Our new TempurPedic mattress was delivered this morning! I bought queen sheets from Home Sense on the way home from work. We're just waiting for the sheets to dry. They're a bit loose-fitting on the mattress, not sure if that's normal.
My hockey game was at 11:30pm tonight so I just skipped it.
So my rack of lamb turned out pretty good the other day. I only bought one rack (two seemed like too much food for Heather and I), and it wasn't quite enough. The sauce turned out really well too. I was worried at first because my stock turned out gelatinous, but then I googled around and it looks like that's a good thing. The rack of lamb is first seared in a frying pan in oil for five minutes, which made a big mess of my stove. I think the clean up took longer than the cooking!
The TempurPedic website site was very nice to use to register the warranty on the mattress and pillows. I was surprised though that there was no confirmation email. Maybe it's a batch process at night (which would be dumb, but I've seen dumber).
It's been freezing cold the last couple days. It was -21C yesterday morning when I went to work. Later it warmed up to -13C. I know it gets much colder elsewhere, but that's pretty cold for Toronto.
Well the dryer just whistled a little tune that the sheets are dry, time to go to bed.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Last night Heather went out for dinner with Nadine and Sue so I went out for a drink with Craig at the new Bier Markt (at King W and Portland, in the old Amsterdam location)
It took me forever to get out. I dropped off Heather at Sue's around 7:30pm, and got stuck in the AC/DC traffic getting back home. My flat tire indicator went off; at first I was excited because they're under warranty and a free replacement (my tires are getting worn and I'll probably have to pay for new ones when the lease is up in April -- the warranty doesn't cover wear-and-tear). I was also low on gas, so stopped in at the gas station at Lakeshore & Carlaw. They were out of regular and so were selling premium at regular prices (my car requires premium so it was a bonus for me). Next checked the tires, which were just low on air (most likely because I hadn't inflated them for winter). Got home and turned on the barbecue for my steak, except it was out of propane. So went and got that filled up. Finally had dinner, cleaned up and caught the streetcar.
It was almost 11pm by the time I got to the Bier Markt. We had a few pints & chatted away. Ran into Paul McGeachy who was there with friends. A little bit after midnight, headed up to Tattoo to meet up with Heather et al who had ended up there after their own little adventures. There was a $10 cover charge, which we didn't want to pay at that hour. I just walked in, showing my wrist stamp the Bier Markt, and it worked! Craig tried a couple minutes later but got busted, and Sue had to go get him in. Saw Marissa who was also there with some of her friends. Streetcarred it back home a little after 2am.
All the excitement was a little too much for Heather's back; she was in a lot of pain today. We'll be sticking with just dinners in the future.
...
Went up to my suit place (Testa Uomo) with Trishia and Dave this afternoon. Dave was looking to get a couple suits and so I went with them as a referral, so he'd get the 50% discount. After went to Kitchen Stuff Plus to get a spatula (my old one broke over Christmas), and tongs. Bought an automatic soap dispenser (we've been looking for one). I'm not too impressed with it though -- the sensor part doesn't work very well, and there's no way to manual trigger it to dispense.
While we were in PEI, Jonathan hired a chef to cook dinner for 8 of us as a wedding anniversary gift for Janet, including showing us how to make the recipes. The dinner was excellent. We had appetizers of bacon-wrapped scallops, oysters three ways, mussels; main of rack of lamb, and sticky date pudding for dessert. Mmmm good.
I was going to make the rack of lamb for dinner today, but with Heather's back out, we decided to wait a couple days. There's a sauce that goes with the lamb, and I was googling around on how to make my own chicken stock as a base for the sauce. Tomorrow's my first attempt at the chicken stock.
When I got back to work after the holidays, I was telling a couple other directors about the chef. They both had said one of the best team building exercises they had done in previous jobs was a cooking class. Well as luck would have it, we have an offsite coming up at the end of January, and by coincidence the team building is at dish cooking studio! We're voting on the menu right now.
I created a twitter account a few months ago but have never used it, but I've started recently. The idea is to use it when I have something brief but not enough time for a proper blog entry.
We bought a TempurPedic mattress last week to replace my old doublebed. We looked at a few places, and Shoppers HomeHealthCare had the lowest price by far, and then took another 20% off because we asked about the senior's discount! Bargoon. It's supposed to be delivered in the next 5-10 days.
Also got another PC Green Box for free from Loblaws. They're pretty handy carrying cases -- I use it for my tools, to carry my stuff to Ultimate etc.
