03/7/2011



2 notes

Text

extra loooong canada day weekend

i’ve been on vacation since last tuesday evening. and as we’re nearing the end of our july long weekend, i’m wishing for just one more day off.

it’s been a fun pack five days.

some best friends, ada and hoa, stopped by tuesday night for dinner - they were on their way from vancouver to welland for the dragon boat nationals. ada happened to have a lecture at UofT (btw, it’s so cool to have a friend who does university lectures - i wonder if one of these days, i can attend? how wicked would that be?)

that was the kickstart of mine’s and chaeli’s long-long-extended-weekend. doug had to work on the thursday but was able to get off early so we could go for the dog park and consume yummy sushi and japanese food at our favourite korean-run-japanese restaurant. it’s the best of two worlds - we get both kimchi and sushi.

the rest of our mini-vacation included chinese lunch with my parents, two trips to the dog park down at the beach, another dog park out west plus yet another one up north, lots of ice cream, swinning at my parents’ community centre (well, doug and chaeli went swimming - i use to go when it was salt water, but now they’ve added chemicals and i’m allergic to that), bbq steaks at my parents’ place, movies on netflix, fireworks, picnics at the beach and lots of sunshine!

we only bummed around thursday morning - since doug was at work.

the highlight was visiting fort york on canada day (free admission for that day only) which is a historical site the british built for protection from the invasion of americans in 1813. this site was what started the progression of our city. i hadn’t been back to it since my grade six 3-day trip. all i remember was dressing up in period costume, eating food made like it was made back in the early 1800’s and sleeping in the bunkers where the soldiers use to sleep.

kind of creepy when you think about it.

chaeli had a blast - especially as there were some special events during that day. one of my fave was actually a shadow puppet put on by a performing arts community of the first nations. the music had a spell on me - quite powerful and beautiful.


front gates of fort york with toronto in the backdrop


flag raising ceremony


chaeli helping out in the kitchen


rifle demonstration


view from inside a window in the mess building

Tagged: bliss, day trips, family, friends, hobbes, parenting, photography, solitude, .

30/5/2011



Text

guilty pleasures no. 36

filet-o-fish

Filetfish

it’s my fast-food comfort food. one that i can’t have often but when i do, i savour every single bite of it.

but… it’s not just the taste of the soft, flakey, white centre or how the breaded batter gives you that delicious crispy texture on the edges (especially from the four corners). this mc d’s creation holds a lot of memories for me.

for one, it was my grandmother’s (my pwo-pwo’s) favourite item whenever we picked up some mc donald’s. and from her, it became a favourite of mine. each time i bite into one of these babies, i always remember her.

secondly, it reminds me of my best friend… ada and i even have had email conversations about the love of the filet-o-fish.

the last one was about the cheese - how it should be a full process slice rather then the half. i complained that it’s rarely positioned in the middle and usually askewed to one side. she claims that it’s really just a bonding agent to hold it all together.

she could be right. i’ve made a point on my to-do list to email the corporation and inquire exactly what the purpose of making the slice only 1/2. and why, at the least, can’t they centre it so that there’s a better distribution of cheese throughout the sandwich.

but whatever the answer may be, i will forever be faithful to the filet-o-fish.

[previous guilty pleasures]

Tagged: bliss, family, friends, geek, .

16/5/2011



Text

little shadows

after reading my friend’s post about how one of her twins followed her into the powder room when she went to quickly wash her hands - only not realizng she had a little follower present - and she had closed the door when she left not realizing that her little one was trapped in the room (found quickly by her husband, though), i’m reminded of a similar situation.

it wasn’t with chaeli, but with hobbes.

when we first adopted him into our lives, he was very clingly. we couldn’t walk anywhere in the house without him following directly behind us.

one day, i was rushing around the house doing choirs. doug was home and i just assumed that hobbes was with him as at one point, i realized i hadn’t seen the little pup in awhile.

but to double check, i called down to doug, who was in the basement at the time, “hey - have you see hobbes? is he with you?”

expecting doug to say ‘yes’ i was a bit surprised when doug replied back, “no - i thought he was with you.”

so we quickly went around the house calling and whistling for the little pup, all the while, wondering exactly what sort of trouble he’s gotten himself into. then i heard doug laughing from the laundry room followed by, “found him!”

apparently, he had quickly followed me into that room. when i left, i had closed the door as i usually do, leaving poor, wee hobbes all alone. he might have whimpered but the washing machine droned out his sound.

oops.

anyway, this friday, hobbes turns one. my aunt wants to have a little family party for him which should be interesting. i remember we were made to stand around her dining table to sing happy birthday to their shihtzu who, sitting at the end of the table, just looked around the room all confused as if to say, “why the hell are they all staring at me and singing that god-awful song?”

i love hobbes. but i don’t know if i want to sing to a dog. again.

