Photos of Old

Ken and I had our pictures taken by the lovely wMac Photography way back in September of last year. It is now the first of April, and I'm just now getting around to choosing prints. This is proving to be a far more difficult task than I imagined it would be. We love a lot of these photos for different reasons, so which ones should we choose to hang on our wall? I don't know, and it's starting to stress me out a teensy bit.

 Here are a few of the favorites I've narrowed it down to so far (nearly seven months after the fact): 

 

 

Knowing Ken and myself, we'll probably get overwhelmed by this decision (as small and insignificant as it may seem) and it could very well be another seven months before these things finally make it to print. (Family, friends, and anyone: Feel free to email any photo-choosing suggestions to me.... We need help! More can be viewed on wMac's website here.)

Randoms: Brought To You By...

Instagram!
(They didn't ask me to do this.)

I'm not lying when I say the only reason I wanted an iPhone in the first place was so I could have access to the Instagram app. I also realize that's a horrible reason to buy a brand new phone, which is why I didn't buy one for quite a while.  But when my cheap ol' flip-phone finally died and sweet ol' Ken gave me an iPhone for Christmas, the first thing I did with it as soon as I removed it from its packaging was download Instagram.

I love Instagram. And I use it a lot. So much, in fact, that I've started deleting a lot of my Instagram photos as soon as I take them, that way they automatically save to my phone and I'm not constantly bombarding my "Instagram friends" (all five of them!) with pictures of restaurants and (mostly) of Bubba. Not that it stops me from bombarding my blog with them.... 

Here are a few recents:

The above photos are the only ones I have to show from our friends, Jared and Alisha's wedding back in February. (My battery died twenty minutes into the reception -- what luck!)

See the above righthand photo? This is a classic example of how Bubba orders me to refill his Kong. (He's such an alpha.)

Bubba's new squeaky frog is also his new bestie. He plucked it out of a toy-filled bin in the pet store when we were there to buy dog food last week and he looked so crestfallen when I took it away from him that I caved and bought it. He carried it the whole way home and they've been inseparable ever since!

(More pictures of Bubba being Bubba.) 

For some reason I've taken dozens of food-related pictures since getting my iPhone. (It would seem that I get as excited about eating as Ken gets about having his picture taken right before he eats.) 

And that's all the randomness I have for now. More Instagram posts will surely follow in the future, as I've taken enough pictures to fill a book. (I should be their spokesperson!) 

A Friday Vacation Day

Three things: (1) I love my husband more than anything in the whole world. (2) I love my dog more than some things in the whole world. (3) I'm thankful to have a job that is conveniently close to home. 

Those things said, I sometimes need to have a day off from all three. And today just so happens to be such a day.  

Since I'm currently in the middle of a "trial week" as a vegetarian, I started off my loner-Friday with a trip to Sadie's Diner, a nearby vegetarian restaurant (and one of my favorites), for breakfast. 

I sat there for a good hour-and-a-half, eating banana pancakes and veggie sausages, drinking coffee, reading Vanity Fair, and listening to my waitress blatantly confess to the guy sitting next to me that she's still in love with him and that "I don't think you're here just for breakfast; I think you're here because you're still in love with me, too." (You can imagine my awkward-filled horror when the guy--presumably her ex--informed her that he was just there for breakfast and would she please go away so he could eat it in peace, sending my sweet-but-dumb waitress running to the bathroom, sniveling into a napkin.)

As soon as I finished my soap-opera-filled breakfast, I high-tailed it out of there and found myself strolling down Queen Street West, which was eerily quiet this morning even for a weekday. (Queen is usually crawling with teenagers, hipsters, fashionistas and drunks, so its unusual deadness felt a little post-apoctyliptic and creepy.)

As I was walking past the Gap on Queen (while continually looking over my shoulder), I suddenly remembered the Gap gift card that had been sitting in my wallet since Christmastime! It was actually a gift to Ken from his brother, but my sweet ol' husband hadn't expressed any interest in using it, and marriage is all about sharing, anyway, right? So I went in. 

Just for fun, I loaded a dressing room with 20+ garments (they didn't have a limit!) and then gave a full-on fashion show for Ken via text... while he was sitting in a conference for work. 

Ken wasn't overly impressed with my antics (of all the ridiculous pictures I sent, the last one especially irked him), and neither was the sales associate when I ended up only buying a pair of yoga pants. (But it was still fun.)

