This Thursday Robbie surprised me by taking me out for dinner for my second birthday. The first few months that we were dating Robbie somehow got it into his mind that my birthday was January 26. We are both unsure of what ever led him to this belief but apparently it was quite a shock for him to find out otherwise as my actual birthday is in October. So short story, we jokingly celebrate this date as my "second Birthday", which for me is a pretty sweet deal. We went to a fancy Italian restaurant called del Dente and had a wonderful meal of all you can eat bread (baked in cute little flower pots and served with a variety of 3 different spreads), wine and pasta. Rob had the classic cheese tortellini (Parmesan & ricotta stuffed tortellini, tomatoes, wild mushrooms, rosé sauce, baked with mozzarella cheese) and I had the prime rib cassarecia (sweet peppers, red onions, marinated tomatoes and fennel, tossed in a gorgonzola cream sauce), both delicious. We were much too full for dessert, mainly because of all of the bread we both ate, but we managed to sneak a few fancy chocolate mints to go.
Afterwards, we went to our weekly dance class feeling slightly uncomfortable from our over indulgence but still managed to make our way around the dance floor. We have now covered the steps to the waltz, the foxtrot, rumba and paso doble, all of which we are only so-so at but still manage to do ok. This past class was actually one of the best because our instructor (who normally is occupied by dancing with another student who does not have a partner) was free to keep a watchful eye on us and make corrections as needed (often).
Today we took a drive to Milton which is a 30 minute drive east on the 401 and met up with a few of my AVC friends for lunch. It is always good catching up with friendly faces and Robbie is always up for anything that involves good food.
When we got home we walked over to the local sliding hill which was once an old landfill now landscaped into a recreational park including sliding hill and bike park. With our new crazy carpets in hand we made our way over only to find that there was very little snow actually covering the grown. We attempted 2 separate runs, both which were quite disappointing as it was mainly ice and dirt which made for a bumpy ride. We decided to call it a day but we'll be back to try again once we get more snow. I had forgotten how much energy it takes to go sliding. How are kids able to run up the hill over and over without getting tired? It made me feel a little old. I'm going to have to continue doing my work out videos so I'll be in tip top shape for our next sliding adventure!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Lessons Learned
This weekend turned out a lot differently than Robbie and I had planned. I apologize for the lack of pictures but it is a result of the lot of "nothing" that we ended up doing.
Saturday started out well enough, we had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and "Toads" (little pastries with sausage in the middle) made by Robbie and then we proceeded to run errands in town. The best part of the day (at least for me) was test driving some new cars which has been something I've been subconsciously putting off for the past month. I tried out a 2006 Honda civic coup, a 2005 Civic sedan and a 2006 Mazda 6, the civic sedan being my favorite so far. I couldn't believe how easy the standards were to drive compared to my old 95 civic, what an eye opener! I have plans on trying out a few others but by this point we were quite tired of listening to all the salesman's pitch.
That evening we had planned on going for diner at the Fireside Grill and then to a Kitchener Rangers hockey game at the Aud. Dinner was so-so. We went only because every time we drive by, the place is packed and generally lined up at the door so we figured it had to be good. It was busy inside, the service and the atmosphere fairly standard and the food good, large portions but nothing special. It was definitely a family restaurant, emphasis on the family (lots of children) and I don't think we'll be going back. Our next stop was the rink. We have never been to a hockey game in town and didn't know what to expect so we went an hour early thinking we'd be in plenty of time. Apparently hockey is a really big thing in Kitchener and by the time we made our way to the head of the line at the box office there were tickets for standing room only!! Not wanting to spend $20.00 each to stand around for 3 hours we decided to come up with plan B; go see a movie at the theater. We figured that being around 7 PM there would be some movie starting shortly or at least one which we wouldn't have to wait around for too long. Again we were wrong and either would have missed the first 20 minutes or would have had to wait around an hour and a half. Next time we are going to have to plan ahead!! So then we came up with a plan C: Bowling. Wouldn't you know it, all the lanes were booked until 9:30. No bowling for Robbie and Jenn. By this time I was feeling fairly dejected and had lost any enthusiasm to do much of anything. Finally plan D: rent a movie. We ended up watching "500 Days of Summer" which, much like the rest of the evening was only so-so. Lessons learned; plan ahead!!
