Because we are social creatures and like herds.

The fountain of wisdom that is CPwr used this to explain why he likes having me in the room with him, even when we’re not being particularly interactive (dirty or otherwise).

For instance, I’ve been sitting in the study with him, doing petit point and listening to music, while he does the Blender (3D art) tutorial. When he said that it’s because we like to be in herds, I had a very pleasant image of us as a couple of cows, chewing our cud, just hanging out in the corner of a field.

In other herding behaviour, I almost laughed out loud at a uniquely Toronto-brunch-scene phenomenon today. CPwr and I headed out for a late brunch – which meant that we were going to hit the second seating bump. If you don’t get to your restaurant of choice by absolutely no later than 10:30, it’s a crapshoot whether there will be seats left. Another seating opens up around 12 as the 10:30s turn over, but if you hit your timing right, you’ll never have to be those poor saps jammed in a clump at the door drooling on yourself as you watch other people laughing and enjoying YOUR pancakes [and dying a little inside when they order another round of coffee].

Anywho, we were trying to eat right at the peak of brunchers. Walked past the corner eatery – packed. Decided to keep walking and go past one place we were sure would be full on our way to another (just to check). As we walked past it, it was so full that it spit a group of 6 brunchers out onto the street – about to move on and try somewhere else. This is the uniquely Toronto-brunch-scene bit. We all brunch so often and at the same places, that we know where these guys are headed. The stink of desire for pancakes and french toast is thick in the air, and I suddenly become very aware that these people are no longer just fellow pedestrians – they are enemies in my quest for a seat and a menu. The sidewalk becomes a moving lineup – everyone heading east to the next possible feeding hole. CPwr and I are in the lead, but he sees a book he wants in a bookstore – There is No Window Shopping When You are in the Queue! 2 of the 6 pass us, but fortunately, being the long-legged beasts we are, we quickly outpace them – and back to the front of the line we go…

and…HaHA! Victory! I sip my coffee at you sir! Brunch, it’s not for the weak.

Recent Food: The most amazing rumball from St. Lawrence market; Braised Chicken (Ficken) Pie with Caramelized Onions Mushrooms and Chestnuts (see the Chestnut entry from the other day); A fantastic breakfast at Fresh of scrambled tofu, beans, toast, facon and french fries with an Americano on the side.

It’s from Futurama…

It’s come up here before that I bike into work. And it may have come up that I have bike clothes specifically for this activity. A fleecy wicking long-sleeved top, my ‘samurai’ jacket, gloves, cropped sweatpants…
And I enjoy this dedicated clothing. It gives me an excuse to pick up more ‘sweats’ instead of buying real clothes.

However.

I wear my grubbiest sneakers into work. They’re really old, worn out, mesh and I think they were once white, although they’re now more of a brownish grey (only their mamma remembers their real colour). But will I replace them with a pair of new sneaks to go with the rest of my snazzy gear? Nope, nuh-uh, no way. “Dirty and Stinky?! I love these guys!”

Have a popover froggie.

Recent Food:
Saturday Dinner – Cheese and Spinach Pie, Veggies with Italian Dressing, Grape Juice
Sunday Breakfast – Irish Soda Bread
Sunday Dinner – Butternut Squash Soup, Popovers
Almond Crunch Cereal in the oven…
Recent Movies: Margaret Cho – Revolution
Recent Reading: Shameless magazine, The World Is Not for Sale – Jose Bove

With CPwr doing all the behind the scenes work, I’m making a concentrated effort to really commit to a “slower” food lifestyle. Planning out the weeks meals, going shopping either that weekend or the day of, and prepping real food from scratch (aka not frozen/instant/takeout).

We’re heading into week two and doing pretty well. Last week included Chickpea Melts, fresh veggies and Apple-Beet salad. We’re helped along by a new organic grocery store opening in the area, although I’ve decided they have a weird vibe and their prices are about $1 more than they should be. But today we went there and PriceChopper, so I figure we probably broke even.

Now it’s off for a little Sunday night cross-stitching (the same 5″x5″ pattern I’ve been working on for the past 3 years…) and putting my feet up on CPwr as he resurrects all his old DOS games.

Life, she is good no?

Inexplicably grumpy.

