My Favorite Kind of Sunday

The Twitterverse is all atwitter {insert slow clap} about the Super Bowl and Madonna's upcoming halftime show, but I will be missing every last bit of it. Why? Because Ken and I recently rearranged our living room and now the television is located in a spot where its chord can no longer reach the cable-plug. It's an admittedly stupid arrangement, but getting it there was a lot of work and, you know, we're kinda-sorta lazy. 

But! All is not lost on this lovely Sunday. It's been a pretty darn good day so far and I'm positive its goodness will carry-on into the evening, while everyone else is watching the Super Bowl and rooting for...er... who's playing again? (Pathetically, I'm not even joking.) 

Here is a rundown of our little Sunday so far:

Brunch at Sadie's Diner...

(Their buckwheat pancakes are amazing!)

A leisurely stroll to the pet store to stock-up on Bubba-supplies...

(See him licking his chops in anticipation? He's a pig disguised as an unfriendly dog.)

 ...followed by a not-so-leisurely stroll to the dog park...

 (A year of consistent obedience training and he still tries to hang himself on the leash when he gets excited.)

Falling asleep in front of the window after "boofing" at all the people passing by, nine stories below us...

(I should note that Ken had nothing to do with the "boofing".) 

And now Ken is making his specialty-dinner (spaghetti, sans sausage this time... thank God) and I'm pretty sure we're going to enjoy eating it in front of a blank television screen. (The imagination does wonders.)

Who needs the Super Bowl on Sundays like these? Not me, I tell you. 

(Although I may try to stream the halftime show....)

Food Failure

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to cook more and eat out less. (Why do I even bother?) So, here we are, well into winter in Toronto-land and we're getting a little bored of being cooped-up inside all the time due to the cold.  In order to remedy our bored-ness and winter-blues, we're doing what we did last year: We're eating. A lot. And--wouldn't you know--the food we're eating is usually of the nearby-restaurant variety. 

And just like that: my resolution of cooking all of our meals at home has flown right out the window. 

Usually the weekend is the most tempting time for us to go out for a bite, as laziness is just what we do on weekends. This past weekend was, of course, no exception. On Saturday, we went to Kensington Market to grab some of the best Korean food the city has to offer (in our opinion) at Ka Chi. 

Ken had his usual bibimbap and I had the doenjang jjigae. It was worth every bite and penny. (I've been away from Korea long enough to start enjoying the food again and not feeling the urge to gag whenever I lay eyes on a bowl of kimchi.)

 After we had Korean, we decided that now we would take our resolution seriously. Since we were already in Kensington, we thought it would be a good idea to do some grocery shopping so we wouldn't be tempted to go out to eat again the next day.

 We were successful in our grocery shopping, but we failed miserably in our resolution yet again on Sunday...

...when we decided to try the new gourmet grilled cheese place that just opened up the street from us a couple of weeks ago. Yes. Gourmet grilled cheese. And, in case you were wondering, I had the "Toronto" grilled cheese (which included two "sliders" from neighborhoods of my choice) and Ken had the "Beijing" grilled cheese. Both were amazing and I really hate (love) that this place is so close to our building. 

Number of restaurant outings this weekend? Two. Number of grocery shopping sprees? One. Number of meals cooked at home? Zero. (Unless you count breakfasts, but throwing bread in the toaster doesn't really count, does it?)

We're weak, weak people.

A Little Birthday Post

My birthday was this past Monday, January 2nd. It was a "chill" kind of day. (...if old ladies like me can still use those "cool" words.) 

We went for coffee at Jimmy's... 

We had lunch at The One That Got Away... 

We had dinner at Epicure... 

(Deer in headlights. Who knew the flash on the iPhone camera was so darn bright?)

We ate cupcakes from Loblaws... 

(Bubba really wanted one...)

And I got the best birthday present I could have hoped for...

...a reading pillow/chair!  (I've been dying for one of these for ages.)

