Touring the city...

This weekend Gerwyn and I spent a lot of time walking around the city. When you think about it, people always spend so much time walking around exploring when they're on vacation but you rarely do it in your own city. So this weekend Gerwyn and I decided to take a walk.

We started on Friday night after watching "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" at the Scotiabank theatre. We walked home just after midnight and made a few pit stops a long the way. The first one was Burrito Boyz on Adelaide. Its interesting to see all the clubbers (drunk clubbers at that,) out on the streets when you're not one of them. As we were waiting in line with all the other drunks, what do you know, but a fight breaks out between two guys in line. How come drunk guys just can't get along? Luckily they had just called our number and we quickly grabbed our burrito and got out of there.
On the way home, we found a very secluded little botanical garden which we stopped at to take a closer look. I've walked home a thousand times and never noticed that garden. It had a little waterfall, a walkway and a balcony where you can look at the stars. Very romantic to say the least.

Saturday we decided we would continue our tour of the city (esp since the TTC was on strike) by walking to the Eaton Centre and then heading down Queen St. to our dinner reservation at Dhaba on King. We did a quick run through of the mall and then headed down Queen. We stopped at Noise so Gerwyn could check out the skateboards (yes, he's planning on getting a skateboard this summer... ) and then continued to the theatre to pick up our tickets for Harold and Kumar before heading to the restaurant. After dinner, we decided to kill some time at Chapter's. We each picked up a couple of books (cooking books for me, history books for Gerwyn) and found a little spot by the window to get comfortable. After about an hour, we had our fill of the books and went to our movie. Sad to say, but the sequel to Harold and Kumar was a little disappointing. There were a couple of laugh out loud scenes but overall, definitely rental material. After the movie, we re-traced our steps from the night before by walking home along Adelaide again. This time, no pitstops.

Sunday, I visited Grams and spent some time with my niece. She's finally growing (vertically for a change!) but her body still hasn't quite caught up with her head yet. What can I say, big brains run in our family... Also, she's got a nasty case of eczema, her poor little face already has a few scars from her scratching. Luckily she didn't forget me and didn't cry when I held her. We played with a few toys, tried to walk around the living room and watched some Mole Sisters on Treehouse. All in all, a very busy afternoon for a 3 month old and a 32 year old. I ended up taking a two hour nap when I eventually got back to the condo.

Tax Time!

This is the very first year that I've filed my taxes on time. Taxes are always such a pain for me. Don't get me wrong, my taxes are never complicated, I just hate doing them. Usually I leave it until well after taxes are due and then I'm scrambling to find tax software (they never seem to sell it after April?). Well this year, I saw Quicktax at Costco during one of my shopping sprees with Ev and I decided to get an early start. Of course, I left the actual filling out of the forms until today but at least I still made the deadline.

Feels good to check that one off the to do list!

My cubicle

Since I spend so much time at work, I thought I would share with my fellow bloggers what my "cubicle" looks like. Its a bit messy and has been referred to as a "dungeon" due to its darkness, but it works for me!

Here comes summer!

As the first sunny (and warm) weekend of the year, I was very excited to spend it outdoors! After the super humid hot sun of Cuba, I welcome the cool breezy sun of Toronto. It was a gorgeous weekend and I'm happy to report I spent most of it outdoors.

Friday night I went over to Saadia's for a bbq. My first of the season! Can't wait until I can hit my rooftop patio but it was nice to enjoy Saadia's brand new super 'cue. It was a monster. Four burners and all kinds of doo-hickeys on the side. We had homemade burgers with sweet potato chips and strawberry crepes for dessert. Unfortunately as usual, by the time I got to dessert, I was too full to really enjoy it. (Although she did convince me to try the "salba" she's been eating lately. I didn't notice anything though.)

Later in the evening Gerwyn came over and we took a long walk around the city. All the way up to Dundas Square and then back home. Unfortunately Gerwyn was wearing new running shoes and by the time he got home he was deep into the "new shoe syndrome". We spent the rest of the evening on the couch watching "No Country for Old Men.". (I would tell you how it was but I fell asleep.)

