nice scramble. We piled it all onto whole wheat pitas (the only bread product in the house) and covered them with crispy bacon, green onions, and hot sauce. So tasty. This will have to be revisited with proper tortilla wraps.

Now Dave is attempting home-made granola bars, also from Rebar. We're fans of having fruit or granola bars for snacks but since Dave started getting serious about becoming a personal trainer he is getting into the nutritional content of everything and now our store-bought granola bars are dead ducks. Let's hope these are tasty.

New West's Boardwalk

2010-06-16T14:04:00.007-07:00

The municipality of New West does an outstanding job with the horticulture on the waterfront. Since the first crocuses came up until now there is a constant rotation of plants and flowers blooming. The new cacti are probably my favourite.

This is the route Dave and I take on our way to the gym or the skytrain or just about anywhere. Dave is a bit skeptical that planting and re-planting again and again is the best use of municiple dollars. I'm not too bothered because a) I don't think we've paid in any municiple dollars and b) I love smelling them.

the happenings for the last month

2010-06-12T11:34:00.007-07:00

Yes, it has been a month. For shame Margo. Let's get all caught up.

When we last left off Dave and I were living the life. Cruising in our work vehicle. Going on mini-trips with friends. Birthdays abounded and we celebrated proper. Since then life has taken a rather sharp change, but for the better of course. We had our last day of work on May 15th and then the skies opened up and began pouring down rain. It was as hot as stink at VANOC during our last two weeks and then the gloom set in.

It's been a long time since I have been unemployed All through university I worked with only a couple of semesters off. I think the last time I had a true job hunt was the summer of 2003 or 2004. That said, I am sure I will find the right fit for me soon enough.

One thing that has been going good all month is Dave and I's dedication to exercise. I've begun weight training with him and this week as the rain let up we broke out our bikes again and are riding all over New West. Dave is focusing his attention on finding a fitness related job leading to personal training and considering the great stuff he's doing for me I think it's a perfect fit.

Another success is our ability to stick to a budget. These are tight times but we seem to be going out every once in a while and still having fun with friends. I know the difference is how often we now make our own food.

This all feels a bit mundane and I hope I haven't bored you, dear reader, but this is the 411.

Oh, I know, the concerts. We went last Sunday to see First Aid Kit at the Media Club. They are a cute Swedish alt-country duo. I liked it when they got off the stage and sang sans instruments and when they did a little bit in French. The opener was Samantha Russel and The Tiny Panthers. She is a spitfire from Oklahoma who knows how to rock out. However, we weren't impressed that she didn't introduce the other musicians accompanying her. Poor form. A couple of weeks before that we saw Global Deejays at Fortune Sound Club. A great venue meant for dancing but the music sucked. I don't really know Global Deejays except for five or six tunes I have on my Ipod for working out, but I guess the rest of there stuff is pretty run of the mill. They have some good remixes like this. We got our boogie on but didn't stay until the very end.

I hope you are all doing well and getting out to walk in the fresh air.

Bisous!

Dave Turns 34!

2010-05-11T09:48:00.010-07:00

As we were unable to celebrate on Dave's actually birthday, because he was laid up with his pulled quad and aching back, we painted the town red last Saturday.

The day began with a picnic at Belcarra Park in Port Moody with our friend Amanda. It was packed with families, crabbers, other birthday parties, and flocks of geese. We found a nice quiet spot to bask in the glory of the spring sun.

We then went home and got ourselves all gussied up. Don't we clean up nice? This shot is just outside my mom's front door.

Dave had won two free tickets to the Vancouver Burlesque Festival, but unable to secure a third ticket for Amanda, we decided to hit up the swanky new bars of Chinatown. Man, my old neighborhood is really gentrifying. First stop was The Keiffer whose menu focuses on the most amazing cocktails I've ever had - and rightly so, they were $11 each. Then we ambled four doors down to Bao Bei to sample some modern Chinese tapas, very tasty.

Dave said he had a great birthday. He was all smiles. His back is still a bit stiff but he is mostly off the back relaxers and the swelling is gone from his quad.

Now we are preparing for unemployment and cranking up the job hunt. Kisses and hugs for everyone!

Settling In

2010-05-04T10:34:00.013-07:00

Okay so I wrote this a week ago but it is just getting posted now.
___

It's May 4th and I finally feel settled. Not that life is without large questions still to be answered - it still has those - but Vancouver now feels like home again. We just got through a big birthday season ending yesterday with celebrating my Dave's 34th birthday. Dave and I have been busy busy with our new social life.

We joined a softball league which has been kicking our butts. I have never played softball and it is an entirely new muscle group. My hip flexors and quads are dying from that sprint to first base. My side and ribs are aching from the swing of the bat. I am going to tough it out, but Dave has been injured and won't play out the season. His right quad is inflamed and so he has to rest, rest, ice, rest, ice, rest, rest. Despite the utter agony of running I am enjoying the sport. Nothing is more satisfying than the crack of the bat or rounding the bases.

The Telus Ski and Snowboard Festival ended two weekends ago and we drove up the Whistler to see Arrested Development. The improvements made to the Sea-To-Sky Highway are fantastic. There really isn't much single-lane highway left and the ride went by way quicker than I remembered. Whistler was full of young people dressed in the most hideous 80s and 90s snow suits. Apparently it won't cost much to invest in ski gear if this is what the hip people are wearing. Arrested Development put on a solid show - very interactive, lots of call and reply with the audience, and it was FREE! Love that word.

Last Saturday I went to my high school friend Annie's wedding reception. It was a black tie event which sadly Dave couldn't join me at cause of his leg. I was able to reconnect with lots of old friends and their families to my pleasant surprise. And, if I do say so myself, I looked fabulous. No pic included but you can head over to Rachel's blog to see me in my red dress. Va-va-voom.

I spent the next morning hanging out with Rachel and her little man Henry. I can't get enough of him.

That's my round up for now. Love to my peeps.

30 and fabulous!!

2010-04-14T16:19:00.013-07:00

Well folks, it's official, I'm 30. Not nearly as bad as I thought. Despite a bit of blubbering on the evening prior to my birthday I held up well. I took my birthday off work and booked myself a bunch of beauty appointments. I went downtown for the afternoon and got my haircut at Bangtown. I really liked my stylist and I think I have finally found myself a permanent hairdresser. I have been bouncing from stylist to stylish for years.

I met up with the fam on Main Street for dinner at the chic, casual resto Grub. No one seemed too enthused with their meals, but mine KILLED. It was a seriously tasty steak that melted in my mouth.

Afterwards we went to my sister Allison's for pastries. Nothing makes me happy like a Napoleon (en francais c'est une mille feuille which means a thousand leaves).

We celebrated with friends last weekend. We went swanky and got ourselves a suite at the Sutton Place Hotel. On the Saturday I got a facial and had my hair and makeup done - it was pretty much a mini-grad - and Dave bought me a flashy red dress.

We met everyone for dinner at Cobre. It's a Neuvo Latin Fusion restaurant in Gastown. I think we all felt suitably hip.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel to drink champagne, eat cupcakes made by my friend Amanda, and generally let me dominate the conversation.

Yup it was great. And now it's back to the regular life of packing lunches, wearing jeans, and writing blog posts.

LOVE!!

Journey to the Edge of the World

2010-04-14T15:54:00.015-07:00

On the Easter long weekend, Dave and I were lucky enough to score an invite to a friend's friend's house in Tofino. There is a special place in the hearts of Vancouverites for Tofino. It has a ruggedness that beats anything in our close vicinity.

We were up bright and early on the Friday morning to haul our stuff onto the skytrain to meet Anna at Commercial. We even got a "You must be going on a sleepover" from someone on the skytrain. We had pillows, a case of beer, cooler full of food, magazines, and clothes. Ready to Rumble!! We picked up Lori and swept off to Horseshoe Bay to catch the 10:30am ferry to Nanaimo.

At 3:00pm the loudspeaker advised us that the 3:00 would not be sailing and probably nothing would sail for the rest of the day. It was a full blown storm in the Georgia Straight. Apparently there was damage on the 9:30 am sailing and the passengers were all seasick. A quick check of BC Ferry website and we were off to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal at the other end of the Lower Mainland. Dave got a full tour of the city in one day. We magically got on the 8:00pm and made it to Tofino by 1:30am.

The rest of the weekend proved to be a much more relaxed affair. There was reading, walking on the shore, and tons of delicious cooking. I made a ginger pork pot roast with a cucumber quinoa salad and pineapple compote that I got from the cooking show Everyday Exotic. It was a big hit. Lori and Anna made baked sesame seed halibut with roasted red pepper and tomatoes, with coconut rice and asparagus. For Sunday brunch Dave made his amazing scrambled eggs with potatoes, fruit salad and mimosas. It was a veritable feast.

On the way back on Monday we made a quick pit stop by Cathedral Grove, an old growth forest, so we could get this picture.

We rounded out the ferry ride home with more card playing. I taught everyone Hearts and they loved it. I dominated until the last two hands where I went down like a ton of bricks. It had to happen eventually.

thirty is on the horizon

2010-03-09T07:35:00.008-08:00

My thirtieth is looming. It's looking me right in the eye. April 6th is the showdown. I'm not totally upset at the prospect but it is causing a fair bit of planning and introspection about where I'm at.

My job hunt is chugging along. I had two interviews last week. The first one was a bit rough around the edges. The second one I thought was a hit, but I am still waiting to hear back. The second was a Communications and Training position for a non-profit that creates a network of scientists and research to aid in the study of prions, which are the proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease and Alzhiemers and such. It's located out at UBC which isn't the most local spot but I was looking at one-bedrooms in Kitsilano and was kind of falling in love with the idea.

Mom says that Kitsilano is too hoity-toity but it's great in the summer and I think it'd be an excellent spot for Dave and I to start out. Now that the Olympics have passed the apartment rental rates are much more reasonable on Craigslist. There were a bunch of one-bedrooms downtown and in Kits for $1100 a month. So sad that I now consider this a great price.

Here are a couple of reads that I recently enjoyed.

My Life in France by Julia Child made me feel better about my upcoming birthday. Julia Child didn't start cooking until her mid-thirties. There is still time for me to discover many different passions. If you haven't read this I highly recommend borrowing it from your local library. I liked that despite all the moving and upheaval in Julia's life - her husband was a low-ranking diplomat - she had her love to see her through. Her husband adored her and was always supportive of her career. The two of them had the same sense of adventure and interest in food and the arts. I have my Dave - that's one thing figured out.

I also read Kathleen Flinn's The Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry which chronicles her getting fired from her big time corporate job in London and pursuing her dream of studying at the Corden Bleu in Paris. The writing was less than spectacular but I loved reading about how the courses were structured and the recipes. There was lots of meat stuffed with meat. Considering how I'm not a big fan of handling raw meat I don't think the Corden Bleu is going to be in my future. Let me know if you want to borrow this.

Another great cooking read is Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone. Well written and funny, her path to becoming a food critic at the New York Times is born from a passion cultivated from a very young age. She was spending all her time in the kitchen at five - some people just know.

Hope all my peeps are doing well. BIG LOVE.