It was a pretty great birthday. And wouldn't you know we used my birthday as an excuse for some cheesecake a few days later?

We are now celebrating birthday weeks.  (I like it.)

Summer Faves

Spring/Summer is just now starting to make its long overdue appearance in Toronto, and I'm loving every (dry) minute of it. It's been raining almost nonstop during the month of May (grumble, grumble), but we've had a few days of nice weather here and there and I've been soaking up the sun every blessed chance I get. Just in case you were wondering (and why wouldn't you be?), here are my "favoritest" things about such days:

Trips to historical Fort York... which, incidentally, happens to be a five-minute walk from our condo building. (We just discovered it last week.)

Bubba loving the sun.

Walks along the Lakeshore.

Feeding ill-tempered swans (because if you don't feed them they get really upset and scary).

Long walks to High Park, followed by a much-deserved picnic. (It's nearly two hours there and two hours back, so now we're pooped.)

 Fresh, smelly tulips around the house.

And homemade healthy(ish) pizzas!

...which have nothing to do with summer, but I took a couple of pictures so, hey, why not?

The end.

Oohhh February...

2011 thus far has been filled with lots of snowy, freezing-your-face-off kinds of days and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a hardcore case of February Blues at the moment. (February is my most dreaded month of the year because I'm so, so over winter by this point.... If I see one more snowflake I might throw up in disgust.)

In order to keep our spirits up during this time of brutal weather, Ken and I resolved to bundle up and venture out to visit a new restaurant and/or coffee shop at least once a week, just to give us something to look forward to every now and then and to help us enjoy life in Toronto (in spite of it being an icier version of hell on earth). We've found a number of gems during our new weekly assignment, and most of them are a stone's throw away from our living room window (which is dangerous for our wallets during those lazy, I-don't-feel-like-cooking days... which are frequent). Here are a few of our recent discoveries:

Korean Food. Wha--?

It's been almost a year since we left Korea and I hadn't the slightest craving for anything even remotely Korean... until a few weeks ago.

Thankfully, we only had to walk a few blocks to Korea Town where we were met with Kimbop-Chungoos galore to satisfy such random cravings. (Although the mounds of snow piled on the sidewalk made the walk long and treacherous and perhaps not totally worth it.)

It was a yummy dinner that made my little heart miss Korea a teensy bit. I was also pleasantly reminded that Korean makes for really great winter food (the red pepper paste is particularly... warming, if nothing else). Would you believe we actually devoured four bowls of kimchi? I never thought I'd live to see the day.... Suffice it to say, we've now had our Korean-food-fill for the next year.

Burgers.  Not just any burgers, mind you. Craft Burgers. 

Organic, fancy-shmancy deliciousness. (I tried my burger with avocado, gorgonzola cheese, and rosemary-garlic mayonnaise... aaaand my mouth is watering at the very memory.) 

This place is amazing and I'm pretty sure it's the best burger I've ever had. What's even more amazing? It's literally a two-minute walk from our apartment. (Dangerously convenient.)

Coffee. I'd been moaning and groaning about the lack of good coffee shops in our area for the past nine months of living here only to discover there's a great place five minutes up the street (and I won't be winning any awards for my observation skills).  

Tiny, artsy and maybe the best macchiato I've ever had. They also have a stack of magazines and board games available for their patrons, which I thought was a nice little touch. (I'm going to make this place my Saturday morning ritual.) 

We've been to a few more mentionable places over the past couple of weeks but we forgot to haul our camera along for those excursions, and because a picture is worth a thousand words (and because we now have a camera worth using) I'll provide more on the subject another time. 

As for the rest of our free time during these awful winter months: It's been spent watching lots of movies and episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (me, not Ken), wasting time on the computer, and playing lots of card games and board games.

 Some a little more thought-provoking than others....

