The Weekend Past...

It's been a busy weekend here in Ontario. Friday night was Sarah's concert at the church. It's always fun when Sarah shows up in Cobourg and this time she brought a friend, Shiona, with her. So Friday's concert was 2 sopranos (no, not those kind) and an accompaniest. They were fabulous, and then there was a post-concert party at Sarah's parent's house (The O's) where Sarah broke out someones (borrowed? stolen?) fiddle and graced us with some tunes.



Saturday morning, I went to the city to meet my old friend Kathi for lunch. Kathi and I were great friends when I was in college in Toronto years and years ago, but I lost touch with her. We meet at the Queen Mum for lunch at 1:30 and were still at the table laughing at 5. This could have continued for a while, but it started to rain, and I had to go check in to the Delta Chelsea and go out to the TFP meetup at Hernando's Hideaway. The usual TFP crowd showed up (Charlatan, Seige, Cellophanedeity, Fresnelly, Aberkok) and a new addition, Mantus, as well as some spouses. This meetup didn't go as long as the Christmas one only from 7 to 10:30-ish, but was great fun.










Fresnelly met me for brunch at Pappas Grill on the Danforth and then we went to a movie. He was one of the few TFP'ers free on Mother's Day, on account of the fact that his wife and infant son had left to fly to France the day before.

The Move is Complete!

Finally, at long last the endless (at times, it seemed like it was going to be) move has been completed. I took the last load of stuff from Owen Sound to Cobourg, in the middle of a howling rain storm yesterday (and of course, today is beautiful) and got it into storage. This is the last time that I will ever use a trailer, the jeep just really hates it. Next time I have to move (which will be Christmas) I'm using movers to do the schlepping.

Now I've got the TFP meetup this weekend in TO to look forward to and meeting up for lunch at the Queen Mum with my old friend Kathi from Centennial College. Haven't seen her in about 15 years, but got in touch again through the power of Google.

Here is a photo of Prince Rupert playing in the packing paper from the move:

Gromit Sees Canada (well, ok, the Eastern Part!)

Here is Gromit and I at the apt in St. John's prior to setting out on the great trek. We got off to a late start due to having to pack the jeep in the morning, rather than the night before (I don't trust my neighbours that much!), but got away by 10 to drive across Newfoundland. Here is a couple shots of Gromit on the road and taking in the view at Terra Nova Park.


After a long drive, Gromit made it to the night ferry at Port Aux Basques where he (and I) made an uneventful crossing to Cape Breton.
While driving through Cape Breton, we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, and gave two Comissionaires the highlight of their day (and probably their week).

Our next stop was my old shipmate Rigel's house in Sunnybrook, Nova Scotia. Gromit enjoyed watching Rigel re-leather his oars in his kitchen, and then he watched from the shore as Rigel, his wife Ariel, and I went for a nice sail in the inlet.

This is the Dory Shop in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where my friends Kim and Jill build dory's and sew sails, respectfully.

We left Nova Scotia behind and headed on to New Brunswick pausing now and again, so Gromit could stretch his legs and look at the scenery.

It was absolutely pouring all the way through Quebec, so we didn't get a chance to stop and look around, but headed straight on to Cobourg, Ontario, where my parents put up with us for the night, and Gromit was able to go for walk on the beach.
We left Cobourg behind and headed on to our final destination, Owen Sound. Since then Gromit and I have been busy emptying out our storage unit and moving things around, but we took time out for our traditional Saturday brunch at the GingerPress Bookstore and Cafe (shameless plug), where Gromit snuggled with MaryAnn, met the Mole Sisters and enjoyed a cup of Denise's java.

Boat Trip

Currently sitting in Rigel's Kitchen, where his wife and I unsuccessfully trying to talk him out of launching a major expedition in his newly launched boat. Rigel seems to go through life by the seat of his pants, but it's never dull. We think it would be a good idea to go as far as the end of the inlet, but he is busy packing up his charts and instruments and planning a trip out to Tancook Island.

I'm taking a bit of a break from the road trip, and accepting Rigel's generous hospitality and staying for 2 nights before taking off again. I'm still planning the next stage of things, and I'm thinking of going along the Gaspe, instead of going inland to Edmunston, like I did last time, although that might add some time to the trip.