Goodbye Olympics

2010-03-01T11:12:00.004-08:00

The Olympics are over. Can't believe something that has been on the minds of Vancouverities for, what is it, seven years is actually over. I had an awesome Olympics experience. We watched it all day long at work so I pretty much saw every event. Sister Katy was the patron saint of the Olympics and got Dave and I free tickets to one Victory Ceremony (pretty cool, we saw Alex Bilodeau receive the first Canadian gold medal), Norway vs Slovakia Men's Hockey game (GO SLOVAKIA!!), and (drum roll please...) the Closing Ceremonies. You combine all those with meeting up with friends and family to watch events in the evening over beers and it was a blast.

Yesterday, Dave was working but I got off early and got to watch the gold medal men's hockey game at Rachel and Chris' apartment with mum and Harry. I was jumping up and down and shouting at the TV with the best of them. Chris says I rival the Jonat women which I'm taking as a compliment. We got into the Family and Friends section at the Closing Ceremonies which had free food and free drinks (cha-ching) and after one beer too many I lost our camera (very sad). This means we have no pictures to prove any of it (very, very sad). Tomorrow I am going down to the Police Station to see if it got turned in.

We're Hipsters

2010-02-18T09:24:00.008-08:00

Big Mac (aka my Dave) and I got sweet, new-to-us, vintage, hipster bikes. You can't really see them in the photos but they are darling.

We went on the new Central Valley Greenway, CVG, which runs from New West to Downtown along the flatest parts of the city. It's a sweet ride. We turned back after Burnaby Lake and mistakenly went on the Lakes Bike Route which was viciously steep. Vintage bikes are not made for big hills.

These photos were all taken by Dave Mac. Kudos.

New Eateries + Alt Country = Perfect Day

2010-02-18T08:14:00.011-08:00

Yesterday was my first day off in a while and it was perfect. I got up at 7am and got up butt out the door for breakfast. I love nothing more than to hunt down a great breakfast spot. I found another New West gem on Columbia Street. I got the breakfast sandwich (bacon, cheddar, egg, lettuce, and tomato on a kaiser) and a medium Americano for $5.50. Can you believe that? Hats off the to Good Eats Cafe.

(Photo via Comedy Centrals Twitter feed)
I scooted downtown to check out some of the sights. I saw the Colbert Report being taped as the skytrain glided by Science World. I was expecting more people. The audience section they had roped off was full, but there was still plenty of room to watch comfortably outside the roped off area.

I haven't been shopping much and I am desperate for new tops so I hit up Aritzia and H&M. Aritzia has the cutest 2010 tops with Quatchi, Miga and Muk Muk on them and some vintage Olympic designs from Lake Placid and Montreal - sadly, none of them fit right. H&M had lots of tops but I restrained myself because Sandra is going to help me pick some professional clothes for interviews and such.

At around 10:10 am I went over to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see the Leonardo Di Vinci exhibit. The VAG opens at 10am and the lineup was an hour long. I can go there anytime so I decided the day would be all about shopping. I got a beige spring jacket, interview worthy shoes, my first pair of Converse (the blue plaid), a top and a shirt dress for $120. There are amazing sales going on right now.

(Photo from Beyond Robson website).
For lunch I went to Nuba. This is hands down the best Lebanesse food I have ever had. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Lebanese restaurants and fastfood joints in Montreal and I tested out many of them, but none compare. The food is organic, local when possible, and delicious. I had the Supreme Cauliflower Pita which had the tartest, sweetest pickles. I should have got the regular rather than up sizing to the Supreme. I just couldn't let any of it go to waste despite how full I was. I also had my first Turkish coffee. I am sold. The staff were friendly and attentive and the interior has a sleek, modern, middle eastern/mediteranian feel. At $12 I thought it was very reasonablly priced. Check out this gem.

After my rather full morning I went home for a nap and to recharge. Dave and I met up at Rachel's around 6pm and got to hang with Mr. Fussy Pants aka Henry. Love that baby! We quickly cleaned Richy and Chris out of finger foods and drinks and then meandered over to the Roundhouse with Chahca and Holzer for a night of alt country Canadian singers. We saw three out of the four acts and they were excellent. I had forgetten that I like country. It's very soothing and makes me yearn for soft cotton print dresses and dancing under the stars. And, that was my day off.

Back In My Hood

2010-02-16T18:16:00.003-08:00

I am sadly lacking of snapshots of my adventures in Vancouver. I miss the days when Sandra used to take all the photos I needed.

I have met up with all my old friends and it's been great. I am pleasantly surprised at how easy and comfortable it has been hangin' with old friends. The only real trouble is living in New West, but even that isn't so bad as I am reconnecting with my friends from PoCo. I've been over to Lisa's to hang with her and her lovely husband Jason. I didn't get to see their baby, Beckett, because he was sleeping but hopefully soon. I've seem Amanda a bunch of times. Lana and her husband Corey had Dave and I over for dinner. She's an amazing cook. I've seen Sandra a couple of times and this weekend I'm going out for her birthday. This Sunday I am having breakfast with Aldea, Annie and Sandra - HIGHSCHOOL REUNION! There's also been a lot of Lori. It's been lovely.

I feel bad cause my Dave has been listening to lots of girl talk.

I have the day off tomorrow and I have a couple of things planned. I want to get up nice and early and hit up the taping of the Stephen Colbert Report next to Science World. The Vancouver Art Gallery (Dave is really into calling it The VAG) is free and has a Leonardo Di Vinci exhibit that I hear great things about so I want to go there too. I'm hoping that by getting an early start to the day I can get into some of the places that have had crazy long line-ups. Tomorrow night, me, Dave Mac, Holzer, Chacha, Richy and Chris are going to New Songs, New Voices at the Roundhouse to watch some of Canada's emerging singer/songwriters.

Review: Beyond Eden

2010-02-07T18:31:00.006-08:00

Last Thursday, Dave and I went to the Vancouver Playhouse to see Beyond Eden. It was the world premier of this musical theatre piece. The blurb by the playwright said that he spent twenty years creating this play and struggled and re-wrote extensively. I could tell.

The plot and characters seemed rather disjointed and in the end I wasn't sure it said anything. It seemed like a piece trying to incorporate too many points of view, and not particularly true to the time it was set in. The main anthropologist, Louis, had become emotionally entangled with the Haida tribes that he was negotiating with to get the rights to remove totem poles. Louis is torn about taking them but knows that his career hinges on it. He is visited by a character called the Watchman, a native spirit, who tries to explain why he should not take them. He says the poles should decay and become part of the forest. At the end of the play, when they are finally cutting down the poles, Louis does everything he can to stop the other workers. The watchman has finally convinced Louis that they should not take the poles by telling him about HBC spreading small pox and wiping out native communities. The play is wrapped up when character who is half-white, half-native decides that the poles must be taken so that he can study them.

This is a piece of fiction based on no real events. The play shifted all focus away from the real power dynamics that unfolded when totems were taken by making the final decision land on the shoulders of the only inter-racial character. The final lesson that the Watchman leaves Louis with is that there must be balance. A person must look inside themselves but also look out around them (?). I'm not sold.

There were some highlights. The native singers were amazing. The entire set was fantastic with a switch back ramp interlaced with totem poles/trees. The lighting and costumes were lovely. It seemed like maybe the Olympics had finally given the playwright the opportunity to have his play staged.

What to do, what to do....

2010-02-03T09:57:00.006-08:00

There are so many great events coming up. I'm taking this city by storm. RAR!!!!

Tomorrow night Dave and I are going to Beyond Eden at the Vancouver Playhouse. Jo's friend, Angela, recommended it. I didn't know that John Mann from Spirit of the West did theatre. I am pumped. It's set in the 1950s, and it's about some archaeologists who head off to the Haida Gwaii to "save" some decaying totem poles, but also struggle over their right to take them. I am not explaining it very eloquently, but I have good feelings about it.

Mother Mother
This is Mother Mother. Dave and Allison introduced me to them last summer and it is going to be a rockin' free concert in Yaletown during the Olympics.

Malajube
Malajube is a big hit in Quebec. It doesn't matter that I still don't understand their lyrics. It's good bouncing up and down music. Also, FREE!!! Can you say free? SAY IT, SAY IT, FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Sandra and I are going to Six Acres for dinner next Tuesday. It's in Gastown and has a very comprehensive beer list. I plan on doing some damage as I don't work on Wednesday. Last time I tried to go, which was over two years ago, it was full. I walked by last Tuesday and it was full. Wish us luck that there is a spare table for two.

Life in Vancouver

2010-01-29T11:30:00.007-08:00

I, much like most of my family, has been losing my blogging touch. I guess we are all a wee bit busy these days. Anyhoo, I wanted to give a long over due update on how Vancouver is going.

Dave and I have settled into living with Mom and Harry and we're all getting along quite well. Mom and I are sharing the cooking (although she does still cook more) and so far they have eaten everything I have made. It's hard making plans when you live in New West, but I am close to my job in Richmond which is what matters the most right now. I've almost finished seeing all my friends once. Now I am beginning to get invites for round two. It's going to take a while to settle back into living in Vancouver and being on people's radars. A bunch of people are now married and some have babies so, of course, everything is different.

I've been spending lots of time with the sisters. A couple of weekends ago I hung out with Allison, Rachel and Katy all in one day. It's nice having them so near and just being able to pop in on them.

Working at the Olympics is fun. Everyone is really nice and our work is well organized so it isn't very taxing. There are so big lulls and it seems like there is about to be some heavy days of go go go. I actually prefer the go go go. I like it when the day flys by. I got to have my picture taken with the torch yesterday. I'll post the pic once I get it.

Dave is settling in okay. He has been moved down to work at the Olympic Village and I have gotten over my jealously. He is having a blast. Today the Brits came in being all British with their sharp suits and cuff links and oh so British faces. He's going to love interacting with all the different National Organizing Committees. Lucky bum!

A beintot,
Grudicus

Seattle isn't Seattle without Coffee

2010-01-25T11:20:00.002-08:00

Seattle or Bust 025, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

Seattle or Bust

2010-01-18T19:33:00.003-08:00

Seattle or Bust 005, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

This was my favourite architecture photo that Dave took in Seattle. You can follow the link under this picture to go to our flickr account and see more of our pictures.

Jo's Muffins

2010-01-18T19:32:00.003-08:00

, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

L to R: Grace (the newest), Mandy (the blonde) and Owen (still runs like a donkey).

Seattle Debutante

2010-01-18T19:28:00.002-08:00

Project Noel 022, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

This is me lounging at the hotel we stayed at in Seattle. What a woman of leisure.

Dave and Mia

2010-01-01T21:51:00.002-08:00

M and D pics 018, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

This is an often found scene: Dave and Mia hanging in the office. My Dave and I had an awesome time in Chicago. We drank, we feasted - there was amazing South American food all over the place: tostados, tacos, empanadas, salsas, tequilas - and we did a year in review of movies. We saw the new Star Trek (Jo's hooked) and I got them all to watch The Hangover. Dave S. told many funny drinking stories from his army days. Good times.

To Jo with Much Love

2010-01-01T21:24:00.002-08:00

M and D pics 034, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

On our first afternoon in Chicago Jo and Dave took us downtown with their friends Keith and Ann-Marie and their tiny tot, Parker Ann and friend Meg. It was too cold to linger long outdoors and we found ourselves warmly ensconced in the Berghoff. Jo told great tales. Much drink was had and I fell in love with Jo's new toque. It reminds me of a stegosaurus and she wears it with so much panache.