Sunday we planned on taking it easy and making a nice meal for dinner. We started the morning with fruit smoothies (made with our new blender which works great), beagles and cream cheese. Robbie kept himself busy by cleaning the kitchen and floors and I practically killed myself doing an exercise video that apparently is way above my skill level!! I then spent a few hours making pastry and a pumpkin pie ( I was in charge of dessert) and then handed the kitchen over to Rob so he could slave over making home made crepes stuffed with scallops and shrimp and preparing muscles. YUM. Everything was going great until an unfortunate accident involving a mix up with the stove burners. Unknowingly the wrong element was turned on under my pie where I had left it on the stove to cool. As you can imagine nothing good came of this; there was smoke, panic and breaking of the glass pie plate :( Robbie, never wanting to throw anything out, was determined to still eat the pie and despite getting a few mouth fulls of glass still says that it was delicious; I decided to go without. Easy to say I was disappointed in the whole pie incident but the main course was excellent.
We spent the remainder of the evening quite excited as we can now hook Rob's lap top up to our new big screen tv. It is like having one giant computer monitor, 40 inches is so much better than 12!!
So now that it is Monday I guess that we had better plan ahead and get ready for next weekend if we want to actually do something. Maybe we'll plan on doing the exact same thing and see how it goes this time!! So much for being spontaneous!
Saturday started out well enough, we had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and "Toads" (little pastries with sausage in the middle) made by Robbie and then we proceeded to run errands in town. The best part of the day (at least for me) was test driving some new cars which has been something I've been subconsciously putting off for the past month. I tried out a 2006 Honda civic coup, a 2005 Civic sedan and a 2006 Mazda 6, the civic sedan being my favorite so far. I couldn't believe how easy the standards were to drive compared to my old 95 civic, what an eye opener! I have plans on trying out a few others but by this point we were quite tired of listening to all the salesman's pitch.
That evening we had planned on going for diner at the Fireside Grill and then to a Kitchener Rangers hockey game at the Aud. Dinner was so-so. We went only because every time we drive by, the place is packed and generally lined up at the door so we figured it had to be good. It was busy inside, the service and the atmosphere fairly standard and the food good, large portions but nothing special. It was definitely a family restaurant, emphasis on the family (lots of children) and I don't think we'll be going back. Our next stop was the rink. We have never been to a hockey game in town and didn't know what to expect so we went an hour early thinking we'd be in plenty of time. Apparently hockey is a really big thing in Kitchener and by the time we made our way to the head of the line at the box office there were tickets for standing room only!! Not wanting to spend $20.00 each to stand around for 3 hours we decided to come up with plan B; go see a movie at the theater. We figured that being around 7 PM there would be some movie starting shortly or at least one which we wouldn't have to wait around for too long. Again we were wrong and either would have missed the first 20 minutes or would have had to wait around an hour and a half. Next time we are going to have to plan ahead!! So then we came up with a plan C: Bowling. Wouldn't you know it, all the lanes were booked until 9:30. No bowling for Robbie and Jenn. By this time I was feeling fairly dejected and had lost any enthusiasm to do much of anything. Finally plan D: rent a movie. We ended up watching "500 Days of Summer" which, much like the rest of the evening was only so-so. Lessons learned; plan ahead!!
Sunday we planned on taking it easy and making a nice meal for dinner. We started the morning with fruit smoothies (made with our new blender which works great), beagles and cream cheese. Robbie kept himself busy by cleaning the kitchen and floors and I practically killed myself doing an exercise video that apparently is way above my skill level!! I then spent a few hours making pastry and a pumpkin pie ( I was in charge of dessert) and then handed the kitchen over to Rob so he could slave over making home made crepes stuffed with scallops and shrimp and preparing muscles. YUM. Everything was going great until an unfortunate accident involving a mix up with the stove burners. Unknowingly the wrong element was turned on under my pie where I had left it on the stove to cool. As you can imagine nothing good came of this; there was smoke, panic and breaking of the glass pie plate :( Robbie, never wanting to throw anything out, was determined to still eat the pie and despite getting a few mouth fulls of glass still says that it was delicious; I decided to go without. Easy to say I was disappointed in the whole pie incident but the main course was excellent.
We spent the remainder of the evening quite excited as we can now hook Rob's lap top up to our new big screen tv. It is like having one giant computer monitor, 40 inches is so much better than 12!!
