Meet Baby Milner

Tonight the girls and I went to meet the newest addition to our group, Eric Gallardo Milner. Weighing in at 5lbs 9oz, he's a little guy but I think he's got more hair than me. I haven't seen a baby that small in my life and seeing everything so miniature was just so adorable. I can't tell who he looks like yet (Ev's mom says he looks like Evelyn as a baby,) but I guess we'll find out in the upcoming months. Congrats Ev and Stu and welcome to the world little Eric!

To get Kahlua ready for the baby, Ev and Stu gave me one of the baby's first blankets to introduce to her tonight. I laid the blanket down on her bed and she's just been sniffing and rubbing it with her head. Its quite funny actually. She took a few licks and then went back to moving it around with her paws. Usually she "scratches" at her bed to get it "comfy" but this appears to be more like she's trying to get this blanket out of the way. Now she's managed to pull it to the side and expose her original blanket underneath. I think little Ms. Kahlua senses the competition already...

We went to the EX!

Tonight we met Gerwyn's friends Lawrence and his girlfriend at my favourite place, the CNE! After a harrowing parking situation, we finally go into the grounds and immediately went into the food building. First stop, TINY TOM's! Woo hoo, 3 dozen tiny, hot donuts later, Gerwyn bought a curried goat roti and I got a rib sampler. Deeelish. After that we finished off our donuts and bought a giant fresh Lemonade. I couldn't find the "tornado potato" (a whole potato cut into a swirl and put on a stick, then deep fried) nor did I have room for a funnel cake but I'll leave that for my next visit. Couldn't possibly fit everything into one day.

Where's "komo"?

Its been awhile since I've seen my niece and its amazing how much she's grown in only the few weeks its been since I've seen her. Her vocabulary is incredible and now she is at that age where she repeats everything you say. Today she said "crap". (Provided to her by her father. Nice.) After we ran around the house, I showed her my photos from Sally's wedding and we played the game "Where's Komo?" (komo is aunt in Korean). She did an amazing job. Every single one, she would drag her finger along the photo until she found me and then yell "KOMO!" (so happy!). It was a great game and one she wanted to play over and over which was fine by me. Anything to make sure she knows who her favourite aunt is.

Welcome Baby Milner!

Saturday some of my girlfriends and I threw our friend Evelyn and her husband Stuart a baby shower. It seems like only yesterday we were throwing her a wedding shower! This time the festivities were at Mary-Ann's. The food was plentiful and the kids were everywhere! Between Mae's 3, her friend Michelle's 3, plus a few stragglers, it seemed everywhere you looked someone was holding a baby. I guess we should all get used to this as any minute now there will be one more addition to the pack. After a fun night of festivities (and way too much food, Mel's Lindt chocolate cupcakes and tiramisu cupcakes were to die for,) Baby Milner decided it was time to make his/her big appearance. I got the official call at 8 am this morning but Ev's water officially broke sometime late last night after she got home. We were all so shocked as she is not even due until late September, but we can understand how he/she just wanted to get in all the fun.

Hope Evelyn's delivery was as easy as they can get. Can't wait to meet the new addition!

Look what came in the mail!

Wednesday we got our first shipment of wine from our Peller Estates Wine Club. It was very exciting to see the large box waiting for me and two shiny bottles all nicely bubblewrapped inside. Our two wines for this month are a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2008 Muscat. It came with tasting notes and recipes to match each wine. I'm excited to try them and even more excited to do an official "tasting" with friends. Now that Wednesday Night Dinners are on hold, I could use an excuse to host a dinner party.

A little wine anyone?

Barcelona Booked!

Just as I return from one trip, I now have my next trip booked! In three weeks, Gerwyn and I will be off to Barcelona for a week. Although I feel like I still need some recovery time to catch up on sleep from my Stamford va-cay, I'm SO excited to see Barcelona. I have heard so many great things and Spain is one country that I've always wanted to visit.

We managed to find a reasonable one week flight and hotel (at a 4-star, yay!) on itravel2000.com. Gerwyn's cousin works there so she helped us to book the trip. Although I could have booked it online, I feel just a little bit more secure knowing all of our plans were booked by a human. Technology is great, but sometimes its good to do things old school.

The countdown begins...

Back from Sister City!