Pretty Scenic, eh!

2010-01-01T21:21:00.002-08:00

M and D pics 008, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

After 12 hours of this lovely view heading from the Soo to Chicago we decided to fly to Seattle. Phew.

Garry, Dave and Sherry

2010-01-01T21:20:00.004-08:00

M and D pics 009, originally uploaded by daveandmargo.

This was the goodbye at the bus station in St. Ignace as we left for Chicago. These are all brave faces as it was pretty sad with Dave moving so far from his parents. BUT... We had-had a lovely time in Sault Ste-Marie. We spent four days kicking around the MacMillan house watching Ice Road Truckers and eating chocolates. We debated heavily on who should win Survivor and I don't think anyone was fully satisfied with the outcome. Sherry put on a big family Christmas dinner for us and Garry's sister, brother and mom came over to help us celebrate. It was the perfect start to our trip.

Vive le Quebec Libre

2009-12-13T17:38:00.004-08:00

When I first heard this noise I thought maybe it was an accident, you know, the kind of noise you hear once in a while when something bad has happened. Oh no, this is the soundtrack of urban Montreal. This means get in your bleepin' cars and move them so I can plough the street. It goes off twice a week, either mornings or nights. If my video had gone longer (and been on higher quality) you would have seen people scrambling out of their houses and jumping in their cars.

It's the beautiful Montreal car-dance whereby you have to decode the street signs - there are often three signs indicating three different rules for parking in any one spot. I know true Montrealers who still get tickets. We just paid off three tickets for Dave and he's good about remembering when to move his car. When my friend George skipped town he had 15-20 tickets. They lined the floor of his car. Those eventually caught up to him in Ottawa, poor George. Lindsay called yesterday morning frantic. Her car was gone and she called the city and they didn't have it in their system as being towed. After scouring her neighborhood in concentric circles she found it four blocks away. The city stopped towing to the pound because there were just too many cars, now they just tow them to the nearest spot and drop them.

Ahh Montreal, I will miss you.

I dream the dream

2009-11-24T11:37:00.003-08:00

Last night we had someone come look at the apartment whose place burned down last week. She filled out an application and now we are awaiting our landlords answer. This must work, must must must.

I am wearing my long sweater robe today and it is too warm and comfortable. Makes me sleepy.

Tomorrow I leave for the CFS Annual General Meeting in Ottawa. It promises to be a very wild meeting. I'm pumped to see my friends but the entire tone of the meeting will suck balls.

Tonight we are putting the big furniture on craig's list. Wish us luck!!

Weekly Round-Up

2009-11-21T08:28:00.008-08:00

I asked Dave to take some new pictures of the apartment for our ad. This is what he sent me. I like 'em.

This week was about more selling. Things sold to date: brown knee-high boots, Christmas lights, picture frames, lamps, plants, vacuum, paint set, lantern, shelves, printer, long-reach stapler, coffee maker. More things to come. We've still got more staining to do before some of the big furniture starts to go. I'm very happy with the progress of our move. There's still no renter, but let's not dwell. The first packed boxes started yesterday and much junk has been given to the Salvation Army down the block.

Today is going to be about me. I am showered and dressed and ready to shove off for the afternoon. No more whinging about the apartment moaning about my head cold. I am going to the McCord museums exhibit on the Irish of Montreal. The flag of Montreal features four nationalities: the thistle for Scots, a shamrock for Irish, a fleur-de-lys for French and the rose for English. The Museum took over the McGill Students Union building in 1971 and I have been wanting to go for a while.

I thought I took a picture of the soup I made last night but apparently not. I am testing it out for next weeks Veggie lunch at work. This is a great one from the Rebar Cookbook. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but turns out I love it. It's got that sweet tangy heat that's perfect for a cold.

1. Fry onions with a bit of salt and 2 bay leaves.
2. Pulse 6 tomatoes, 2 seed jalapenos, 8 cloves of garlic, 3 T fresh ginger until a mess course less.
3. Add t garam masala, t paprika, t cardamon seed ground, t cumin seed ground, 1/4 pepper, and 1/8 tumeric to the onions
4. Add the tomato mixture and let simmer until little blobs of oil form on top.
5. Add 8 cups veggie broth and a big can of chickpeas drained. Simmer for a bit.
6. Add 1/2 can coconut milk and 1/4 cup mango chutney and mash the chickpeas a bit to thicken.
7. Simmer a bit more. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with cilantro.

Namaste!
Grude man

what i'm doing

2009-11-15T09:59:00.007-08:00

These muffins were made a couple of weeks ago to rave reviews. I got the recipe from Epicurious.com from a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf recipe but I halved the sugar. Thank the lord I did. That would have been crazy sweet.

Whenever I have my lingerie hanging in the bathroom I feel like I live in a different decade. I like it.

Dave this morning having coffee. We watched "Up" again this morning. It made me cry both times. I think Jo will love this movie. The dog Doug cracked me up.

Dave re-papered the lanterns that I stained. They were made out of palette wood just like the piece below the lanterns. I can't think of the term: cupboard, storage unit, drawers. Anyways the room has really come together.

The bedroom has also improved leaps and bounds. Here's hoping the new pics help us snag a new tenant.

50 DAYS!!

2009-11-14T07:23:00.003-08:00

You wanted a countdown well now you've got one. It is 50 days until I return to the mothership.

I have been very stressed out lately. There are so many uncertainties. We still have not found anyone to take over our lease nor have we got any jobs to move to. I am sure it will all work out fine. We are saving enough that we should be able to float through Jan and Feb. Once we are in Vancouver we should be able to find Joe and Jill jobs until we get something better. It's just nerves. Trying to sell everything, find jobs and rent our place all at the same time. Dave is really great about it though. He has put in for a transfer which isn't a guaranteed thing but fingers crossed that it all works out okay.

I had one man come see the place on Tuesday and he said he loved it, filled out the application, got the landlord to do a credit check and then backed out yesterday. I had a nice stress cry and then felt better.

Last night I went through all of Dave's art supplies to figure out what to take and what to sell or leave. The man has the best markers ever!! Once we broke open the box we got all carried away and then spent the rest of the night making Christmas cards. You should all be very excited. They are super cool in my humble opinion.

Today is about researching organizations that I would want to work with and then doing some more work on Dave's lunch bag. The sewing machine got jammed up and I lost interest but today it's right back at it. Plus I need to finish the bag so I can sell the machine.

On Wednesday, Dave's computer got the craziest virus ever!! Wowza! In the morning the Internet wasn't working so great so we tried to download Norton because it looked like a virus but that didn't work. When I got home at the end of the day the desktop image had changed and there were hardcore porn links on the desktop (NOT Dave's style might I add). I had found a copy of Norton at work and tried to run it but the keyboard would only type every other letter or key so I couldn't get the security code in. Then I turned it on and off and it spit out the disc and wouldn't accept any discs in the hard drive. I go to open up my resume so I can re-type it on my laptop and the computer says I am shutting down in 45 sec.

So now the debate is do we pay to fix the tower to ship it to BC? We've hooked up my old tower which had broken in the move to Montreal but my old roommate jiggled the wires and got it back up and running. His is so much better than mine but Dave's friend said it cost her $300 to have her computer wiped when it got a virus and shipping will be at least $60 or $70. Decisions, decisions. I can't wait to be home and focus all my attention on the job hunt.

LOVE YOU ALL HEAPS AND HEAPS!
Grudicus

cross your fingers

2009-11-09T15:59:00.003-08:00

I just had someone look at the apartment and he said he thinks it could be perfect for him and I really really hope it is. The tension of trying to find someone to take over our lease is killing me. I was totally dejected all weekend because we posted our ad on Craig's List on Friday and Saturday and got zero replies. We did sell the humidifier and dehumidifier which was nice. Keep your fingers, toes, eyelashes, everything crossed for us that this dude works out. He even said he would be interested in some of the furniture. My heart almost exploded with joy.

In other news, I am making Dave a wicked lunch bag like Chacha made for me. I am very excited for the finished product. I just need to re-paper the wood lanterns Dave made because I stained them last night, and then they will be ready to rock the dining room. I sold the two lamps we had in the dining room over a week ago and it plunged the room into total darkness (not my brightest moment, get it, brightest, oh my I am so funny). There is still a million things to sell but we are plugging right along.

I am seriously giddy/downright nervous right now that this dude might take the place. I actually got down on my knees after he left and started praying. Must be all this Catholicism rubbing off on me.

Now if I could only finish my cover letter and resume the world would be close to perfect.

All my love,
Grudicus

brains... brains... need brains.

2009-11-01T08:51:00.005-08:00

Dave and I experimented with zombism last night. I think it suits us. He was freshly shaven hence only doing half his face. We ended up renting scary movies and playing with Halloween makeup. We watched Steven King's The Mist - not very good, but I was still running out of the room to avoid certain scenes. It really took me back to grade seven when I would stay up all night reading Steven King novels until 3 or 4 am. The dialogue and characters are so distinctively him.

What is Dave looking at? Why it's utterly delicious foods. I made the fish, potatoes, and garlic with rosemary and parsley off of Everybody Likes Sandwiches. We made it again already. Very simple, very tasty. On the right is the majestic broccoli recipe which has become a fast favourite. The soup is sweet potato/yam/jalapeno soup, also from E.L.S. I made it for a free veggie lunch we did two weeks ago and students ate it up.

Majestic Broccoli

Cut 1 head of broccoli into bite size florets. In a large bowl combine, 2-3 clove garlic (minced), 1 tbsp fresh ginger (grated), Juice from one lemon or lime, a generous amount of dill weed, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (or balsamic).

Let sit as long as possible.

Head pan on med heat and add 1tbsp olive oil, broccoli. Cook to desired crunchiness.

Recipe from East Van Recipe Exchange, Jocelyn Coburn.

best pumpkin

2009-11-01T06:43:00.002-08:00

check out the wicked pumpkin my friend Kim carved for her son.

the new news

2009-10-28T10:39:00.007-07:00

Hey peeps,

Not too much is new these days. Dave and I are getting super excited about the move. We've had some people over to look at the apartment but so far no bites. We talked to the rental agent and if we can't find someone by Nov 15 he is going to help us (help us to the tune of $500, but better that than being stuck paying rent).

We haven't started selling any furniture yet, but I am ancy about getting it all gone. We still need everything at the moment, but I want to sell every last thing and I am worried about how much time that will take.

I started reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavailer and Clay last weekend. I was reading until midnight last night and I hit the end of the first half and decided to call it a night because I had to get up early... BUT I stopped at the saddest part. Every character had-had something terrible happen to them directly before the chapter ended. I was in tears. Dave thought it was really sweet. Sometimes books just get to me. I can't wait to get back to it tonight in the hopes that things get better for Kavailer and Clay.

I've been working on my resume and it is coming along nicely. I feel pretty accomplished at the end of two and a half years here. I took the Head of Communications for the college out for coffee and picked her brain about marketing myself and it was very helpful. I still need to write a cover letter and fine-tune the resume, but it's moving along nicely.

Well that's a little something to get you all through your day.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
grudicus

big news!