After my little Gap excursion, I decided I couldn't take a full day off from Bubba because, like it or not, the little guy does have a bladder and an occasional need to empty it. So I slowly made my way back home, freed Bubba from his crate (he was happy to see me, which made me feel guilty for contemplating leaving him there and going out for another coffee), and we took a little stroll to the dog park. 

Leave it to Bubba to make me regret my sense of responsibility. 

He managed to find the only mud puddle in the whole park and traipsed right through the middle of it at high speed for absolutely no reason (we weren't playing near it, there wasn't another dog near it, nothing). This resulted in a trip back home and a toss into the bathtub...

...which neither of us enjoyed. 

Now I'm thinking, since Bubba has been Spring-cleaned (in a way), maybe the apartment should be Spring-cleaned, as well...

...which is how I shall be spending the rest of my Friday off.  

Costa Rica

I will start off this post by saying: Leaving Manuel Antonio last Saturday was the hardest thing I've had to do in a good long while. (For you Twitter-users, you might agree that I have #firstworldproblems.)

If you don't already know about it, and if you're interested in the details, Google "Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica" and feel free to read all about it (I will spare you my sketchy account of its facts). I will tell you that, even though I'd been there before on a cross-cultural trip with my university over ten years ago (!), it has made its way back to the top of my "Prettiest Places in the World" list (which I've never officially made). In addition to its beauty, Manuel Antonio contains some of the friendliest people I've met while traveling, which is enough to make any trip a great one, no?

The wildlife and natural beauty of this place are absolutely, positively stunning (it's like living in a leafy-green zoo!) and I'm sorry to say my shoddy photography didn't do them an ounce of justice. Now, with that little disclaimer out there, here are a few tidbits from our trip:

Being the notoriously lazy travelers we are, Ken and I spent 95% of our days lazing around on the beautiful beaches...

...and occasionally peeling our vitamin D deprived selves out of the sun to go on treks through the rainforest...

We spent some time searching for friendly monkeys (they clearly weren't hard to find)...

 ...avoiding the scary, confrontational ones...

...and looking for other wildlife we could startle away....

(Ken accidentally stepped on the tail of a fairly large iguana while we were hiking one day, and the incident left all three of us shrieking and running for cover.)

We ate loads of really good food....

(I always say we eat our way through the countries we visit, which in turn makes me think of the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's a little different, but the mental picture adequately sums up our piggishness.)

We each consumed half our body weight in Costa Rican coffee and mango smoothies...

(which were delicious, but--surprise!--did not bode well for our stomachs)

...and we spent a lot of time watching some of the prettiest sunsets our eyes have ever seen....

As I have previously stated, I have hundreds of other pictures I may post at a later date, but I'm not going to lie: It's getting a little depressing sorting through the beautiful, warm photos of Costa Rica while sitting in our apartment, bundled-up to the nines, staring out the window at a frigid minus thirteen degrees. (I just shuddered a little at the thought.) 

That little bit of complainy negativity aside, I'm so, so glad we had the opportunity to go to Manuel Antonio this year. It was truly one of the best trips we've ever taken and we're already making plans to go back again in the near future. 

(Let me know if you want to come, too!)

Back Since Sunday...

...and I'm still weeding through the 900+ photos we took while in Manuel Antonio. 

But a Costa Rica picture-post is coming soon. Including lots of pictures of these intrusive (and very cute) little guys...

And lots of pictures of our tan, relaxed, happy faces....

(...which are fading quickly.)

And hundreds of other pictures. 

Hundreds.

In one week from today, we will be here: 

We will be off to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica for ten days, including an overnight layover in Mexico City on the way there and another one on the way back (eep!). 

Considering we woke up to this an hour ago...

...I think it's safe to say we're (very) excited to get out of here.

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....)

Stomachaches and Anniversaries

The weekend has been crap, I'm not going to lie. Largely due to the most violent stomach bug I've had in ages that started on Thursday and has lasted until this very moment. (It's thankfully starting to settle down a bit and I'm finally able to digest food again--glory!)

Not pictured: Me, sitting on the toilet while my head hangs over the side of the bathtub. (You're welcome.)

On a much brighter note, today marks the one-year-anniversary of the most impulsive purchase Ken and I ever made together:

Bubba! 

We have days when we kind of regret making him apart of our little family...

(this day last week is a prime example)

...but most of the time we love him a whole lot and can't imagine our days without him.

Happy One-Year-Anniversary, Bubs! (Hopefully you'll start easing up on our toilet paper supply as time goes on.)

It's Nerdy...

...but I really like it when these two (unintentionally) match.

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.)