We lost the finals at Sunday Ultimate yesterday. We were down 7-3, then came back up 9-7, and then lost 16-12. We had two full lines and so Craig and I were only on the field half the time, and our other line wasn't that good. Craig and I got off to a slow start, but it's hard to get into the game when you're not on the field a lot. In the winter we're playing speed point and so we can stay on more.

This week's a yard waste (it stays bi-weekly this year) so I cleaned up the leaves around the yard on Saturday. It's much easier now that the backyard is mostly complete -- I just swept them up (this was part of the design). Filled up ten bags between the front and back. Also cut down the perennials in the front. I stored the bags on the front porch in case it rains. (I should have thought about that before.) This year has been one of the best for raking leaves -- it hasn't rained in a couple weeks, and the leaves are all light and dry.

I was planning to take my Mac into work today to backup my pics but I forgot. I was going to switch from iPhoto to Picasa, but my Mac is too old to run Picasa (it only runs on Intel Macs). So I'll just copy all my pics to Picasa to create backup, and then I'll upload all my future pics, and create new albums only in Picasa.

Well I should go start dinner.

The hard drive on my Mac has been making lots of funny noises lately. We were a bit worried because all our photos are on the Mac, and it's not backed up. I was going to buy an external drive, but then I read that Google sells storage really cheaply. I signed up for 20GB for $5 / year. So now we'll store all our photos in the cloud, using Picasa. Next step is to figure out an easy way to transfer from iPhoto to Picasa.

I have hockey tonight at 9:30pm, so I should get ready.

We are more than full from a multi-course dinner:

Appetizers
1 bruchetta
2 carmelized onion / balsamic reduction / goat cheese on flatbread
3 stuffed mushroom caps with tomato cream cheese pesto
4 mini pitas with lobster mushrooms garlic shallots parsley and fennel fronds
5 ceviche scallop with fennel / carrot / leek
6 scallop with soya sauce / molasses
7 bacon-wrapped scallops
8 raw oysters in half shell
9 parsley / butter / fennel frond oysters
10 oysters with fennel / cream sauce

Then...

Buttercup squash soup with sour cream and chives
(Bonus course)Scallops with fennel / carrot / leek
Pecan crusted halibut with apple slaw / wilted garlic spinach and mango sweet potatoes
Homemade pumpkin ice cream with nutmeg and spiced rum, with apple strudel with almonds

Each paired with wine

Heather and I went for a walk on Saturday, up to the Danforth and over to the DVP. We were trying to do one of the Discovery Walks, but couldn't find how to get into the valley from Bloor (I think you have to start a bit further south). We ended up walking a bit north, where there is a cool vantage point overlooking the Don Valley.

Along the Danforth we stopped into a few shops. There's a cool kitchen place on the Danforth near Carlaw (IQ Living), where we bought a replacement for our automatic soap dispenser. I had bought a cheap one last year from Kitchen Stuff Plus, but it was cheaply made. The new one from simplehuman works great. Trishia and Maricar both have the same one. Now we just have to get dish soap that matches the kitchen (we currently have a green Palmolive soap).

Last week we checked out the new McCleary Playground on McGee St near Queen. They've done a great job in designing the park, and re-using the old tree that had to be cut done because it had Dutch elm disease. Here's a pic of Heather and me regally holding court:



We finally decided to try out the self-cleaning feature on our oven on the weekend. Based on the warnings in the manual, Heather was expecting huge flames and smoke to appear (part of the "normal cleaning process"). Instead, there was just a bit of a smell. It was all rather easy.

I have officially decided not to return to The Roy. I went there with my Ultimate team on Sunday, around 4pm. They don't allow sports on the TV, so no NFL football. It wasn't that so much as the attitude that the owners felt that they knew what was better for the bar, and not the customers. I guess it's their right to run their bar as they want to, but it'll be without me as a customer (which maybe is the intent, to not target my demographic).

Well I should start getting ready for bed.

Heather had a craving for poached eggs this morning, and I figured they couldn't be too hard to make -- water, eggs, done like dinner. I googled around, and ended up cracking the egg into Saran wrap, dropping into almost boiling water, and cooking for five minutes. It turned out really well. It sounds a bit weird, and I was concerned about the Saran wrap melting to the pot, but it worked out -- no vinegary taste, and no mess in the pot.

I just had hard boiled eggs: cover the eggs in cold water, bring to boil, take off heat, cover with lid and let sit for twelve minutes.

