Today- I went to No Frills mostly to use the ATM but I scored big on hair stuff. John Frieda conditioner for >$4. The day started out great. I also got some cans of "coffee milk" i.e. evaporated milk.

Later, it was well into the afternoon, and I stopped off at The Rooster. They still had breakfast cookies!! Even better.

I went back to the house to clean up. As I was on my way to work, I was wondering why my bag was so heavy. Hah! The milk and conditioner were still in there. So, I had to carry it all the way to work and I guess I will be carrying it around with me all evening.

How did I do on my New Years' resolutions last year? Well, I DID experiment with herbalism but I am taking a bit of a break. Still gotta take some cooking classes and check out Choir!Choir!Choir! and take a Come As You Are workshop. Add to that: check out The Move.

So, merry erev Christmas and happy secular new year. I am working today and double-shifted tomorrow, tonight I will have sushi.

The other night, I had the (rare) opportunity to cook dinner. I made what I usually make in this instance: cheesy spaghetti.

Here's how it's done:

Put a large pot of water to boil- you can add a little salt and/or oil if you like.

Meanwhile, take equal parts flour and margarine (for 3 people I used 2 tbsp each) and place in saucepan on low heat. Whisk constantly until it forms a thick paste.

Gradually add milk (about 1 c.) and whisk until it is all mixed together and the mixture begins to thicken.

Add some hard cheese (I like extra-old cheddar) about the size of 2 thumbs per person- cut into cubes, whisk again until melted and all mixed in. Add some parmesan cheese and pepper, too, to taste. You can add other seasonings, too if you like.

Add canned salmon, drained first, of course. I use 1 can for 2-3 people. I've also been known to add frozen peas, or diced onions. Again, whatever you like. You can also leave the salmon out.

Hopefully, by now, the water has boiled and your spaghetti is almost ready. Once this is the case, drain your spaghetti and put it back in the pot. Pour the cheese sauce over it and mix it in.

Serve with salad- with croutons!!- and garlic bread or dinner rolls or somesuch and more parmesan cheese and pepper and whatever else you like. Certainly a white wine meal.

OK, so it's been a while again.

A couple nights back I had my favourite dream. Well, it's not as if I have the exact same dream over and over again, but I have different manifestations of the same dream.

The basic premise is this: while the east end of the town I live in has gotten very suburbanized, the west remains rural. In the dream, someone builds some kind of alternative, hippie paradise in the west end. In this dream, there was some big food co-op with a vegan cafe. I am always a bit disappointed when I wake up.

In other news, I've gone back to school. More about this later.

Now to plan Lily's birthday...

Ah, it's been a long time.

I started a post a while back but it was way too complicated and analytical so I never finished it.

In the meantime, I have started something I call "moonlight running" which is, of course, running by moonlight, because it's too crazy hot to run any other time.

I am looking to get us all a family Y pass. The West End Y doesn't have the Run Fit Classes I used to love but they have new things like Kettlebell and Barre.

In the meantime, I've started jamming again- slowly but steadily, looking to buy a new guitar. I have one electric in New Hamburg that needs to be restrung and a twelve-string acoustic in Toronto that needs more work than is probably worth but also has lots of sentimental value.

And places to eat after jamming- we went back to The Bristol- can't remember if I wrote about that or not. Fun atmosphere but their hottest curry is really really hot. It really is a hallucinogenic experience. We went one down this time and also ordered my beloved porkoras (yes, that's pakoras with bacon!!) For our vegan friend, surprisingly little vegan options. She had jeera beans and the Electric Vindaloo curry with crispy cauliflower, which was extremely spicy.

We also went to Disgraceland which can make everything vegan except the deep-fried Mars bars (we ordered them just for fun.) I found I did not enjoy Disgraceland dinner as much as the brunch I had a while back.

Another thing we did was go to Annares Natural Health where I got some natural sunscreen. Been wearing it most days, so far so good. Not the most exciting thing they had there, though. There was something called Sun Kissed or Sun Blessed that smelled nice but didn't have the SPF. I will have to go back.

Been cooking at Bike Sauce and that's been fun, I'm meeting lots of nice people. Also, I am definitely going to buy or build an inexpensive bike to use for short distances in the city. Paul and I can go to the beach!! Or Evergreen Brickworks.

Tonight I work and Paul is at a race, there is a bike race pretty much every Saturday in the summer. Last week we went together and neither of us raced but we had fun.

A nice summer. Except it IS crazy hot.

Spring is here!! At last!! At f@#*ing last!!

Something happens when it becomes spring. You stop spending so much time on the internet and start living. Or, at least, I do.

