Get A Dishwasher Woman!

One of my all time favourite t.v. series is Absolutely Fabulous or ABFAB. Perhaps, my life actually carries some of those crazy things Eddie and Patsy do, or my normal accent (my abnormal speaking accent is a bit more North-Americanized) resembles theirs, or I just want to be like them. Writing is supremely smart and ridiculously abusive - typical British humour. So, if you haven't seen it, go to the videostore right now or purchase the DVD's from online. It's the single most hillarious thing on the planet.

Where was I going with this? Yes, hmm... Yes, they are pure hedonists and pleasure pimping experts - totally lazy and woeless. Today, or most days to be accurate, I feel the same way until I hit the "There's nothing to eat" wall. So, here's the plan of action (which I'm sure won't get done tonight)

a) clean up the mess in the kitchen (my condolences and good luck)
b) cook something edible by the time Mister makes it home
c) tape my favourite t.v. show "Gilmore Girls" -- how gay of me but the writing is crazy cool in that show + the mother character, Emily, totally reminds me of my mother. For once, I actually get to watch someone like that and laugh at them. Dealing with my high-maintenance mother tends to give me BIG headaches, broken heart and upset stomach.

And I probably won't be able to do that either because I efficiently screw up the video tape recorder every time I set it. Why do electronic things hate me? The paper shredder Mister bought a few years ago, named Jaws, doesn't like me either. It's fine every time he uses it - when I touch the machine, the paper gets stuck to the point of dysfunction. I end up sitting down and cleaning the damn thing until it is operational.

You know those sprays in the produce/vegetable isles in grocery stores? Yeah, they really know me! Every time I approach to grab something the automatic spray thingy comes on to give me wet arms. It's like the machine has Nyana-sensors - it knows I'm there!

One last thing - I get attitude from my microwave: The thing speaks and it has a HELP function and it just won't cook your food until you pushed 7 million buttons to describe exactly what it is you want cook. It's like creeking hardwood - pestering and totally there. Cook time now!

Biker-Motorist Vandetta

So, I'm opening with some very contraversial debate that's going on here in Big City, Canada. First of all, look at this picture - taken by Adam Krawesky (not me), a photographer who happened to be right there to snap the situation as it was happening.

This photo is totally real and candid. The story is this: Bike-courrier is riding along. Suddenly, a motorist - sitting inside his car - throws food out his window, obviously littering. Seeing this, the biker picks up the garbage and throws it back into the car to land on the motorist's lap! The picture depicts the attack of the motorist thereafter. There are actually more pictures and detailed scoop on Citynoise.org The motorist also claims that biker's chain key, which she was wearing around her wrist at the time, scratched his car. Mind you, this is happening in the downtown core of the city!
There are a few sides to this story, if there are bikes in your city, I'm sure you'll be able to relate. First of, bikers don't get any respect from motorists. Secondly, some bikers are either too aggressive-a.k.a. they scare the fireworks out of motorists creeping up suddenly- or they simply don't watch out at all. What about the photographer who saw all this happening and didn't do anything to break the fight? In any event, whatever side you take, it's putrid that people choose to express themselves in such uncivilized, primitive ways. What do you think?

Kids and Dogs

Tonight is one those nights that confirm 2 things in my life:

a) I don't think I have it in me to have a kid - although I absolutely love them;
b) Dog smell in my living room and on my clothes would make me move into a Febreeze Factory.

I spent the past few hours baby-sitting Mister's gorgeous niece. She's a two year old, totally darling and probably one of the nicest kids around. Despite the fact, she DID NOT want to go to sleep for the life her, cried about 15 minutes (which really felt like 15 years) and chatted to herself for about half an hour. When I walked into her room to check up on her, she greeted me with a huge smile on her face, almost saying:
"HA, I see you came back! Play with me you adult!"
I told her it was time to sleep, and fluffed her pillow a bit. She went to sleep almost right away. Oh man, had I known that was going to work, I would have done it 45 minutes ago.
Meanwhile, on the lower level 2 oversized dogs (I don't know what brand they are, all I know is that they are HUGE) kept barfing. Barf and barifty barf... Of course, my stomach is all over the place now because I'm barf-phobic. Between the dogs and the baby, I'm officially toast.

I don't know how you mothers out there deal with this everyday. R-e-s-p-e-c-t!
I wish all of you the best of relaxation time!

Kick-Off!

I hope everyone is having a great Monday. Beginning of the week is usually not my favourite - much prefer a Friday when everyone is overcome with the joy of not working for the next couple days. The city looks and feels much more vibrant, filled with people who carry a blend of sweet exhaustion and hope on their faces.

Sigh, the weather turned out much better than expected today. Another thing about Canada is that it is not passe to talk about the weather. It's what people talk about period. It dominates our lives, our dinner conversations, web browsers, etc. We live under the constant threat of frost and snow storms. Admittedly, this much obsession is too much at times. On the other hand, it's not as bad as it sounds. Winter is all about developing a strategy to avoid it. If you can manage that effectively, you'll be fine - if not, well good luck! For the most part, it's about being among friends, having good food (essential) and keeping a positive outlook. Spring will come!
Stay warm, smiling and with the people you love.

Cake-Ing It!

Here's the recipe for my cake. I usually do not like sweets all that much. Every now and then, a desire for desserts overcomes my generally prudent attitude towards blood sugar. Also I like baking to keep the skills sharp and tasty! This recipe is very simple yet the product looks quite stunning. Mister took a huge slice of this yesterday and polished it off within seconds...

