Star Wars Day

Happy Star Wars day to everyone!

May the 4th be with you.

 I hope you are all looking forward to tomorrow as well. For the Revenge of the 5th!

Har har har, I shall end my nerdiness there. Sorry about the lack of posts lately, I will get on them as soon as I find some time (hopefully this weekend)! =D

Potluck

My apologies, I know I haven't posted in a while. My life picked up like a whirlwind and kind of overtook, well, for lack of better word, my life.

To pick up where I left off last, I had a potluck at my place at the end of March.

I invited a lot of people, but even with a handful of polite declines, I still had more people coming than usual. I didn't even have enough chairs for everyone!

Everyone had arrived by around 630 and there was a lot of (delicious!) food at the table! =D

Not enough chairs to go around, whoops! =(

It was also Denise's birthday the weekend before, so I made her a banana cake with cream cheese icing in celebration.

Mmm delicious cake... *droooooools*

I didn't get a good photo of all the food, as I slowly became busier as more people trickled in.

We enjoyed a LOT of yummy foods made by everyone, had birthday cake, played catch phrase and things in a box.

There was a lot of food going around afterward still. Drunken gummy bears, homemade Bailey's, caramel fondue and so much more. There was a lot leftover, but thank goodness people took things home (like all the chicken wings left!)

All this writing is making me hungry... time to grab my bedtime snack! =D

Alberta Elections 2012

Thank goodness!

Although I am not largely a proponent of the PC Party, I have to say, anything is better than a WR win.

I'd say a 62 to 17 seat defeat is quite the feat indeed.

 

I also screen-capped my parents' riding of Edmonton-Mill Woods. PC as usual, but I think more people were pulling for a Liberal win this time around. My mom also knows her. But I don't think that's any reason to vote for someone..

Avocados!

I've been having a big hankering for avocados lately, so I went to the store and picked up a bunch a few weeks ago. After that, I realized that although I love avocados, I don't actually know how to use them in a large variety of ways.

So I tried a couple things out.

Turns out, avocado is more versatile than I realized. It's great in so many things!


Firstly, I tried it in a simple salad. I had lettuce that had been sitting in the fridge for longer than it should, I clearly needed to use it. Rummaging around my fridge, I found a container of feta that wasn't open yet (yum!). And there always seems to be cucumber and tomato lying around somewhere.

Cut it all up and throw it together, into what turned out to be a delicious (and heart healthy) salad!


Next up was grilled cheese, with a twist. I added sliced of avocado and tomato to the mix and grilled it up on the stove. The avocado got all warm and gooey, and the cheese melted into the tomato. Mmmmm heavenly...

I actually picked up a fresh bunch again just yesterday as well. Good thing I'm expanding my avocado repertoire! =)

Salmon and potatoes

I love salmon. And I love potatoes.

Yum yum.

I was craving some crosstrax a few weeks ago (and still are, coincidentally), but didn't want to head to the Keg on campus to get my fill of such greasiness.

Instead, I decided to make wedge potato fries for myself in the oven with my trusty herb: rosemary.

I also had some portioned filets of salmon in the fridge, so I went ahead and made them with lemon wedges and some cracked pepper.

To round off the meal, I added some nice fresh green beans from the store for a deliciously colourful meal! =D

Toronto

I love going to Toronto. Everytime I go, it's like I discover something new. The city is so big, and there's so much to do, it's literally like I'm a tourist each time. It's also great that my cousins take me to slightly different places each time, so I get to explore even more.

I was in Toronto 2 weekends ago, and since the Sunday was so gorgeous out, we decided to park the car in Yorkville and walk everywhere else.

We managed to walk alongside the St. Patrick's Day parade route, and had to cross their path a couple times to get to stores we wanted to peruse.

It was so beautiful out, we walked from Yorkville, zig zagging our way to Eaton Centre. Then back around to Spadina up Chinatown, before making out way back to College to go to Fran's!




Needless to reiterate: our meals were delicious! =D

Monkey Toasts

A couple weeks ago, I went in to Toronto for the weekend to hang out with my cousins, Winnie and Sharon. Winnie's birthday was a couple days before, so we decided to head out for dinner and a comedy club of her choice.

We ended up at Banjara Indian Cuisine, which, by the way, was absolutely DELICIOUS. It's even better than Diwa Classic here in Guelph, and I really like that place...

Anyways, the place was packed, fueling my comment that it was a great place to eat.