Current Food: Peppermint tea

I’ve been feeling like a storm cloud when I get home lately. And not like the cute kind of storm cloud – like one that would be featured in a Reading Rainbow book “The Littlest Stormcloud” – no, like a pissed off one that just wants to go to bed.

Getting up this week has hurt. Lots to do at work, which is good and bad. Good because I hate when the day dribbles by, bad because it’s too much “lots to do”. All or nothing.

Despite my best efforts and intentions, I think I’m still not very good at decompressing when I get home from a busy day. So when I get up in the morning, I feel like I’ve just had a nap and it’s time to go back to work again. Ugh. And it’s been dark, and really cold, and really rainy, and really windy every morning. Ugh x 2. And I keep forgetting to have a shower at night, so I have to get up 20 minutes earlier than if I had remembered. Ugh x 3. And I’m biking in, so really cold, rainy and windy means it takes me an extra 10 minutes to ride in. Ugh x 4.

I guess it’s explicable after all.

It’ll be good to work from home tomorrow. There’s nothing like starting your day by picking mushrooms in Animal Crossing to turn that frown upside down! 🙁 —> 🙂

Warm Sunday

Recent Documentaries: The Weather Underground; The Saltmen of Tibet
Current Food: Organic garlic stuffed olives (yum), green pepper, beets boiling on the stove

We went on our inaugural bike club trip today. We’ve been trying to get this together since late August, and as my most recent email to the group said “we’ve got to get out there before we’re talking about this in 4 feet of snow”.
Toronto has plunged into cold wholeheartedly this week. We went from unseasonably warm 20+C weather to 7C overnight. Break out the mittens people.

So, bike club arranged to meet at 11 on Sunday at the Cherry Street Bridge for what was supposed to be a gentle first outing. It’s going to have to be a bit gentle for a while, since I’m riding a beater bike that flies under the radar of bike-thieves, but is not built for offroading.

Toronto weather this morning (we sort of saw this coming): cold and wet and windy. Like, really cold and really wet and super windy. We left at around 10:30 (Cherry St’s the other end of the city). Woah nelly. Glad I bought my MEC “you’ll be glad to have this bike top on for those chilly morning commutes” shirt.

Rode some of the trails, then right as it starts to really piss down with rain – both BCGirl and I blow our tubes. Huddled under a tree, I get a taste of the real mountain biking experience – fixing your tire by the side of the road. While this was old hat for my three companions, I loved watching them whip out their special tools and spare tubes from outta nowhere (actually ‘nowhere’ being the bike repair kits stored under their seats) and fix up bikes on the fly. Neato 🙂
So while it meant our group ride was cut short (having to stop mid-rainy ride meant everyone was quick to agree to stop this madness and get coffee and croissants), bike club has officially begun – huzzah!

I should qualify that – the group ride was cut short, but CPwr and I still had what turned out to be another 1.5 hours ride to get home again (home at 3:30). Despite crazy wet and wind coming off the lake it was really lovely, I’ve been wanting to bike along with CPwr since we met. And I had the ingenious idea of stopping on the way home to pick-up veggie burgers at BK. Which CPwr really enjoyed, since we packed 4 warm veggie burgers into his coat.

*happy sigh* Slept the rest of the day away on the couch, snuggled inside of three layers of clothes and three fleecy blankets… happiness is.

I keep forgetting I don’t have a babelfish in my ear…

I’m the kind of person who’s likely to jump up and do things while movies are playing. I also watch what is probably a disproportionate number of subtitled movies. And apparently, I’m also a little slow. Here’s an example of the kind of thing that happens to me a lot (no, seriously, a lot):

Watching extra footage on “Trembling Before G-d”, interviews in Hebrew. I’m watching, I’m watching, I get up to go boil water for tea. I get to the kitchen, and after a couple of minutes (really, minutes) I realize I can’t understanding what they’re saying anymore. Return to the couch, read the subtitles. Kettle boils, jump up to pour water, again, realize as I’m pouring that I’m (for some unfathomable reason) unable to understand the interview again. Return to the couch.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Seriously, all the time. We were watching “Hero” and the subtitles cut out right near the end (it was a pirated copy we picked up in Malaysia). I think I watched for a good minute before I figured out why I couldn’t understand the dialogue anymore: “Is the audio still playing? Do I speak Mandarin and suddenly forgot? Did I go deaf?”

