I can’t really get my thoughts together in any appropriate way-and we all know that Shannon will do a better job with pictures than I will-but we had a great time, a seriously wonderful time.
Until then, I leave you with this: infant sloth bellybutton. Nothing in the world is cuter than this.
Ari and I went on an overnight road trip to her Oma’s house to spend some final summer time with family. It was quite idyllic and Kathy’s homestead is wonderful. Ari’s cousins are always up for fun and Oma’s gotten her hands on a bunch of kid sized bikes for everyone, including Uncle Devon. I’m sure his arm wrestling compadres would love to see him on a teeny tiny bike ala Homer Simpson at Clown School.
I spent the afternoon wandering around The Ex. As always, I had a super time with my boss, looking for free stuff and testing weird machinery. We each had a fingernail pained with flowers and we ate stupid amounts of bad-for-you food. My boss especially loved the belly jiggling belt that makes the claim that 10 minutes of jiggling=600 sit ups. Riiiiight.
She said it tickled like mad and that she really, REALLY wants one for Christmas. I’ll pass that message on to Santa.
Then we went to a house party and I was the only person with visible tattoos (and potentially the only person with tattoos at all) and that’s always fun. I wasn’t going to stay at all but I was offered a beer so I stuck around for a few minutes. Then I walked home. Details, details.
Ok, so, not that I am in any position to give lessons on manners, but I have to say that speaking ill of a person who’s very recently died is in poor taste even if it’s a person you dislike immensely. Even if it’s a person you hate and that everyone knows you hate. All the more reason to shut the fuck up and keep it to yourself and be the good, decent, respectful, big person you really are capable of being.
I wish I had a picture of the happy couple, but a picture of a child who is happy to go to a wedding (and happier still about getting a brand new pretty dress to wear) will have to do:
Clearly practically bursting with glee. Anyway.
My old roommate Ryan O’Brian (and college pal, we go back to ’93 I believe) got married to his long time love Amber on Saturday. They did a flash-mob wedding at AGO, just told people to show up and had a woman…officiant?…marry them without making appointments, renting rooms, none of it. Then they rode off in a rickshaw back to their place, which is where we met them. After, the festivities were moved to Jet Fuel on Parliament. It was wonderful!
And, no offence to either bride or groom, my favourite part: I got to see Monty, Ryan’s elderly dog! He’s about 14 years old, which is remarkable for a dog of his descent, both Great Dane and German Shepherd. It’s funny to see him, when we lived together he was about 2 years old and was still very, VERY silly. Now he’s deaf as a post and pretty feeble by all accounts, although he seems happy and enjoyed being around all the guests. I had high hopes that he’d sniff my hand and fall to pieces with joy about his long lost friend, but no, the old sniffer didn’t recognize me at all!
Apologies to Monty, I don’t have a ‘dog’ tag. I am pretty sure he doesn’t mind being filed under ‘kitty’…
We just got home from a quick vacation before Shannon’s surgery leaves him (potentially) incapacitated. We drove up to Ottawa, spent the night in a fun hotel with an indoor waterslide with Shannon’s brother, sister-in-law and their 3 kids in the next room. The next night Ari stayed with her cousins at their newly re-built (and beautiful) old/new home and we stayed at an uber swank hotel way up on the 23rd floor with a gorgeous view of Ottawa. Wednesday the three of us drove up to Lake Dore and swam at the same beach we went to last year. Then drove to Belleville, staying at the Ramada with the super good waterslide for 2 nights and doing some exploring of secret beaches with ghostly light houses on the county.
I went to my first Jay’s game of the season last night-they played Baltimore and lost 7-5. It was still a good game, mostly I am bored by baseball, but it is smattered with excitement and that’s what keeps me awake. That and my satellite radio-I had Howard Stern blabbing in my ear for most of it. The cool part last night was they had a big do for the players of the 92 and 93 seasons when they won the pennant in back to back years. Of course, that meant the game ran long and I didn’t get home til almost 11.30pm…
It was fun.
Me and my boss up in the nose bleeds. Not a terribly flattering picture of either of us, haha!