Tagged: family, friends, hobbes, parenting, .

10/5/2011



Text

zoo, pee-stain and mother’s day

this past weekend was probably one of the more busier mother’s day weekend. but lots of fun!

saturday, t&t plus their twin toddlers, m&e, came over to drop off their dog, cowboy, for a playdate with hobbes. while we left the two to fend for themselves, the two families went to the zoo - something we ourselves, have not done for a year now. we renewed our membership when we got there and was happy to see that t&t decided to purchase a year’s membership as well - hopefully this means more zoo outings with them! and a chance for cowboy to get use to our place. i felt bad for him - he was left with a crazy spaz of a dog in an unfamiliar place. however… when we got home, the house was left as it was and the two dogs were fine.

well, doug picked cowboy up before taking him out for a piddle and got a little pee stain on his shirt. but doug should have known better. :)

the twins had a great time! it’s a cool age to watch them recognize so much - they spent a lot of their time pointing at the various animals they saw.

chaeli had a good time as well. though i think she was interested more in the twins then the animals.

after spending a couple of hours there, we all headed back to our place for some cold beer and a simple antipasto platter i quickly assembled. then doug got working on the grill to make us some delicious marinated chicken thighs and various types of italian sausages.

on sunday, i woke up fairly early to get my breakfast in bed. after that, the race was on for me. i had to do some grocery shopping for the week as well as get things ready for my parents’ place. unfortunately, i didn’t get much me-time but it was a good day none-the-less.

i’ll make up for it this weekend - other then a doggie playdate we’ve got lined up (depending on weather), we have no other plans. hopefully, we’ll have time to go see thor.

Tagged: bliss, family, friends, .

25/4/2011



Text

first e-book purchase, easter feast and sunday dog park

i know - what a weird thing to get excited about. especially since i’m probably one of the last on earth to have purchased a novel in it’s digital format. and it’s not that i’ve never read a digital book - i’ve gotten several from the library in the past but at the time, i had to read it on my computer. which wasn’t exactly mobile. and this is my first purchase - through kindle-amazon, to be exact.

but still, i’m happy. happy to have discovered that it was $5 cheaper then the print version, happy to have it available on my ipad, happy to support the earth by going paperless in one more area and happy to be reading a novel by an author with mad writing skills.

so yesterday, i downloaded alice munro’s too much happiness and was able to start reading it last night. i mentioned in my previous post that reading was one thing i really missed and am hoping to bring back. the last time i finished a book was sometime last july/august.

as for the rest of the weekend (and no, the above was certainly not the highlight), it went very well.

friday was rainy and uneventful. but the rain couldn’t have come at a better time as i spent all day indoor to clean and prepare any food preparations for the next day (at least anything i could make ahead of time). doug had to work but as it was a holiday, it wasn’t very busy. he started work at 6am and was able to be home not too long after 2pm. i was so tired by the end of the day - while chaeli and doug stayed up to watch a movie, i fell asleep around 10pm (not too long after they inserted the dvd).

saturday was busy - there were a lot of cooking and setting up the table and giving chaeli a head to toe and last minute cleaning/organizing… but i managed to get whatever i could get done in time to do a bit of yoga. which meant that this week, i was able to do yoga twice - yeay!

my family and one family friend from japan (he was able to get his company to transfer him back to canada), arrived after 5:30pm. the friend is here to get things settled (i.e. finding a new home) so that he can move his family over as soon as school for his two teens is done with. the earthquake and radiation scare made the decision to move back pretty simple - no hesitation what-so-ever. it will be nice to have them all back here.

our easter menu this year was a great success. everyone had seconds (and some had thirds). in the end, we hardly had any leftovers which was a good sign (they loved it and we made just enough to be filling without creating very little room in our fridge for the next few days).

sunday morning, we slept in. all of us. chaeli didn’t come get us until 9:45am which shows how tired she must have been. in fact, she was so tired, she had forgotten about the egg hunt until we reminded her. after that, it didn’t take long for her to hurry us all downstairs where she began finding treats and little easter gifts scattered everywhere in the living/dining room.

