Daddy's Girl

Besides a brief period after I had Cakes, this is the first time in eight years I’m not a part-time student. It is such a relief! This weekend I actually spent time with my family! We took Cakes on her very first trip to the fire hall:







It was McHotty’s crew, and they’re very sweet, so she got lots of personal attention. She looks rather alarmingly comfortable behind the wheel, don’t you think? I will have to work on her literary side.

Sunday, I got on the bike for the second time in 15 years, and we went to the beach. I had planned to do lots of biking this summer, but up until a few days ago, McHotty’s been having to use my crap old bike. His bike, which was pretty decent, was actually stolen from the bike shop where it was getting a tune-up! The good thing is, it was a really high end bike shop, so they replaced his bike with one worth twice as much! Between this and the flood, we’re getting all of shit upgraded this summer, but it sure is not a convenient way to go about it!

Last night the neighbours joined us for dinner, and we indulged in the awesome ice wine I bought at Jackson Triggs last weekend. I knew if wouldn’t last long.

How were your weekends, y’all?

The Last Post About BFF (Promise)

It’s crazy how now that blogging is such a central part of my job, I find so little time to do it. Besides posting pictures of zombie bloggers, and almost unintelligible twitters, I haven’t even told you about BFF.

I’m having trouble describing the weekend without using a lot of clichés. Yes, the women made me laugh, and cry. But the laughter out-weighed the tears by far, and it was gut-busting, whole-hearted, uninhibited laughter of the sort I haven’t seen in a long time.

Quite simply, I love these women. They are my friends. When I’m around them, I am happy, inspired, and I am myself. Whether we’re talking about books, tasting delicious wine at Jackson Triggs, or swilling hooch in our hotel room, I have fun just being in their presence.

Ladies, let’s do it again soon.

Live From BFF

Don't you wish you hot like us?

(Almost) Live From BFF

It's kind of funny. I'm rooming with 3 bloggers, and we are geeky indeed. I woke up at 7 am and immediately uploaded my pictures to Flickr. Sandra woke up about 3 minutes later and reached for her Blackberry. Alice was already up, doing Sudoko. Jana's playing Mob Wars on Facebook. Geeks, I tell you.

I am so hungover. This year, like last year, our room is the site of the after-party. I'm surrounded by half-empty wine glasses and some rancid cheese, feeling a little nauseous. S'all good though. Here are some pics from last night...



















More on Flickr.

BFF or Bust!

In a couple of hours, I’m picking up the gorgeous kittenpie, and we’re headin’ to Niagara Falls for a debaucherous weekend with my best bloggy pals (and some new faces too!)

I’m going to kick of the weekend lounging by the pool sipping cava with my sexy roomies. Tonight we’re kicking off the conference with a cocktail party sponsored by my super awesome employer. We’re going to give away a fabulous book (one of my favourites of the season) called The Gargoyle. There’s a nifty website created for the book, here.

Tomorrow we’re going to spend the morning talking blog, then we’re off for a wine tasting. How can you go to Niagara without doing a wine tasting? Saturday night, we’re heading out on the town, and who knows what trouble we’ll get into?

Can’t wait.

And I can’t wait to tell you some good news--I’ve been promoted at work! I’m now an Online Marketing Coordinator, and I’m going to be filling in for my boss, who just had a beautiful baby boy (congrats, C!) We’re hiring a new assistant--if you’re interested, the deets are on Facebook.

Have a great weekend everyone! Hope to patch in with y’all in San Fran at some point.

Flood Update

To our great relief, our insurance is going to cover the great flood of 2008. It’s a good thing--check out the damage.








Everything has to go—even the drywall.

The problem is with the city’s sewer system, and the City of Toronto has been ridiculously unhelpful. I called them Tuesday night, and no one has been here yet. City of Toronto: you suck. Stop giving yourselves raises, and work on our infrastructure.

To add insult to injury, the street was full of contractors yesterday, working on the cleanup. The police came by and gave them all parking tickets (without warning). Yet they’re never around when people speed down my one-way street, going the wrong way. City of Toronto Police: you suck too.



