Baby cakes!

There was a baby shower at the office today for a sweet coworker and I brought cupcakes. I saw these on Pinterest and was dying to recreate them.

Mine were a little less, uhm, professional looking.

She appreciated the thought anyway :) (I also made lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting which were divine)

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. :)

Olympic emotion

The Olympics bring me back to when I was young and believed all things were possible...

The garden is starting to produce....

Radish from my garden!

Gardening

Yet another step in my transformation to 'country girl', this year I'm seriously gardening, not just my little patch of strawberries and tomatoes, but a large 7.5 x 24 foot garden, filled with tomatoes, carrots, radishes, zucchini, cucumber, squash, radish, cauliflower and beans. It's a little daunting, it requires more upkeep than I imagined, the weeds grow faster than I thought possible, faster than the vegetables, and the soil is seemingly perpetually parched. But I love it. There is something humbling about coaxing an envelope of seeds and a chunk of dirt to produce food. Weeding it is hot and dirty, but with my ipod it's also so very meditative and very calming, and it's just what I need.

40 things at 40

Today is my 40th birthday. I know 40 is when people start panicking about all of the things they should have accomplished by this point in their lives but honestly I'm so involved in the day to day 'doing' that I haven't started to obsess about the lack of 'done'. Maybe it's denial? It doesn't help that in my head I'm still a wide-eyed child, trying to navigate this big world.

In honour of 40, I'm going to navel gaze and offer up 40 things about me at 40.

1. When my mother was my age she was already a grandmother. I don't even want to think about what that means.

2. I hate surprise parties, I think that each human should have no more than 1 in their lifetime. We have friends who throw each other surprise birthday parties every year. Now the surprise will be when they stop.

3. I'm the absolute definition of an introvert, when I get tired or stressed or overwhelmed I need to be alone. I can see that very same trait in two of my three kids.

4. I love Brussels sprouts, steamed with butter, yes please!

5. I am simultaneously smarter and more naive than you think.

6. I'm messy.

7. I am incredibly sarcastic. Age has taught me to be cautious because a whole lot of people don't understand sarcasm.

8. I think I'm funny. I've been blessed/cursed with a familial dry wit, which makes for hysterical family gatherings, but which is grossly under appreciated by the world at large....

9. Typos and spelling errors jump off the page at me. I try not to be a douche about it, but they drive me mental, especially when they are published by a 'reputable business' (Ottawa Sun I'm looking at you).

10. I hate wearing socks. Shoes are only moderately tolerable.

11. I have a ridiculous amount of my brain cells dedicated to song lyrics. I only have to hear a song once or twice to commit most or all of it to memory. There are thousands and thousands of songs floating around in there.

12. I consider myself both artsy and crafty. I don't see any reason why I can't enjoy both.

13. I love kitsch and tchotchkes. I fear that someday I'll be featured on an episode of Hoarders.

14. I’m hugely proud to be Canadian and unabashedly a monarchist.

15. I hate shopping for clothing and shoes, and have no interest in designer handbags.

16. I feel a deep pull to live near the ocean. I make do with rivers and lakes, but the ocean is always calling.

17. I've been hearing impaired since I was a young child. I'm reluctant to tell people because so often it changes the way they treat me. I don't need you to yell at me or over-enunciate your words. Just face me and don't cover your mouth with your hand. I'll do the rest.

18. I'm a Trekkie. I've even been to a convention.

19. In the 7th grade I had to present a song to my class - play a recording, hand out a lyric sheet and explain what it meant. I chose "Bohemian Rhapsody". I wonder what poor Mrs Stewart was thinking while I cheerfully dissected "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me"?

20. I swear like a sailor. In my defence, I come from a long line of prolific cussers.

21. I dislike television. I can't tolerate any show that subjects any of the characters (or contestants) to any amount of embarrassment or ridicule, no matter how seemingly minor. It is physically painful for me to watch. That means I'm pretty much limited to documentaries and live sports (and even that can be iffy).

22. I love hockey! I love the swish of the blades on the ice, the crash of bodies into the board, the earnest commentators and bizarre stats keeping. I love it live, I love it televised, I love it on static-y AM radio.