So now that it is Monday I guess that we had better plan ahead and get ready for next weekend if we want to actually do something. Maybe we'll plan on doing the exact same thing and see how it goes this time!! So much for being spontaneous!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Curtains
I have decided that one of the things I hate the most about living in an apartment is finding curtains. Why does every apartment I've ever lived in have abnormally sized windows?? And why can't these apartments come with ready to go curtains?? I know for a fact that this apt. had curtains (albeit crappy) left by the previous tenants when we first looked to rent, but after the land lord went through to clean and repaint they must have been thrown away. For cleanliness, allergens and such, I understand why they dispose of them but for the sake of my sanity to have to put up new hardware I would have taken them no matter how ugly.
We do live on the back of the building so it is somewhat private but we do have the occasional dog walker go past and for sleeping I like it quite dark. Currently the window in our kitchen remains curtain-less which is not of great concern at this time. I have recently installed a rod over the patio doors in the living room and was able to use preexisting holes from curtains past which appear to be secure. The problem here is that I thought I would be able to use old curtains from another apt. which also covered a patio door BUT....they are much to short and look pathetic. So I'm going to have to suck it up and buy or attempt to make new curtains that actually fit the doors.
For the spare room we actually have a nice set of curtains (which fit) that actually came from my sister Laura's old room in NB, made by Rhonda. The problem here is that there is a nasty metal support mesh that goes all around the window hidden by plaster so I wasn't able to properly screw in the middle support hardware piece. These curtains look great, just don't pull too hard!!
Our biggest problem is in our bedroom and it is all my fault but we've been too stuborn to fix it properly. We got a blackout pull down blind custom cut to the width of the window but b/c I'm not too bright I measured the actual window and not the casing so it is an inch too narrow (1/2 inch on each side). We thought we could compensate by attaching the hardware to the top of the casing instead of the sides but then we ran into the stupid metal support mesh again and the screws can only go in 1/4 inch into drywall. As you can imagine they arn't holding. I even tried to put wood glue on the the screws to help hold but of course the pulling action of the blind creates too much strain and it has now come crashing down on my head 4 times. Now that I'm thoroughly frustrated I've resorted to duct tape and an old shower curtain to cover the window.
So really I just hate having to put up curtains in general, they are expensive and a pain in the ass but I know for next time to just give in, spend the money and take the time to install them properly......or.......have someone come and do it for me!!! Any volunteers?
We do live on the back of the building so it is somewhat private but we do have the occasional dog walker go past and for sleeping I like it quite dark. Currently the window in our kitchen remains curtain-less which is not of great concern at this time. I have recently installed a rod over the patio doors in the living room and was able to use preexisting holes from curtains past which appear to be secure. The problem here is that I thought I would be able to use old curtains from another apt. which also covered a patio door BUT....they are much to short and look pathetic. So I'm going to have to suck it up and buy or attempt to make new curtains that actually fit the doors.
For the spare room we actually have a nice set of curtains (which fit) that actually came from my sister Laura's old room in NB, made by Rhonda. The problem here is that there is a nasty metal support mesh that goes all around the window hidden by plaster so I wasn't able to properly screw in the middle support hardware piece. These curtains look great, just don't pull too hard!!
Our biggest problem is in our bedroom and it is all my fault but we've been too stuborn to fix it properly. We got a blackout pull down blind custom cut to the width of the window but b/c I'm not too bright I measured the actual window and not the casing so it is an inch too narrow (1/2 inch on each side). We thought we could compensate by attaching the hardware to the top of the casing instead of the sides but then we ran into the stupid metal support mesh again and the screws can only go in 1/4 inch into drywall. As you can imagine they arn't holding. I even tried to put wood glue on the the screws to help hold but of course the pulling action of the blind creates too much strain and it has now come crashing down on my head 4 times. Now that I'm thoroughly frustrated I've resorted to duct tape and an old shower curtain to cover the window.
So really I just hate having to put up curtains in general, they are expensive and a pain in the ass but I know for next time to just give in, spend the money and take the time to install them properly......or.......have someone come and do it for me!!! Any volunteers?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Squid
So Jenn and I are start ballroom dancing classes this Thursday evening. We will be learning the Waltz, Foxtrot, Samba, Tango, Swing, and Pasodoble over the next 11 weeks.