it was a challenge this year to hide everything - we had to take into account that hobbes is a great sniffer. but it turned out that hobbes so tired that all he wanted to do was curl up on the couch and snooze with all the egg-hunting excitement going on.

after our traditional, easter sunday brunch, we did the egg colouring and then went out - we took hobbes to a dog park not far from my parents’ place and then visited with my parents for a couple of hours.

once again, i was exhausted. doug and i started to watch ‘salt’ and i fell asleep mid-way. which is becoming my thing. in the past year alone, i have watched the first half of movies way more then any movies from beginning to end. i have a collection of movies i have yet to finish. how sad.

our 2011 easter menu:

deviled eggs

bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms

salad bundles

herb-marinated roasted lamb

  • rosemary, oregano and thyme: all fresh and finely chopped
  • olive oil
  • garlic
  • salt & pepper
  • basically mix everything and rub all over lamb
  • warp with seran wrap and marinate in fridge overnight
  • slow roast/grill on low heat

roasted vegetables

  • red potatoes, halved
  • big chunks of carrot and parsnips
  • brussells sprouts
  • toss veggies with olive oil and dry herbs (oregan and parsley, for example)
  • roast in oven

pistachio cheesecake

Tagged: bliss, family, friends, geek, health, hobbes, parenting, solitude, .

20/3/2011



Text

country road, take me home…

we just got back from a country weekend getaway - friends of ours invited us to stay with them in a town two hours away from here.

they live on a fairly large property with the backyard leading to a forest - cross the dirt road and we also were greeted by a river.

they had over 70 maple trees on their property tapped, saving a couple to tap when chaeli got there, just so they could show her how it was done. i thought that was pretty special. even if you go to a very rustic maple syrup farm, the trees are already tapped and collecting the sap. so for chaeli to see the production happen from start to finish was very cool. in fact, it was cool for me because i had never seen that myself!

they gave us a huge jar of syrup to take home with us - we’re very lucky. store bought maple syrup is heaven. local maple syrup is even better. but this jar? it comes with memories of the whole, entire weekend which we will always remember for years to come.

on top of all that, we were pampered with good food and wine, which even a daily cocktail as the sun started to set. i got a chance to try a grasshopper for the very first time. i know it’s quite a dated cocktail but i’ve always wanted to know what it tastes like - damn good!

both chaeli and hobbes got a lot of fresh air. hobbes went nuts because we let him off leash pretty much the whole time. he’s now sleeping after going non-stop for the past couple of days.

what a great way to end our march break.

Tagged: bliss, family, friends, hobbes, parenting, photography, travel, .

17/3/2011



Text

am dim sum, pm irish stew

considering we’ve had the week to relax, as usual p, our week ended up being jammed pack.

yesterday, a bunch of mepy girlfriends and i got together for lunch. it served a dual purpose - the kids got a few hours playdate and i got a chance to meet up with some girlfriends whom i haven’t seen in 2011 yet (i had to miss out the last two gatherings).

this morning we had dim sum with family and now we’re about to have a traditional irish stew with fresh potato bread for st. Paddy’s day. doug is going to have Guinness. i’m not a fan of it so i’ll stick with wine.

Tagged: bliss, family, friends, .

02/3/2011



Text

Untitled

we spent this saturday at ikea, purchasing a couple of TROFAST cabinets and wall shelves (with an assortment of different colour and sizes of bins) for chaeli’s room.

the assembly and re-organizing (which included more sorting and chucking) took up a good chunk of the day. but it was worth it. with just one wall shelf to put up (which we’ve decided to leave empty and use as a book shelf instead), her room is pretty close to being organized. i’ve shown her where she can find all her toys (mainly one cabinet) and all her craft supply (one wall shelf and top bins of the other cabinet on the other side of her table). i know it’s still wishful thinking that she’ll keep it neat but so far, she seems to have no trouble putting things back where they belong. it helps that she can take the bins out completely on her own so that she can really see what’s inside. and it’s just a matter of putting the bin back inthe empty slot.

i recommend investing in this storage system if you’re a parent. ikea is not the most high-quality type of furniture but lets face it - it will outlast the school age years.

sunday afternoon, we went over to di and rik’s place for high tea with the rest of the posse. and i really do mean the whole posse! even though rita and harry are in the states, and ada and hoa are in vancouver, we made sure to skype them over.

on the way home, i said to doug that even though i know this is so not new, it definitely was an interesting situation - to have people there.. virtually at a party. it was a neat concept though, of course, i would have much rather have had them there in person but i suppose this was better then nothing!

anyway - doug baked some scones which were pretty much fresh out of the oven (we were late) and still warm when we got to the party.

here’s the recipe.