2009-10-17T05:46:00.010-07:00

This will be big news for some of my readers. I am moving back to Vancouver! Dave and I have quit our jobs and are going to be working for the Olympics! We are finishing on Dec 15th and then driving to Sault Ste. Marie to hang with his parents and drop off stuff we aren't ready to ship yet. I am crazy happy to be moving back to the West Coast and that I am going to get to see you all soon. Dave's really excited too.

On to other news. We've been cooking up a storm. I, however, need to learn more about photography, or I need a better camera, because none of these photos do the food justice.

First, we made shepard's pie. Dave and I like hardy meals which you'll notice is a theme to these meals

Dave has really gotten into cooking. He likes to try stuff from the Joy of Cooking. Neither of us knows much about cooking so we are using it often for techniques and tips. His spaghetti and meatballs was excellent.

Next I made chicken pot pie with a biscuit crust. I haven't had much luck with pastry yet so the biscuit crust was perfect. I got this recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook. I didn't have the fresh herbs they were looking for and I couldn't find any substitute so I used italian seasoning. It worked but I used a bit too much.

Last night, we made the Cream of Broccoli soup with almond pesto from the Rebar Cookbook. It was good but next time I'd use less garlic. That says a lot coming from me because I live for garlic and usually throw heaps of it in everything.

Dave just finished making me this desk which is kind of sad cause now we are going to sell all our furniture.

I will also miss my 70s kitchen tiles.

hello? hello out there?

2009-10-11T07:20:00.003-07:00

You all need to post more. Some of you bums haven't posted in weeks. I am not going to take this sitting down. I am standing up, people. Yeah, that's right, I'm on my feet. You better watch out.

Yesterday was Dave's friends Tina and Jessie's wedding. Tina is Italian and there were lots of women in sparkly dresses and Italian songs with all the old couples waltzing around. It was a 10 course meal and then when that was over they set out more food at midnight as well as desserts. It was intense. I couldn't get drunk cause I was constantly full. Dave and I were at Jessie's table which was all people from Sault Ste. Marie. Jessie had one table compared to Tina's ten tables.

I ordered Street Fighter for Dave's super nintendo and it arrived a couple of days ago. We are both entranced with playing. In fact, he is playing right now as I blog.

We don't have any plans for this Thanksgiving Sunday. Dave works tomorrow and I don't feel up to making a whole big meal. I am thinking I'll just make some chicken pot pie. I've still never tried to make it.

old reliable

2009-10-04T13:56:00.003-07:00

It's a funny title for this post as this recipe is not that old. In fact, it is very new to me. All the same I have mentioned it a number of times and not written it out.

I got this one from Fifty One Ways to Make New Friends: A guide to deliciousness from the east van recipe exchange. This ones by Karen Shields.

Curried Peanut Soup

Saute 1 cup onion, 2 stalks celery, 2 big carrots all chopped up in 2tbsp olive oil in a big soup pot for about ten minutes

Add 2 tbsp Patak's Hot Currey Paste, 1/2 cup basmati rice, 1/2 cup dried red lentils for stir for one minute.

Add 6 cups veggie broth and simmer for 40 minutes on low heat.

Add 3/4 cup peanut butter, 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce, and a good long squirt of ketchup. Simmer for 5 more minutes.

Serve and garnish with peanuts, cilantro and red pepper flakes.

a life lived in fear is a life half lived

2009-10-04T11:22:00.004-07:00

Ahhh Sunday. I love days where I do nothing. It doesn't happen that often anymore. I seem to be cleaning and cooking lots these days. Cooking is relaxing because I give myself ample time to get it done. Cleaning feels accomplished but dull. Mom's old adage that "people with clean houses are boring" still bothers me. My house is often clean. I need more friends to distract me.

Right now I am ignoring that I haven't cleaned the floors in a few weeks. I am also ignoring that we are out of clean dish towels and therefore poisoning ourselves with evil microbes. At least I still have clean underwear for next week.

This last week was hard. The three other student unions who are members of the CFS in Quebec are all running campaigns to leave. This has spilled over onto my campus and now our student newspaper is getting in on the action. I feel very much a sitting duck for a big witch hunt. You gotta put a face to your hate campaign, ya know. Each night I come home stressed out waiting for the shoe to drop.

I wrote some friends and siblings requesting their resumes to get some ideas for my own. On Friday, Dave bought me What Colour is Your Parachute. Joey got it for me five years ago but I lent it to someone before I read it and never got it back. I started reading it yesterday and it got me pumped about planning what I want to do next. Lots of ideas started floating around. I feel like if I start now I could find something I really want in the new year.

Dave and I saw the movie "The Invention of Lying" on Friday. I would recommend renting it. It's funny but not something you need to see in the theatre.

Yesterday was my friend Mel's birthday. I made my first cake for her. I didn't take a pic. Sorry folks. The recipes were from Joy of Cooking. I made the Chocolate Devil's Food Cake and the Chocolate Fudge Icing. One of the cake layers ended up with a sink hole in its middle when I took it out of the oven and the frosting never firmed up, BUT... I think for a first cake it was good. I got compliments and Mel seemed super happy when we came in with the flaming cake with 26 candles and singing Happy Birthday. It took me around 4 hours start to finish. Lots of that was nerves and reading and re-reading the recipe.

Today is granola, lentil soup and banana bread (the orangette recipe) making. I got Dave to make the granola last week so he is going to take that on when he gets home. I didn't get up till 10:30 this morning cause we went out for karaoke after the birthday dinner. We got a private room to sing in. I love singing my heart out but I am ready for a bit more originality. There are only so many times I can sing Hey Jude, Billie Jean, and Hotel California.

I've spent my morning drinking coffee and reading The Walrus. I didn't renew my subscription but I am reading the September issue and it is so good it's making me reconsider. They have a fascinating article on the Lower Mainland Sikh population about gang violence and temple elections.

I am pretty bummed these days because it seems like each year I just watch students fight each other - less over issues than over power - and then I read this article and the fight is everywhere. It's in community centres, temples, churches, youth movements, and non-profits. I guess if you want something you have to fight for it, but I feel really turned off. It seems like no matter how hard you work your constituents aren't happy. I must be partially responsible for the fact that students don't know what we do for them but I am running out of ideas. I really pored my heart into fixing this organization and now I am living in tense fear for the these students to start slinging mud at me for embodying the CFS. Big sigh. Time for something new.

cake, please!

2009-10-01T06:40:00.002-07:00

Hey folks,

I'm making a cake for my friend's birthday. She says she likes all kinds of cakes. I have never made a cake. At least not that I can remember. Any outstanding recipes out there? Any helpful hints of epicurious ones or from your favourite cookbook? I am expecting that this will take a while and I'd like to make something truly delicious.

HELP ME!!

Grudicus

my addiction to cookbooks is growing

2009-09-26T05:35:00.004-07:00

Two months ago I ordered The Gourmet Cookbook second-hand off of Amazon. The book was recommended on Everyone Likes Sandwiches as a book that took her cooking to the next level. After a month of waiting I wrote the company for a refund cause it never arrived. Fast forward another month to yesterday and the book has arrived. It is a tome. It is based off of Gourmet magazine and it looks fantastic. So my question of the day is: Do I write the company back and offer to pay for the book? It's not Amazon - it's an independent bookstore.

On Thursday night I went to the Comedy Nest for a work fundraiser. It was my first comedy show and it rocked. The first comic of the night totally bombed with his "fucking faggots" this and "visible minorities" that. When the headliner came out he started out by telling us it was going to be a long 45 minutes unless we all took those big sticks out of our asses. It's crazy how much the audience enjoyed being brow-beaten. The comedian was Mark Foward

Last night Dave and I went down to the AMC to watch a movie but there was nothing on so we played video games at the Arcade. Man, Street Fighter is the best. Although Air Hockey was pretty great too. I also liked the game where you shoot hoops. I wasn't very good at all the shoot 'em up games zombie games.

Dave's at work and I got lots of cooking I want to do today. We are going bowling and then to a housewarming tonight so I best get crackin'.

Peace, love, and happiness
Grude man

happy, happy, joy, joy

2009-09-24T13:27:00.008-07:00

Last night I got home after a long day at work to find Dave in the kitchen making spaghetti and meatballs. He had busted out my new copy of the Joy of Cooking and made Italian Meatballs that were as big as my fist. We both had two meatballs with our spaghetti for dinner and it was way too much. He used my new spaghetti seasoning that I got at the Jean-Talon market which Allison had enjoyed so much (look out Allison more will be coming at you through the mail). It had big peppercorns in it which caught me off gaurd at first but now I am a believer.

I made Shepard's Pie (actually called Cottage Pie when you make it with beef) from the Joy of Cooking and it also turned out great. I want to get back to basics and learn the original version of reciepes. I get lots of great stuff off of Epicurious.com but these last two meals have showed me that sometimes perfect doesn't need to be messed with. Although the JoC may not be the healthiest version.

I started reading the JoC to Dave while he cooked. I read the first chapters of entertaining in all of its casual and formal modes. So now when we go to my friend Mel's for brunch of Sunday Dave is going to bring Bloody Mary's. Who knew they went so well. My friend is a bit nervous because it went from just the two of us for brunch into six people so I offered to make a strata or a frittata. I'm pumped about it. I've never made one.

I picked up Real Simple (the Oct issue) and it had a section on manners. It said that they old rules of boy-girl-boy-girl for a dinner party is dead. Do you agree? Real Simple also said the rule of sitting couples apart is dead. The Joy of Cooking certainly disagrees. I didn't know about these rules until two days ago, but I personally agree. I think for dinner parties of more than eight people it gets people to mix it up.

the soo

2009-09-10T13:39:00.025-07:00

I went to Sault Saint-Marie over the long weekend to meet Dave's family. We left at 6pm Friday and stopped at a motel around 11:30 to crash. The decor had not changed since the sixties and Dave was rocking his new glasses making him fit right in.

We then got back on the road at 7am. We hit up some sweet garage sales on the way and we got a pastry blender (free), four awesome '70s mugs ($1), rockin' old glass jar (free), and a huge painting ($5).

We arrived at his house at 3:30pm. His grandma and aunt had left as it took us way longer then anticipated for us to arrive. I got to meet Dave's mom (Sherry), dad (Garry), sister (Jan), brother in-law (Dwayne) and niece and nephew (Megan and Dwight). I was nervous but everyone was super nice.

We had a BBQ Saturday night and Dave gave me a walking tour of The Soo. I thought it was very charming. The downtown was quiet and looked just like the '50s. On Sunday morning I went garage sale-ing with Jan and Sherry. Jan said the downtown looked bleak. I was all caught up in the landscape but hadn't payed attention to the amount of empty store fronts. We drove all over The Soo and I saw the former Algoma Steel Plant (I forget the new name). It's not doing to good these days. The garage sale prices were outstanding, but I restrained myself as we had already bought lots and Dave's mom likes to give him things. We came back with a truckload of kleenex and paper towels.