Got back last night from visiting Sooky in Stamford. It was a nice trip with A LOT of shopping! I was worried I wouldn't make it when my flight was delayed but all turned out ok and I made it just in time to wolf down some black cod at Nobu, the fancy New York restaurant where I met Sooky and Carol for dinner.

The rest of the weekend was... you know.. shopping. As you can see from the photos above, we got a lot of loot! We went a little nuts at the Williams Sonoma outlet but when everything is 40% off, its hard to resist! After a trip to Anthropologie, my shopping spree was complete. The weekend flew by and before you knew it, we were loading the car (which was packed to the MAX) and made the long drive home. We managed to make it home in 9 hours and that was including a few pit stops. Carol is obviously a Pro at long distance driving.

Thanks for all the fun and games, can't wait to go back for more! (After my credit card recovers of course....)

The countdown to Woodbury...

This Friday I am going to meet my cousin Carol and my sister for a weekend of shopping. I have been looking forward to this shopping trip for awhile. I think because I finally have the opportunity to benefit from Carol's employee discount on outlet prices! Woo hoo! Now of course, I have a feeling I won't be able to find anything. That's always the way it goes...

This weekend I met Saads and Raju at the old Toba which is now called Pico. I had my reservations as nothing could compare to those fresh scones but I was very happy to discover that the menu and recipes are almost exactly the same. I enjoyed my currant scone and also my blt with egg and cheddar. Yum. After that I met Gerwyn in Thornhill to seek out my mom's "kalbi" supermarket. This is the one place that she said has good (meaning not too much fat and sensibly priced) korean ribs. G and I were both a bit nervous as we were going solely on my mom's directions (and the Korean name) but we managed to find it. Two packages of Kalbi later, we headed to Flight Centre to start planning our trip to Spain in September.

Later in the evening we went to Susie and Josh's "interim housewarming party". I say "interim" because they are in between houses right now while they fight with their home sellers over the title. Hopefully they will be in their "real" home soon! Sunday I visited with Grams and then met G to take a quick look at a prospective house (too bad it was a dud) and then went to dinner at Mill Street Brewery in the Distillery. Although we are busy looking for a new house and a new neighbourhood, I will truly miss being able to walk to the Distillery for a nice meal and then digest on the walk home. On our way home we reminisced about our first date as we passed the bench that we sat on to look at the stars on a similarly hot summer night.

Hopefully we won't end up moving too far away, I like that bench.

Tom and Sarita's Engagement Party

Sunday afternoon was a crazy day for weather. Gerwyn and I were going to his good friends' Tom and Sarita's engagement party but the morning started out with the heaviest thunderstorms we've ever seen. I thought the outdoor party would be ruined but as the hours passed, it turned to an extremely hot, but very sunny day. We got to the party where there were lovely tents and a bar waiting for us. It was the fanciest engagement party I've ever seen. The food was catered by Pusateri's (one of their daughter's is a bridesmaid) and it was very good. I tried to stay cool under the tents while Gerwyn partied it up with the rest of the bridal party (he is one of the groomsmen). Unfortunately the groom to be ended up having one too many celebratory shooters and ended the afternoon inside on the couch.

After the party we drove back in again another storm (the party ended at the perfect time,) and it was another crazy drive down the dvp. It just so happened that this day was the official start of the football season and we watched our first preseason game. It wasn't very interesting, but I have to say, I've grown so accustomed to watching the games that I find the theme song rather comforting. Looking forward to a great season, yaaaaaaay football!!

Buffalo!

Saturday some of my highschool friends and I decided to take a little trip down south for some shopping. Its been ages since I've been cross border shopping and to be honest I had very low expectations (esp compared to Woodbury!). I also have a trip to visit Sooky (and Woodbury) planned in a couple of weeks so I wanted to try to be a little responsible and not spend too much. Well, you know what happens when you go in not wanting to spend anything.... you spend! I think I bought something at almost every store. I just couldn't resist! Some exercise pants, some clothes from Target, a maxi dress from Banana, etc, etc, etc!

After a full day of shopping, we found a great wine bar (courtesy of Dora's blackberry!) called Third Street Wine Bar. We were starving and all their tapas share plates were deeleecious. A great end to a great day! Thanks ladies!