This past Valentine's Day, Heather and I agreed to get just one Big Box of Love:



These are our favourite chocolates, from js bonbons. Last year we both bought a box for each other as a surprise. It takes us a while to eat chocolate (this box lasted a month), so we agreed in advance this year to just get the one.

...

On Sunday one of the overhead lights on the stove went, so I walked down to Home Depot to get a replacement. Heather decided to join me so she could browse around Winners. We ended up buying a huge mirror for the bedroom:



We carried it back home walking along the street, just the two of us and our brand new $99 mirror from Winners. $99!

That's Heather trying out a new scarf, with Mr Giraffe (my souvenir from Kenya) overlooking her shoulder. I'm in my new suit, courtesy of Craig and his contact at the men's store with the 70% off suit sale.

Anyways, it's getting a bit late so I should get ready for bed.

Our Ultimate teams are finally starting to play as a team, just in time for the season to end :( We lost tonight, 24-22, but it was against the top-ranked team, and we had the lead with about ten minutes to go. Our offense has started to run patterns (finally!), although we had a brief breakdown around mid-game which probably cost us the game. I had fun though, and it was a good run.

We actually won on Sunday (our first win on Sundays :S), and Craig and I thought we had a chance for a 3-0 week (winning at Ultimate on Sunday and Wednesday, and hockey on Thursday)(Craig and I both play on all three teams). It was a similar game, our offense finally started to click. Both Ultimate teams have the same core of people.

I've been reading my book, The Odyssey, which has been taking up most of my free time in the evenings. There's a lot of talk about eating lamb, which gave me a big hankering for lamb. We had too much lamb over the summer, so Heather's a bit out-lambed. The book also mentions heady and honeyed wine quite a bit. (Fortunately Heather's not out-wined, although we did have a bit of wine over the summer).

We had grilled steak on Saturday, and I had forgotten that the propane tank was almost done. I rushed over to Home Depot to get there before 7pm, only to find out they closed at 6pm. So I went to the 24hr gas station at Dundas and Carlaw (about a four minute walk from our place, less because I was driving), and filled it up. Should've gone there in the first place. Heather and I usually lament the number of 24hr gas stations in our area, but this one came in handy.

Shopping at Loblaws makes me feel like how it must have been in Soviet Russia. Their supply management is terrible. Almost every shopping trip (which is about every day), there's some very common item that they are out-of-stock (e.g. Tropicana Orange Juice pulp-free, or Diet Coke fridge mate, or Heather's yoghurt). When we see an item that we like, we feel like we should buy three or four, because we don't know when it will be in stock again. I don't know how they stay in business. If it wasn't conveniently located I'd definitely shop elsewhere.

My next little home improvement project is to insulate the back wall in the basement. Ideally I'd put up extruded polystyrene panels, but the walls are brick with concrete patches, and not very even. I'm still trying to figure out the best way. That basement wall is the biggest source of heat loss in the house. (Next is the front door, which I'm still trying to figure out how to de-warp).

Well I think I'm going to get ready for bed, and maybe read a bit.

Like aunt, like niece:

Last Thursday was quite the evening. Heather had narrowed her choice of wedding dress down to two, and had made appointments for us at both stores, first one at 6pm. A big storm hit Toronto and dumped about a foot of snow just in time for rush hour home. It took me about ten minutes to brush the snow off my car. A quick stop at Loblaws, at which point I realized I was without my cell, presumably forgotten at work. Back to the office, but no cell. Figured it dropped out of my belt clip when I was brushing snow off my car. Back to the parking lot to sift through snow in a blizzard. No cell. Drove back to Loblaws but still no cell.

Gave up on the cell and went home to meet Heather. The roads were terrible, but the stores were only five minutes north of us. Got to the first place around 6:30pm, Heather had called so they were expecting us late. Saw both dresses, we both liked the same one, and Heather bought it (yay!!).