Sheesh-tastic.

Stealth kitty

As part of a truly lovely weekend, CPwr and I went to the park to play catch today.

My shoulder’s been bothering me lately – a result of stress at work + typing on a non-ergo keyboard. It was aggravated by playing catch (I throw like a girl – YEAH!), so I whipped out the old heating pad and sat down on the couch for some soothing warmth.

dum dum dum, reach back to adjust the pad on my neck – BA! Fur!
Turn to my right. Who’s sitting on the back of the couch *right* behind my head, but Melchie. Apparently we’re sharing the heating pad. Her face is right beside my head (“yo, whassup.”), and her butt is snugged up against the back of my shoulder and the heating pad.

So as I sit here, I adjust my the heating pad periodically and she keeps giving me nasty looks. I’ve had to explain it to her in very simple terms – the heating pad is for mummies first, kitties second. Sheesh.

Extinguishing the cat.

You’re whiling away your sunday evening, reading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy aloud, snuggled up on the couch. Your cat “Melchie”, has grown tired of perching on CPwr’s knees and starts walking on the furniture…

She does this a lot. *A lot*. We’re having dinner, and suddenly we notice there is a cat curled up behind the pepper mill (she’s stealthy). The thing is, Melchie is also a klutz. She’ll roll over to show you her belly, only to fall off the couch. So in addition to getting her off the table, you’re also making sure no wine glasses or salad bowls get knocked off in the process.

This evening, Melchie has been behaving herself, curled up on a sweater on the armchair opposite us. Then she decides to go for a little stroll across the side table. Where we have a candle – a lit candle. Holding our collective breaths and thinking “Could she be that stupid?”, we watch in shock/horror, as she swishes her tail through the flame. As she jumps down, her poor mummy (me) sees that there is a spark on her tail! My kitty’s on fire!

Well, not *on fire*, the spark went out as she wooshed through the air to the ground, but good lord! I jump up, go into the kitchen and soak my hands to wet down her tail – which is still hot by the way. And now has a big clump of beeswax in it. But did my precious little kitty care about any of this? Nope. She was more excited that she had got me into the kitchen and started in on the “feed me” noises – walking back and forth between the cupboard and her dish. It’s like ‘dumbass, you were just on fire! see this wax on your butt, THAT’S NOT NORMAL.’

Good lord indeed.

Extinct bananas and why hippies go crazy.

I went grocery shopping this morning. I knew that I was just not going to be able to write a presentation without getting some mueslix in me first. I went to PriceChopper, because it’s close, cheap, has the mueslix I like, and means I can walk down the street with CPwr on his way to the streetcar stop.

While there, I wanted to pick up some sundry extras…but trying to be an “ethical shopper” ( A few examples:
-bananas. Well, I’m at PriceChopper, so they’re not organic. Strike One. And, if the head of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) is to be believed, bananas are going to be gone in 10 years. Just feeling weird about bananas these days as a result.
-berries. I’ve read ‘Reefer Madness’. And these berries are from the States, and I don’t remember which of the producers don’t suck ass for labour standards. No cart for you.
-yogurt. Again, not organic, and not local. So, since I don’t feel like sucking back growth hormones from the teats of sad little cows, I think I’ll pass.
-bagels. Having had a lot of fresh bagels lately, it’s really hard to convince yourself to buy the bag o’ bagels. To be all geeky: “How did the machines know what Tasty Wheat tasted like. huh?. Maybe they got it wrong.” That’s what those bagels taste like to me – chewy and synthetic.
-packaging, plastic, and pesticides, oh my…

So this is how the hippies go crazy. If you open your mind to a few basic principles of living (“My eating shouldn’t involve exploiting people”, “The second ingredient in all my food shouldn’t be ‘sugar'”, “I shouldn’t be wiping my butt with brand new trees smothered in bleach”, “I don’t need my cookies individually packaged inside of a box inside of a bag, inside of a…”), it’s pretty easy to find yourself sobbing on the floor of a supermarket aisle.

Which I am not – I buy my Mueslix, and make a plan to bike to the market on the weekend for some locally-produced, organic goodies. Self-righteous? Oh heck yes.