As you can see, I'm running low on subject matter, so I shall also re-mention this little guy who is now occupying the rest of our free time:

We are in serious danger of becoming weird dog people, but it can't be helped. (To prove my point, here's a little Flickr album I created just for Bubba.)

He's had a number of naughty-as-heck moments this week, but he's really sweet most of the time.

Of course, it helps that he's really cute. (If he were ugly, he would have been thrown out the window days ago.)

That's all I've got, people. It's been a slow winter, but things are good... and boy am I ever looking forward to spring. 

Last Night...

After sundown last night, we spent a few hours wandering around the streets of Toronto, checking out art exhibits scattered throughout the city for Nuit Blanche. I've been looking forward to Nuit Blanche for a few weeks now, and although we saw a few interesting exhibits last night (fire torches activated by movement, interpretive dancers in interpretive costumes, light shows, etc.) and had a good time out and about in the city with good friends, I was a little disappointed in the overall event. I heard that last year's Nuit Blanche was far more entertaining with far more exhibitions and that this year's seemed to be lacking in enthusiasm, so I guess we just hit it at a bad time. But! I'm already feeling hopeful for next year's event. (Come on, Toronto!)

Sadly, the one "exhibit" we were most excited about seeing--the ghost subway station that has been closed to the public for over 40 years (with the exception of last night)--had a line of a few thousand people trailing out of its entrance by the time we found it. 

We had already walked a full 15 kilometers by this point (not even exaggerating), so the prospect of waiting in line on our feet in the icky, wet cold didn't seem like the most logical option at the time. So we opted to head home on the TTC, which in hindsight wasn't entirely logical either, as everyone in the city was feeling particularly festive last night and the number of overly intoxicated individuals on the subway far outweighed the number of non-intoxicated individuals (which isn't even remotely fun to deal with when you're stone cold sober).

Anyway, after bidding the Nuit Blanche madness adieu and upon returning safely to our cozy little abode, I flipped on my computer to search for some durable winter garb. That might seem entirely random, but I had my reasons: According to a digital thermometer on the sign of one of the banks we passed last night, it was 5 degrees celsius while we were traipsing around the city, and my flimsy Korean winter coat held up to its first weather challenge of the year like a champ.  But it occurred to me somewhere between Spadina and Yonge streets that as soon as real winter strikes, I'll probably end up freezing to death if I don't do a winter-wardrobe-upgrade (because--hey--5 degrees celsius isn't that cold and Lord knows come January, 5 degrees is going to feel like August). So, naturally, I turned to Urban Outfitters' website as soon as I got home and instantly fell in love with this coat:

It's cute, eh? But after oohing and ahhing over it, I realized it probably has the same kind of lining as my current coat and will therefore be just as useless for my daily walks to and from work in the midst of a Canadian winter. I then came to the sad realization that something like this one might be more practical:

But I don't want this one. *sigh* Why can't cute and practical work together to keep me alive this winter? I'm open to coat suggestions from those who know rough winters, by the by, so please share your tips if you have them....

And now moving on to salsa (the condiment). We had a few friends over for dinner last night prior to the Nuit Blanche festivities, and since Ken was feeling ill and I was feeling lazy, we opted for an easy-to-prepare menu: chicken tacos and chips and salsa. I decided to make my own salsa, sans a recipe, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I'm feeling so confident about it, in fact, that I've decided to share it here!

Green Salsa Recipe 

(the color was a bit of a surprise...)

• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• one small yellow onion, peeled and quartered
• one jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced (if you prefer milder salsa, don't throw in the whole jalapeno)
• one or two handfuls of fresh chopped cilantro (depending on your taste for cilantro)
• the juice of half a lemon
• three large tomatoes, quartered
• salt to taste

Put garlic, onion, and jalapeno pepper into a food processor and pulse it a few times until everything is chopped up. Add the cilantro and lemon juice and pulse again until cilantro leaves are itty bitty. Add the tomatoes and pulse until you're satisfied with the texture (I prefer it a little chunky, but I overdid it and it came out a little runny.... Noted for next time!) Add salt to taste and eat that business! (With tortilla chips, preferably.)

