Getting pampered

This weekend Saadia and I had a little pampering party. First we went to the Stillwater Spa for my favourite massage. Its not so much the massage I love but all the little extra details they offer. The massage table is heated, they wrap you up in a duvet, place a heated neck pillow under your head and another one over your eyes. Its almost as if you're back in the womb. Sooooo comforting. After our massages we went to the rooftop of Milestones for brunch to enjoy the great weather and then headed to Peony for manicures and pedicures. It was some much needed girl time with one of my favourite gals.

Saturday night Gerwyn and I had a few of his friends over for what was supposed to be a bbq. Unfortunately our bbq got rained out and we ended up just having a sit down dinner in the condo. Gerwyn made deeleecious grilled steaks, yam fries and asparagus.

Sunday I didn't have to go to Scarborough so we enjoyed our first lazy Sunday together. All in all, a very relaxing weekend. I also managed to run 5 laps around Queen's Park on Friday with Mahi. This was a new milestone and I hope to keep it up and get close to 10k by the end of the summer.

Weekend Update!

Unfortunately I don't have any actual pictures to post with my blog entry. I keep forgetting to take out my camera! So instead I'm using this "Google" image of Baby Back Ribs that I made this weekend. It was from the foodnetwork.com website (Tyler's Ultimate Ribs). The recipe was very easy and went well with Jamie Oliver's favourite coleslaw. However this is definitely a meal for special occasions as it was so rich and fatty but deeeleecious nonetheless. I ate four ribs and Gerwyn probably had about 20. Every time I would go to the bathroom or come back from the bedroom there would be one more missing. Luckily he eventually ran out of steam and I had two ribs left for lunch today.

The rest of the weekend was the perfect mix of busy and relaxing. Friday night the weather was gorgeous so I took the opportunity to go for a long jog to Harbourfront and back. It was beautiful and running by the water makes it go by so much quicker. Then Saadia stopped by for a quick visit and watched me rearrange some furniture. Saturday I woke up early and finished cleaning my condo and went to the market to pick up some cheeses for a few university friends (Trish, Kim and Saadia) I was having over for drinks before going out for dinner. Cheese trays are so sophisticated. At least I felt sophisticated putting it together. Sunday I got up early to visit Grams and played with Charlotte (she discovered my dimples and kept putting her finger in them,) before heading home to meet Gerwyn for our ribfest.

Tomorrow night Gerwyn and I are going to see Kings of Leon at the Air Canada Centre. I think this will be our first concert together. I don't know too much about them but I recently bought their cd so I could "study" before the concert. Yes, I'm a geek.

Lunch at the Mandarin

Sunday afternoon we decided to have one final family lunch before Sooky left for Stamford. We stopped by the cemetary to say hello to dad and then went for lunch at the Mandarin. Its been ages since I've been there and it didn't disappoint! Fried rice, chicken balls and onion rings! (Yes, I eat onion rings at a Chinese restaurant.)

I got to sit beside Charlotte and watch her stuff her face with noodles, rice, grapes and melon. She was so hungry she tried to open her banana by squeezing it as hard as she could and then swinging it back and forth. The banana technique didn't work but her food arrived and then she was happy.

Happy Easter!

Last weekend Sooky came home for Easter so we had an impromptu Easter lunch at my aunt and uncle's house. Everyone came, Carol brought cupcakes, my uncle made sushi and ordered the food. What more could we ask for? Highlights of the afternoon were watching Stephanie practically fall asleep while trying to devour an entire cupcake and then five minutes later screaming at the top of her lungs while chasing Michael around the house (you can always count on a little sugar rush to put the pep in your step!), watching my niece squeeze herself behind a chair in order to sit on my lap and eat my noodles, and watching Grams fight to stay awake and refuse to go to bed even though her head was too heavy for her to hold up. Another great family party!

Nothing to blog about...

Unfortunately I have had nothing to blog about lately. So instead I will show you what happens when I get really really hungry...

Silly me...

Yesterday's spa day was amazing. Susie and I spoiled ourselves with breakfast at Le Petit Dejeuner, then our body bakes and massages at Body Blitz and then a very late lunch at Le Select Bistro (it was a French themed food day). I felt very gluttonous but it was well worth it!