While I'm here, I'd like to see Jill the sailmaker and see the recently restored St. John's Church.

In Nova Scotia

on the road in Newfoundland

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Who is that, prowling out of the fields! It is Izenkumon, hands clutching a jeweled meat hammer! And with a vengeful roar, his voice cometh:

"I'm going to reduce you to ash, and sell you as spice!"

What Is Your Battle Cry?

How To Bathe A Cat

1. Thoroughly clean the toilet.

2. Add the required amount of shampoo to the toilet water, and have both lids lifted.

3. Obtain the cat and soothe him while you carry him toward the bathroom.

4. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids (you may need to stand on the lid so that he cannot escape).

CAUTION: Do not get any part of your body too close to the edge, as his paws will be reaching out for any surface they find.

The cat will self-agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from your toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.

5. Flush the toilet three to four times. This provides a 'power wash and rinse' which I have found to be quite effective.

6. Have someone open the door to the outside and ensure that there are no people between the toilet and the outside door.

7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids.

8. The now clean cat will rocket out of the toilet, and run outside where he will dry himself.

Sir Paul visits New Finland

Waiting...

I'm waiting for the Rude Guy to come and look at the apartment. It's now 10 to 10 and he was supposed to be here at 9:30. This guy has pissed me off right from the get go. He calls me and leaves a number on my answering machine (which is a different number than my call display showed), so I returned his call. It rang and rang, no machine, so I hung up. He calls me back a couple of hours later.

Me: Hello?
Him: Who is this? You called my cell phone!
Me: you called me first and left the number. I've got an apartment for rent.
Him: mmmmm...Is this the apartment for rent?
Me: Yes, were you interested?
Him: I've got a client flying in next week and we want to see it, 9:30 Tuesday morning.
Me: OK.
Him: (hangs up)

Honestly, if I wasn't desparate to rent the place, I'd have told him to piss off with his rudeness. Who answers the phone with "who is this?"? and now it's almost 10 and they aren't here. You'd think (in a civilized society) that if you'd made an apt. for 9:30 and it was getting on to 10, you'd call and say that you were running late, right?
There's so much that I wanted to do today, starting with going out and getting some coffee, and it's a beautiful day too. This isn't getting it off to a good start.

Get FIREFOX!!

This blog is best viewed using the Firefox browser I just checked out how it looks using Internet Exploder and it's all centered on the page with my beautiful sidebar at the bottom. So stop using Internet Explorer, it's full of bugs and doesn't have nearly the amount of cool features, extensions and plug-ins that Firefox has. Having problems with Firefox? Drop me a line, I'll be glad to help.

I saw a new thread last night in the Tilted Forum Project about the Seal Hunt. For those of you not familiar with the TFP, it is the board where I spend a lot of my internet time hanging out, playing games and discussing things with other members. As usual with the seal hunt, some one seized on the graphic pictures of the cute baby seals, and started a very one-sided argument (and really wasn't looking for any other viewpoints - because he tried to bitch-slap me when I disagreed) about how cruel and un-necessary it all is. Now I don't profess to know all there is to know about the seal hunt, but I do know that people here in Newfoundland don't like being told how to run their business. For that matter, people anywhere don't like being told how to run their business. I do think that when rich and famous people with their multi-billionaire livestyles come into someplace like this and preach to people who are trying to earn a living without having to resort to government assistance they havent' gotten the whole picture.
To that end, CBC Newsworld is broadcasting the documentary "My Ancestors Were Rogues And Murderers" on Saturday night. I'm going to watch it, and I think everyone should as well. Thanks to Skylarkd for pointing it out to me.

On Moving...

Things I Will Miss About St. John’s

• The magnificent view from the top of Signal Hill


• Beer in my corner store, Funkman & Frogs


• Trinity Pub


• The Ship Inn


• Nautical Nellies


• India Beer (like I’m taking about 300 cases back to Ontario)


• Did I mention the view from Signal Hill?


• Cool old architecture


• Rupert and Jericho (even though they are my cats, this will be the last time I will live with them.)