Ingredients for the Cake:
-4 Eggs
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 1 Cup Milk
- 2/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 3 Cups Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- (2 tbs of cocoa powder if you want to make chocolate cake)

Directions: Combine eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until foamy. Add milk and oil; continue to mix. Finally, add flour and baking power - fold these last two ingredients by hand, making sure the texture is smooth. Butter a cakepan and bake 40-60mins -or until a knife inserted to the middle comes out clean- at 180C or 350F.
Note: Don't overmix the cake batter otherwise it won't rise. The whole mixing process should take about 5-8 minutes.

Cream:
-750ml of Milk ( or 3 Cups)
-1 Egg
- 2 tbs butter
- 3 tbs flour
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla

Directions: Combine everything in a pot, stir it on medium heat until the texture resembles that of a pudding.

Assembly:
- Ensure the cake and cream have both cooled down. Cut the cake through the middle using a serraded knife. Put the top piece aside. Spread cream, place berries of your choice.
- Put the top piece onto bottom piece. Spread remainder of the cream, decorate with berries.
Bon apetit!

Just Another Manic Sunday

Well, soon after I completed my last blog entry Mister indeed went downstairs and glued his eyes to his computer. He must have read my blog because he actually clued into the hidden message in my words and did us all a favour: tidied up his rather chaotic desk, purged some old paper and did some shopping! Don't you love men that much more when they're actually useful?

To complement his hard work I got into the kitchen cooked up some nice food. We usually eat "The Two Fat Ladies" style over the weekend. (ok, maybe not that bad... but we don't follow our strict regimen of no-fat, chemically balanced, gourmet diet that we do during the week.) Here's tonight's dinner:

Below we have lamb chops with a rosemary-garlic spice rub. I browned them on a cast iron skillet first. On the side, I cut up some sweet potatoes and mixed them with some brown sugar and Jamaican jerk seasoning along with some other spices. Finally, I combined everything inside the skillet and cooked them in the oven for about 45mins.
On the right side is my Berrilicious Wet Cake! I'll give you the recipe for this tomorrow. For now, I have an episode of Desperate Housewives on tape... :))

East Coast vs. West Coast

Thank god the fridge is semi-full with ample opportunity to cook something at home. Going outside today would not be too pleasant as it is raining like crazy here in Big City. It had started when we left our friend's house last night. We had a very good visit with her - it's been ages really.
Today is purely for relaxation. Mister is in the living room doing his push-ups and sit-ups to continue to look pretty to the outside world. I, on the other hand, have been out several times by now, had tea, stocked up on my cigarettes, chatted with a few friends. Speaking in esoteric terms, I'm east coast and mister is west coast. (although i do yoga, he doesn't.)

Today will be spent reading a book on the couch - as soon as Mister decides to turn off the television: the idiot box he's so into... the man doesn't read, unless it is Sophie Kinsella or some other brainless piece with little literary value. He'll eventually go to the doghouse - his darling chair in front of his computer - and start listening to internet radio while doing god knows what. (actually i do have a feeling as to what it is, but i shall refrain from saying it ;) Cannot be available all the time, I have a life tooo!Might come back later for an update. !

Sun in the City

Today stands to be an extraordinary day for Big City Canada. The temperature is 10 degrees celcius and we are literally in awe. Usually, the weather in January hovers around -10 or -20 around here. It's freaking cold. Over the weekend, we do a quick run for groceries, cook a large meal at home and sit down to watch our movies rented from the nearby grocery store complex. (yeah, we end up paying A LOT of late charges too.)
But today, we were out all day. First we went to home depot to see whether we could get some flower pots and flowers for our kitchen window. The certified nursery consultant at H.D. asked us:

HD: So, where do you live, in Florida or Texas?
Us: We live in Florida -- in our minds.
HD: Well, until you move there you might want to check out some fake flowers because nothing stays alive in this weather.
Us: Oh... How about some cabbage plants or something?
HD: I suggest you check out some sculptures or bird feeders for your garden.

I suppose we got a bit overexcited with the amount of sunlight there's around these days. Mister (my "husband" - no, we're not married although gay men can get married in Canada) and I were looking for a project to do; seeing as nothing materialized, we ended spending the whole day outside. Tonight we're going over to a friend of his, with whom I share background commonalities. So... pretty happening weekend so far. I'll write more later but I shall eat now.

Bus Wreck!

Here are some pictures from my walk today. The first couple ones are of the bus which crashed into a building in my neighbourhood. It doesn't look much more than a surface crash in this pic, but it was actually quite a big of a dent. We did not know whether anyone was injured - too busy snapping the pics. Well, actually, the hype was pretty much over by the time we got there . So we had a really easy time navigating around the this. From the back of the bus you can see the damage. Ouch! may I please say.

After we were finished with this bus/building wreckage, we moved onto to the beach nearby. (it totally sounds like I live in this tropical Miami/Florida type place but no, I wish.... I live in Canada where the moment we see a bit of sun, we rush outside thinking summer has arrived.) Anywho but the beach was totally cool and sunny today. Water was frozen in parts and we bumped into a very brave wakeboarder who put on a show for us.

We kept wondering what kind of a wetsuit this guy must have to avoid freezing. (probably a very good one.) the wind was so strong yet the sunshine did a good job improving the conditions. Took this pic sitting on a picnic table on the shore , smoke in one hand, coffee in other... it's the hedonist life which will be the end of me if not one of my nasty habbits. i suppose we're all creatures of habbit.

Misty Eyes

This is a happening morning. I woke up with someone pounding on the door and rushed out of bed thinking it's a package I was expecting. By the time I made it to the door, there was no one, and of course, no delivery. A few minutes later, my neighbour from across the street showed up (it was her the first time round) to tell us that a passenger bus had crashed into a recording studio around the corner from where we live. The interesting part is that the bus cannot reverse out of the building as they fear the building may collapse. I'm going for an extended walk with my neighbour and hopefully will have some pictures by the end of the day.