bougie! December 28, 2011

i know porter airlines is old news now, but this is my first experience with it.  my friend lavina and i are going to boston for a few days and decided to fly this time because she had a credit with porter that had to be used by january 1st.

firstoff, lavina was really excited to take a car, train, (shuttle) bus, boat and plane today.  the shuttle from union station and the ferry to the island airport were pretty standard, the check-in was quick (i guess that helps when you don’t have nearly as many flights as at a big airport) and the employees were all really nice.

now we’re in the lounge, which is fancy!  i had heard about the free drinks and snacks and the computers that you can use.  i’ve been in the first class lounge at pearson once and this is comparable to it!  but trendier, because it has macs instead of pc’s and is designed in a more sleek way.  it’s also interesting seeing the clientelle.  a couple with an older lady sitting across from us in the seating area are also taking porter for the first time.  i know this because the woman was very surprised and delighted when her husband brought her a cup of coffee.  i don’t think she had heard about the free drinks.

rain… wait, snow! …finally December 27, 2011

today i went downtown to meet my good friend shima.  shima is the mother of my famed favourite niece mythilli.  but shima is more than that, of course.  i always feel that new mothers cease to be individuals when people interact with them, but instead, become simply the bearer of their infant/child.

so i decided that shima and i should have an afternoon together sans baby.  papa ram took care of mythilli, leaving shima and i several lovely hours to hang out.  my sister has these self-guided walking tours of a few aspects/parts of toronto so we embarked on one of those walks.

unfortunately, it was raining.  but shima is always a good sport and we did just fine in the rain.  and we spent a good while inside the dark horse espresso bar, which i quite liked.  the riverside location is a bit more ecclectic than the chinatown one, which we also visited.  (that was the point of the walking tour.)

after parting ways at spadina station, i made my way back up to my parents’ house.  as i was walking up the stairs to exit the subway station in north york, i was hoping that the rain had stopped so i wouldn’t have to pull out my umbrella again.  to my surprise, instead of rain was a big flurry of snow!

apparently this is the first toronto has seen this year.  welcome to winter, toronto!

but let’s hope it doesn’t snow too much because i’m off tomorrow for a wee vacay with my friend lavina.  after that i’ve got to pop over to hamilton before getting home next tuesday night.  woot!

a little of this, a touch of that… December 26, 2011

tonight i decided to do one of my favourite things: bake.  i thought it would be good to use up the plain yoghurt and the almond milk that i bought since i’m going away wednesday.

here’s what i threw into a mixing bowl:

1 1/4 c all purpose flour

1 1/2 c old fashioned/large flake oats (i prefer them to quick oats – better texture and aesthetics… and i think they’re better for you too since they’re less processed?)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

after mixing, i created a well in the centre and added:

1 egg

1/2 c white sugar

~1/3 c honey (or maybe closer to 1/4 c, i’m not really sure since i just squeezed it out)

4 (table)spoons plain yoghurt

1/2 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk

after mixing that together i grated in one golden delicious apple (skin included) and added 1/2 c dried cranberries

i put it all in a greased 8 x 8  pan and popped it into the oven.  i set it for 350 but put it in before it was pre-heated.  why waste the electricity?

not sure how long it’ll take to bake, it’s still in there.

so there you go!  improvised apple cranberry yoghurt oat cake.

lessons (not?) learned from yesterday: December 24, 2011

i seem to have a short memory for things.  here’s what i learned (not to do) again yesterday:

1/ drink coffee after noon.  i had an americano with my sister and brother-in-law (very tasty!) at about 4pm yesterday.  it gave me the kick i needed for the rest of the evening but i paid for it at 2am when i really wanted to go to sleep.

2/ eat wheat at every meal.  if i eat too much wheat, my stomach will hurt.  i started noticing this when my gluten-free housemate moved in.  the problem is that when i’m not home or at people’s homes, i don’t have nearly as much control over what i eat.

it’s not much fun when your stomach is sore and you can’t sleep.  i’m looking forward to a turkey coma tonight!  oh, except i don’t really eat meat…

i stand corrected… but i’m still cold December 20, 2011

yesterday i worked from my parents’ house spending about four hours writing christmas cards and doing other end of term tasks.  shortly after breakfast and everyone leaving for work or school, i thought to myself, “i should turn up the thermostat as a pre-emptive measure.”  i knew i was going to be cold.

my parents like to keep the house at 18 degrees, which is actually a degree higher than when i was young.  i always thought it was because my parents – and in particular, my dad – were frugal and wanted to save money by not spending it on 20 degree winters.  (by comparison, my kingston house is kept at a very comfortable 20.5 degrees… but it’s also a smaller space to heat.)

i was too scared to turn it up two whole degrees, so i settled on a decent 19.  when my dad came home from work i told him what i had done, which got us into a conversation about the cold house i remember from my childhood.