On the Sunday Dave rounded up his family for a drive north to a quiet beach on the shore of Lake Superior. First, we stopped in at the Trading Post for some icecream and browsing. I guess its obvious if you think about it but I hadn't realized just how big the great lakes are. It felt like the ocean. The water was clear and beautiful. I didn't have my swimsuit which just about killed me. We skipped stones and Dave's dad told us stories from his younger years when he'd take his motorcycle on long rides. We were only 30 min out of the Soo but there was only two other groups of people on this huge stretch of beach. It made me realize just how remote we were. That kind of beach would be packed in the lower mainland.

Sunday night I got Sherry to pull out the family pictures. I think that is one of the best ways to get to know someone. Dave had THE BEST MULLET EVER!!!! There were some awesome outfits and we snagged a few pics to put up in the apartment.
Monday we got on the road around noon and got home at midnight. We only stopped for gas or to eat at Subway. I was going crazy the last hour before we got home.

In other news I have been cooking up some lovely things:
Low-fat turkey meat loaf and baked potatoes

Cranberry Pineapple Hazelnut Granola

That's all for now muchachos.

taking it all in

2009-08-29T07:04:00.009-07:00

"this is a CBC podcast" These words are magic to my ears. I'm snuggled in our den/studio/computer room having another one of those perfect mornings that make my heart sigh.

Dave works this weekend so I have the place to myself. We work fairly different hours so I get lots of time to myself which makes me feel like I live on my own. It's still novel. I have never lived on my own. Now I can walk around naked and not have to worry about roommates busting in - this is really the icing on the cake.

The weather took a turn towards fall on Thursday cooling off a bunch. No more humidity. No more walking around naked. It's raining outside. This isn't news though. It's been raining here all summer. I have my slippers on and last night we wrapped ourselves in blankets to watch Hot Rod.

Have you all seen Hot Rod? I don't know how I missed this gem. It's two years old. Dave has it and I watched it for the first time two weeks ago. Then I watched it again last weekend and then again last night to show it to my friend Mel who came over for dinner. She didn't know how she'd missed it either. So freakin' funny and the 80s soundtrack rocked my world. I have been listening to the Stacey Q song on YouTube repeatedly as it is featured in one of my favourite scenes.

I spent this morning catching up on The Current podcast on CBC. I listened to the one on the West Coast Salmon collapse. It was estimated 17 million would return from their run at sea, but only 2 million have. There are no more frogs in the amazon and salmon stocks are collapsing. Boo-urns. Joanna and her Dave were in the Queen Charlotte's a month ago or so and they didn't catch much. Sad days.

Then I listened to a podcast on how the Conservatives have scrapped the term "child soldier" for "children in armed conflicts" to strike out on a new foreign policy agenda. A whole new agenda by changing a bit of type in a policy somewhere. Apparently it is linked to the Omar Kahdr case and Harper not wanting to bring him back from Guantanamo. We are the only country not to claim our people from Guantanamo. When I listen to podcasts like this it really cements for me that I don't want to be in politics.

I wanted to listen to more but I thought my brain should have a little time to process so I opened up my blog and went to CBC Radio 3 to listen to some new tunes. Who should be on the main page but a profile of my friend Cameron. I met Cameron in a Women Studies class at Douglas College. Now I'm listening to his dub-step, punk, ambient music even though I haven't talked to him in ages.

Lastly, but not least, my Dave finished making us more counter space in the kitchen out of a dresser the previous tenants left behind. I love love love it and can't wait for him to make me a desk.

These were made last weekend: mango salsa, avocado and brie quesadilla & vegetable pot pie w tofu. The quesadilla were perfection, but the veggie pot pie was only palatable with some HP sauce.

craftin' and cookin'

2009-08-20T09:45:00.017-07:00

People have been wanting some pics of the apartment so here ya go. It very much fits with my bohemian retro 70s groove. The wave is me this morning post-breakfast so excuse the lack of pretense.

My legs are getting strong. I was doing lunges in the living room a couple of nights ago and now I can feel my thighs and butt. Oh yeah, this girl likes to work it out. I am getting better about exercising. I've been out of my groove for a year and it is super hard to get back into it. I am signing up for the lunch time yoga at the college and combined with our gym a couple of blocks down it all bodes well for the bod.

My cookbook collection is doing me proud these days. For years I had no books and just a couple of written-out recipes stuffed loosely in a duo-tang. Now I have the Rebar Cookbook, this rockin' East Van Recipe Exchange book, Hot Dam and Hell Yeah: Recipes for Hungry Banditoes, The Dietitians of Canada cookbook, More With Less: A Mennonite cookbook, and another small feminist one. I got two more in the mail: The Gourmet Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking.

I was in the dollar store the other day and I saw plastic page protectors and bought thirty of them. I took all the recipes that I have been ripping out of magazines over the last year and the back-of-the-envelope ones and now I have them nicely put together. It was a task so minor that it never made it onto any of my to-do lists, but it's been needed for about seven years. Dave thinks I need a binder or something nicer than the crap duo-tang but I am going to stick with it for a while. Every time I pick it up and feel the thick weight of all those recipes make me so happy. These are my oldest recipes, connected to great events. The recipe for prawns and sun dried tomato pasta that I made for Sachon's birthday years ago. The brunch I made for mother's day at my place in the West End with Kater. The valentines dinner of paella that Dave and I had in February.

This morning I made eggs Migas with oven roasted potatoes and it was delicious. I used the recipes from Rebar. Can I get a "what, what" for the west coast aka the best coast! I took a picture and then we ate and then I realized there was no flash card in the camera. DOH!!

I also did the first exercises from my learn to draw book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. Here is a sample of me at my starting point, as in my worst point so no judging.

I falling into an online shopping addiction. It's mainly all about books. I got a bundle deal from Amazon.ca for The Book of Negros, The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society and Three Cups of Tea. The first two had received commendation from Allison and the third I have hemmed and hawed over buying for ages. I set myself up with an Etsy account as well. I smell trouble.

LOVE TO MY PEEPS! Biz!

some random snaps of the last couple of days

2009-08-10T18:01:00.009-07:00

We tried out a Parc at the tip of the Island of Montreal because I saw online that it had a beach. The beach was no good, no good, I say. So we went for a wander to find a nice field.

During our journey I got a sick blister that popped and got another blister on top of it. This was Dave's idea so I could make it back to the car and stop all my gripping. It worked kinda well.

This was Sunday night's dinner which turned into Monday night's dinner which is again going to be Tuesday night's dinner. That's okay because they are pretty darn fantastic sloppy joes. I got the recipe off a food blog called Pinch of Salt or something.

This is me being a total cheeseburger and making Dave take action shots of me writing in the dining room with fresh laundry strewn about.

Then I did a photo shoot for Dave and made him pose down for me. "We are going to pump, YOU UP!"

Bisous

addiction, education and food

2009-08-08T06:40:00.003-07:00

I have developed an unhealthy Craig's List addiction. I am checking new listing every three hours in my quest to put together my apartment. There are bids and counter-bids flying out of my inbox. So far I have only bought two dressers for a total of $100. I have decided that I'm going to take a week off and come back to it next week with a fresh perspective.

This week has been full of planning. Dave is looking into technical colleges with courses that start in September. There are one-year courses in cabinetry and concrete finishing which have caught his eye. They cost $100 to take and go for one year which works perfectly with our plans of moving to Vancouver. The courses are either 8am-3pm or 5pm-10pm so he would need to find a new job that has hours to match. This is the tricky part.

I saw the news yesterday that July had record job losses for Quebec, 27,000 jobs! Of course, students are going back to school so that might free up good part-time work.

I made Everybody Likes Sandwiches Creamy Leek and Broccoli Soup. This weekend I am going to try her no-rise pizza dough. I am cooking up a storm these days and loving it.

Well I best get started on my day. Dave is up and moving and we are hungry.

Bisous!

a tasty life

2009-08-04T13:39:00.004-07:00

I bought a cookbook by the Dietitians of Canada in Vancouver at a second-hand shop. Last night I tried the chicken curry wraps: halved grapes, toasted almonds, mayo, curry powder, celery, salt & pepper on a bed of spinach all wrapped up in a pita. It wasn't the most mouth watering thing I ever ate, but it sure did the trick. I particularly like the recommendations of other sides in the book to go with the meals.

Last night we had Dave's friend Lindsay over. Our first dinner guest. Also no picture of Lindsay. Sniff sniff, I know, more pictures. Only Dave's computer is hooked up to the Internet right now. We don't have a wireless router so my laptop is an island in a sea of connectivity. I am however taking lots of pictures of the progression of the apartment so it'll be fun once I get around to posting them. Lindsay gave us an old shoe rack she had and a computer desk. Things are comin' together.

My friend Tiffany (MTL tiffany) has a vlog about health and they recommended this site about how to learn to do 100 push-ups. Today will be day 2 of the program for me. I thought day 1 was tough and I am starting at the first level.

I have decided I have to stop buying books. Dave has heaps and heaps of books I've never read. I started on The Shipping News by Anne Lacroix and I am ripping through it. A very enjoyable, smart quick read. All that said, I bought a cookbook online today. It was recommended on Everybody Likes Sandwiches blog attached to an old post about miso gravy. It's a vegan cookbook about making southern food. My Dave LOVES bbq and anything spicy and tangy. I'm pretty excited about getting it in the mail. YAY! I love mail.

Bisous.
Margo

Food of the Week: spicy hummus sandwiches & spicy curry peanut soup

2009-07-31T10:07:00.004-07:00

I packed a lunch tue, wed, thur and fri this week. This is very, very, very good for me. I have been making delicious sandwiches: wholewheat bread toasted, goat cheese, spicy hummus, sprouts, red peppers and cucumber.

Today I also have some leftover soup from yesterday. It has onion, celery, carrot, veggie broth, Pakats vindaloo curry sauce, basmati rice, red lentils, peanut butter, and ketchup. I was supposed to put in Worceshire sauce, but I forgot to pick it up. It turned out pretty thick, like a stew.

It's my first recipe from an East Van Veggie Cookbook I picked up on Main Street. I was concerned when I was finished, but for no reason at all. It was delicious. My Dave even liked it. He isn't a big fan of veggie meals cause he doesn't find them filling enough but this did him in.

catch up

2009-07-29T07:41:00.003-07:00

Day three of being back to work. I was worried that I would have the post-vacation blues when I got back, but no such thing. This isn't to say I don't miss my friends and family terribly, cause I do. It turns out that break was just what the doctor ordered and now I am ready to get back down to work. I am whizzing through bank reconciliations getting everything ready for our audit and it is going to be the best one yet.

Our plane was delayed leaving Vancouver so we got home at 1:30am Monday morning. The apartment looks great with the fresh coat of paint and the Super had cleaned the windows in our absence. We are still awaiting our new fridge cause the one that came with the place is super loud.

I had picked the colour lemon chiffon for our apt but I am going to re-paint the hallway and maybe our bedroom white. The lemon color looks great in the living room which is next to the pale green dining room, but it will pop more if the hallway was white and our bed spread is yellow so it's a bit of overkill there too.

Dave had Monday off so he took all the furniture we had crammed in one room and set-up the apartment again. He didn't hang any pictures because he knew I would want to be there for that. When he was packing I kept on saying, "so are you going to bring that?" about different pieces he had on his walls. To which he would reply "I don't have to if you don't want me to". God I love him!! There was one piece I nixed which he said we should keep the frame just in case. When I got home Monday he had taken my degree from SFU and framed it. How sweet is that? It feels really good to finally have it framed. I worked hard for that piece of paper.