Saturday we had omelettes for breakfast and then met his usual gang for a walk in... Kensington. It was a gorgeous day and we sat out on a patio for a bit before picking up some coffee beans and walking home along Queen St. We stopped for dinner at the Hooter's rooftop patio and eventually (due to another bout of new shoe syndrome,) took a cab home. Then we took a little nap and decided to go for another walk around 9 pm. This time we ended up at Marche where Gerwyn had a little "snack" and I picked up some dessert to bring to my mom the next day. Its so nice to just be able to "stop in" at Marche, I remember when going there was a special occasion. I'd get all dressed up and my cousin would usually take me. Now I love that we can go there whenever we want.

Today, I did the usual, went to visit Grams in the morning followed by lunch at mom's and now back home for a quick workout at the gym. (Although the food may not have been great, I seem to have picked up a few pounds in Cuba.) Then, if weather still permits, I'll be heading out for a movie with Gervinder.

All in all, a great start to the summer!!

Dinner at S&J's

Last night I had dinner at Susie and Josh's place with Mahi. Susie is a lucky lady because she ended up marrying someone who loves to cook! And boy, he didn't disappoint last night. He made an amazingly tender beef tenderloin, sauteed asparagus and a stuffed pepper with mushrooms and breadcrumbs. It was all so tasty! Even the salad was fantastic (and I hate salad.) I had two helpings!

As usual Mahi cracked us up with his stories about single life and commuting. However seeing as how he will be moving into his own place in a couple of weeks, I'm sure things will change and hopefully we'll get to see more of him (since he won't have to worry about the 2 hour commute!). After finishing the dinner off with some lovely "bailey's" hot chocolate, we headed for the streetcar. I feel like I still haven't fully caught up on sleep yet, so I seem to be tired all the time. I'm looking forward to some major vegging out this weekend. Just laundry and some time with the family and my niece.

Did anyone call a plumber?

Today I made a breakthrough. As many of you know, I have had a clogged sink for over a month now. I tried all strengths of Liquid Plumr and various other sink uncloggers but to no avail. Nothing worked. A few weeks back I finally bought something called an "auger" from Canadian Tire. But its a bit of an intimidating looking thing so it sat under my sink for the last little while.

When I got home today, I looked at my filthy sink and decided I couldn't take it anymore, I had to give it a shot. So I put on my best plumber-wear and took apart my sink to try to get that "auger" down the pipe. After about a half hour of figuring out how to operate the thing, I finally saw a little "bloop bloop" in the water and all of a sudden the clog cleared. After I brought the auger back up, there was a small clump of black gook which personally I couldn't believe was enough to clog a sink but what do I know, which I cleared away and then it was all systems go! The sink was clear, yahooooo! After almost two months of using the guest bathroom, I finally have my ensuite back!! I feel so accomplished.

So, anyone need a plumber?

Cuba Libre!

Arrived back from Havana last night. I'm exhausted! I usually like to have a day off before going back to work but since I left the booking up to Gerwyn, we ended up arriving at 1:00 am and had to go back to work today. It was a rough morning I'll say. But I was very happy to wake up to a bright sunny and non-snowy day. After 7 days of 30 degrees and lots of sun, I welcome the cool breeze of Toronto.

Here's a quick recap of the trip: we stayed at the Blau Arenal, a 3 star resort about 30 mins from Havana. We booked that resort specifically for the free daily shuttle to Havana and boy was it worth it. Havana is absolutely gorgeous. Such character and so much history. To me, it was like the Paris of the Caribbean. The architecture was unbelievable and of course, the weather was H.O.T!! The beach at our resort was perfect, lots of sand and clear blue water. The resort itself was... well a 3 star to say the least. But as I said, we booked it for its proximity to the city and it didn't disappoint in that respect. I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a high standard for cleanliness though. But after a few days, we settled in and it felt like home. It was nice to have a quiet place to relax after a busy day in the city. And we ended up meeting a lot of great guests. Our last night was spent getting drunk with a couple of Norweigans, Germans, fellow Canucks and an English bloke who had me in stitches. We asked him if he knew Stuart Milner but unfortunately, no. But Ev, you can tell Stuart that Brian O'Donnell from London says hello! He taught me some great new English terms, unfortunately I seem to have forgotten them already. That's what happens after 3 or 4 Cuba Libres. It was quite interesting and very cool to see all these people, some who could barely speak English, all communicate together. Sometimes we had to act words out, but you know me and Charades, it was like my dream come true!
After a week of "couple-time", I could tell Gerwyn was craving a little "party-time", we both managed to be the last ones standing and ended the evening around 2:30 am.