After dinner, we walked around the Queen St W area because it was a beautiful cool night. When it was about good timing, we headed to Comedy Bar with our tickets to Monkey Toasts!

I like live comedy, but haven't been out to see a lot of it because not many of my friends are interested in it. Glad my cousins are up for anything! It was a great show, with three guests (John Catucci, Mike Layton and Marnie McBean).

It was pretty cool, because Marnie is an Olympic medallist for Canadian rowing and she shared her experiences on that. Mike Layton is the Trinity-Spadina city councillor, and John Catucci is on the Food Network!!

I definitely hit up John Catucci afterware for a photo and the chance to ask him about being on the Food Network, how he got to where he is now, etc. Although he didn't have the authority to get me a show on the network, he was interesting to talk to and an overall awesome funny guy.

Me with John Catucci!

Pesto salmon

I'm not sure if I've posted something like this before, but it is still delicious.

There was some good lookin' salmon at the store, so I picked up some of it.

I also love pesto, and always have that lying around, so I thought I'd put the 2 together and make some epic delicious-ness.

My creation?


A plate of awesome. That's what.

I'm a strong proponent of crispy skin and flaky flesh., so the consistency of the fish was a little on the mushy side for me. Overall though, it tasted pretty good.

It was a simple foil packet of salmon with the pesto rubbed on top. I left it to bake in the oven for 20 minutes and it turned out great!

Blueberries

I love blueberries.

We still have some blueberries in the freezer that are from the summer at the cottage. So, I decided to make some blueberry baked goodies, and I settled on scones.

I had never made scones before, typically because I don't like the hard dry texture. I got this recipe somewhere online (honestly, I forget where) and it turned out a lot runnier than I anticipated. They were so soft and light, they turned into pillowy cookies instead.


Not that I was going to complain about that, since scones are too dry for my liking.

Delicious!

Convocation v2.0!

Hurray for working so hard over the last 2 years for another degree!


I officially haven't been a student for over 3 months now, and although I miss being in the loop about all the grad student events, I'm really liking not getting paid shit and saving tuition fees.

Duane (one of my committee members) and I

Ice skating

For the Family Day long weekend, all of us who were in town decided to gather round and spend some nice quality time together in the afternoon. We hit up Cornerstone for a late brunch before renting skates and heading to the skating rink in front of City Hall.

A few of us hadn't skated before, so there was a lot of pulling others around, and catching falls.


Laura was doing great though! Look at her awesome figure skating pose =)

We all had a blast skating around the little rink. It was busy there, but it was nice because it was a relatively warm day for a skate.


After tiring ourselves out skating, we went to Quebec St Mall to get some hot chocolate and relax our legs before going home!

Waiting

"What are you doing with your life?" she says.

"Waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

Then, she looks at the night above her. "When the emptiness stops haunting my mind; haunting my soul. That one moment when all darkness brightens; when the fucked up shit floating in my mind fades away."

Tofu stirfry

I really like the new plates I got back in January, and have been thinking of how I can start to utilize them in my photos.


Not a particularly interesting dinner, but I love the ease of stirfries and how delicious they are when I add my signature sauce to it.

Valentine's Day

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone. A.k.a., another multi-batch of sugar cookies to decorate.


Hope everyone had a great V-Day this year!

A little late on the wishes I know, but at least I'm catching up with my blogging.

William Fitzsimmons

Don't be alarmed by the massive facial hair. He's safe.

LOL.

Last month, Jer and I ventured into Toronto one fine Friday evening to go see William Fitzsimmons in concert. We left a bit earlier, so we could go somewhere for a bite to eat. Along the way there, he decided on going to an oyster bar. I recall seeing that Oyster Boy was only a few blocks from The Great Hall, so we found a parking spot at the nearby Green P and walked over.

It was a nice evening and at one point, we were walking behind the great man himself! That was exciting for me, especially since I didn't notice. Jer had to point out to me that the "disgusting smokers" we were walking behind, was William and some other people I could only assume to be in his band (turns out it was his band manager and the opening act).


The oysters were delicious of course (St. Simon variety from New Brunswick).

Oh, yes. The concert was absolutely fantastic too.

We got back to Guelph really really late/early. Aka, sleep timeee =D

BlackBerry Playbook

YAY PLAYBOOK!


Now I officially have something *GOOD* I can use as my eReader!