Drove back to the Star parking lot to look for my phone. I keep it on vibrate, but the screen glows when it's ringing, so called from Heather's cell, hoping to see the glow through the snow. Two minutes later, my cell phone called me back! A cab driver had found my cell in the snow (at Loblaws), and picked it up for safe keeping! He offered to meet us, but because of the blizzard he had fares all night. So we gave him our address, and went home for dinner. We had felt like having a beer to celebrate the dress purchase, but felt bad about asking Frank (the cab driver) to meet us at a bar.

We had dinner around 9pm, and then I got ready for hockey. (My game was scheduled for 11:30pm). Heather suggested I call someone to see if the game was still on (due to the storm), but without my cell I was also directory-less. Fortunately I found our captain's number in an email, so called him, to find out that the other team wasn't going to show, so I stayed home.

We watched a couple CSI reruns waiting for Frank (I wanted to thank him personally). At midnight, no Frank, so I left a thank-you card & a reward in our mailbox. (Good thing Heather has a supply of nice-looking thank-you cards on hand!)

Friday morning (I had taken the day off anticipating a late return from hockey) Heather checked the mail and my cell phone was there!!

...

We got together for Bernice's birthday. There's four of us from high school (Bernice, LeeAnn, Tanya and me) who still hang out, although with Tanya and LeeAnn having kids it's just birthdays and Christmas. We went for dinner at Tomi-Kro's (Heather and I love the place). They've recently expanded, doubling their space. The food was great, but not as amazing as previous visits. I wonder if it's because our expectations are higher, or because they've doubled the staff and diluted the quality.

...

My shopping list the other day was PB, OJ, TP and K. K is my short form for bananas (nutritionist fans of the periodic table may get the reference). Heather doesn't find it as funny as I do... Also bought honey to ruin my alphabet list, but we were out of honey.

Another Wonderboy weekend and another year that I didn't win the trophy. I was 2nd in ping pong (KJ & I lost to Alain & Alex in the final), but wasn't playing well at darts, and couldn't draw cards worth a bean in euchre and poker. Colin won, the first repeat winner in nine years of Wonderboy.

There was more drinking than usual on both nights, and so it was a bit of a struggle to keep the events on schedule. We try to finish the round robins of darts and pingpong on Friday night (42 ping pong games and 30 dart games), but it's hard to get someone to pay attention to a schedule when they've been talking to the Captain*. Saturday was no different, and we didn't get around to dinner until midnight, and crowning the winner around 3am.

(* rum reference)

Saturday we played hockey out on the lake. It's my favourite part of the weekend. There was about 2 feet of snow, but Kirk has a plow hooked up to an ATV, which helped. This year was the best ice conditions we've had. We played in boots, although we could have played in skates.

I drove up with Panko, who's now working out of Chicago. We missed the Hwy 115/35 cutoff from the 401, so took a different route straight north through Peterborough. It would have been faster except my provincial map doesn't have a detailed blow up of Peterborough, so we had to fudge our way through looking for the exit highway. On the way back we again unsuccessfully tried to find the Peterborough bypass. After driving through downtown, I mentioned to Panko that I was going to look it up on GoogleMaps when I got home. Only then did he remember that he can access the web on his Blackberry.

Between Peterborough and Gooderham is Hwy 507 -- which is now my favourite driving road.

Today's been a pretty lazy day. We took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill (I spent most of yesterday going through boxes in the basement, and filled four large boxes of stuff. One box was already packed -- it contained odd glasses and mugs that were extra when Heather and I moved in together, and it sat in the basement for a year). We had dimsum at the Grand Restaurant in chinatown for lunch. Normally we go there for dinner (it's all-day dim sum), and there's only a handful of other customers, but on Sundays it's packed at lunch. Then we came home and took a nap.

Last night we went to the Firkin and Flatiron for wings and beer. Met up with Marissa (she lives close to the Flatiron). We had a few Keiths and cabbed it home around 1am. We hadn't been out for a while because Heather's been working on her chapter late into the evenings most nights. It was a fun night.

