Back to school

Another summer is in the history books as the bits return to school, grades 6 and 4.


















And for a smile: Back to school through the years... (click for larger)

Harvesting!

We've finally had a little rain and my garden is so very happy because of it!

Date Week 2012 - Date #5

For today's date night C and I took in the last concert of ChamberFest, a French quartet called Quatuor Ebène (along with guest pianist and violinist). The concert took place in gorgeous Dominion-Chalmers United Church, which has acoustics to die for!

A man seated beside us kept complaining about the musicians' interpretation of the pieces they were playing (which was very fresh and different, quite exciting!). He said "it doesn't even sound like Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky should sound prayerful". I wanted to tell him that prayer doesn't have to be solemn, that prayer can be joyful and uplifting, but I didn't have the balls. He moved during the intermission anyway so I didn't need to endure his critique of the Chausson piece (which was one I'd never heard before, and it was crazy good!).

And so ends date week 2012. It was a wonderful week, filled with tons of fun things, but the best part was just being with my honey.

(FYI: Quatuor ébène means 'ebony quartet'. You're welcome)

Date Week 2012 - Date #4

Tonight's date was a bit of a ménage à trois since Big J was in town, but no less enjoyable. We started off having dinner at Buffet des Continents, then we had reserved seating for Les grands feux du Casino du Lac-Leamy, which is an annual international fireworks competition.



We saw Zaragozana perform, representing Spain. Their theme was 'A cruise on the Mediterranean Sea', the soundtrack featured music and sound effects meant to evoke the various countries along the Mediterranean. It was FAB-U-LOUS!!



It rained earlier in the afternoon, which meant for the evening performance the humidity was gone, we were dry and comfy.

We have been to this fireworks competition in the past, but have viewed it from the beach (general admission) or from a bridge nearby (aka for free), seeing it in the reserved seating, so that the music was perfectly timed with the explosions, so that the presentation faced you and could be viewed as intended, oh it was just a whole new level of amazing!

Date Week 2012 - Date #3

For date #3 we took a loooooong drive. First we stopped in for lunch with my parents (it'd have been rude to drive right by them without stopping n'est-ce pas?) Then we drove into Toronto. The whole city is like one big flashback to my formative years...

We met up with friends of C's for appetizers and drinks, at Jack Astors. We sat on the patio, chatting and people watching, it was quite lovely.

Then we had tickets to see WarHorse at the Princess of Wales theatre, It was so wonderful!

I've been a theatre buff my whole life, but theatre in Ottawa is twice the price of theatre in Toronto, for far, far fewer shows (and often of lesser quality). I don't miss living in the GTA, not really, but I do miss the theatre.

10 hours round trip is kind of crazy just for a show, but 10 hours of chatting with C, with no one in the back seat bickering or offering up an unsolicited opinion was a rare and lovely treat.

Date Week 2012 - Date #2

Can't really call this one date 'night' :) It's a statutory holiday today in Ontario, but not in Quebec, so we started our day together with a very romantic trip to Costco in Gatineau :) Hehehe.

Afterwards, we went back to the cinema to try our luck at seeing The Dark Knight Rises and found it far less crowded (it was early afternoon). Surprisingly I really enjoyed the movie. And the popcorn was fantastic. I'm not a huge fan of theatre popcorn, it's generally greasy and gross, but this was just perfect.

We came home and spent a quiet evening in, eating butter chicken in front of the tube while watching DVRed episodes of Swamp People. Date week rocks!

(The French version of The Dark Knight Rises is called L'ascension du Chevalier noir, which is kind of sexy sounding. Now you know!)

Date Week 2012 - Date #1!!

Put the bits on the bus at 6:00 tonight for a week of sleepaway camp (at Camp de l'amitié, just like in 2011, and Katie alone in 2010 and 2009), and just like last year when both went away we are celebrating date week!

As soon as the buses pulled away C and I headed out for our first date of Date Week 2012. We had a Dealfind voucher for a little Italian restaurant downtown called Dantessa. It was dim and moody, and had a pretty good house red :) The waiter was strange, really strange, but the food was excellent. I had fettuccine in a cream sauce with spinach, red onion, tomato and shrimp (I wanted the lobster stuffed agnolotti but alas, they were all out. Next time...). We enjoyed an unhurried meal where no one once said 'put your bum on the chair' or 'use your fork'.

After dinner we headed out to the cinema with the intention of seeing The Dark Night... along with 2/3rds of Ottawa it seems. The theatre was jam-packed and the movie sold out! So a quiet night in it was, curled up on the couch watching Thor (aka über-hot guy and the hammer).

I might have a little bit of a crush on the actor who plays Thor. Ahem. Also - I'm a reasonably intelligent person and I have no idea what the heck was going on in that movie. Not that it really mattered since über-hot guy took off his shirt.

A perfect start to date week 2012, me and my honey.

And über-hot guy. :)