Anyways I should get ready for bed.
It took me forever to get out. I dropped off Heather at Sue's around 7:30pm, and got stuck in the AC/DC traffic getting back home. My flat tire indicator went off; at first I was excited because they're under warranty and a free replacement (my tires are getting worn and I'll probably have to pay for new ones when the lease is up in April -- the warranty doesn't cover wear-and-tear). I was also low on gas, so stopped in at the gas station at Lakeshore & Carlaw. They were out of regular and so were selling premium at regular prices (my car requires premium so it was a bonus for me). Next checked the tires, which were just low on air (most likely because I hadn't inflated them for winter). Got home and turned on the barbecue for my steak, except it was out of propane. So went and got that filled up. Finally had dinner, cleaned up and caught the streetcar.
It was almost 11pm by the time I got to the Bier Markt. We had a few pints & chatted away. Ran into Paul McGeachy who was there with friends. A little bit after midnight, headed up to Tattoo to meet up with Heather et al who had ended up there after their own little adventures. There was a $10 cover charge, which we didn't want to pay at that hour. I just walked in, showing my wrist stamp the Bier Markt, and it worked! Craig tried a couple minutes later but got busted, and Sue had to go get him in. Saw Marissa who was also there with some of her friends. Streetcarred it back home a little after 2am.
All the excitement was a little too much for Heather's back; she was in a lot of pain today. We'll be sticking with just dinners in the future.
...
Went up to my suit place (Testa Uomo) with Trishia and Dave this afternoon. Dave was looking to get a couple suits and so I went with them as a referral, so he'd get the 50% discount. After went to Kitchen Stuff Plus to get a spatula (my old one broke over Christmas), and tongs. Bought an automatic soap dispenser (we've been looking for one). I'm not too impressed with it though -- the sensor part doesn't work very well, and there's no way to manual trigger it to dispense.
While we were in PEI, Jonathan hired a chef to cook dinner for 8 of us as a wedding anniversary gift for Janet, including showing us how to make the recipes. The dinner was excellent. We had appetizers of bacon-wrapped scallops, oysters three ways, mussels; main of rack of lamb, and sticky date pudding for dessert. Mmmm good.
I was going to make the rack of lamb for dinner today, but with Heather's back out, we decided to wait a couple days. There's a sauce that goes with the lamb, and I was googling around on how to make my own chicken stock as a base for the sauce. Tomorrow's my first attempt at the chicken stock.
When I got back to work after the holidays, I was telling a couple other directors about the chef. They both had said one of the best team building exercises they had done in previous jobs was a cooking class. Well as luck would have it, we have an offsite coming up at the end of January, and by coincidence the team building is at dish cooking studio! We're voting on the menu right now.
I created a twitter account a few months ago but have never used it, but I've started recently. The idea is to use it when I have something brief but not enough time for a proper blog entry.
We bought a TempurPedic mattress last week to replace my old doublebed. We looked at a few places, and Shoppers HomeHealthCare had the lowest price by far, and then took another 20% off because we asked about the senior's discount! Bargoon. It's supposed to be delivered in the next 5-10 days.
Also got another PC Green Box for free from Loblaws. They're pretty handy carrying cases -- I use it for my tools, to carry my stuff to Ultimate etc.
Anyways I should get ready for bed.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2008 Book List
Barack Obama 2008.11.20
Roger Fisher 2008.08.13
Patrick Lencioni 2008.08.10
Charles Dickens 2008.08.10
Alexandre Dumas 2008.06.12
Marco Polo 2008.04.28
Seth Godin 2008.04.12
C.S. Lewis 2008.01.20
Fyodor Dostoyevsky 2008.01.01
Sunday, November 02, 2008
I put down the larger stones yesterday:
I figure that should get us through winter.
We have our last regular-season game of Sunday Ultimate today. The weather's been great for fall season -- better than the all the rain in summer. Our last fall game was this past week, at the new fields down on Unwin. The new fields are amazing, nice location (close to downtown, although about a ten minute walk from the TTC), nice view of downtown. It's too bad they're not putting a dome over the fields for winter. There's a shortage of downtown indoor playing space with Waterside now closed (it's part of the waterfront redevelopment). We didn't get a team registered on time and the Sunday leagues are now full for winter, so I'll just be playing Ultimate on Tuesdays and hockey on Thursdays in the winter.
I should get ready for the game.
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I figure that should get us through winter.