And there you have it. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but--as you can see above--I took a picture of a few of the ingredients prior to making the salsa for whatever reason. (I just don't have the mind of a photographer... or even of someone who likes to take pictures, because clearly I don't.)

And that's all I've got! Enjoy this overcast (in Toronto) Sunday afternoon. 

Harry Potter is Here!

Or at least some of his stuff is here.

Our friends, Kevin, Meaghan and Meaghan's sister Lynae, came up to Toronto from Sarnia yesterday to see the Harry Potter exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. They kindly invited us to join them in their little excursion and I happily tagged along in order to represent the McClintic-Mundays at Hogwarts (poor Ken had to work).

The exhibit was full of props from the Harry Potter movies--costumes, wands, Quidditch gear, even Hagrid's hut!--and I was so excited about all of it that I forgot Hogwarts only exists in the imaginations of its readers and I totally felt like a kid again (even though I was an adult when the first book was even published). The exhibit--although well displayed--was tragically short for its price, but it was still a great way to spend a Thursday afternoon.

The above costumes also happened to be on display at the exhibit but, sadly, Cedric Diggory (or Robert Pattinson) wasn't in either of them. Boooo....

In other news, the job-hunt continues! I'm still interviewing and temping and getting lots of days off, and I daresay I'm getting used to this business of being (technically) unemployed. A steady job will be welcomed with open arms, but losing some of my free time will take some getting used to. How will I be able to see exhibits such as the one above while I'm working? (Weekends.)

Speaking of weekends... have a great one! (I have a to-do list a mile long for today and blogging isn't on it. Ohh, procrastination.) 

The Twindigs Take Toronto!

Last week my dear friends from Nashville, Krista and Nicole, came to visit me in Toronto! It was a last-minute trip that wouldn't have happened had their original plans to travel to Israel and Egypt not been postponed until next year, which was undoubtedly very sad for them but incredibly fortunate for me. (I'm admittedly selfish.)

Anyhoo, the twins (yes, twins--both hot and single!) came last Monday evening and stayed until Friday morning for a few days of city-exploring, shopping and catching up. Thank God the weather was next to perfect during their stay, as I was told that Nashville has been nothing shy of a sauna all summer long. Yay for breaks from the heat! Too bad Toronto has turned back into a sauna this week. Yuck. But I've strayed off topic, haven't I?

Here are the highlights of Nicole and Krista's Toronto adventure!

* A trip up the CN Tower, which was a little scary, but everyone had fun while I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed. (It should be noted that part of the elevator and part of the observation deck have glass floors, which is nothing shy of uncomfortable when you're standing 1,122 feet above the ground.)

Here we are, gearing up to go to the top:

(Picture taken from Krista's camera.)

Here's a hazy view of the less-interesting side of the city from the observation deck:

(Picture taken from Ken's camera.)

Looking down into the Sky Dome while the Blue Jays played a baseball game (because that's what they do):

(Picture taken by Ken, through the glass floor that I refused to stand on.)

And here's the only proof that Ken was actually with us: 

(Picture taken from Ken's camera, and boy do we look awkward.)

* A short trip through Kensington Market, followed by a really long walk to the Eaton Centre (because I, the ever-trusty tour guide, got hopelessly lost). We only spent enough time in Kensington Market to eat lunch, but spent a whole lot of time shopping at the H&M in the Eaton Centre once we found it. Priorities!

* A trip to St. Lawrence Market, followed once again by more important outings (like shopping a major clearance sale at Urban Outfitters). 