• Memorial University (strange as it sounds)


• Being in the QEII @ MUN (especially the reading room on the 4th floor at the long tables looking over the edge)


• The Harbour (The Newfoundlanders haven’t felt any need to “reclaim” their waterfront like so many other cities have. These people understand the need for a wharf!)


• all the artists, and assorted cool folk who live here. Did I mention that I almost creamed some clown on a unicycle juggling batons who was coming down the Signal Hill Road as I was coming up?
  

Things I Won’t Miss About St. John’s

• Potholes


• Drivers (I’ve been in so many close calls since I’ve been driving here)


• The total absence of any snow clearing on Feild Street


• The delay to get mail from the mainland


• Being a CFA


• Memorial University

Why do I always buy Tortellini?

Why do I always buy Tortellini?

I bought a package of tortellini, in a moment of weakness the other day. Why do I keep buying that stuff? It just sits in the fridge for a week and then when I get around to making something with it, it always sucks. Which is kind of a pain, cause I’m a decent cook when I have a mind to be. Now that the tortellini disaster is over with, I’ve got a hankering to go to The Keg for a good steak. Maybe I’ll do that on the weekend…

2 Term papers are finished, and they were the big ones. I’ve been in full on stress mode for the past three days and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank C, H, and especially L for calming me down.

And I helped L set up her blogger page, with some HTML coding tricks which I sent over the IRC channel, to help her add some links to the template. That was my good deed for the week and made me feel pretty good about myself.

In the night kitchen

I'm actually in the library, being a beautiful Saturday and all.
Seriously, the sky is blue, the snow is melting, I think I may have heard a bird singing too. The snow is finally gone from the traffic island at Elizabeth and Allandale, which is great cause there are now 4 lanes again, rather than the 2 that we had to put up with all winter.
My goal today is to get that freaking Tech Comm paper finished once and for all. It's been hanging over my head all semester, honestly you'd think that at nearly 40, I could come to terms with my procrastination once and for all, and just accept it, but I don't. I'll probably still be putting things off at 70. That's a scary thought, "No, I'll oil the wheels on my chair tomorrow."
I've been thinking a lot about me and my life this week. It's kind of an offshoot of all that is going on in my life these days. The major players know who they are. I feel the beginnings of a mid-life crisis coming on. I'll have to sell the jeep and get a porsche. Although as D says, "We're having our mid-life crisis, dude. We're at University!"

Spirit of the West

So S calls me last night at 2320. I wasn't even home yet as I was having a beer or two in the Breezeway bar at MUN with Jason, the deaf guy from my Sociology class. I got home at about a quarter to 12, and she calls a minute later from Club One. I can barely hear her, but she reminds me that Spirit of the West was playing there. I'd only seen that today in The Muse, but I figured it would be sold out, and I was planning on going to Fat Cats anyway. But there were only about 100 people in Club One and Spirit of the West were fantastic!

Amazing Race Ticker

Omigod! mini post! but I've just found the most kick-ass thing for my blog. Scroll down the page and check out the Amazing Race Tracker in the sidebar!.

Day Two in the QEII

I'm in the library for the second day in a row. Why is it that I get work done here that I don't do at home? I'm not sure why, considering the only thing I'm missing here is the TV and the cats. I don't mind working here, they've got these nice long tables with great views over the courtyard, and I can plug in my laptop, connect throught the university wireless, and still do the daily stuff. The only down side to working here is I to take the bus, because I can't find a parking space at the University, and I'm not at home to play with the cats, so they are both waiting by the door when I get home. I've had the sneaking suspicion for the last couple of weeks, that Rupert has taken to sleeping on the stairs when I go out in the evenings. If I come in late at night, he is sitting on the stairs blinking his eyes like he just woke up.

I'm finally on the downward slope of my life at University, and feeling pretty upbeat about leaving Newfoundland. Let me get through the next couple of weeks and I will be good. I'll miss the good local music at Fat Cats, that cute little bar Trinity (which was packed on St. Patrick's Day) and that great view of the ocean from the top of Signal Hill. I drove up to Pouch Cove last weekend (just felt the need to get out of the city), and I'd like to drive over to Carbonear way and see the other side of the bay. Maybe I'll do that when C visits.