Have I ever mentioned how much I love the CN Tower at night? Someone was making fun of it the other day (calling it the phallus or something) but I don’t care, when you are standing right below it, it looks awesome, especially all lit up.
It seems, in hot weather, I let a lot of things slide. Don’t worry, Treyci and Jana, I haven’t forgotten about you or your acorns. Largely, they’re done, I just need more caps-which seems to be a problem right now. There are lots of things I’ve been meaning to blog about and now’s as good a time as any. Right?
1 My Hair. People still want to know how it’s going, and it’s still great. No shampoo since December and it looks super. My hair regimen goes like this: Sunday morning, I brush my hair out and then hop into a shower, rinse, use conditioner (Suave is the cheapest no-cone one I can find) and rinse with cold water. Then I squeeze as much water out of it as I can and wrap it in a microfiber towel for half an hour to soak up whatever is left. Don’t worry, it’s still really wet after that. Then I use a squirt of Badur’s vegan leave-in conditioner (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE). And I scrunch my hair to encourage curliness and that’s it. Mid week, like, Thursday, I often rinse again, but don’t condition, and use the leave-in. My hair is getting crazy long, it’s almost to my waist when wet. I am kind of dying for a hair cut but I’m scared to see a stylist who’s all hung up on washing the shit out of it and wrecking my 6+ months of no ‘poo.
2 Punk Medics. So, Badur generously gave me 2 big bottles of his new bath products line in the hopes that I would write a kind review. Well, it took me long enough, eh? It’s super great stuff, both the leave-in and the Body Wash. Took me a bit to wrap my head around using products with no perfumes in them, but now I am a convert. The body wash is so nice, it’s soft and makes your skin feel super clean. And I will only use that leave-in from now on. And vegan? Yes please!
3 Ha ha. Yesterday we were stopped at a red light beside this red Viper that took off like a bat out of hell when the light turned green. Shannon was in the middle of saying how dollar for dollar that car is the best deal out there when a police car pulled him over. I guess the cop was hidden behind the big old truck. We all had a good laugh.
4 Sprinkle city. Ari and her good pal Cassie (“It’s short for Cassandra!”) love ice cream and they especially love ice cream that’s been encrusted with sprinkles. Shannon found this vat at the grocery store and I can’t wait to see Ari’s face when she sees it. Pure joy.
5 And the rest. I found the goat milk yogurt I’ve been looking for since I was in Montreal. It’s by Liberty and it’s so intense, sour and delicious. I might turn it into cheese. I also found a pop that I like and that Shannon does not like so I am guaranteed a glass of it when I want it. Our space is getting hot and I think it’s time to invest in a couple more tarps to cover the sun intensifying windows. We’ve loaned our main space to the girls next door who are aerial acrobats, they’ve hung a giant chandelier and have been doing their stuff….Any questions?
ps 2 more things-I made Shannon’s favourite summer salad (the chickpea, pasta, dill, lemon, feta one) and I am planning on making this pizza for dinner with a few substitutions…heck yesss!
Aka “Yoin us!”
Shannon already posted about it so my blog entry about our Cuba trip will be slightly different:
I loved it there. It’s nothing like Mexico, but it’s beautiful-tropical and lush. We met lots of animals, including goats, kitties, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, lizards and millions-nay, billions-of mosquitos. If you do go, pack bug spray and use it liberally.
That lady dog is not dead, she’s resting. It’s hot in Cuba and there seem to be millions of these funny little dogs, terrier sort of things with stubby legs. This gal was taller than most and had a proper tail, which is also rare. The lizard is a blue anole, they’re everywhere. The kitties are all from the resort, a feral bunch who know how to use the little fellas to win over resort-goers hearts and food. Despite the signs asking people to not feed them. They’re a pack of skinnies and one morning I found out what they eat other than buffet-lizards. Yum.
Everywhere you drive in Cuba are roadside signs promoting government…business.
Seriously, I had so much fun. Thanks a million to Shannon, Saira and Michael. It’s weird that I will forever associate this lovely country with the death of MJ.
This sign in the washroom of Whole Foods made me laugh.