We have our last regular-season game of Sunday Ultimate today. The weather's been great for fall season -- better than the all the rain in summer. Our last fall game was this past week, at the new fields down on Unwin. The new fields are amazing, nice location (close to downtown, although about a ten minute walk from the TTC), nice view of downtown. It's too bad they're not putting a dome over the fields for winter. There's a shortage of downtown indoor playing space with Waterside now closed (it's part of the waterfront redevelopment). We didn't get a team registered on time and the Sunday leagues are now full for winter, so I'll just be playing Ultimate on Tuesdays and hockey on Thursdays in the winter.
I should get ready for the game.
Monday, October 27, 2008
We just came back from a walk down Queen St to the DVP and back. It's getting pretty cold out there -- I should have worn my toque. Saw that a couple new places are open or close to it. Loic (a gourmet food-to-go place, although I'm not sure they need a big store front for their concept), a new art gallery (beside Comrade). LPK's Culinary Groove (a dessert place, I think) is still under construction.
We're still waiting for a nice pub to open up in Leslieville. Maybe the new place on Queen and Curzon will be open at some point. It looks like their application for a patio on Curzon was not approved because of a lack of response to a poll of neighbours, and that they can't reapply for two years. Seems like a strong penalty for a lack of response. I didn't find anything about their liquor license application.
Anyways we're just drinking a herbal tea and then going to bed.
We're still waiting for a nice pub to open up in Leslieville. Maybe the new place on Queen and Curzon will be open at some point. It looks like their application for a patio on Curzon was not approved because of a lack of response to a poll of neighbours, and that they can't reapply for two years. Seems like a strong penalty for a lack of response. I didn't find anything about their liquor license application.
Anyways we're just drinking a herbal tea and then going to bed.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
I worked on the backyard for most of yesterday:
I decided to put flagstone for the whole path. So far I've used about 0.5 tonnes of 1" flagstone from Rock Valley. There were some larger pieces (as large as 2' x 2') that I'm going to use on the patio in front of the deck, to define the different spaces between the patio and walkway. In all the flagstone will probably end up costing about $300.
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I decided to put flagstone for the whole path. So far I've used about 0.5 tonnes of 1" flagstone from Rock Valley. There were some larger pieces (as large as 2' x 2') that I'm going to use on the patio in front of the deck, to define the different spaces between the patio and walkway. In all the flagstone will probably end up costing about $300.
Monday, October 13, 2008
The weather has been really nice this Thanksgiving weekend. Friday I was sick (there's a bug going around work) and so I took the afternoon off and came home and slept. Saturday I felt better, but we still took it easy (just cleaned up around the house).
On Sunday I started working on the back yard again. I had 2.5 yards of limestone delivered from Homeland Garden Centre. I had thought I needed crushed limestone but they insisted that I needed limestone screening so that's what I got. I had looked at other places but this was close (they're just up on the Danforth), and their delivery trucks are small enough to fit down back laneways.
I used up about two-thirds of the limestone screening, and I have enough left to do the flagstone patio between the deck and my parking spot. I figured it's better to have leftovers because I can always give the extra away on craigslist.
It was rather exhausting work. A previous owner had put down gravel in the backyard, but only up to the house. The little alley beside the house was about 3 - 4 inches lower. I removed the top 3 inches in the front of the pic, and used it to raise the alley. I put down industrial grade weed block and then the limestone screening.
Next is to build a boardwalk from the deck to car, on top of the limestone. I don't know if wood sitting on top of screening is a good idea (maybe gravel was better for drainage), but I'll find out.
On Sunday I started working on the back yard again. I had 2.5 yards of limestone delivered from Homeland Garden Centre. I had thought I needed crushed limestone but they insisted that I needed limestone screening so that's what I got. I had looked at other places but this was close (they're just up on the Danforth), and their delivery trucks are small enough to fit down back laneways.
 |
I used up about two-thirds of the limestone screening, and I have enough left to do the flagstone patio between the deck and my parking spot. I figured it's better to have leftovers because I can always give the extra away on craigslist.
It was rather exhausting work. A previous owner had put down gravel in the backyard, but only up to the house. The little alley beside the house was about 3 - 4 inches lower. I removed the top 3 inches in the front of the pic, and used it to raise the alley. I put down industrial grade weed block and then the limestone screening.
Next is to build a boardwalk from the deck to car, on top of the limestone. I don't know if wood sitting on top of screening is a good idea (maybe gravel was better for drainage), but I'll find out.
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