It's time to go to Aft and sit on the patio. It's time to find an abandoned bridge (scroll down to Eastern Ave.) where you can sit and drink beer. It's time to lay stones.

I've worked three 8am-4pm shifts in a row and each day I get up a little earlier. Today I was up at 5:20 am. I tossed and I turned but decided I might as well get up. I walked up to Broadview Subway Station and stopped at  Rooster on the way.

Hey, the other week we took in one of Puff Mama's comedy shows. Pretty neat, and we didn't even have to travel far. Hey, happy 4/20!!

Sometimes I miss the sense of community that we had in Kensington Market- and in other neighbourhoods that each of us lived in before that. But I remember that a sense of community takes effort, and now that the weather is nice, there are lots of places to go to meet people who live nearby. We were invited to a sangria party that we decided to skip because I'm heading out of town tomorrow and Paul and I haven't had much just-us time.

Now Lucinda Williams is playing on grooveshark and Paul is making a spinach salad. I am drinking a chocolate beer. Life is pretty nice.

Here is a post from a few weeks back:

So we both spent this past weekend at my "other" home. It was my father's birthday and Lily made him a "cake" out of Canadian Maple donuts from Tim Horton's. Since Paul wasn't there for my mother's birthday, her made them both his special lasagna on Sunday night. We played Anomia. I went for my first run of the season. I had to stop and gasp and walk and start running again a few times but I have more than half a year to get back into shape before the snow flies again (I hope, oh I hope.) I took out the hoop a few times, too. And, we watched Freaks and Geeks on Netflix.

Yesterday I helped make a St. Patrick's Day lunch of Irish stew, Irish soda bread (that was my part) and punch at the Resource Centre before heading back into town with Paul. Lily is on March Break and will be going to New York with her grandparents.

We were thinking of going to a comedy show across the street but we might just stay in. There are comedy shows across the street most nights of the week. We were thinking of going yesterday but I was in a meeting that ran late, didn't get home until after 11. When I got home, we still wanted to go out but the Irish pub downstairs was (understandably) packed so we went to Boots 'n' Bourbon instead. Tomorrow we check out The Bristol with some friends. 

Well, we brought some Oak Grove cheese with us and I made cheese omelettes

Well, I may not have made pancakes on Pancake Tuesday but I've made them twice since. I use Paul's perfect pancake recipe, which was passed on to him by his grandmother. I also made it for him instead of regular cake for his birthday.

 This is what we do when it is just the two of us:

(It's really easy to multiply this recipe, though.)

1 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
a pinch of salt 

1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tbsp sugar (I go to the bag of dark brown sugar and find a tbsp-sized clump)

 approx 2 tbsp butter.

 Mix first three ingredients in a bowl until fully blended and as few lumps of baking powder remain as possible.

Mix second three ingredients in a separate bowl until fully blended- and as few lumps of sugar remain as possible- though biting into a lump of sugar is not the same as biting into a lump of baking powder.

 Melt the butter in a pan, pour about 1/3 of the melted butter into the bowl with the second three (wet) ingredients and mix it up quickly before little bits of butter congeal. Pour another 1/3 into a cup or small bowl for later and leave the rest in the pan- turn the burner under the pan to low-medium.

 Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, but don't over-mix, just until blended, it should be a little lumpy.

 Use the cup-measure to pour batter into the pan, it should make about 4 large pancakes. I make them two at a time and use the leftover butter for the second batch.

 Of course, you can substitute buttermilk for the milk. Once we tried blueberry huslanka. Kefir would probably be fine, too. I have also used half milk and half yogurt.

In an effort to recreate Happy Pancakes I have also made chocolate chip funfetti pancakes (with chocolate chips and coloured sprinkles added after the wet and dry ingredients have been mixed together) which Lily loved but Paul wasn't crazy about. Today we had a banana that needed to be used so I mashed it up and mixed it in with the wet ingredients. I wanted to make Ponnukokur, something else Paul's grandmother used to make, but he warned me they might be tricky. Speaking of Happy Pancakes- really called Winter of the Witch, I will say that I completely identify with Scott Murdock in the article. My brother and I had the same gr 1/2 teacher and we both remembered her showing us the movie, so we knew we weren't nuts. When I found the article and the website, I immediately posted it to facebook and a few childhood friends also responded. It was a very affirming experience. What's really cool is that the film was shot by an NYU student on a shoestring budget and only a stone's throw from where my mother grew up. Also, it was shot in 1966, is there any chance, ANY CHANCE AT ALL, that the filmmakers weren't trying to make a drug reference??? And this is what we watched in our small tow n elementary school. Hahaha. Puff Mama has recipes but none for pancakes. However, why not substitute cannabutter for butter?