I picture someone just…standing inside the washroom and getting bashed by another person in a hurry and then complaining to management. “There should be a sign, warning people about the hazard of standing near a door!” Ay. What has this world come to?
Anyway, it’s the end of the week and tonight, hopefully, I get to see The Hangover with my boss. Seems like lately we make plans and they get broken but I am trying to stay positive. Gym too-I do 30 minutes on the bike nowadays and burn about 700 cal. Or so the digital readout says, ultimately, it probably means nothing, but I do sweat my arse off.
It’s been a good week-2 exciting things last Saturday: my old friend Michelle finally had her baby Ruby Blythe 2 weeks late. It had become a running joke on facebook but there were people pushing her to be induced, which is insane (someone actually told her to just go to emerg and claim that she was worried about the baby and they’d just do it). Ugh. I kept my mouth shut as best I could, but really, stupid people like that…and she’s got 3 kids. The other excitement was my girlfriend Libs got married to her long term boyfriend Hugh, with whom she has an almost 3 year old. Yes, another finally.
Ari leaves for summer vacation today but is spending the day playing with her new best pal from next door. I walked past them as they were doing something and Ari says “We’re talking in funny voices!” And her friend says “MEOW!” Something about kitties…this is how a kitty eats, this is how a kitty walks, this is how a kitty…
An old friend gave me this shirt a million years ago. I’ve never worn it but I’m also not able to get rid of it. A close up:
Black Sabbath World Tour 1978. I was 6. It’s a pretty sweet shirt with micromesh sleeves.
I think if I had to pick a Canadian city to live in, I’d pick Montreal. It’s beautiful, cultured, the people are polite and friendly, the art galleries are free and there are tons of green parks. I didn’t have one bad meal there and you can buy beer and wine at the corner stores.
In other words, it’s very civilized.
My first day there we (we meaning me, my sister and three of her friends from assorted corners of Canada) all went out to do a little retail therapy. The apartment we rented was great, on a side street on the end of an amazing area, lots of independent retailers and restaurants, bars and deppaneurs. We stopped for lunch and I ate (almost) poutine. Some stores made me laugh:
And I bought nothing. We came home due to excessive tiredness.
Wednesday we all trouped out to Old Montreal to visit Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal. I know, maybe it’s hypocritical of me, but it truly is an amazing piece of architecture, full of beautiful paintings, sculpture and stained glass:
Then we went through the side streets and looked at street artists work and wound up at the infamous Foufounes Electriques, which I thought was a full on punk rock bar, but seems to be a disco in it’s off times. And was originally a gay bar. Go figure. It was cool, sort of like Dee’s with less grafitti and more art. I ended up heading home early, on my own, that night. I couldn’t take one more minute of sitting on a smoky patio. Ugh. Smoking.
I also bought my CJ bling that day.
The next day my sister and I went out alone to see The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, particularly to see the John Lennon/Yoko Ono show. It was so good, both Megan and I getting totally choked up in the first room. The show is split into a bunch of small rooms, each with a different theme, all with music, video, art, it was truly amazing. And because we went mid week, there weren’t tons of people jostling for a spot to see everything. AND the museum is FREE. FREE, Torontonians, can you even imagine that??? The room with the stamps (interactively, you’re supposed to stamp them on the maps provided) also has a phone that Yoko calls every day, just to check in. I would have DIED of happiness if I’d been the one to answer it. Just so long as she doesn’t sing. I also took a couple pictures of displays there illicitly. Oops.
Next day we all went to the village (read ‘gay’) for brunch and more stomping around. Megs and I went to the Insectarium in the afternoon and had a great time there too. Who’da thunk that bugs would be so cool? Yeah, maybe I am not such a huge fan of them crawling around in my house, but it was a great museum. Small enough to bring kids without them getting bored quickly. It’s attached to a botanical garden so we took the (also FREE-or perhaps included in the cover) mini-train around the whole thing and wound up in the Japanese garden where I took, oh, a thousand pictures of the fish there. Have I mentioned before how much I love fish?
That was the last day-the next morning we caught a cab at 5am.
A million thanks to Shannon who paid for the trip for my birthday!