Last Wednesday I almost missed my Ultimate game. I thought the game was at 9:30pm. I got home a little late from work, but still with enough time to make porcini risotto (I wanted to finish the leeks in the fridge). I always underestimate how long it takes to cook, but we were eating by 8:15pm, and gulped it down, leaving an hour before my game. However, when I checked my email to confirm the game time, I discovered the game actually started at 8:15pm. Heather helped me rush out the door, and I managed to get there for 8:45pm (so I only missed half the game). The other team wasn't that great and we won pretty easily. I scored a callahan, my first one ever.

Thursday I made sure that I had the right time for hockey. We scored one goal yet again, but this time we won!! 1-0. I got an assist on the goal (Craig scored on the rebound from my shot), so we're still tied for the team lead in points. Craig and I had a beer after the game and mostly talked about Ultimate.

I finished the Iliad the other week, and was supposed to start reading the Odyssey today but instead had the above-mentioned nap. Well I should get ready for Ultimate.

I was a little hungover today from Superbowl partying last night. I woke up feeling okay, got to work and started to feel not-so-good, and called it a day around 1pm. I came home, had take-out lunch from B&B Fish'n'chips and took a nap, and felt much better.

Ram organized the Superbowl party at Harbour Sports Grille (across the street from work). It was a pretty exciting game, with all the turnovers in the first quarter. I won the 4th quarter square in the pool at work, and a number of side bets. Overall I was up about $40. The Superbowl's one of the few things I bet on, it makes watching the game more fun. I won a couple prop bets with Ram -- whether Manning would throw an interception or touchdown first, and whether the Colts would score a touchdown the first time in the red zone. Bernice was there too, but with a different group (I think her poker friends).

My hockey game was on Friday last week (two games a season are on Fridays because there's too many teams, not enough ice team). We haven't won since we were bumped up a division -- and we've only scored one goal a game (we lost 8-1 on Friday). I thought I might get the 2nd assist on our goal, but they just gave a single assist.

Heather and I had our dinner on Saturday. Because I had more time to cook, I thought I'd give the cornish hen recipe a try. The cornish hens at Loblaws seemed a bit large (800g), but I wasn't sure how much meat was on the hen, and the meat guy said one wouldn't be enough for two people, so I bought two of them.

Heather cleaned the hens and I cooked up a storm. It took quite a bit of time (over two hours), and at one point we wondered if it was going to be worth the effort, but it came out really really good. Plus, the wine (a Malbec) recommended by Sheri at the LCBO matched everything. The stuffing was my favourite part. ...It was almost like a Christmas dinner, with cornish hen instead of turkey, plum sauce instead of cranberry, and lots of leftovers (one cornish hen was enough for the two of us).

We won our Ultimate game last Wednesday, and we're now 4-0. I think we stand a pretty good chance of going unbeaten, if we can win against our nemesis, Ultimatuum. For some reason we've always played poorly against them in previous seasons. We're the better team, but seem to tie or lose by a point when we play them.

Wonderboy is coming up on February 23-24-25. That's the annual guys tournament that Kirk started in 1998 with our university friends as the core. There's about 24 guys every year, and we have a mini-Olympics of darts, ping pong, euchre, poker, 2-man log saw, and tug-of-war. All the event are two-person teams to even out the teams, with the exception of poker (everyone for themselves), and tug-of-war (two teams). It's very competitive: statistics are kept year-over-year, there's a trophy and even opening ceremonies (when we draw for partners for each event, and re-crown the previous year's Wonderboy). My favourite part is on Saturday afternoon when we play pick-up hockey on the ice. The ice usually has pressure cracks which makes it dangerous for skating, so we play in our boots. Here's some pics from the 2005 Wonderboy:

Discussing tug-of-war strategy on the lake on Saturday morning


Two-man log saw. Winning time was 45.3 seconds


Shoveling the snow for hockey. Kirk's place is in the background


The guys. The clip-on purple tie that the 3rd guy from the left (front row) is wearing is a la the Masters and the green jacket. There's also a green tie that the current leader wears a la the Tour de France and the yellow jersey

Well that's it for now.