It's been really cold at night the past few days. There was a frost warning for Toronto last night, our outdoor thermometer registered a low of 1.4C. It was cold enough yesterday evening that we dug out our winter boots and gloves to go for a walk after dinner. Most places were closed for Sunday or Thanksgiving. We ended up stopping in at The Roy. The place is somewhat growing on me. It still looks like an Irish-pub-in-a-box, but I guess the space is a box, so it would be hard to end up with much else.

It's been a pretty busy weekend. On Friday night we got together with Heather's friends Darlene and Fed after work at the Elephant and Castle. We had a couple drinks, and then walked over to Chinatown for dinner.

On Saturday night we drove to St Catharines for dinner with Shelley and Geron. It was excellent, Geron's a really good chef. We had appetizers of scallops, with orange, sundried tomatoes and fennel. (Shelley and Heather are rather particular about scallops, but Geron cooked them perfectly). The main was pastry-wrapped salmon with asparagus, dill and mushrooms. Both were matched with wines from the Niagara region. Mmmm good.

This afternoon we're heading to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm hoping that it will warm up one last weekend before winter. One of the sub-projects in the backyard was to fix the siding at the back window. There's a 4"x4" gap in the siding (from the previous owners), and it's always cold near that corner inside the house in the winter. I'd like to take off the siding, put in some insulation around the window, and put the siding back on. I have an extra length of siding to fix the gap.

Saw that Six Shooter is moving -- although nothing on their storefront or website says where they're going.

The new flower store beside Te Aro (the coffee shop) has made a nice cosy corner between the two. You'd never guess that a few months ago it was a dry cleaner and an auto body shop.

The new bar where Carlaw Carburetors used to be is still under construction. They've covered up the front with wood, presumably changing the windows. They've saved the old sign, I wonder if they will put it back up when they're done.

Well I should go make lunch.

My Ultimate teams this fall are pretty good. We're 3-0 on both Wednesdays and Sundays, and leading the league in both. I don't think we've played the best teams yet, so it's hard to say if we have a chance to win in either. I missed the first two hockey games, but I'm hoping to make it this week.

We've had some problems trying to find a good place to go out after the games on Wednesday. All our games are at St Michael's College at St Clair and Bathurst. We've tried a place near St Clair and Bathurst which was sort of a dive; and then tried a place near St Clair and Dufferin which was a pain to get go with all the streetcar construction on St Clair. Next week we're going to try The Pour House near Dupont and Spadina Rd.

Went to see Zombieland after yesterday's game with Craig, Maricar and Trishia. It took us a while to decide on a movie; Craig was the only one who wanted to see it, but all the other movies were vetoed by someone. It turned out to be pretty funny, much better than I expected.

Heather and I went for a walk around Lakeshore to Coxwell on Sunday. We checked out the new skateboard park. There were lots of kids using it which was great to see. There's also a nice natural parkland around a pond just east of Coxwell. We were rained on a bit walking back home, but not too soaked.

There's quite a few new places in Leslieville that opened up this summer. We've been to Lady Marmalade a couple times, on weekdays after Heather's appointments. It's way too popular to get into on a weekend.

Also went to Swirl a couple weekends ago. It's a nice cosy place, so small they don't have a kitchen and instead serve picnic-type food (cheeses, spreads, charcuterie). It was great, although next time I don't think we'd make a meal of it, as it's all really rich food. Very reasonably priced, plus they have BYOW on Sundays.

Well I should get ready for bed.

I took the day off today and finished up the benches around the firepit:



I have to let the pressure-treated wood dry out over the winter, and then next spring I can stain the benches a dark brown. Also, we're looking for some outdoor throw cushions. So the backyard is almost complete!

Heather's been weaning off the medication she was taking for her back. I called her a weaner (wean·er n pl -S one that weans). Heather put a quick moratorium on that.

The fall Ultimate seasons started last Sunday. Our Sunday team has a lot of the original team (me, Craig, Cindy, Maricar, Trishia, Helen), and a couple new guys. I don't think we're as good as the summer team but we'll see. The Wednesday team has a lot of new players on it, and everyone had fun the first game. We ended up tying 8-8, scoring the last point about ten seconds before the whistle went to end the game. Wednesday's league is more competitive, so we may not win too many games.

We're about to go out to Hanoi 3 Seasons for dinner (a little Vietnamese restaurant near us on Queen E), I should get ready.