Speaking of C, she is the only person whom I've told about the TFP, that has bothered to go and sign up for it. Now that she has, she seems to be getting quite addicted to it. I spent about an hour on the phone with her last night, teaching her how to link photos, and how to get Chatzilla set up so she can chat with the rest of the crowd in the TFP channel.

I'm looking forward to getting settled down in Kingston finally once and for all. I've been perusing the housing market and have found a great little brick house in the city, that is in the right price range. It looks like it might be in the middle of the ghetto, but what the hell? The appeal of having a permanent address and finally my own place (where the landlord doesn't care if I poke holes in the walls [not that I have done here or anything]), so I can stop changing my addresses in my magazine subscriptions.

If St. John's is the new Prague, then Mt. Pearl must be the new Scarborough!

Last night I skipped out on the Academy Awards (for the first time in years) and went down to Roxxy's for the John Lennox farewell show. Man, what a hole! I did a Dana, and arrived so early, John was still doing sound checks. But all was not lost...I picked up an India beer and settled in for some Elliptical Pool with Darrell and John.
Elliptical Pool looks like something that Salvador Dali would have invented. Round pool table, about 4 feet in diameter with a honking big hole off center. There are 3 cue balls and an unlimited number of people can play. Balls have to be sunk using bank shots, and the person who sinks the last ball wins. It's kind of fun when you get used to it, but the balls tend to congregate at the edges of the table rather than in the middle, so you spend most of your time breaking up the clumps of balls. I managed to find this picture of an elliptical table on the i-net. The surrounding are much fancier than Roxxy's!

John's show was great as usual, and since I was taping the Oscars, I wasn't worried about missing anything major. Lauren Bacall did the Elizabeth Taylor thing this year. I just don't get the point of trotting out some once great actor, and making them make a spectacle of themselves on live tv. Aside from the Bacall show, this years Oscars were rather tame. The women's gowns were classy and understated (aside from Charlize Theron's massive bow), no one pulled a Halle Berry by bawling, and despite Ben Stiller's antics in the green unitard, most of the presentations went off well.

Food and Drink

After a little mix-up with the dates, Dana and Stu came over for dinner on Friday night. Just as well they did, because I had a whack of fondue and no one to share it with. I made Dragon Noodles and we had the Chocolate/Peanut Butter fondue for dessert. Now my fridge is full of pasta, pound cake and chocolate!

I've been cruising around on other people's blogs, and lifting clever bits of programming to stick in the side bar, to try to jazz up this space. So far, I've managed to get the site meter, and the graphical version (which I think is really cool - I mean, who in Churchill, Manitoba is checking out my blog?), I've got the webcam of downtown up and running (which is good, cause it has that view of the narrows that is blocked by The Rooms at my house), and now I've got some images of books and DVD's that I'm watching and reading.

Firefly is excellent, I don't know how I missed it when it came out. And the Space channel is running 2 hours of Angel everyday, so I can get my Joss Whedon fix.

Here as promised for Dana is the recipe for Dragon Noodles, and here is the link to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario website, so you can browse the recipes from past issues of Food and Drink.

Dragon Noodles

Infused Oil
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp very finely minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp crushed chili flakes
1 tsp dark sesame oil

Salad
1/2 black beans
1/2 lb capelli d'angelo
3-4 cups shredded cooked chicken
3-4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coriander
1 lime
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt


1. Heat Canola oil with garlic, ginger and chili flakes in a measuring cup in the microwave for 30-60 seconds until hot with rising bubbles. Stir in sesame oil. If using within a few hours, leave at room temperature, otherwise cover and refrigerate until needed.
2. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and refresh under cold running water until cooled
3. Combine drained pasta, cooked chicken, green onions, carrot and coriander in a large mixing bowl
4. Finely grate zest from lime and squeeze juice; stir zest and juice with sugar, soy sauce, and salt. Then whisk into infused oil. Pour over pasta mixture; toss from bottom of the bowl until ingredients are shiny and evenly mixed.
5. Covered and refrigerated, salad keeps well for a day or two.