I guess after a day of relaxing, I was a little "off" at work today. I had updated my computer last week to protect against a Windows virus and I think it changed my computer clock. All day I kept thinking to myself "wow I must be working so hard because this day is just flying by!" When it was time to eat lunch, the clock said almost 3 pm. Then by the time 6pm hit, I got my coat and left for home. I was thinking what a great sunny day it was and how the "spring forward" time change really makes such a difference since it was SO bright at 6pm! I got home, played a few video games and then went to the gym. After my one hour workout, I came back up and my clock said 6:45. I thought to myself again, "oh the power must have gone out at home and all of my clocks are off". So I turned on the tv to confirm the time and I noticed the news was still on. Again I thought "how strange, this must be a very late news cast." When I changed to CP24, I finally realized that I was the one that was "off". I had totally walked out of work over an hour early and didn't even realize it. No one said anything, our office manager just said "bye" and that was it.

I feel a little guilty after coming back from a vacation day to leave "early" but hey, I definitely enjoyed my extra hour at home!!

Happy Birthday Sooz!

This weekend was Susie's 34th birthday. Susie has been my friend since we were 4 years old and I'm so happy that we are still so close and she is still one of my very best friends. We celebrated at her friend Hana and Grant's place. They made a delicious Japanese dinner and Josh and I provided the dessert. He made a chocolate cake and I made Williams Sonoma brownies using my new brownie pan. (See pic above) The pan is the shape of a large chocolate bar that you break apart once baked. They didn't turn out as good as I had hoped but everyone at the party seemed to enjoy them. The recipe from WS was very rich and chocolatey but a little too cakey for my liking. Thanks Carol for providing me with inspiration with that big huge slab of pure chocolate you gave me!

The rest of night was spent playing with Susie's new games, Lips (a singing game on the Xbox) and "The Big Taboo". Its like regular Taboo where you try to describe a word without using any of the taboo words but with additional challenges like having to draw the words or use "Bendy Bob" (a fuzzy purple character that actually comes with the game,) to act out the word. Everyone enjoyed Bendy Bob so much that we ended off the evening making up our own actions for Bendy Bob to re-enact.

Today I went to see grams in the morning and then had lunch with mom before coming home to do taxes (yeeech) and then try to make homemade calzones. I found whole wheat fresh dough at the supermarket and thought I would try to make mini panzerottos for lunch. They turned out to be not so mini (I stuffed them a bit too much,) and the dough didn't have enough salt so it was a bit bland. But will still make good lunches for the rest of the week. Then Mel and Norm stopped by to bring me a very pleasant surprise, Mel's homemade cupcakes. They were sooo good. I think even the best vanilla cupcakes I've ever had. Just as good as the Sweet Bliss vanilla. I ate two right away but managed to save 2 more for tomorrow. Thanks Mel!

Tomorrow Susie and I took the day off and are going to Body Blitz for a day of pampering. Body Blitz is a water therapies spa. They have 4 or 5 different pools (hot green tea, cold plunge, sea salt, plus wet and dry saunas) and you are supposed to do a circuit of each pool one after the other. In addition to the pools, we are both getting mud wraps and massages... makes Mondays not so bad afterall!

Ready to Eat!

Here's Charlotte before lunch on Sunday. She learned something new since the last time I saw her, how to say "cheese". Its hard to take a photo of her now without her making this face. As soon as she sees the camera she just turns it on, its hilarious.

A new invention...

Ok so its not really "new" but Gerwyn and I discovered our new favourite dessert: homemade chocolate chip cookies sandwiched around vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce... YUM!

Foodbabies

If you've watched the movie "Juno" then you're familiar with the "food baby". This phenomenon occurs when you eat so much that your belly sticks out far enough to be 4-6 months pregnant. I've experienced many food babies in my lifetime, in fact, I probably have a food baby at least once a day. Today my food baby was the result of Peter Street Deli's Lemon Chicken. Three deep fried chicken cutlets smothered in lemon sauce (or on side as I prefer it,) and served on a mile high pile of fried rice all for $5.85 (tax included). Its really enough for two full meals and luckily I managed to show enough restraint today to save enough for tomorrow's lunch.

It one of those meals that is so bad for you but just oh soooo goooood.