hump day

i went into the market after work today to buy some black tights. i had to try three stores before i found any but when i went to pay the clerk gave me "the market discount" and they only cost me four bucks! pretty awesome.

i was walking my bike down baldwin after and i heard someone running behind me. at first i thought it was her and i had forgot my wallet or something. i turned around and saw an older eastern european dude. he said something in a thick accent that i misheard as 'you are the most talented woman i have ever seen.' i was confused but he handed me his card and said, 'no! you have an elegant ass!' i walked home and read the card.

When Your Man does not Measure Up
PAVEL THE LOVER
certified honors graduate of dimitri the lover's sexual guru program

hilarious, no? afterward i made some tofu steak on a simple salad, drank six pabst and am about to head to sneaks for travis' party. why can he bring people out on a wednesday and i couldn't for two years? kids who like dance music are stupid. i'm gonna go to the bar and act all better than them.

the vietnamese and the honky

phil and i went for dinner at anh dao tonight. we've been talking about it for awhile but never seem to walk north on that side of the street when we're hungry.

when we first walked in i was talking at street noise volume and the silent restaurant all stared at us. we sat in the front and starting looking through the menu. it was daunting. there are always too many things i want to try. we ended up getting shrimp paste on sugar cane with vermicelli, sprouts and cold roll wrappers. i'd never rolled my own cold rolls but i showed exemplary skills from all my taco bell experience in the 90s. we also got the assorted meat dish with shredded pork, barbecue pork chop and egg cake with rice. phil made fun of the way i eat for awhile and everything was fucking great. we ordered an avocado shake too but it tasted like something else. still great.

afterwards i picked up a couple tall cans and rode down to the school behind the horseshoe to see some people from work playing hockey. it was funny to see, almost made me feel like i was in oshawa again. conversely, i couldn't help being astounded that all of them had their own hockey sticks. i guess it is the national sport.

we smoked some bowls and i got to hang out with beau for awhile which ruled. some people peaced, some went to watch game seven of something and i came home to write in my blog...

i wish i had another beer.

dieting

in an effort to be less of a fat piece of shit, i'm trying to exercise and eat better. my roommate, kim, bought a leg magic a couple weeks ago and i've used it (not near as often as recommended) and while it has gotten easier to ride my bike uphill or climb stairs, the pounds aren't melting off like the infomercial convinced me they would.

in another lifestyle change, i've been trying to eat less junk. i remember a time when mcdonald's for breakfast, taco bell for lunch, popeye's for dinner and two bags of m&ms before bed seemed normal. i haven't eaten any of these things in four months and you know what? I LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME. i knew that supersize me guy was full of shit.

oh, another thing, trying to improve yourself sucks. my body is going through sugar withdrawal and i'm furious all the time. i find myself snapping on customers at work and spitting on cars parked in bike lanes. apparently, this is normal during the weight loss process but i'm definitely getting tired of it. i wish i wasn't 26 and my body would still take whatever i threw at it.

i'm ranting because i'm tired, i'm tired because i'm starving and i'm starving because i want to eat EVERYTHING all the time. i tried to eat a responsible lunch today. i got a soup/salad/cornbread combo from fresh and didn't hate it! i found it remarkable considering everything else i've eaten there has tasted like moist cardboard rolled in vegan sawdust.

perhaps i have learned a lesson... don't order disgusting vegan versions of delicious meat dishes. i'll stick with what the hippies know - food that started out as dirt. that's good for me, right?

i love my neighbourhood

today was a pretty slow day at work. mondays are usually boring but now that the weather is awesome people just wanna stay outside.

after work i came home, ditched the jean jacket and went into the market. i missed the bakery so i just got some vegetables. while i was picking out tomatoes a beer store truck was trying to squeeze around the corner and knocked over a recycling bin full of vegetable rejects. bright, delicious colours poured out onto the sidewalk. i wanted to take a picture but was surprised when the passenger hopped out and picked up all the spillage. sunshine makes humans want to be better people. it's nice to see.

swung through chinatown for some tofu, liquor store for a six pack (where i saw a group of over achieving hipsters wearing everything they thought they should be to compliment their ironic tattoos, over sized lens-less glasses and cosby sweaters) and home to start barbecuing.

i grilled up the leftover steak from the weekend that had been marinating in olive oil and garlic with mushrooms and roasted tomatoes. a stray cat watched me from atop an abandoned tire while i tried to take pictures of myself, drank half a bottle of red wine and hoped to avoid a grease fire. my life rules.

a weekend in pictures

i left work early on friday and came home. cleaned up the place a bit and had some folks over. it's mostly a blur but, i'm pretty sure we went to ronnies. mostly i remember a bunch of jocks driving by us in the market and asking where we'd parked. that was pretty weird.

on saturday, we went to avenue open kitchen and had some club sandwiches for breakfast and looked at graffiti in the alley adjacent. there were a whole bunch of empty skate shoe boxes that must've been from the sample sales last week.

we got on our bikes and rode along the lake towards roncesvalles. it was 25 degrees out and it felt great to wear shorts. i got brain freeze from a potent grape slushie and took some pictures of phil. it took less than half the time to get back downtown because the wind was at our backs... which was much better.

we met up with dave and sarah in kensington as a storm was about to break. we bought some meat for the barbecue and umbrellas for the rain. the wind was fucking crazy so they were destroyed pretty quickly. we got back to my house after a long line up at the lcbo and watched from dusk till dawn and smoked bowls until the rain stopped.

we ate and drank until roff and sheri showed up and then we headed to lindsay's birthday jam at sneaks. it was still sort of raining all night so everyone was damp but jolly. i ate someone's leftover chicken wings and nachos while talking to kathy. it's rare to see this chic but when she's around it all tits and jokes. me and phil stumbled home after last call and passed out.

sunday morning we got up and were going to head east for brunch but were worried about the rain. i've never had breakfast on bloor so we went to over easy across from the rom. it was mediocre but atleast the homefries didn't come out of a bag. phil had never been to the rom and didn't mind paying the $22 entry fee so we strolled through. i didn't have great expectations but it was pretty sick to see medieval chests with huge cupboards that led to tiny drawers, paintings of men with arrows through their necks, the book of the fucking dead and dinosaur bones all in one place. i was pissed that i didn't have my camera though my phone did an okay job. the history and evolution of furniture was definitely the exhibit i most wanted to smash through the glass and touch everything.

click the pics for full size versions on flickr.

it looks like posing