Well shortly after I had my pizza on Wednesday, I got back to One Yonge, and got a call from our CIO asking to meet her in her office. She then told me that I was being promoted to director, effectively immediately. Cool!! I was figuring on moving to a director position this year (either at the Star or elsewhere), so I'm glad I'm able to move up at the Star.

Heather and I celebrated by going out for dinner on Friday. We wanted to try a new place, but Soma was revamping their menu and was only open as a lounge, and we couldn't get a reservation at Globe Bistro. So we decided to give Tomi-Kro's another go.

We tried things we hadn't had before: lobster maki rolls and foie gras creme brulée for appetizers, and the main special (venison I think) and scallops with a mushroom sauce. I had too much foie gras (there was a lot of it). The lobster was excellent. The venison was supposed to be medium-rare but it came almost well-done, which was disappointing. The scallops were likewise slightly past perfect (Heather's a scallop connoisseur) but still quite nice. The sauces on both mains were amazing -- I can't make sauces like that. That's one thing I like about Tomi-Kro -- there's no way I could make anything as good as they do. Overall a very fulfilling meal. I think we have very high expectations of Tomi-Kro so if it's not perfect we're disappointed.

Saturday Heather met some of her friends at Prohibition, and I joined them later on. The pub is actually pretty nice inside. Wasn't impressed beer selection (all Molson's, no Keiths or Mill St beers) (a nice local touch is that most Leslieville bars have Mill St beers). I tried the wings which were breaded and oversized. Bleh. Heather had the grilled quarter chicken which was much better. The atmosphere was nice, although they kept on changing the TVs to the Leafs game (I was trying to watch the Patriots). It's the first bar in Leslieville that I've been to that has predominantly single people.

The lofts on the SE corner of Queen and Pape are finally starting construction! At least, they've added "Sold Out" to the banner, and have re-razed the site. It will be good for the intersection, which currently has a gas station, a bank (in a beautiful old building), the dang restaurant, and the empty lot where the lofts will be built. The dang restaurant was actually called Dang Restaurant in the past. A couple name changes and a lost liquor license later, it's still sketchy, deserving of dang as an adjective.

There was a gathering held today for Brad Henderson who passed away last week. He interviewed me when I first joined the Star. He gave me advice which I still follow today: read the paper every day. The Star is our product and I should know what's in it. He also suggested that I call John Honderich when I first started and ask John for a meeting. It's how I first met John, and I've heard John still tells the story of this young guy (me) who demanded to know from the publisher what was going on with the company. (It wasn't quite like that, but that's the way John tells it). Anyways, Brad was one of the old-school newspaper folks who lived and breathed the paper like you see in the movies. There's not many left in the industry.

Well I should be getting ready for bed.