We have been having beautiful sunny, clear weather since we returned home from N.B. but it has been very chilly so we need to find Jenn a pair of snow pants. As we found a new pair of skates for her, she will need to be warm when we go skating this weekend.
Last night I made calamari (the apartment still stinks of deep fried fish). The batter recipe I used was only so-so. The calamari was a little chewy and bland but Jenn and I ate three whole squid between the two of us anyway.
Deep fried Calamari
flour 1/2 cup
cornstarch 3 tbsp.
cayenne pepper (optional) 2 tsp.
Coat damp calamari rings and toss them in the deep fryer at a high temperature for about a minute. Once golden brown, place them on some paper towel and salt to taste.
We have been having beautiful sunny, clear weather since we returned home from N.B. but it has been very chilly so we need to find Jenn a pair of snow pants. As we found a new pair of skates for her, she will need to be warm when we go skating this weekend.
Last night I made calamari (the apartment still stinks of deep fried fish). The batter recipe I used was only so-so. The calamari was a little chewy and bland but Jenn and I ate three whole squid between the two of us anyway.
Deep fried Calamari
flour 1/2 cup
cornstarch 3 tbsp.
cayenne pepper (optional) 2 tsp.
Coat damp calamari rings and toss them in the deep fryer at a high temperature for about a minute. Once golden brown, place them on some paper towel and salt to taste.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Arroz con pollo
New Year's Eve was fun. We went over to my lab mate Sophia's place where there was a small gathering. I taught them the card game pass the ace and we drank champagne and ate risotto with some kind of eggplant appetizer.
Today, however, was fairly uneventful. Jenn went to work and I spent the day reading ("Beethoven's hair" in case your interested) and playing x-box. For dinner I made a recipe out of my Mexican cook book called Arroz con pollo (pronounced ah-rohs kahn poh-yoh). It was very good and I have included the recipe with a picture below if you choose to try it.
I hope you all enjoyed your New Year's holiday and look forward to talking with you soon.
Arroz con pollo
skinless bone-in chicken pieces 3 1/2 lbs. (1.6 kg)
long grain white rice (uncooked) 1 1/2 cups (375 ml)
finely chopped onion 1/2 cups (125 ml)
frozen peas, thawed 2 cups (500 ml)
chicken bouillon powder 1 tbsp. (15 ml)
salt 1 tsp. (5 ml)
pepper 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
saffron (or turmeric) 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
chopped pimiento 2 oz. (57 ml)
boiling water* 3 cups (750 ml)
can of dice tomatoes w/ juice 14 oz. (398 ml)
basil 1/2 tsp. (2 ml)
garlic powder 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
Arrange chicken in a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 F (175 C) oven for 30 minutes. Remove chicken to plate.
Stir remaining 12 ingredients together in the same pan. Place chicken on rice mixture. Cover and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until rice and chicken are tender.
* I omitted the boiling water in this recipe and just used the juice from the jar of pimientos and extra diced tomatoes and it turned out great.
Today, however, was fairly uneventful. Jenn went to work and I spent the day reading ("Beethoven's hair" in case your interested) and playing x-box. For dinner I made a recipe out of my Mexican cook book called Arroz con pollo (pronounced ah-rohs kahn poh-yoh). It was very good and I have included the recipe with a picture below if you choose to try it.
I hope you all enjoyed your New Year's holiday and look forward to talking with you soon.
Arroz con pollo
skinless bone-in chicken pieces 3 1/2 lbs. (1.6 kg)
long grain white rice (uncooked) 1 1/2 cups (375 ml)
finely chopped onion 1/2 cups (125 ml)
frozen peas, thawed 2 cups (500 ml)
chicken bouillon powder 1 tbsp. (15 ml)
salt 1 tsp. (5 ml)
pepper 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
saffron (or turmeric) 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
chopped pimiento 2 oz. (57 ml)
boiling water* 3 cups (750 ml)
can of dice tomatoes w/ juice 14 oz. (398 ml)
basil 1/2 tsp. (2 ml)
garlic powder 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
Arrange chicken in a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 F (175 C) oven for 30 minutes. Remove chicken to plate.
Stir remaining 12 ingredients together in the same pan. Place chicken on rice mixture. Cover and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until rice and chicken are tender.
* I omitted the boiling water in this recipe and just used the juice from the jar of pimientos and extra diced tomatoes and it turned out great.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)