Tagged: bliss, friends, geek, parenting, .

23/2/2011



Text

texting and phone use during dinner

so this blogger basically entitles his blog, “I Will Check My Phone At Dinner and You Will Deal With It.”

i would comment on his blog but wordpress has this really annoying thing of keeping you on the email subscription forever so that if the blog post is very popular, anyone who makes a new comment will force that blog at the top in your ‘my comments’ page. ever months after you’ve lost interest in that post.

[if anyone knows how to stop this, please let me know. and if there’s no way to stop this then wordpress should really consider fixing this problem. man do i miss vox!]

i think my comment would have basically been, “you’ve spent a lot of time just to justify and make it seem okay to be rude at the dinner table.”

he refers back to his mother a lot and basically goes on and on about how the older generation needs to basically just deal with it and change. well, i’m not from that older generation. i’m a total geek - and a bit of a gadget geek. i’m also a mother and i know one rule that will stick in our household - there will be no texting or using one’s handheld device at the dinner table. not at home nor when we go out to a restaurant - even if it’s a pub.

i’m not saying this should be everyone’s rule within their household, but i don’t at all see why it’s a negative rule, as this blogger seems to want make his point around. or… maybe he’s yet again, making justifications of his rude behaviour… to his mother, especially. because really, he’s going on and on about how surfing/texting enhances the social experience. right… true to some degree. because if you’re having a meal with peers who all do the same thing, i can somewhat see that if the surfing involves the discussion (i.e. looking for information). i can’t, however, see how his reasoning hear applies at all to his mother.

if he, as he puts it, has to text under the table, pretending all the long to me looking at the menu, then i would like to ask this person, ‘how exactly is this enhancing your social experience with your mother?” he claims that talking on the phone and engaging in texting where it obviously takes up a good amount of time at the table, excluding others, is the exception to his rule.

so in the scenerio where he’s secretly texting so that he doesn’t get in trouble by his mommy… how is that escape this grand ‘exception to the rule’ of his? there sits a person who wasn’t born into a generation where being rude at the dinner table is socially acceptable.

what ever happen to taking in the account the background of the person in which one is dining with? it’s the same as certain cultural traditions - you’re the bigger person to try to abide by such guidelines in hopes to not offend the person/people across from you at the table. is age/generation all of the sudden not something he should factor in?

personally, i don’t have any patience with people who want to be glued to their phone or mobile device. when i make time to go out to dinner (being a full-time, working mother, it’s not like i have all the time in the world to do this), the last thing i want is to sit there and try to have a conversation with a friend only to get interrupted a dozen times because they get a call or an incoming text. if this is the way of the future, we’re going to have a much harder time with meaningful relationships - it’s bad enough that we’re communicating to each other through 140 characters (not that that is bad in itself, i mean the people who do not use any other form of communication - or very little of it).

if this blogger feels that this is actually enhancing his social skills, i would like to challenge him to go out with friends and leave his mobile device completely off. i would no doubt predict he will have a hard time to communicate.

and if this is the case, i would further extend my prediction to issues he will have in his interpersonal relationships in the long run. i.e. marriage or even his communication skills with his children.

such things, regardless of the of device, has not changed in how it effects how we communicate with one another.

i can say one thing - i have dinner with my parents and other close family members about every two to three weeks. we sit down and eat with no tv or anything else that we are hooked up to anyway throughout our waking ours of the week. we sit there and we talk. like really talk. and it doesn’t matter what we talk about - it can be serious, entertaining… whatever.

it’s the best. not just because we’re spending quality time with one another, but we’re not aided by devices which eventually is used as a crutch that mimics the appearance of ‘enhancement’. the converstations stand on their own - natural and strong.

Tagged: family, friends, geek, rant, relationships, .

02/2/2011



1 note

Text

one more craving

yesterday, i listed off some current cravings. i would like to replace the entire list with one very big craving i am having right now…

to drop everything, get the next flight out to vienna and meet my friend who had been stuck in cairo. we would celebrate over some schnizels and very good beer.

how tempting it is…

Tagged: bliss, friends, relationships, .

Page 1 of 2