Thursday, November 19, 2009

Just Call Me Mrs.

You're probably wondering where I have been lately. Well, I've had some excitement in my life and I'm ready to tell you all about it. This little Miss is becoming Mrs. Yup, it's official, I'm a grown up.

To explain the context : I love doing the Saturday morning crossword. It makes me so very happy to have a coffee and the crossword in front of me. Sometimes I even pretend to let B help. So on Saturday morning, my 27th birthday, B set me all up on the couch with the crossword and hid in the kitchen. I thought he was just cooking breakfast. Little did I know that this was a crossword that I would never ever forget. Enjoy the video!

I'm sure someday I'll be able to watch this without crying. And while I am a little embarrassed of the pajamas, greasy hair and majorly squeaky voice, I'm so happy to have this video forever.
Photos to come soon!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Paragliding just got better...

I stumbled across these photos taken by George Steinmetz, paraglider and photographer extraordinaire and I had an intense urge to sing out, "I don't think I can han-dle it, wooooo!" all BeyoncĂ© style. They were taken from a motorized paraglider, and the photographer was able to capture images that are inaccessible by traditional aircraft and therefore generally unseen. A regular contributor to National Geographic and GEO Magazines, he has explored subjects ranging from the remotest stretches of Arabia’s Empty Quarter to the unknown tree people of Irian Jaya.

And how did his career in photography start in the first place? Oh, hitchhiking through Africa for 28 months. Bad. Ass. If you have time to spare, check out his website.
And if you don't have time, make time because it is amazing and worth the effort of clicking around. Lazy-bones.













Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Top Chef

Is anyone else watching this show? It is the best thing that has happened to me since Project Runway. I can't cook to save myself but man do I love to watch other people do it. From the high stakes challenges to the group efforts, every week for one full hour this show owns me.
Do I have any desire to become a chef? Hell no.
Do I want to eat most everything they cook? Hellloooooo yes!
From quails eggs to beef cheeks to consommés to billi-bi I am along for the delicious ride. And the food isn't the only delicious thing - well hellloooo Tom Colicchio! And Padma's ok too.
If you haven't seen it yet and you want to spend an hour salivating and then having a bowl of cereal for dinner, come on over!
Top Chef airs on Monday nights at 9pm on the Food Network.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Best Ottawa Food Blog

Nooschi is an Ottawa-based food diary that boldly tackles my favourite topic of all time: food. Restaurant reviews, recipes, and beautiful photos make this blog a must-see for any self-proclaimed foodie like myself. I could come home from a giant buffet dinner and still get hunger pangs when checking out the latest post on Nooschi.


Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde (click here for the recipe)


Cinnamon Apple Chips (click here for the recipe)


Banana Pumpkin Pancakes ( click here for the recipe)

**I don't even really like pancakes, but I am pretty sure that these pancakes are my soul mates. I will be making them on Saturday morning if you want to come by!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Happy Weekend!

I hope you all have a great weekend filled with bunny rabbits, lemon drops and kisses from rainbows!





Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Denmark, I Think I Love You.


Sometimes Oprah has great shows, and sometimes it makes me want to pull out my eyelashes one by one. Today, she featured AMAZING Denmark. I didn't even know how much I loved Denmark until I learned every little detail. If I could open mouth kiss this country, I wouldn't hesitate. Among the list of things that makes me want to sell everything and hop on the next flight to Copenhagen:
  • the Danes have been named the happiest people on the earth
  • it was the first European country to legalize same-sex marriages and provide same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, in 1989
  • their government has nearly no debt (gasp, my brain cannot understand..)
  • 1 in 3 Danes use bicycles as their main mode of transportation
  • it is one of the prime contributors of official aid and founds to developing countries
  • the education system offers free and equal schooling for all
  • a common expression is "Jeg er en heldig kartoffel! (I am a lucky potato!)
  • Cheese.
So, when do we go??

Friday, October 16, 2009

Where It's At

I know you are all wondering why I have been so lazy lately and haven't been making regular posts. Well I'm here to tell you, it's not laziness, it's trying to keep up with a busy life that just seems to be getting busier and busier.
Excuses, excuses right? Well at least I can share some photos of what I've been doing so that you know that I haven't been sitting at home watching Maury Povich and eating cheetos.

First up, St. John's, NL - aka my new favourite Canadian destination. Tales of East coast hospitality are not exaggerated, I had an amazing time there, made new friends and partied until the sun came up. George St, I take my hat off to you.
Of course, my little raincloud followed me across the country, so the photos aren't great, but you get the idea...




(Awesome dorky photo, this is what happens when you travel alone. I eventually figured out the right distance to stand from the camera-on-rock setup, but this photo is far more entertaining.)

Next up? Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania with B's family which was awesome and action-packed. The best part? Visiting the Martin Guitar factory - words cannot explain how amazing it was to see these beautiful guitars being made - often by hand - and the smell of the factory was nothing short of heavenly. You know you're in a pretty great place when the CEO is giving tours. I equate the experience to an adult version of visiting Santa's workshop and seeing the elves at work. And it goes without saying that B was over the moon.
This photo is of a soundproof room with some of Martin's best guitars that you can pick up and play. It's pretty surreal to play a guitar that you know you will never ever be able to afford..




I'm trying to be cool here, but this is Tom Petty's guitar. Enough said..

