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?

I went to my other home to celebrate family day with my family- minus Paul who was unfortunately still sick. My mother made some amazing curries that we ate over the next couple days and my father made quiche and pierogies- some of my favourites. Remember how I said I probably wouldn't be doing much cross-country skiing? Well, surprise!! An upside to the extreme cold is that snow doesn't melt as soon as it hits the ground. I have been skiing once a week for the past few weeks. Paul will join me once we get boots to fit him. Tuesday was pancake Tuesday, we didn't have pancakes but we did have easy king cake and substitute mint juleps!! On Thursday Lily had her first high-school semi formal and I went back to Toronto. I had a bit of layover time so I dropped in on Folk Roots Stew at Pyrus, though I couldn't stay for the music. I had a decaf macchiato and read a Lacan book sitting on a shelf there. Once in town it was time to fight the cold again and enjoy the shamanic smoking blend as well as chocolate beer (can there be anything better?) Paul had made his famous pasta sauce but neither of us was hungry because it was 9pm so he used the sauce for his famous vegetable lasagna the next day. In the morning I made sunnyside-up eggs to celebrate a new episode of Sunnyside but to our dismay there wasn't a new episode of Sunnyside. There was, however, a new episode of Better Call Saul, a Breaking Bad spin-off, a prequel, actually. I think we like it but it's too early to say. It's a bit confusing but I like the film-noirish feel to it. I finished my Zizek book and I am now on to Spivak's translation of De La Gramatologie. I also found this Lacan website Acutally, google it!! There are lots of Lacan websites. I had no idea. Last night Paul and I listened to The Be Good Tanyas, Wilco, and CSNY and stayed up way too late given I had to get up at 6:30 for work. Hopefully after work we can swing to Kensington Market to get the buffalo meat that is reserved for us at Sanagan's as well as more smoking blend and to drop in to The Last Temptation and a multi-location art show.

Well, Valentine's day was yesterday, Paul was nasty sick- a bit better today, and I was recovering from a night shift. Bleh. When I lived in Co-op, some people decided to have Valentine's day officially be "pink and red day" which made the rest of us so angry we plotted a "black and grey day" in revenge. Yesterday was definitely black and grey day. But there are lots of nice songs about the colour red. Right now it's -22 outside, feels like -34. For some reason, I thought it would be a great idea to stop off in Kensington Market on my way to work to go to Carlos' House of Spice for tea and incense as well as House of Energy. I found everything I was looking for, excited to try the Smoking Blend. Speaking of the colour red...blue lotus. It's not red, it's blue. And a bit intense. Yes, I guess the last few days have been a bit foggy- working nights and avoiding the cold. The St. Johns wort seems to be helping, lavender too, the other stuff is newer, I have a good feeling, though, about the damiana. More than halfway through February- THAT'S something to celebrate!!

So, how are things going with my list of things to do? Last Friday night we met some friends for Hakka food...was tasty- intensely so, in a way that can't be explained to someone who hasn't already tried it- however at four dishes for four people (and one of them was steamed broccoli, none of them was meat, and they never did bring us the steamed rice...) we could have probably used one more dish. We have tried St. Johns Wort as well as valerian in Mother's Little Helper tea from David's Tea and smoking lots of lavender. Maybe I will try cooking with lavender, too. Cooking- must do more of. I've got lots of muffins to bake. Lavender muffins, anyone? I found some things online that might interest people interested in Hegel and Spivak. Also, reading about WW1 and listening to Dan Carlin has gotten me interested in Rasputin in this song with a melody based on a Turkish folk song by a band created by a German record producer featuring a line-up of musicians born in the Caribbean. Who was Rasputin really? It doesn't matter, because his image was what was important- epitomizing Russia's self-image in the dramatic shift in world order. Hey, I went cross-country skiing for the first time last week. A little wobbly but tranquil and surreal nonetheless, just like smoking lavender, indeed!! While I am on the subject of music... this song and the Great Big Sea version. Or this and this. Funny how the '80s took folky music and made it dancey while the 90s took 80s dancey-sort-of music and made it folky again. But to me the most fascinating remix I can think of is Lambada. According to Wikipedia, Lambada, which translates as strong hit or slap, isn't a song, it's a Brazilian dance that became popular in the 1980s, however it is based in Carimbo, also known as the forbidden dance, which dates back to colonial days. The above song by the French band Kaoma is an unauthorized direct cover of Chorando Se Foi by Marcia Ferreira which is an authorized remix of Los Kjarkas Llorando se fue or she ran away crying. The original music is very much in the Andean folk style. And somehow it all came to this Jennifer Lopez song.

This past summer we went to New York, my parents, Lily and I. Paul stayed back. We only went for a few days. When I got back to the apartment, I told Paul EVERYTHING. I told him about the hotel we stayed at in upstate New York and the Bob Evans we ate in that night where I had the chicken'n'noodles 3-course meal. I told him about the trip to SoHo with the guy selling rings on the street and the cool coasters with photos of celebrities on them which I thought about buying but didn't because when I looked closer there weren't any of my favourite celebrities. I told him about the awesome tiny restaurant called Rbbts where you had to go through the kitchen to get to the bathroom. I told him about how they gave really big glasses of water in the restaurant and the salads were huuuge and the veggie burger was really spicy. And I told about how we didn't get to the store Lily really wanted to go to until later because we got sidetracked by a bunch of other stores they also have in Toronto, but she was OK with it. I said we'd come back sometime, and that she seemed to want to buy mostly shorts and T-shirts which she would be wearing for, at most, a few more weeks. I told him about meeting my cousins fiance for the first time in the Chinese/Japanese restaurant and how we took most of the food home and then left it in the trunk of the car. I told him about watching Nicky's Family with my parents and grandfather. I told him about the trip to the Sound and how we couldn't find a place for ice cream and we finally settled for Baskin Robbins and there was a little girl singing along to this song on the radio.