On a positive note, in light of the insurance coverage, I am making my list of ruined items as, ahem, complete as possible. And McHotty and I are finally going to upgrade our Ikea furniture. Can anyone recommend a good furniture store?

Because One Can't Get Too Happy

I’d been having a fabulous couple of weeks. So good, in fact, I haven’t even had time to blog about it!

Saturday night I had a few of my favourite gals from my former workplace over for beers in the backyard. Sunday night I caught a couple of very funny fringe shows with my nomad friend Christine, who’s in town for the week.

Monday I walked to work for the first time, and I was in heaven. I can take the Lakeshore path, cut through the Distillery District and snake my way up past the St. Lawrence Market. It’s about a 45 minute walk. Perfect. It is so nice being downtown: there are nice places to eat! A colleague took me to lunch on a patio on Front Street for my first day; Terroni is around the corner!

On top of all this, my in-laws picked Cakes up on Monday and have taken her to Kingston for the week! McHotty and I plan to take advantage of Summerlicious and have a hot date lined up for tonight.

But last night the axe fell. I came home from my class at 10:30 last night to find McHotty removing the contents of our basement. Had I come home a couple of hours earlier, I would have seen the 6 inches of dirty water littered with floating toys (photos coming soon). Luckily, it wasn’t sewage. Thankfully, all of my best books are in my new fancy bookcase upstairs. And all of Cakes favourite toys were in her room. But still. Oy. What a fucking mess. And the jury is still out on who is responsible, and if insurance will cover it. There is also a question of whether the builder has any responsibility. This kind of shit makes me want to head for the liquor cabinet.

To add insult to injury, I had taken on the very painful task of trying to coordinate 14 homeowners to purchase the same wrought iron fence, to finish off the front of our homes. And when I say painful, I’m not kidding—the past few weeks have involved many, many emails, conversations, and meetings. And a few bad feelings. We had just finally all reached an agreement. The contractor was to come and pick up deposits tonight. Now all bets are off. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

So, tonight, come what may, McHotty and I are taking advantage of our alone time. We’re closing the door on the mess, going for a nice dinner, and then hitting the wine bar.

And how was your week?

Summer Movie Recos: Wanted and SATC

I love me a two-and-a-half day work week! I can’t believe it’s Friday again already, and I haven’t even told you about last weekend!

I used the holiday to catch up on my movies. We had Monday off, and daycare was still open, so McHotty and I caught Wanted, then had drinks on a patio at the Distillery. Bad parents, I know.

I love stylized action flicks, and Wanted is a very cool one. Here are my likes and dislikes:

Likes

* James McAvoy. I love him. He’s funny and cute, and it’s so awesome to see him get tough and stand up for himself. He’s fabulous.

* Angelina Jolie. She is the sexiest woman on the planet. Love the tattoos.

* The humour. Like when Wesley smashes his keyboard over his coworker’s head and the broken keys freeze in the air to spell, “Fuck You!”

* The stunts. There are some very cool tricks with cars and trains. And some fun hijinks between Jolie and McAvoy on top of the El.

* The rock ‘n’ roll. McAvoy makes a super-cool matrix-ish entrance, accompanied by a loud, down-and-dirty score. Perfect for the shooting in opposite directions with crossed arms. I’m a big fan of shooting in opposite directions with crossed arms.

Dislikes

Um…none.

Bottom line: it’s a ridiculous premise, and not as thinky as The Matrix, but who cares? It’s perfect summer eye candy.



I can say the same thing, (minus The Matrix part) about Sex and the City, which I’m the last person on the planet to see. Since so much has been said already, I won’t go into detail, but I thought the movie was fine. It was exactly what I expected it to be. I loved seeing old friends again (and I thought they looked great by the way). The City looked great too, as always. The fashion was a blast.

A few criticisms…I don’t know what Jennifer Hudson’s character was doing there. I would have liked to see more of the men. I would have liked to see Samantha have sex with someone.

I’ve been finding, most people who loved the show are happy with the movie, and that’s the case with me. What did you think?