It's so fantastic, and now that the OS 2.0 has been released, some of the kinks have been ironed out as well!

woot woot!

Spicy shrimp with avocado mayonnaise

I love sandwiches. Having said that, the choice to not eat meat makes it a little more difficult to have sandwiches... =(

I found this delicious recipe on gojee and wanted to try it asap!


The avocado mayonnaise was something to die for, it was sooo good. However, I didn't find the spicy shrimp quite spicy enough, so that was a bit disheartening. I was looking for something with a lot more heat and kick to it to really get me going. I'll just have to double the amount of spice next time =)

Cranberry brownies

The same day I made the nutmeg date cake, I decided to use the last of the cocoa and make brownies too. Somewhere along the way, I accumulated a large bag of cranberries, so threw them into the mix too.


I baked them until they dried out so I got a nice crusty top. Yum!

Nutmeg date cake

I love nutmeg, but I don't love dates. So why do I have all these dried dates in my house?!?

From my new (but really old) vegetarian cookbook, I decided to make a nutmeg date cake. It was too sweet for me taste, but good thing I didn't make it for myself anyways!

More knitting

While awaiting my friend who's teaching me to finish knitting my gloves, I started a simple one-hour project to knit a cozy for my GPS.

A simple two-by-two rib stitch as a flat panel, I sewed the sides together with a sewing knit needle and added the button and yarn closure to keep it from slipping out.


Cute!

STOP JOSEPH KONY

This is such an important cause.

Please please PLEASE watch this video. I implore you.

Take the 30 minutes to watch this. Really watch it.

And share it. Oh please, share it with everyone you know, on every form of social media networking that you have.

Let the world know.

Time is running out.

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Surprise!

Kendra got engaged last month, and to celebrate it, Carolyne hosted her surprise engagement party.

We all eagerly awaited the guest of honour, trying not to be too loud as to give it away before she walked in.


There were plenty of treats to eat (including a fantastically nostalgic and appropriate bowl of ring pops!) and lots of champagne to go around.


We chatted about wedding plans and played some Apples to Apples! Super fun game and it's been a while since I played it. It made me nostalgic (as a few things that evening did) and want to go out to buy a bunch of my favourite games.


We had our Power Ranger (?) like photo op with all of our ring pops on and the evening was in full swing!


Congratulations!

French onion soup - a beginner's tutorial

Okay fine. I'll admit it. I've never had French onion soup before.

Whaaat?!?!?

What is a crazy 25 year old lady like you doing trying to make French onion soup from scratch then?!

I know. I am ridiculous.

What gives? Well, I just. Felt like it.

Turns out it's pretty simple. It just takes a long time.

Step 1:


Caramelize the onions over low heat with a generous portion of delicious butter for a long period time. Best to do this in batches so they don't crowd the stockpot and steam instead.

Step 2:


Add liquid. Traditionally, beef broth is used, but seeing as how I am not a meat-eater, I opted for vegetable broth and spent a good chunk of time simmering it to reduce and concentrate the stock.

Step 3:


Fill oven-proof soup bowls 2/3 full of soup.

Step 4:


Cover with baguette and cheese, and melt under the broiler for a few minutes.

Again, since this was from last month, I was still in the process of chugging through the leftover cheese. I was on the last of the brie, and since it is a gooey melter, I thought "why not?".

Rookie mistake...

The rind of the brie cheese prevented the melty gooey cheese-y mess I expected atop my soup. Still. It was delicious.

=D

Salmon casserole

I love eating salmon. And frankly, I don't really mind the canned stuff, as long as it includes the bones (weird, I know...).

Although the canned stuff does have a slight smell to it, it goes away after you cook it. And my salmon casserole turned out delicious!

Knitting

By the way, I've taken up knitting.

I started knitting again this past Christmas. With not being a student anymore, I found that I had some extra time on my hands (lol). I dug out my old box of knitting and crocheting tools to start some fun.

I've already knitted several simple things, such as scarves for myself and a few others.

My latest project.... can you guess?


Gloves! Since I started this (last month), I've been held up because I don't know how to gusset the thumb in the left handed format.

When I finally get it done, I'll post pictures of my wicked gloves! Hopefully it won't be summer when that happens... =(

Double whammy grilled cheese

There was a significant amount of leftover cheese from my birthday wine and cheese party. Despite the massive cheese-fest gorged on that evening, I made room for more cheese! =)

May I present to you my delicious masterpiece, my double whammy grilled cheese sandwich. One layer of plain aged cheddar, one layer of jalapeno havarti. Sandwiched between not two, but three, slices of bread, buttered up and pan fried to perfection!


