twenty ten.

alright. it's a new year. it's the first day back at work after the holidays and i'm going to... call in sick! weeeeeeee. i woke up this morning after tossing and turning all night while my residual two-week hangover sunk in, already late for work and realized i hadn't done laundry in months, groceries in weeks and that i could smell myself. i mean smell myself.

so, fuck it. i emailed in asking for a personal day and slept till 2pm. a hot shower and four hours of laundry later, i feel like a whole new woman. i made a nice tomato bisque tonight and uploaded a shitload of pictures. i've spent so much of the last month partying (four birthdays, three dinners, two holidays, several stress-relieving mid week bombings), baking (cookies, bars, muffins, cupcakes, bread, libraries, pies) and waiting on retards (if you don't know how to connect to the internet, i'm not going to sell you pro tools) that i just needed a me day. a day, alone, to reset my world and get ready for the next step. i'll begin the voyage with vegan chocolate pancakes!

fuck christmas, celebrate my birth.

this year i have baked, boiled, beaten, braised, brunched and barbecued more food than i previously knew existed. i've gone from blurry breakfast cell phone pics to post processed pig part pictures from a digital slr. alliteration almost aside, this has been a fucking fantastic year for food.

i'm going to be twenty seven in an hour and a half and, well, i'm stoked. getting older is getting better and i finally feel like i'm headed in a direction. i can't see which direction right now but i feel like i'm doing something right.

here's a link to the food i ate this year, people i got drunk with and stuff i rode past on my bicycle(s). thanks to the fellow gluttons, drunkards and well-wishers i've had over a hundred blog posts, a thousand photos on flickr and hazy memories of all of it. see ya next year, assholes!

goodbye, old friend.

you carried me home on drunken summer nights. you flew through ice and sleet like a fucking atv. your brakes barely worked and your chain fell off if i changed gears but, i loved you. thanks for the rides, the bails and all the ripped pantyhose. you will be missed, blue bike.

ah yes, another bike stolen at christmas. god rest ye merry thieves. i hope you pawned my only mode of transportation for cash... your crack babies and fat wife need presents!

gotta double bag those girls from oshawa

i have been eagerly awaiting the re-opening of stem restaurant on queen st. for almost a year. when they closed "for filming" and never reopened we were all worried the fucking croc store would expand or some other bullshit would move in but, last week a sign finally went up. when i saw the bqm logo i was a little disheartened. i mean, there's already two bqm's in toronto and neither is exceptional.

i ate at this location for the first time about an hour ago and it was alright. they aren't rocking the full menu yet but promise to have daily rotating blue plate specials (read: roast beef, meatloaf, pulled pork sandwiches, etc.) and all day breakfast seven days a week. i got the cheeseburger. it was bloody, tasted like meat and, in my carnivorous opinion, pretty perfect. the fries were thick but crispy and the staff was overly attentive (i was the only customer). if only those tattooed line cooks hadn't been making fun of "dirty" oshawa girls the whole time. i mean, i can say it because i lived there for twenty plus years and i have the right. you, sirs, do not... regardless of how many of us you've tried to fuck.

beet arthur

i'm often thankful for the neighbourhood i live in. i'm wedged between chinatown and kensington market so i've always got fresh goodies near by and the late fall/early winter is quickly becoming my favourite produce season! i bought three kinds of beets this week (who knew, right?). i roasted them all for awhile, ate a few burning hot chunks and threw the rest in with my brine mixture (getting better by the pickle, thanks for asking). the candy cane beet has weird colours like, uh, a candy cane and the golden one is a completely different taste than the classic purple guy. next up: local squash and apple soup. boom.

it's supposed to snow tonight, my phone told me so.

i bought a new phone yesterday. it's an htc magic. i'd been eyeing it for months and, honestly, couldn't be happier with it. i never thought i would have one of these cool, touch screen, smart phone, gps enabled, app downloading monsters but, hey, it's sleek and allows me to remotely download torrents, check the blogs i follow, learn about constellations, ensure shelves are level and make hilarious fart noises. who could ask for more? (actually, for reasons unknown the magic is incapable of caller display outside of my contact list. it's the one infuriating thing in an otherwise glorious device. hopefully a firmware update is in the midst.)

also this week, phil and i went out for ramen. i know what you're thinking (mr. noodles?) and you're half right. we were debating which ramen hut to visit and after an email from our mutual crushes, the food jammers, we stopped by their endorsed place, kenzo on dundas. the meal was simple but delicious. i would recommend it to anyone in the area with six bucks and twenty minutes to slurp, slop and savour the winter blahs away.

pho-pho-photura photos.

so, that camera i got for twenty bucks? it's pretty much the best! it really feels great to shoot film again.

a hundred posts later.

i rolled alone today because phil went to his parents' for american thanksgiving. i took the opportunity to buy him some christmas presents, take some pictures and visit the one of a kind show. shopping for others has become my favourite part of this quickly approaching/highly aggravating holiday season. i love the feeling of finding the perfect gift. i almost cried at the show because i was so excited. oh man, some of the shit there is extraordinary, over-priced in places, but really exceptional.

i was surprised at the amount of food vendors. i got to sample candied atlantic salmon, chocolate covered everything, coconut cashews, lobster mousse, country peach vinegar (wow), tons of smoked fish, locally grown herbal teas and endless bins of flavoured soybeans, nuts and dipping sauces.

i'm trying to think of a better way to spend a day but how can you beat wake and bake, groceries in kensington, breakfast with the paper at tequila bookworm, quick stop at the camera store, bike ride along the lake, one of a kind shopping followed by beers, food and photo editing? YOU CAN'T... but you should feel inspired to try.

oh, granny... you're so stylish.

i finally got my boots in the mail! i am so fucking pumped. go, online vintage shopping! best 29 bucks i've spent in a long time.

how can i help you today, dickface?

you know that feeling when you've helped someone? i mean, really informed them and provided excellent service and got them the product they didn't know they wanted but now cannot live without? it's like a first kiss or a great meal or a satisfying shit... it disappears as soon as some retard comes along and stares at your tits for twenty minutes while asking pointless questions in an attempt to start a conversation with a hottie they wouldn't have a fucking chance with in real life.

this is the bain of customer service. the idiots out number the friendlies. the perverts, assholes and sexists will continually ruin my (and maybe your) days at work but thank christ for the simpletons: the polite and eager-to-learn custies hold a place in my heart.

i would like to thank you, mr/s. considerate and smiling, for making an otherwise shit job a little more tolerable. if i could high five your parents, i would.