Is It Too Late For Broadway?


My best cousin L and I went to see A Chorus Line last night and all I have wanted to do since is sing and dance. Getting dressed in the morning is kind of a drag... you know what would be better? A musical number.

Sitting at work on a Friday pretending to work sucks...you know what would make it better? A group dance-off.

Our seats were four rows in and you could literally see the sweat fly off the dancers. We were actually the perfect distance because you could see the sweat but you weren't in the row that actually got sprayed with it.

So if you see someone skipping down the street today, doing that side kick thing and singing "I hope I get it, god I hope I get it!" you'll know it's me....

Saturday, October 3, 2009

St. John's



Well I finally made it to St. John's, Newfoundland after a very long and very frustrating day. Spending an entire day in airports is not my idea of a good time. And Ottawa isn't exactly the kind of place where you imagine getting fogged in.
And just for the record, I'm all for getting ID'ed at the liquor store, but when the Air Canada rep calls me Sweetie and asks if I'm traveling alone, I'm starting to question what is happening here.
My flight eventually made it out, albeit four hours later and I sure did miss my connection flight by about two hours. No problem, I'll just spend two billion more hours killing time in the Toronto airport.
Sigh.
The beacon of light through all of this was that on both flights I ended up sitting beside some very friendly people, Dan from Windsor on the first and Tom from St. John's on the second. Both had interesting stories to tell and although I usually shy away from having to make small talk with strangers, after a day in airport hell I was eager to have some human interaction that extended beyond pretending not to stare at weird strangers.
I finally arrived in St. John's, happy as a clam to be here, but I guess my luggage had other thoughts, it apparently wasn't ready to make the cross-province journey.
Add pouring rain and shitty directions to the hotel to the list, and you'll figure out how my day ended.

But I'm here now, and I'm sure things will be turning around! My day of conferences is about to begin, followed by a banquet dinner and something called being "Screeched In" which involves everyone's least favorite booze, so I'm sure I will have stories to tell.
More to come soon!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Camouflage art





(images via Accidental Mysteries - a new and amazing discovery...)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Buffalos vs. Lions vs. Crocodiles

If you have time to spare you have got to check it this video! Even if you fast forward it in places, it is amazing and rivals anything from National Geographic. Dumb old buffalos, but better late than never!

100 Best Novels

Today I stumbled upon (literally, check out stumbling here) a list of the 100 Best Novels, as chosen by Random House and Modern Library. I'm embarrassed to say that I had read pathetically few out of the list - that being said, there were a lot of classics. Among the ones that I have read:


THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
1984 by George Orwell
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
15 out of 100. I'm embarrassed. But then I checked out the Reader's List - and I fared much better, I'm happy to say. Because seriously, how many D.H. Lawrence novels can one person read? So here are my reads from a list of books that didn't all get originally published while the dinosaurs still roamed the earth:

ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
ULYSSES by James Joyce (ok, sort of..)
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
THE STAND by Stephen King
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
ON THE ROAD by Jack Keouac
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
IT by Stephen King
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
A respectable 25 - click here to see how many you've read...

Chapeau

Maybe I just have winter on the brain right now - my feet have already become frozen blocks of ice, to defreeze sometime in the spring - and all I can think about is keeping warm. That is why I think I need this hat. And my hat, I mean Beard Head Mustache. Amaaaaaazing!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Ugghhhhhhh.

Today, something I don't like.

Is anyone else dreading winter as much as I am???

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Brashley Estates

We moved into our first home two years ago this October (!) and even though I feel like we have done quite a bit to the house, there always seems to be something new that needs work and attention. I guess that's what happens when you buy a house that is 60+ years old.
So here are some of my plans, in no particular order:

A bright yellow front door, or maybe a mustard color. I love red brick and yellow together! I think it might add a little curbside appeal, but do you think it might look weird because we are in a semi-detached home?

This is something I have been working on for the bedroom. So far I've only managed to paint half the bedroom white, but once I get motivation and finish it, I would like to have a plate display on the back wall. I'm slowly collecting plates, but need about 10 more colorful ones...

I like this look too, but would need to find some really nice plates if I'm only putting up a few. So far my plates have a) a cow, b)green beans, c)carrots and d) an apple pie recipe. I need more!


We have the kitchen floor from hell. Small and very cracked white tiles cover the space, with dirt-stained grout for a finishing touch. I hate them. No matter how clean you get them, they always look gross. But look at these pretty floors! White, clean, shiny and easy to keep looking good! My mouth is watering...

Same floor look, but awesome color - I would love to do this, but only if we take down the wall between the kitchen and living room and have the grey be the main color. Don't you think this light tuquoise would be so pretty with grey walls, and white and black accents?
Again, easy to keep clean and again, mouth watering.

This one we wanted to get done this past summer but time and money but greatly underestimated. The good news is we have a plan, and we will hopefully get our new deck up next spring. Oh, and our backyard looks just like this one. Only less trees (none actually), less delicious mountain air, more weird street people, and more weeds. Ahhh home.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Yes please.

On a very gray, very gloomy and very uneventful Tuesday, there is only one place I want to be. In this bed-fort of love. And if I could get B and F there too it would be pure bliss. As long as B was quiet and F didn't bedhog.


(image via Erin Ever After)

What's your idea of bliss?