Don't worry. I paired it with a healthy spinach salad. Loaded with fresh mushrooms, some grated gruyere cheese and finished with a lemon poppyseed dressing.


What a delicious dinner! =D

Leek risotto

Mmmm I love risotto. This was from last month.


I paired this with breaded catfish that I baked instead of fried (for my health's sake).

Delicious!

Bruno Mars - It Will Rain

Sooo good =)



If you ever leave me, baby
Leave some morphine at my door
Cause it would take a whole lot of medication
To realize what we used to have
We don't have it anymore

There's no religion that could save me
No matter how long my knees are on the floor
So keep in mind all the sacrifices I'm making
To keep you by my side
And keep you from walking out the door

Cause there'll be no sunlight
If I lose you, baby
There'll be no clear skies
if I lose you, baby
Just like the clouds
My eyes will do the same if you walk away
Everyday, it will rain
Rain, rain

I'll never be your mother's favorite
Your daddy can't even look me in the eye
If I was in their shoes, I'd be doing the same thing
Saying there goes my little girl
Walking with that troublesome guy

But they're just afraid of something they can't understand
Well little darling watch me change their minds
Yeah for you I'll try, I'll try, I'll try, I'll try
I'll pick up these broken pieces 'til I'm bleeding
If that'll make it right

Cause there'll be no sunlight
If I lose you, baby
There'll be no clear skies
If I lose you, baby
Just like the clouds
My eyes will do the same if you walk away
Everyday, it will rain
Rain, rain

Don't just say goodbye
Don't just say goodbye
I'll pick up these broken pieces 'til I'm bleeding
If that'll make it right

Cause there'll be no sunlight
If I lose you, baby
There'll be no clear skies
If I lose you, baby
Just like the clouds
My eyes will do the same if you walk away
Everyday, it will rain
Rain, rain, rain

Birthday extravaganza

My birthday was a special one this year, where I celebrated leaving the 18-24 age demographic and entering the new world of 25-34 (or 25-29).

I wanted to do something a little different than what I normally do on my birthday. What better way to say I'm growing up than to have a nice little grown up wine and cheese party!

I got these nice new plates and was (slightly too over-) excited for them.

I also now enjoy taking fancy photos of random non-fancy things. Like this:


And this (pretty wine glass markers):


I think my birthday went pretty well. My friends were there and we had a great time talking, laughing and eating delicious cheeses (nomnomnom!)

There was lots of dessert to go around too! I made french vanilla cupcakes with a whipped buttercream frosting, Kendra brought me a cake, Carolyne brought Jonny a cake, and Jonny made a Brown Betty.




Hurray for delicious food, lots of wine, and great friends!

Landon Pigg

I just discovered this while perusing videos on youtube. I came across this cute video of two little kids kissing and this was the song playing in the background. It's heavenly.



I think that possibly
Maybe I'm falling for you
Yes There's a chance that I've fallen quite hard over you

I've seen the paths that your eyes wander down
I want to come too

I think that possibly
Maybe I'm falling for you

No one understands me quite like you do
Through all of the shadowy corners of me

I never knew just what it was about this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while I never knew

I think that possibly
Maybe I'm falling for you
Yes there's a chance that I've fallen quite hard over you

I've seen the waters that make your eyes shine
Now I'm shining too

Because
Oh
Because I've fallen quite hard over you

If I didn't know you I'd rather not know
If I couldn't have you I'd rather be alone

I never knew just what it was about this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while I never knew

I never knew just what it was about this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while I never knew

All of the while
All of the while
All of the while it was you, you

DayZero Project: Completion (?)

So I realize I haven't blogged in a (very) long time. I will catch up, I promise.

In the meantime, My DayZero Project came to completion on February 2.

I had been keeping record over the last ~3 years of what I've completed. As the list shows, I didn't get to finish everything. Surprisingly, it was harder than I thought to get everything done. Perhaps I should put more realistic attainable goals next time?

Anyways. I am proud of what I did manage to do from the list. Obviously, I will still try to finish the rest, even though my time on the project had run out. I guess I could start over again with a fresh list of tasks, but then I'd have to come up with at least 75 more things to do, and clearly I don't have time for that... ;)

DayZero statistics:
64 of 101 tasks completed (63% completed)
7 of 101 tasks in progress (7% in progress)
399 posts in 1001 days (a blog post every 2.5 days)

Holidays!