Gerwyn smoked cigars like a chimney and practically lived in the sea salt water for as long as he could. We both managed to get partial sun burns, mine is especially odd areas as usual. My body looks like I was in a crazy fist fight. Black spots everywhere.

All in all a relatively relaxing, very interesting vacation. We didn't bring back too many souvenirs, I bought a painting, Gerwyn bought cigars, but we have plenty of memories (and over 500 photos) to remember the trip.

Its nice to finally be home. I didn't realize what a luxury it was to have a toilet that can flush paper and water you can drink from the tap. I'm looking forward to crawling into my own bed tonight!

Havana, here we come!

Its Sunday night and I'm just putting together the last of my things for my trip. I did most of the packing yesterday since Gerwyn had to take my luggage with him so hopefully I didn't leave anything out. Tonight I'm just packing the carry-on.

Yesterday we spent the day in... can you guess??? Kensington! It was a gorgeous day and perfect for an afternoon (or an hour) on a patio. We met Gerwyn's friends Victor and Tina and spend the afternoon basically pigging out. We did the same circuit as last weekend, empanadas, empalvaldos (this time, G and I each had TWO) and beef patties... YUM! If we keep this up, I'm definitely gaining 10 pounds this summer!

We ended the evening with a nice walk back to the condo with a few stops on Queen to do a little shopping on the way. (We also saw these two guys in a fist fight on the street, I've never seen a real fight before, it was very frightening. Luckily it broke up just as soon as it started. You never know what to do in those situations, call the police, try to stop it, walk away?)

After we got home, we made dinner (yes, more food) and then watched a movie "El Matador". I don't think I got it (might have something to do with the little nap I took during the movie,) but Gerwyn thought it was great.

I probably won't be able to blog while I'm away, but I'll miss my bloggerbuddies, I hope you have a great week and can't wait to catch up when I get back!!

Chocoholics Alert!

Also thought I'd post my dinner menu for tomorrow night. I was planning on making a traditional lasagna but Gerwyn suggested I try a recipe that he watched on Giada's show for Lasagna Rolls with ricotta, spinach and proscuitto. It was relatively easy and an interesting twist to the traditional lasagna. You put the filling inside each noodle and roll it up instead of doing the traditional layers. It also uses bechamel sauce in addition to the regular marinara. I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow.

I'm most excited about my dessert. Due to the addition of BraceFace (aka Sally) at the dinner table, I've had to rethink my menus so they are "soft" enough for the orally challenged. So this time I decided to make Chocolate Mousse. It looks easy to make and I've never done it before so I thought it would be a good addition to the menu. Turns out its not as easy as I thought (there's egg yolk cooking over a double boiler involved,) but the results are WELL worth it. Man, was it GOOD! It took every ounce of willpower to not eat the entire bowlful right then and there. This is definitely a recipe I'm going to make again. In case anyone was wondering I got the recipe off of allrecipes.com. Its called "heavenly chocolate mousse" and it definitely lived up to its name.

Getting ready for Cuba..

Tonight in addition to prepping for WND tomorrow, I've started to think about what to pack for Cuba. Gerwyn already called to give me the "don't overpack" warning, but hey, what would I be if not prepared??? And its not like going on vacation with the "girls" when you know if you forget something, someone else will probably have it. This is vacation with a BOY, they never remember to bring the important stuff like sunscreen, aloe, and DRUGS! Packing the allergy meds, gravol, immodium and tums. I'm such an old lady!! But better safe than sorry, especially when travelling to a third world country.

I'm starting to get excited about my vacation, especially since work has started to get a bit stressful. I know, since when has my job ever been stressful?? But when you're in a small company with no "rules", everything is chaos and decisions are made on the fly so things change a lot. The perfect time to take off to sunny Havana I say. After all this crazy Toronto weather, I can't wait to catch a few rays!!! And you know that after being in hibernation for what feels like years, all my summer clothes must come with me... so what if I don't wear all 7 bikinis, variety is the spice of life right???!

Cuba, here we come...