* A day-long excursion to Toronto Island, which was by far the best part of their stay (for me, at least). The weather was warm, sunny and not humid, and aside from an hour-long wait in the ticket line for the ferry, the crowds were minimal. We spent our day there eating over-priced food, laying around on the beach, briefly sticking our toes in the frigid waters of Lake Ontario (and deciding anyone who swam in it must be crazy), walking around, having tea and expensive desserts at maybe the cutest cafe ever:

...and getting lost on a random trail that we thought would lead us back to the ferry. (We eventually found our way there, but not before being chased by bugs and traipsing through poison ivy.) 

(Pictures taken from Nicole's camera.)

T'was a good day and week, and I was so happy to have the ladies here for a visit. Now it's back to the lonely job-hunt! *moan, groan, sob* 

P.S. If you're wondering if I ever take any pictures of my own, the answer is: Yes, I do. I took this one of the city skyline from Toronto Island:

 

...and this one of my expensive dessert at the above-mentioned cafe:

 

Both from my very own camera! So there. Be proud of me.

Lately

Oh me oh my. I have nothing to say here, and yet I still feel compelled to update this useless blog of mine. Maybe because it makes me feel like I'm being productive when, in all actuality, I'm just spewing verbal diarrhea for all to see. (How embarrassing.)

Life is still relatively uneventful in this corner of Lake Ontario. Ken is working full time and I'm looking for a job full time, albeit somewhat reluctantly. I'm quite frustrated with the job-search already and I've only officially been at it for approximately two weeks. I may be a tad impatient with these kinds of things, but honestly; why can't finding a job be easy? Moreover, why can't a job I actually want to have just fall into my lap? *sigh* Moving on....

I've been taking advantage of the summer weather by spending lots of time out and about in the city (in between bouts of boredom spent in front of the computer in my apartment), and I daresay my farmer's tan is coming along quite nicely. Here are some little things I've (we've) discovered on some recent outings:

Toronto has a castle. Why? I have no idea. It's called "Casa Loma," that much I know. I also know it costs $20 to enter its lavish gates, so my knowledge ends there. 

Toronto has lots of money. We discovered an area called "Forest Hill" last weekend, and the homes through there are enormous and most definitely cost millions. Our curiosity got the best of us while we were walking up and down the neighborhood's (or neighbourhood's) streets last weekend and we began trying to discreetly peer in through the extravagant windows from the sidewalk. Aside from not successfully seeing much, we had been walking around for a few hours prior, wearing old shorts and t-shirts, sweating buckets in the heat, and undoubtedly looking poor and suspicious. I'm surprised we weren't arrested for "casing the joints", but aside from a few disgusted glances, no one gave us the time of day.

Toronto has a crap selection of breakfast joints. No Denny's or IHOPs or Pancake Pantries around these parts! (Oooh, how I miss the Pancake Pantry in Nashville.) But we did discover a great little breakfast place about a week ago that just opened its doors recently a mere two blocks away from our apartment. Yay! Unfortunately, it seems the rest of the city's population found out about Cora's this past weekend. When we eagerly walked over there for some blueberry pancakes on Saturday morning, we were met with a line trailing out the door, about a hundred people long. Sadness! I guess I'm going to have to start dragging my bum out of bed a little earlier on the weekends....

Hmm.... I thought I had more Toronto-based discoveries to blabber on about, but I've forgotten what they were.

I suppose in other news, Ken and I bought a "family pass" to the Art Gallery of Ontario a couple of months ago, which I think was a wise and useful investment.

I spent the afternoon there last Wednesday looking through their "Drama & Desire: Artists and the Theatre" exhibit that featured the above painting, Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (my favorite), along with other, perhaps more famous paintings. The exhibit was interesting, but not nearly as interesting as trying to find my way back out of the enormous building. This was my first time going there without Ken, who knows the place pretty well, so I ended up the most lost I've ever been indoors. The A.G.O. is like a giant maze and I plan to go back again this week for that very fun reason. (Plus, the family pass gets me a discount at the cafe.)

OK, that's enough spewing for now. And, just to err on the side of caution, I should state that none of the above photos are mine. I stole them from the web, like a good photographer.