The last 2 are obviously from the archives that I neglected to post...

How long can I blame the weather? The weather was great this past weekend, though a little disappointing yesterday and last Tuesday (hmmm...the weather is bad on Tuesdays?) I spent the afternoon with a friend on the Thursday before Good Friday...Maundy Thursday? The last day of lent? So, yes, it's been Passover and Easter. I went to a friend's non-traditional seder and made a matza house. Paul tried matza brei for the first time on Easter morning after the hunt. There was chocolate. I bought everything Kinder and Paul thought we still needed Mr. Solid and some things to go in a basket. Then we went for a bike ride and a drive in the country and came back to BBQ some steaks. Well, Paul BBQd the steaks. He had the most at stake. He was a stakeholder. Ooooh, on the weekend before this, we went into Stratford to get Lily her new bike. On the way back, some of us wanted Starbucks (and I wasn't complaining) and the best place to go for that was Target. I finally got my slip-on skeleton shoes. Also, I was so excited about the socks that I got from the last Target excursion- I would finally be able to wear matching socks!! Cool ones, too. And I'm already losing socks!! So discouraging. Tonight I head on back in for work. I hear there are some bike races over the next weeks, and a Petra Glynt concert. My aunt is coming into town, we will have dinner at an interesting restaurant somewhere. The following week is CMW and Jr. Gone Wild have gotten back together. Actually, CMW has a pretty amazing lineup this year. We shall see how things unfold. Remember how I mentioned Harold and the Purple Crayon?? I just saw this. And after a feature on snails, too!!

Maybe it's because the winter dragged on just a little too long. Or maybe it's because I ordered a stack of books at the library and they all came at once. Or maybe I am just making excuses. Something kept me from updating my blog. Well, we saw the new Wes Anderson flick. Actually, we have, collectively, seen three movie movies and much more at-home since the last update. Well, I read this article on The Grand Budapest Hotel. Of course! Be shot-conscious!! Especially if you watch a lot of Wes Anderson movies, which I do. We plan on watching Rushmore and Bottle Rocket as soon as we can. That night the weekend we went to Grand Budapest hotel. The other night, we went here. And if you want to know what I thought of the whole business, read this and this. As for the books, I am reading everything possible by Toni Morrison. After finding the game Creationary for my nephew's fifth birthday, we got some Wiki Chicken and jumped on the next GO Train out of town. We discovered Target- it was Paul's first time! Now I have so many pairs of cool socks. So after a night of inhaling warm penetrating relief analgesic cream, which did wonders for my cold, and puzzling over this Tom Hanks movie, we went for brunch at Boots 'n' Bourbon. They don't have a buffet anymore, nor a mechanical bull, but they did have small plates!! We got bacon bombs, fried cheese balls, and pulled pork sliders. Say no more!! Soon I must run to the laundromat to put stuff in the dryer. Paul is getting his bike ready to take to Bike Sauce, yesterday was my first time there, seems like a really cool place to have in the neighbourhood. It's one of the first days that has felt like spring!! Next weekend we are back out of town again.

In this new year I plan to: Learn more wisdom from Puff Mama and hopefully try some new herbs: St. John's Wort, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Skullcap, Valerian- Kratom is great but maybe not the be-all and the end-all Explore Seduction (restraints and gags...games?, and much more) and Come as You Are (workshops and stuff.) Speaking of workshops - cooking workshops!! The Big Carrot, Loblaw's, St. Lawrence Market. Check out Urban Native Ministry Some more reading: Zizek, Spivak, Kant, Hegel, Thomas Payne, Karen Armstrong, the WWI stuff, Gabor Mate, revisit the Waldorf parenting books, Tolstoy Anna Karenina and The Kingdom of God is Within You (revisit), more in Said's trilogy Volunteering at IHSJ Keep working on my blogs- this as a weblog of events, A Trinity of Hamsters for projects, Xanga for multimedia Wear more makeup- keep seeking Lily's advice on this one. I was going to look into being a hair model on the advice of Dreamy Beauty Bar but I might have to cut my hair (noooo!) Live music- Mike, Erika, Yawn, the gang, maybe Choir!Choir!Choir! Continue going to The Barley Jar Look into Geneva Park and maybe some other family camps, too. We're a bit late for Wanakita but Lily and I have done Wabanaki previously, maybe we'd do it again sometime. Camping at Bon Echo this summer, and/or maybe Sandbanks? Also hopefully going out west this summer Yoga- Spiritwind AND Spirit Loft Exercise? Keep walking everywhere- doesn't look like much of a cross-country skiing winter Film- become affiliated with Raindance and maybe pitch my pilot to DOC, LIFT, and anywhere else, go back to reading for YouGoFar when I can, and more adjudicating for The Female Eye. Work? The Union? all that. Happy Festivus, air your grievances everyone. Check out Evergreen Brick Works. keep seeing friends. Go to Gallery Arcturus Eat Hakka food.