turns out i was wrong!

the actual reasoning behind the 17 degree temp is that my dad (and sometimes my sister and i) would get nose bleeds in the winter if the air was too dry.  and since indoor heat contributes to dry air, the house was kept cooler to prevent such unfortunate events.  my dad was very adamant that 1/ my grandpa (his dad) had agreed to wear more clothes so that the heat could be lower and 2/ that i re-inform the friends i had told about his frugalness.

my long-held belief is still a better story but for the record you now know the truth…  although my dad is still frugal.

after the conversation i went to the grocery store with my cousin during which my dad called my sister to ask if she had believed the same about the heat when i was young.  for the record, she did.

kitchener, who knew? December 19, 2011

this past weekend was a whirlwind.  that seems to be a strength of mine.  i can see it on my resume: “thrives during short periods of intense travel and people activity.”

anyway.  i’m going to get to the point (shocking) and not even talk about the whirlwind.  instead, a little boasting about the city of kitchener, where i spent the day on saturday with a friend/former student who moved there this fall.

first, i love jane.  and people i love instantaneously make places more positive in my mind.

second, we went to city cafe bakery for lunch.  i had heard about this place from my good friends dan and sue because sue’s brother works there.  they have a wood fired oven, honour-system payment (cash only but if you don’t have cash, you can pay the next time you’re by) and a simple but delicious menu.  i had eggplant pizza for lunch, which was quite tasty.  it had feta on it.

admittedly, i would have preferred the portobello mushroom pizza, but i wasn’t feeling for the green olives that day.  jane had some kind of open-faced melt.  i thought she said tuna but it looked like ham.

after lunch we walked around downtown kitchener, which was nice enough.  i really liked the working centre, which is “a non-profit, community-based, volunteer inspired venture that seeks to give individuals and groups access to tools and opportunities to become involved in the building of community projects in Kitchener-Waterloo and surrounding areas.”

they have a cafe, job training, transitional housing, and lots of other things.  so cool!  it reminded me of the cafe, vegetable garden, job training, life coaching/counselling, tutoring/skills acquiring place i had the idea of opening.

then on our way home, jane and i stopped in again at the city cafe for treats.  jane got a brownie (very good, reminded me of the wolfe island bakery brownies) and i got a pecan tart (also very good).

usually it’s only a couple things in a city that will sell it to me.  these were the two things.  way to go, kitchener, way to go.

umm…? December 15, 2011

last night cara and i were walking home from a quality and fun eastern ontario meeting when i thought i smelled something a little… off.

i looked to the street, and there was horse poop!  seriously.  and a lot of it.  in a trail.  gross, i know.

questions that came to mind:

1/ why was there a horse walking down our street?

2/ what’s a horse doing in the city anyway?  the only times i’ve seen them in kingston is when police are riding them, and even then they have little poop bags.  which brings me to my next question:

3/ why didn’t it have a poop bag?

4/ can you be as upset about a horse rider not scooping as you can be with a dog walker?

5/ who cleans up the horse poop?

good thing it rained today so it’s all gone… and into our sewage system.  and that’s a whole other discussion not for today.

another reason why i love credit unions December 14, 2011

i got a phone call yesterday from my credit union.  the office staff wanted to check in with me because a debit transaction i had done on monday had been attempted with the wrong pin, then it went through on the second try.  she wanted to check to make sure that my card hadn’t been stolen.

and the purchase was only for $7.06!

a weekend to recover from the weekend? December 13, 2011

this past weekend was pretty super busy.  but i love it when things just work out.

friday i caught a ride to toronto to see a friend’s play.  then saturday i caught a ride with another friend home, had lunch with that friend and cara before catching yet another ride to ottawa where i had a support raising event with people from a grad’s church.

we were early, so my friend dropped me off at a cafe near the church, and also one of my favourites in ottawa.  after prepping myself for the evening, i decided i need to take a walk since i had been sitting for so long!  as i turned toward the door from putting my mug back, i saw my friend!  she lives down the street from the cafe, so it wasn’t the hugest surprise, but seeing as i know about 10 people in the entire city, i thought it was pretty providential!

after the event i went to said friend’s house and then left early sunday morning for home.  we made it just in time for me to usher at church and then i had a wee break to shower and chill a bit before having some students over for a girls’ crafting and chilling afternoon.

by 9pm i was wiped.  note to self: only attempt these types of weekends once in a while.

how many more sleeps? December 8, 2011

i just watched my precious little niece stand and crawl and drop blocks into a bucket.

of course i know that she’s not literally my niece and she’s probably been standing and crawling for a little while now, but still.  this child is delightfully cute and serious… at the same time.

exactly how long is it until i get to see her again??

[on a side note, i can’t seem to embed videos anymore… so this link will have to do.]