I have started hunting on Craig's List for tables and dressers. We have heaps of clothes in the bedroom that have no where to go. Dave hasn't had a sock drawer in two years. INCONCEIVABLE!!

Still haven't made it to the gym this week but I did make super yummy burgers last night off of epicurious.com. They had toasted pecans in the patty and spicy cajun mayo with caramelized onions on top, delicious!

the set-up

2009-07-07T10:09:00.004-07:00

I'm eating lunch at an uber-hip cafe near my new place, Shaikia. No one seems quite sure how to say it so it must be cool. I'm mostly just using the free internet cause there won't be any at my new place until we return from vacation. Videotron doesn't seem to be in any hurry and considering that everyone moves at the same time I am sure they are run ragged.

I am loving everyone's blogs. The photos are excellent. Binners in cowboy hats. The kootneys in all their glory. The Dunnet-Matsushita (is that the correct spelling) clan. We weren't sure where the camera was packed so there won't be any before pictures, but soon we'll take some after ones for sure. Considering the place will be spiffed up and painted while we are away we might just wait until we get back to take pics.

I finally finished cleaning the kitchen yesterday. The black grime on the kitchen floor peeled off in a sheet. YIKES!! We've got the living room setup and have moped half the second bedroom. Art is resting everywhere and the bedroom is a sea of clean clothes. Still loving the madess.

I bought the book "Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain" which I noticed in this great second-hand book store. I remember brother Dave doing it and really improving. Right now, we are calling the second-bedroom the "office" but I intend to start calling it the "studio" soon.

This morning Dave renewed his membership at the gym two blocks down and he got me a memebrship as well. "Happy un-Birthday to me, to me...." Once lunch is digested I am going to hit the weights. When I got out of bed this morning I started doing a pose down for Dave. I think he was impressed. He used to be really into body building so he's gonna be a great workout buddy.

Hugs and Kisses,

SEE YOU ALL SOON!!!!

where's the screwdriver?

2009-07-03T07:42:00.004-07:00

It's funny being in my new place. It's like a montage of all those movie scenes I ever saw where a couple moves in together. You eat lots of takeout, dance around as you clean, the only thing put together is the bed. I'm loving it.

The move went fairly smoothly. It was pure foolishness that we didn't rent a van. I also packed the screwdriver away somewhere so we had to carry lots of the furniture assembled (oops). Luckily Mat, Mel, Mishenka and Alex (mish's boyfriend) were sweet enough to help us. It made me feel really good that I have friends that are there for me when I need them. It was ridiculously hot and I sweat through all my clothes in the first two hours - seriously soaked them through and through. By the end my muscles had given up and turned to jelly. I realized just how out of shape I am that my body gave out on my like that.

Our favourite restaurant closed down last weekend, much to our dismay, so we tried a Persian restaurant nearby that was delicious. We were so tired we could barely talk as we ate.

It felt weird to wake up in our new place yesterday, but this morning it was sublime. I cleaned the top cupboard yesterday and today it will be the bottom ones and then we can do some unpacking. The place is filthy. Black grimy greasy dirt on the kitchen floor. Flip-flops are a must at all times.

The bathroom isn't as bad which is nice. The living room and dining room are full of everything right now. They are just how I remembered when we saw the place: light, breezy, and perfect for entertaining. The second bedroom is a really funny shape, not so much the L that I remembered as two triangles touching points. Everything needs a coat of paint which we'll have done while we're in BC.

This all comes down to me loving it. I feel like such a grownup. The whole not having roommates thing. Us getting to decorate our place together. It's so exciting.

ALL MY LOVIN', I WILL GIVE TO YOU...

biz,
Margonaut

ps. I recently found out that my Dave doesn't like the Beatles!!!!!! He said ppl are either Beatles or Rolling Stones fans. I have decided I will keep him anyways.

un finale adieu a le plateau

2009-06-23T18:56:00.015-07:00

I might only be moving across town but my little place in Le Plateau has been good to me. Everything about it is so charming and cute. It is the French side of town. This is where the first French working middle class came to build their houses in the the 1800s. I borrowed Dave's camera - mine is acting funny - and went for a walk around my hood Sunday snapping pictures. I also noted some architectural examples from the book I've been reading about Montreal.

This fire hydrant has been a landmark for me. Whenever I give someone directions to my place I mention the fire hydrant out front.

This is my fruterie. It's two blocks away and it might not have the best prices but it has the best quality. There is no junk food in this place, just wonderful sausages, cheeses, fruit etc. I will miss it, sniff sniff.

If I need something bad for me I walk two blocks further to the Marche Richelieu. To get there I must walk through a small square that has terrible public art of all these weird chairs that you can't sit on, blurgh.

When I am going for a run I continue on to Parc La Fontaine. When I took these pictures it was a breezy kind of day and I got to listen to the trees rustle as the wind blew by. It was very soothing.

At which point I found two people circling a tree, again and again. It took me a while to realize what they were trying to catch.

Like any good Montreal parc there are shout outs to their forefathers. This is Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine. He was the first Canadian to become Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada. After the rebellions of 1837, he worked to get amnesty granted for those that participated. He also tried to change the national language back to French. That's what this statue is all about honoring. Vive le Quebec Libre.

These people been taking hockey seriously for a while!!!!!

These are just two examples of the heaps of graffiti that I love in this 'hood.

Bisous. Grudeman.

a sore throat befalls our hero...

2009-06-18T10:12:00.003-07:00

Yes, that's right folks, I have a cold. J'ai une grippe. My throat has been hurting me since Sunday and I am eating Fisherman's Friends and downing Neocitron like crazy. All to no avail. I haven't had the time to aller au chez medicine, but hopefully Saturday.

Dave brought me some boxes so I am going to start packing tonight. We are going to move me to his place slowly over the next two weeks and then we can move together on July 1st.

My french class continues and I have learned some new stuff. Dave and I are speaking more and more french together which is great. We just need some francophone friends to correct us.

I am reading a book on the architecture of Montreal which is way more interesting than I thought it would be. I finished Dreams From My Father by Obama which rocked my world - particularly the parts about working as an organizer in Chicago.

Ahh man, it sucks when you go to write on your blog and you realize you haven't been doing anything interesting. Well, I love you all and that's my update for now.

Bisous

to audit or drink beer?

2009-06-06T09:22:00.005-07:00

I am doing prep work for the pre-audit from home and I have hit something of a wall. I was going strong for about an hour and a half and now bubkiss. (questionable spelling??) I got up at 7am with Dave cause he had to work. We had a mini-dance party as we listened to Electric Feel by MGMT on repeat (thank you Sandra!!) I busted out some work when I got home and then I got to re-vamping my blog and listening to tunes Kim and Sandra recommended on their blogs.

As you can now see Kim and Sandra have recently started blogging - 14 year olds got nothing on us. My friend Tiffany Moey (Montreal Tiffany, not Vancouver) has a video health blog. She works at Dawson in Athletic Therapy - she fixed my ankle. Can I get a what-what?

Last night Dave and I watched The Reader. I was almost bawling I was crying so hard. It was so sad. Dave thought it was super sad too, but not a tear. I have decided to blame mine on the crimson wave that is heading my way.

Tonight is the international beer festival. I better wear my sturdy heels.

Biz.

Dove Chocolates

2009-06-05T10:47:00.004-07:00

The end of the week, and dawn of a new weekend, is here. This was a pretty quiet week for me. At work it has been all about getting the finance office prepared for the pre-audit that starts on Monday. My co-worker Mishenka is on vacation making it rather lonely, but the new directors have been popping in from time-to-time.

I started the level 3 Conversational French class here at Dawson. It runs for three weeks, Mon-Thur, 9:00 - 12:20. I love working half days. I am attempting to make a serious dent in the 95 hours of overtime I have. It's sorta rough to focus so intently for three hours and then come into work, but it's the only way I am going to get it done.

Mom sent me a care package a week or so ago. She sends me the funniest things. The previous care package had a bottle of Head & Shoulders that had expired a decade ago. SERIOUSLY!! This one had a big carton of chocolates, mini travel shampoos, a cute top she bought at Le Chateau that didn't fit right, and some dollar store clip picture frames. Oh and some thread. I kept the chocolate at my office and I eat one of the little packages a day. So far mom and Allison have sent me care packages. THANK YOU!!!!

I talked to Dad earlier this week. He has started watching LOST so we both had heaps to say about it, although his take was far different then mine. We didn't talk about his dad though so I felt that was progress.

26 days until Dave and I move into our new place. We are both beyond excited.

I started reading Twilight cause it's been kicking around the office. Terrible. That book positively sucks. I stopped reading after 150 pages. Yuck! It was so schmultzy. I started reading Dreams From My Father by Obama last night. I am already on page 150 and devouring it. I picked up Twilight cause I thought I wanted a light read but Dreams of my Father is an easy read too. It makes me like Obama even more. Particularly, the into to the intro. He wrote Dreams of My Father when he was 33 which seems really young to me now that I am 29. It's very honest which means he didn't always imagine himself running for office. He was unsure about who he was and what he wanted to do for a long time and people weren't crazy about him going into organizing. We'll see what I think by the end but it is for sure better then Audacity of Hope, although I like that one too.

Feel free to post what you are reading these days or suggestions you might have for my summer reading list.

Bisous!

it's all about the mexican

2009-05-30T19:19:00.008-07:00

My Dave has a thing for Mexico. He is interested in moving down there and setting up a factory, fair-trade of course. We have this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that we go to too frequently called Burritoville - it was the scene of our first date. We are trying to stop eating out so much so we have been making Mexican food.

These first pics are from a month ago. I used The Rebar Cookbook for their Three Sister's Burritos. I forgot that Dave isn't a big fan of butternut squash so it didn't go over as well as I'd hoped, but we both loved the green rice.

Today we got up early. Dave wasn't feeling too hot so I bounced around his apt while he slept on the couch. I watch a couple of episodes of How I Met Your Mother and got us fresh bagels and croissants from the shops next door. After a leisurely morning we went to the Grande Bibliotheque du Montreal. I got some cookbooks, yoga manuals, and a couple of architectural walking tour guides of Montreal. Dave got four business books. When we got back to my place we decided on tacos. OH YEAH!!!

Then we took a picture for his parents.

Tiffany and Lori were in town last weekend. They followed me home from the CFS National Meeting and they spent last Thur-Mon hanging with me. It reminds me how much I like this city when I get to show it off for people. There was lots of shopping, eating and being merry. Lori and I went dancing and did lots of crazy booty shaking. C'etait fantastique!

Dave and I are getting super excited about the move. Only one month to go.

Peace, love and happiness to all my people.

BISOUS!
Margo

the strike is over

2009-05-16T09:25:00.008-07:00

Rachel has now posted so my strike was over. I am not going to post all the time while you saps get the glory of my details without giving me some of your own. Get to it Dunnet Clan.

About two weeks ago Dave and I went wandering through St-Henri to see if we wanted to live there. We didn't find any apartment but we stumbled upon lots of sweet parks and cool stores. Here's me clowning around....