I was on holidays back home from Dec 23 - Jan 5.

All I'll say about being home was that it was a lot more time than I was expecting!

Plant Ag xmas party!

Our departmental "holiday party" was mid December, just a few days after my defense. It was a busy week for me, because I was prepping for my defense, then I had to organize a baking party to get our Christmas treats ready, then there was our annual Secret Santa party where said treats were disseminated, and then there was the Christmas party.

The party was being held at Atmosphere cafe this year, and although I was a bit hesitant because of the layout of the restaurant (long and skinny), it seemed to work out pretty well. We had our projector set up for a rotating picture slideshow.

And a fun addition was the return of Santa himself! He had been amiss for a couple years, but we decided to bring him back, with Greta and myself as his personal elf assistants!

Rudolph managed to make it in to enjoy some of the festivities as well!
There was good food (although I hardly got to eat any of it) and a great crowd of people. We gave away door prizes and prizes to go with our trivia questions. There was some fun dancing in the back of the restaurant, and of course heading downtown afterwards for more drinks and dancing!

My post-defense self was a lot more relaxed and definitely excited about being able to drink and celebrate, but my regular self didn't allow myself up later than 1am, so I definitely had to go home and call it a night.

Guelph bus service

Random thought of the day: I should make Thursdays "Official Rant Days" here.

So I am getting pretty sick of waiting for the bus for extended periods of time because the city of Guelph can't figure out how to make proper bus schedules.

Since January 1, Guelph implemented these new bus schedules that are supposed to be an improvement on the current bus service. Although the routes are now every 15 minutes during peak hours, it makes travel difficult for the rest of the day because of the 30 minute scheduling.

The specialty University schedules still run every 20 minutes and are extended much later into the evening, but what irks me is the stupidity behind the bus scheduled times.

Why is it that for a week's time now, I have consistently taken the bus everyday, but had to wait at least 10 minutes for each of the buses. DESPITE the "supposed" 15 minutes service.

If the bus can't do the entire route in the allotted time WITHOUT stopping, how it is supposed to complete the route while picking passengers up?!?!?!

This is absolutely ridiculous!!!

Defense-ive grievances

Ah. So I forgot to write bitch about my M.Sc. defense.

Nothing much to report here. The same old grievances about the same old people throwing the same old stupid reasons for not being in attendance for something in the department and something important to a friend. Also known as, friends who once again fail to show up to important events and blame it on it being "too early" or "too far".

I don't think I'm one to really hold unattainably high standards for friends, but I do expect friends to be there for each other when needed. A time of need would be one where support is duly needed - such as a defense. The Guelph campus is not that big. We also don't live more than 15 minutes away from it, walking distance. It was disheartening to hear that I scheduled my defense too early in the morning and in a building too far away to attend.

It's such a slap to the face to hear that 915am in the building across the street is too difficult to get to. Especially when someone from the lab I work in, took the bus in from Markham at 7 in the morning, just to get to my defense on time.

There really is only one question left. Are these people really my friends? Do they really have my best interests in mind?

Perhaps I am a bit naive and expect things that just can't be expected. But coming from fellow graduate students, we all live and understand the importance that culminates in a thesis defense. And for it to be casually passed off with the flick of a wrist as "too early" and "too far"?

I would never use those as excuses for not attending something that was important to a friend. Especially after my presence was repeatedly stated to be important.

The take home message is that I'm not important enough to get up for. I'm not important enough to walk across the street for. I'm not important enough to give a passing glance to. I'm not important enough for 60 minutes of someone's time.

It hurts. It really does.

Christmas baking

Sorry, I see that I have neglected the blog over the last few weeks due to the holidays.

I forget where I last left off, but I'll start off with the Christmas baking, and see what else I've missed later on.

Many cookies were made.


Many gingerbread were left to cool before icing.


Mint chocolate drops appeared in the blink of an eye.


Boxed up into several boxes.


And sent on their way to put smiles on friends' faces.

Secret santa was held again, but it was rather fraught with mishaps this year. I was still a little stressed from my defense the few days before, and the hiccups along the secret santa session were leaving me a little high strung. AKA. I don't remember what really happened. Nor do I feel inclined to recall it all..