23. I listen to a LOT of radio.

24. I used to sing. I miss that part of my life, but I don't think I can get past the mental block that made me stop. Not yet anyway.

25. I wish I was a better mom.

26. I think my kids are the most amazing people on the planet.

27. I get carsick really easily.

28. I love Christmas. Easter, Hallowe'en, Valentine's day, I can take or leave any of those, but Christmas is special. If I had my way I'd put the tree up in October and not take it down until March. Fortunately the other people in my house are not on board with that idea.

29. I don't eat chocolate, but there isn't much that I wouldn't do for a potato chip.

30. I'm a night owl. 20 years of trying to train myself to be a morning person have been utterly unsuccessful.

31. When I was 10 years old my greatest wish was to perform on stage with Michael Jackson. Let that roll around in your head a moment. That's just scary on many levels.

32. I'm a complete sucker for sunsets.

33. I love photography. I've been enamoured with cameras and film (and later developing and photoshop) since I was 4 years old.

34. I spent part of many summers at a camp for the arts near Haliburton. I count those times among my fondest memories, surrounded by creative people who shared my passion.

35. I'm a doodler. I have a pen in my hand at every meeting and during every phone call. The margins of every notebook I own are filled with geometric shapes and tiny people.

36. I cry really easily. Movies. The theatre. Commercials. Remembering commercials. Blogging about remembering commercials.

37. I dream of climbing into the car, me, the man, the bits, and heading out on a real old fashioned road trip. I think what stops me is the knowledge that it wouldn't be anything like my dreams, that it would be filled with bickering kids, bad diner food and camping in the rain. But still, it's there, and some day I might be crazy enough to try it.

38. I'm painfully shy.

39. I spent half of grade school and all of high school in a class for gifted children. I know, I can only think that I made quite a few really lucky guesses on that IQ test.

40. I'm grateful to have won the birth lottery, to have been born into comfort (if not wealth), into a free and safe society, into a loving and crazy family, to be surrounded by friends, an amazing husband, wonderful children, to have a nice home and a good job, a full pantry, a full belly, a full heart.

Alone vs lonely

C and I were discussing the difference between alone and lonely. I was often alone as a child, but I never remember being lonely. Here in my cookie cutter cube, in a nondescript building in a dishwater dull complex of nondescript buildings occupied by tens of thousands of workers... Here I feel lonely.

Me and my guy

Ridiculously unseasonably warm weather... bring on the soft serve!

Je suis malade

Sucks.

52 Fridays - unplugged (Jan 6, 2012)

I'm a scrapbooker and a story teller, but by always being behind the lens there is so much of the story that I'm not telling. So I've joined the one self portrait a week movement - to add some of myself into my albums and my family's story.

Aaaaand this first one is pretty raw. I have a new computer, and my photo editing software isn't installed yet. Where I would normally photoshop my ruddy complexion and get rid of the mole on my nose that makes me look like the wicked witch this one I'm forced to post unadulterated. Me, unplugged.

Date Night #4

Date Night #4 at Jean Albert's Soul Food, in Ottawa. Yummy! C has been dying to try this place for a loooong time, and it was definitely worth the wait. Fun, laid back, down-home atmosphere; friendly, attentive service; and super delicious food. What could be better?


(Our appetizers: "Chik-n-waffle", perfect chicken breast piece on a stick, battered in waffle batter, deep fried and served with table syrup. Yummmmmmmm!)

Date Night #2

Dinner at Mongolian Hot Pot. Broth fondue with all of the ingredients buffet style in large coolers lining one wall. We talked and ate and talked and ate, and I was SO FULL afterwards (but we were there nearly 2 hours so no wonder!). No one played with the burner controls on the table. No one had to go potty 15 times. No one whined 'I don't like that'. No one spilled anything (though in the interest of full disclosure I somehow managed to splash myself in the eye with the broth. The little Chinese waiter was horrified. Can't take me anywhere). Another fabulous date night! I'm enjoying this!

Date Night #1

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In 3D! With popcorn! No one talked at us through the movie, no one needed to go potty 15 times, no one spilled anything. Perfect date night!