After many hours we stopped for lunch in a classic Montreal diner. There are tons of diners here and pretty much all of them serve total heart-stopping, calorie-laden food but we had walked many miles and deserved it all. Here's Dave being a clown too...

At the end of the day we still had not found an apartment but we ruled out some neighborhoods which was good. A couple of days later we were looking at a 3.5 which was okay and Dave asked the man if he had anything else available. He took us across the street to see a 4.5 that turned out totally dreamy.

A. It's a corner unit meaning window in every room
B. It's the top floor and the end of the fire escape with just enough room to put a BBQ.
C. It gives us a spare room for y'all to stay in when you visit. When you aren't visiting it will be a computer room/yoga studio.

We put down a deposit and we are going next Thursday to sign the lease. The property manager kind of makes me uncomfortable cause we haven't signed the lease yet and they cashed the deposit but I just have to stay calm until next Thursday. The hunt is off - we've got a place to call home. It's in NDG on a central part of Sherbrooke Street, great location for anyone who wants to visit.

Alright that's my update for now.

BISOUS,
grugen

Smoochy Booches

2009-04-30T04:30:00.003-07:00

Salut Bonjour mes smoochy booches!

I went to bed at 10pm last night. This is earth shattering news. I have not gone to bed at 10pm since I was seven years old. I woke up in a panic. I was well rested and my alarm had not gone off. I figured it must be real late in the day like the times where I turn off the alarm in my sleep. It was 6:30am. Alert the presses! It's now 7:35 and I am fed, dressed and drinking my morning cuppa joe like other adults. Eeekkkk I'm an adult. I'm going back to hide under the covers (kidding!)

Last night I left work at 8:30pm and when I got home I worked on my mega-letter to Molly. It's a mega-letter cause I am writing it over several days (read: weeks) in response to the mega-letter she sent me. (Hers are better cause she does illustrations. I tried drawing one of my meals and Dave had to ask what it was, hells bells).

In other news, everyone is having babies. The world has gone mad for babies. Every day on facebook a new baby pops up. I love babies but this all leads me back to my first central hypothesis, I am old. If I am old what does that make you (raised eyebrow)? You don't have to answer that.

BISOUS (kiss kiss kiss)

Hot Hot Montreal

2009-04-28T04:54:00.003-07:00

"Tarazan couldn't take this kind of heat." The muggy Montreal summer weather has made its first appearance and I am dying. My Scottish blood doesn't take well to the heat. It takes the college three days to turn on the air conditioner so today I am taking my fan to work. Although today is only 19 degrees so that's not too bad. Yesterday students kept coming in going "how can you work in this heat?" Are you saying I can leave?

I have a "to call" list and it is getting longer by the day. Sunday was going to be my big phone call day but then I talked to Brother Dave for an hour and a half and was all talked out. Last week I was a texting maniac and in the processing found out my friend Beatiz (whom I met at Malaspina) is eight months pregnant and just bought a house with father of the baby. I still need to talk to Lisa who is also preggers. My friend Amanda might be moving to San Fran with a new beau. Wow, I must really be getting old cause shit just got real. hee hee.

Bisous.

sunday dinner party

2009-04-26T18:25:00.005-07:00

My friends Mel and Kevin just left. I invited them over for dinner with Dave and I, and might I say, it was scrumptious. I made blackened Cajun salmon, broccoli rabi, and brown rice. They brought almond croissants for desert which we had with tea and coffee. Now I am watching Dave do the dishes and I made him wear my apron with the bunny on the front. He looks so ridiculously cute.

I didn't go to yoga today cause I went yesterday for the first time in a month and there was this mad Californian yogie who does Kundalini yoga teaching our class and I am totally sore today. He wanted us to project. "Project, Project, I want to feel it, I want to feel who you are, Project." It was very California. He taught us in his ripped blue jeans.

I tried to find a new bike yesterday. The bike mechanics at Concordia's bike coop, Right to Move, pointed me in the direction of Velomakak. I have heard that this dude is shady, but since my bike was stolen last year I figured I am already involved in the cycle of pain so I might as well profit from it. Alas by the time I walked to the area that he's supposed to be in I had forgotten the name of the street and only remembered the number of the store so I never found him. Mel and Kevin told me I could find the address online and now seeing where he is I was oh so close when I called off the hunt.

Dave and I rented The Wrestler last night. I really liked it but man it was sad. It was almost too sad for Dave.

Today I was a cleaning machine. "Take THAT apartment!" I did the bathroom, swept the floors, mopped the floors, cleaned the stairs (they get really nasty) and I packed away my winter clothes and brought out my summer ones. I also got in an hour and a half conversation with brother Dave. All in all it was a great day.

I love you all more than you can imagine. Big bisous.

Grudicus round-up... all grud, all the time

2009-04-23T18:46:00.006-07:00

Last night I was talking to Allison on the phone and she told me I need to update my blog. This coming from a woman who hasn't blogged in ages. Nonetheless I am here, blogging, for you. We had a good chat, chachy and I. I confirmed my plans to come home next year which I thought I had already said but just in case the memo was missed, I plan to come home next summer. After a quick catch-up I got to mauw down a tasty burger Dave had made for dinner. I even got some potato chips on the plate with a small green salad. The chips du jour for us are Doritos blue cheese and bbq (I think it's BBQ just I could be mistaken). Afterwards I got him to do some yoga with me. Watch that tall man stretch!

We had our General Assembly on Tuesday night where we presented three years of audits. We are now caught up on all our outstanding stuff. YAY US! The meeting only got 60 people at best and was short of the 115 need to move motions. BOO!! On a positive note, the directors took every question directed at them and the article in The Gazette today wasn't bad. http://www.montrealgazette.com/Business/Dawson+College+student+union+funds+have+audit+reveals/1524482/story.html

No ballet for two weeks. Work is busy and my lust for overtime has seriously decreased. Summer is coming and I am ancy to get out of the office that has no windows and into the sunshine. Still no bike since mine was stolen last summer. I am thinking of checking out the Concordia Bike Coop on the weekend to get some old thing thrown together.

Dave and I haven't been doing any apartment hunting. I made one appt this Saturday afternoon and we'll see how it goes. I want enough room to have a hobby but we are also contemplating being as cheap as possible and paying $350 each. Decisions decisions.

bisous

Easter Weekend

2009-04-15T07:24:00.006-07:00

I had a lovely long weekend. Here's the break-down.

Friday
I did work a bit because I took Monday off but then I met up with Dave and his friend Lee who was visiting from The Soo. We went out for dinner on Friday at Jardin de Pamos. It's a lovely apporter-votre-vin around the corner from my place. I had waaaaaaaay too much wine. We came back to my place to finish the rest of the wine (we can't let good wine go to waste!!) and then it was off to karaoke. Karaoke was sadly cut short by my roommate Meghan's unfortunate dizzy spell that ended in her vomiting on the floor of the bar. It's been a long time since I got someone so drunk that they puked in a bar (three cheers for me!)

Saturday
Dave, Lee and I went to the Old Port and then up to the mall to enjoy Dave's discount. The man gets 50% off at Banana Republic, HELLO!!! Lee wasn't feeling up for it so we left her at Dave's after dinner and went to Edgar on Mont Royal for drinks with some of Dave's friends.

Sunday
I had to work Sunday so after brunch with Meghan, Lee and Dave I got right down to it. And by this I mean, I cleaned my room, did three loads of laundry, swept my floors and then got down to work. Dave dropped Lee off at the Bus Station and then he and I settled down to watch Pineapple Express. I was too tired though so we only watched half.

Monday
Dave and I woke up nice and early and ate breakfast and headed off to Cafe JavaU near my house. He read a book about marketing and I worked a bit. We went to a Papeterie near my house and I picked up lovely crisp thick French letter-writing paper. I started on writing back to Molly who sends me awesome four page, drawing filled letters. We decided we needed some grub and got roasted chicken from a Portuguese shop and ate in the park. It wasn't really warm enough to eat in the park but it was worth it. Then we parked ourselves in yet another cafe for more reading/working.

All in all, a totally relaxing weekend. Talked to the mumma last night to firm up some ideas for her stay. It's amazing that she comes to visit me as often as she does.

Apt Hunt - Phase One

2009-04-08T05:13:00.005-07:00

Dave and I officially started our apartment hunt this last weekend. We decided to get on the ground and check out some of the neighborhoods we were hearing good things about. We started at Cote-Des-Neiges (also known as Uptown). It's located right next to the Universite de Montreal and like five million hospitals (great planning guys!) but we just weren't smitten. Next I took Dave to my favourite patisserie (which I have also taken Allison and Mum to) and we have the freshest Mille Fielles ever. So freakin' good. We then wandered down into the neighborhood just below Little Italy. It's awesome. We saw a three and a half (a 1 bedroom) for $650 and a 4.5 for $750. Neither were exactly what we wanted but it's good to know there are still some deals left in what is becoming a very trendy hood. Surprisingly there is a large Mexican community just below Little Italy and we have wicked hot torta subs for lunch. Dave has the day off today so he is going to try and set us up more appointments for tonight.

In other news, ballet class rocked last night. Classes are definitely getting harder and the teacher is all "I'm not going to tell you the same mistakes again and again - Fix It!!!" We tried a developee for the first time. As she walks around, the teacher will grab someone's leg and yank it. Yesterday she grabbed my ankle and hoisted by foot parallel with my shoulder. The she makes this face and says "see, see" as if this is totally possible without her and I am not trying hard enough. God I love crazy Russian ballet teachers - best cliche ever!

Mon Anniversaire

2009-04-07T09:55:00.003-07:00

I had a super fantastic happy birthday yesterday. I got woken up with kisses from my Dave at around seven am (my birth time). We had coffee and croissants from my favourite boulangerie (bakery) by his apartment. I watched some Seinfeld and headed back to my hood for my massage.

I was very very impressed by my massuse. I asked her to really beat the crap out of my shoulders because I have this massive knot that's been there for years now and it flared up last week and I was having trouble sleeping I was in so much pain. She did an awesome job and I am feeling a million times better today. Before I left she put Tiger Balm on my shoulders so it felt like I was still getting a massage for another two hours. I was actually so relaxed I was kind of out of it for the next while.

Next I tootled around the apartment: napping, reading, soaking in a hot bath and munching. I had dinner with Dave at Chalet BBQ by his place and then we went to the Hillbilly Night at The Wheel. It's been going on for thirty years. It was mostly seniors with a splattering of scene-sters. We won a Patsy Cline cd in the raffle and I had my name announced over the mic and everyone sang me Happy Birthday and Jeannie (the host) came over and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. As sweet ending to a sweet birthday.

mon coeur

2009-03-30T18:02:00.005-07:00

It rained on Sunday. I woke up at Dave's but he was off to work early so I decided to walk home. I didn't take a totally direct route. I cruised out of Notre-Dame-des-Graces into Westmount then cut down to Little Burgundy and across Griffintown up again into Chinatown then up further past the Latin Quartier and lastly into my hood le Plateau. I stopped off in Chinatown to get a Vietnamese sub for $2.75 which made me feel like I was back in my Chinatown. It took me from 10:45 to 13:15 to get home. My first big walk of the spring. After I got home it started raining hard, like it does here. It felt so right.

