We lost at hockey tonight, 2-1. It was a good skate, we had nine guys + a goalie, which meant two full forward lines and three D. The other team had about four full lines -- I've never seen that many players on a rec team, and for a 6:30pm game too! It was really cold out on the ice -- my toes and fingers were frozen until about the 3rd period.

We all went upstairs for pizza and beer after. Unfortunately the pizza oven was broken yet again. Everyone was disappointed, it was like we just lost a playoff game. This is the 3rd time the pizza oven has broken over the last couple years. We were trying to figure out what actually breaks on an oven -- none of us had ever had an oven break.

We won our Ultimate game on Tuesday. After the game, we arrived at Brazen Head just in time to see Team Canada tie up the game in the World Juniors final; only to see them then lose in overtime. The bar was pretty packed with people there to watch the game. It reminded me of a Leafs playoff game (I hope I'm not dating myself)

...

Years ago when I travelled through Russia, Mongolia and China with my friend Gerry, it was just as web-based email was becoming popular (this was in 1997). We created a Hotmail account for us to share (individual email addresses still being a bit nouveau). Every week or so when we found an "internet café" we'd send out a group email. My sister would print off the emails at work, and mail them to my parents, so they could get an update about our little trip.

Fast forward to now: Gerry and I have been trying to find anyone with a copy of these emails. We tried getting into our old account, but we couldn't remember the password. I don't think it would matter though, as back then, email systems didn't automatically keep sent emails (it took up too much disk space). None of our friends had copies of the emails either (I think the hotmail limit was 2MB or something silly, so no one actually filed emails, you just read them and deleted them).

Finally I thought to look in a box I keep in the basement with odds and ends from each trip (things like bus transfers, museum ticket stubs etc). And there they were! Surprisingly, there were only eight emails for a four month trip. (Nowadays I might have eight blog entries in two weeks of traveling). I'm planning to re-key them into my travel blog.

Well I should get ready for bed.

Testing geotagging blog posts

Well let's see if the geotag works. There should be a link at the bottom of this post which shows where I posted from.

We had a little dinner party last night for New Year's Eve. MC, Robin, Stephane, Sab, Trishia and Dave and the two of us, all snugly fit around our table for six.



It turned out rather well, all the wines were great matches too.

We weren't feeling too bad this morning considering. It was snowing big fluffy flakes, and looked nice for a walk. However when we got outside the cold wind made us think otherwise. Most places were closed (except for a few like Lady Marmalade which was packed). We walked up to East Chinatown and had dimsum at what used to be called Grand Restaurant (it has a new name now that I forget).

I got a Magic Bullet mixer (as seen on TV!) for my Krys Kringle gift from my high school friends Christmas party a couple weeks ago. I've never actually seen the commercial, or heard of it before. I finally took it out of the packaging. We've tried it a couple times and it works pretty good. I made the asparagus soup with it.

2009 Book List

Moby Dick
Herman Melville 2009.11.04

Don Quixote
Cervantes Stopped at page 270 of 982

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley 2009.08.21

Rise of the Creative Class
Richard Florida 2009.05.31

Hot, Flat, and Crowded
Thomas Friedman 2009.01.01

It's a dreary December afternoon. If it was a few degrees colder it would be more Christmas-like, but right now it's about 2C and drizzly.

Yesterday Mom and Dad were over to decorate the tree. Maricar got us a nice Fraser fir, 7.5' tall, and perfectly shaped. One of the decorations broke, as per Christmas tradition. We're still looking for a better decoration for the top of the tree. We have an angel that we bought when we first moved in, but it's a bit small for the tree.

We won our hockey game 4-2 on Thursday. We only had eight skaters, so there was lots of ice time, and on the big ice on Rink A. I got an assist, but they haven't posted the game sheet yet so I don't know if the scorekeeper gave it to me.

Our Ultimate teams aren't doing as well. There's a few people on both teams that I've never got in sync with on the field. Oh well, at least it's a good workout because they're both speed point.