During the afternoon my roommate Meghan opened the balcony doors for three hours to let in fresh air. This is a pretty big deal! We still have the plastic wrap on the other windows and doors but I guess this means it can come off now. The pictures are both views from the opened door. We have a plastic corrugated roof over the back balcony so I stood and listened to the rain splash on it for ages.

In the evening I made Japanese curry and Dave and I wandered through Multimags for anything new on the stands. I got a copy of Real Simple. He got Men's Health.

Today was a pretty good day at work. Did a bunch of troubleshooting on the finance computer because Simply Accounting was refusing to open anymore. That will not be tolerated. When I left at 19:30 it was in action again. I am KING, KING I say!

I had a terrible dream about Mum last night. I woke up at 6am and then tried to fall back asleep but the dream continued and when I woke again at 7 I had to get up. Can someone leave me a note that they talked to her in Mexico and she is doing okay.

Lots of love

the end of the weekend

2009-03-22T21:02:00.007-07:00

It's midnight here so the weekend is officially over and I am about to shuffle off to bed. Dave and I explored the height of laziness this weekend. We had leftovers Friday night. Saturday we wandered around his neighborhood checking out different bike shops looking for a new set o' wheels for moi. Sunday was reading the paper, listening to Neko Case (prep work for the upcoming concert), and browsing the magazine section at Chapters. Tonight we watched "Taken" with Liam Neison. If you can avoid watching it I would highly recommend it. The type of movie that gives parents and female travellers nightmares and the acting is grade A crap.

This is Dave making dinner. He's got a funny smile going on. I think my incessant picture taking from multiple angles was making him nervous.

Nothing quite like high-quality icecream for dinner. Soooo good.

It was reading week so I took some afternoons off. On Thursday I went up to the north part of St-Hubert to the fabric (tissue) stores. I found a totally rad pattern for this 50's couture sun dress online and I think the fabric will go perfectly.

I don't know if this picture will show very well. I still don't know much about the camera and its settings so I haven't been able to take a good picture of the electric cross on the mountain. There is something carnival-esque about it glowing down on the city - electric religion. It's amazingly tacky and yet it draws you in.

random pictures!!

2009-03-16T07:51:00.007-07:00

Last night I asked Dave to make chili. I was over at his place last week and he fed me some amazing chili. We are talking "Rena and Tony" comfort food level chili. He puts coffee in his chili. Very very tasty. I also particularly love the whole canned mushrooms.

There was a funnier picture where he wasn't expecting it and his tongue is sort of poking out the corner of his mouth. He does that when he is thinking, but I decided to go for the pretty shot instead. He can thank me later. Notice the classic Margo breakfast of two eggs on toast with grated cheddar, baby tomatoes and greens and a strong cup of coffee.

This is me taking a picture of the back of my head cause I am always wondering what it looks like. HA! So that's what it looks like.

Thanks for all the warm wishes on the move. I would love it to pieces if brother-man could come for a visit. That'd be too cool. Mom is coming for a weekend in mid-April so she can give you all the low-down on my Dave.

"we"

2009-03-15T10:56:00.003-07:00

Today I got up at noon. It's been ages since I have done that. I went bed at 11:30pm last night. The last couple of weeks with elections at the Union and getting the audits finished have taken a toll on me. Last weekend I was in the snappiest state I have been in ages. Once all the ballots were tallied and the audits signed off on I could literally feel the tension easing in my body as I sipped a beer in my living room. With each sigh my shoulders would lower a bit. That was Thursday and then Friday it was another go go go day at the office, but when I left at 5pm my body physically relaxed - an odd thing to feel. It reminds me of how I felt after making the decision to stop visiting dad when I was 12. I suddenly felt buoyant.

Yesterday Dave worked and I got up and had breakfast at Cosmos down the block from his place. It is big on character but only seats 12 people at a little bar so I am not sure I am willing to go anymore. I like a leisurely breakfast. Then I caught the bus to centre-ville to Banana Republic. I tried on two arm loads of clothes, but in the end got nothing. There were about five things I liked, but I liked them all equally so nothing stood out enough to be taken.

I then ventured on down St-Catherine into the Village to pick up concert tickets at Le National. Dave really wants to see Neko Case so I got us two tickets. Then I noticed a poster for Andrew Bird and impulsively bought two tickets for that too. When I was in Iowa campaiging, every morning Glyn would turn on Andrew Bird to get us up and revved for a day of door knocking. Next I strolled up a row of vintage furnture stores and while I loved many, many things I did not love the prices. I think my attempt at frugality is getting better.

I was supposed to go out dancing for Lindsay's birthday Friday night and then again on Saturday for Paulette's birthday. In both instances I bailed to hangout with Dave. I have guilt from remembering being pissed with girls for doing this to me when I was single and yet I did it all the same time. Dave and I are going to move in together in July when our leases are up. We are going to start looking next weekend because you have to start early as everyone in Quebec moves on the same day. I am excited and nervous at the same time.

This coming week is March break at the CEGEP so I am going to work around 20 hours. I am going to take long slow breakfasts and then arrive whenever I feel like it. There will be no students to ask me questions so it should be very productive. I am going to leave when I like and go to yoga every day, except Tuesday, I do ballet on Tuesday. I am going to take Friday off and have a sweet ass three day weekend of apt hunting. Wish me luck.

All my love. Missing you all heaps.
Von Grudigen

Somebody's Got a Case of the Mondays....

2009-03-02T17:55:00.006-08:00

and that somebody is me.

It's not that there was anything particularly bad with my day. It went smoothly enough but it just felt long. Today was listed as -9 outside, BUT it felt like -18. I don't even know why they list -9 if it feels like -18. I tried to go for a lunch time walk to shake off my Monday but I was wearing a cute skirt with nylons and my kneecaps were not having any of it. I also forgot my scarf which meant my hood was all loosey-goosey and blowing off my head. I was cursing Montreal.

I did get some yoga in tonight though so I am feeling much calmer now. We did two new positions (aka new to me - nothing is really that new in yoga). This one is called The Cow which makes heaps of sense.

Now I am waiting for my curry to soften up. I put in chickpeas, green beans, cauliflower, onion, can of chopped toms, curry spices and coconut milk. I am going to have some couscous on the side.

Anybody read any Paul Auster? His New York Trilogy are his most famous works.

I am enjoying Notes from the Scriptorium. It's more engaging then I thought I'd be. I am not quite sure what is going on and neither is the main character. It's a nice puzzle I recommend you pick up.

a blog to wake up to

2009-02-28T06:43:00.004-08:00

As my readers are all on the West Coast (aka the best coast) I am writing this so that you have something to read upon waking. Yes, I really am that thoughtful.

Last night I left work at 4:30 (go me!) to head off to yoga but instead I came home and watched an episode of LOST. Chris came home as it was ending and informed me he had downloaded two more so it turned into a LOST marathon. I love how dramatic that show is. Not sure if there are any other LOST fans in the family???

I was feeling celebratorial as it was the end of nominations week so I had a couple of Tequila Sunrises during LOST and by the time I got to Dave's was a bit tipsy. We went to Burritoville for dinner, then bought some wine, rented The Dutchess and when we got back to his place I promptly crawled under the covers and passed out. See what a great girlfriend I am!

I blame this not on my ever weakening tolerance to the sauce but to the fact that I stayed up reading till 1am on Thursday night finishing Anna Karenina. Man, that is a good book. I think I will wait a few years before reading War and Peace. This morning I scanned Dave's shelves for something new and he recommended Paul Austre's Notes from the Scriptorium. I started on the metro back home and so far it looks good. I have a feeling it is more of a man's novel but it's a short read anyhow.

Dave had to work at 8am so I got up and went to the Patisserie/Boulangerie (bakery) down the street. I did all my ordering in french and I guess mocha doesn't mean the same thing cause she gave me an americano with hot milk on the side. I also got a croissant naturel. C'etait marvelous. Despite living in NDG this patisserie is very francais, as opposed to anglais ou quebecois. I think the bakers are from France cause their accents are so pretty. I read Match en francais and attempted to ease drop on the loud discussions between the baker and her regulars. Caught a fair bit of it if I do say so myself.

Now I am killing time before the 11:30 Hatha class at my yoga studio. After that I have to head down to the CEGEP because there is an all-candidates meeting for the elections. Tonight is Nuit Blanche (translation literally: white night, figuratively: all nighter). The buses and metro will go all night and so will the hordes of parties all over the city.

Bisous! Love you heaps and heaps. Missing you all, particularly seeing pictures of the wee one and knowing it will be a long time before I get to hold him (sniff sniff).

leggings and a long top - the montreal uniform

2009-02-26T09:28:00.003-08:00

I am sitting in the finance cubicle surrounded by the almost finished source deduction filings for the Union. On the brink of greatness my friends.

I am sipping on a petit French Vanilla coffee from Tim Hortons that is overtaking my system. It is the nomination period for the Union elections which always brings stress to another level.

Tonight I am going to a workshop put on my a group called Apathy is Boring. It's about using the web's social networking tools to better your organization's events. Hopefully it is good.

I went to ballet on Tuesday after skipping last week. It has been kinda hard cause I don't know what the teacher is saying so sometimes I feel foolish when everyone else gets it right and I am left all limbs a flailing. But on Tuesday the teacher came up next to me and whispered "do you understand what's going on?" which I responsed that I had no clue what she was saying so now she gives me pointers in English and the rest of the lesson went on splendidly. We got to run around the room at the end with our legs straight out in front on us kicking them in the air. We all felt ridiculous. It was awesome.

I went home after class and none of my roommates were home so I put on Beauty and the Beast in the living room and danced around in my ballet outfit to "Be Our Guest".

I am now on page 734 of Anna Karenina. Dark times. It's not going well for Anna.

I saw Slum Dog Millionare and I can't believe it won the Oscar. Slow year, man. It was fun but totally not Oscar worthy.

workin' for the weekend

2009-02-16T13:38:00.004-08:00

this was written yesterday but I forgot to post it.

__________

Today hasn't been the best Monday. I spent a large chunk of my day photocopying documents for the lawyer. Ugh!!! Now it is almost over and I am contemplating doing Yoga but I probably won't. I am going to try and go to bed early.

It's sad that today hasn't been going great cause I had a lovely weekend. I met Dave on Friday and we walked to his place. We celebrated Valentines on Friday cause he had to work at the crack of dawn Sunday. He bought a Spanish wine, rented VickyCristinaBarcelona (which I really liked) and we made paella. We were both very impressed with our paella. It was a great evening.

Saturday I hung out with my new roommate Meghan in the afternoon. We did some minor re-arranging to the living room and then I went out and bought a new shower curtain. It looks really good. I also got a new bathmat and, VOILA, the bathroom is re-born. Our old shower curtain was black and moldy and terrible.

Sunday morning I went to yoga and it was excellent. I was a bit of a doofus because I didn't always catch on to what other people were doing but the instructor seemed to find it funny and would shout out translations for me whenever I was really way off. After that I went for brunch with my friend Melanee. We gabbed for three hours. It's funny that we don't see more of each other considering how much we like to talk. Then Dave got off work and we finally went ice skating. It felt very Canadian of me. The pond by my house is free but the ice is pretty rough so I think next time we will try the top of Mont Royal or the Vieux Port.

I am now at page 557 of 800 in Anna Karenina. YEAH!!!!!