Heather's friends Fed and Darlene came into Leslieville on Friday night. We had dinner at Gio Rana's, and then headed to Ceilidh Cottage for a drink. It was standing room only, not good for Heather's back, so instead went to Curzon's. It was freezing outside, about -7C, which was about a 10 degree drop from a couple days earlier.

Google released Chrome for Mac last week. Unfortunately it's just for Intel Macs, just like Picasa. The hard drive on my Mac has been making whirring noises recently. I may try to get the hard drive upgraded -- it's only a 60GB, and almost full. Depending on what it costs, it may be more worthwhile to just get a new Mac.

My game tonight is at 9pm, so I'll have time to eat beforehand. We're having fajitas. Mmm good.

Finally, a place to hang my hat

After much debate about the style of the coat rack, we finally decided on a white backing and black metal hooks:



We weren't sure at first what the coat rack should match (e.g. the style of the kitchen cabinets) but settled on cast iron hooks (like the stair railing) and white-painted wood for the back (like the house trim).

We lost our hockey game on Thursday, 4-3 in overtime. We had 11 skaters, which made it hard to get an flow going on offense (nine or ten is best, because there's two full forward lines, otherwise it's messed up). However, it was still a good game with fast line changes, and I got a good workout.

I re-posted my ad on kijiji to sell our old table. I lowered the price to $50 (from $75) and I've got way more hits. If it doesn't sell soon I'm just going to give it to Goodwill, to clear it out of the basement.

Heather got an email from aeroplan that her account was going to expire soon. Apparently if you have no activity (ie get more miles, or use some), within a year, they expire your account. I would have got the email too, except I had a really old email account listed. So we looked for the best dollar value for points, and got $150 Esso gift cards each. It's not that exciting, but seeing as I use gas anyways, I'll use the gift cards, and then we'll use the money to go out for dinner or something. (It was better value then getting restaurant gift cards from Aeroplan).

Two of our bigger plants died a few weeks ago. I didn't have them in double pots to allow drainage, and I suspect overwatering caused the roots to rot. We've seen some nice plants at Quince Flowers, but figured we'll wait until after Christmas when the tree is down, before we replace them.

Yesterday was the IT department Christmas party, at Sharkey's in Bloor West Village. This year, Ram and Rob A organized it, and it was a lot of fun. There was a good turn out -- about 120 people, which is the maximum capacity of Sharkey's for dinner. Most people stayed well past the end of dinner, a good sign, as often people leave as soon as dinner is done.

I always plan a vacation day after events such as this, and so ran a few errands today. Heather had read some good reviews about Gale's Snack Bar, so we decided to try it out for lunch. I drive by the place (on the SW corner of Eastern and Carlaw) twice a day, and never realized it was still open! Check out the prices:



I had a cheeseburger with fries and gravy, and a can of Coke; Heather had a turkey club (with real actual turkey!) with a can of Diet Coke. Total bill for the two of us, including taxes, was $7.25! I was tempted to try the sardine sandwich for a whopping $1.25, just to see what it was about; but the fries and gravy filled me up.

The place was full when we arrived, and so had to wait a few minutes to get seats. However, once we placed our order (she only takes the order when they're ready to cook), it was fairly quick.

Definitely one of the cheapest places around Toronto.

The winter Ultimate season started up last week on Sunday, speed point at the newly domed Lamport stadium. Speed point is much more of a workout than regular point. I was sweating and pretty tired at the end of the game. We lost the game. We had a couple new players, and some subs and so it was hard to get a good flow going.

Last Thursday I scored a goal! We won 5-1, I was in the slot and one-timed a pass from Craig into the top corner. It was my first goal in a while, and at least they marked it as my goal (the scorekeeper doesn't always get the goals and assists right, I have four assists this season but only two on the stats).

I've been trying to go cashless the past few months, and I've been able to go two to three weeks at a time using just my credit card. There's just a few places downtown that don't take credit card (and Tim Hortons which doesn't take Visa, so I don't go there anymore). Today I was at three (!) cash-only places -- Leslieville Diner for breakfast, Gale's Snack Bar for lunch, and Pho Pasteur for dinner.

I bought my Olympic red mittens from Zellers today. Supposedly these are always selling out and hard to get, so I was surprised to see them in stock.