Day One Hundred and Eighty-Three - Staff Meterologist

Apparently it's a really Canadian thing to be really into the weather. I wasn't aware of this until recently, but I guess it's one more thing that makes me an awesome Canadian. I have been really into the weather for quite some time - I was well known for this in my old job as I had a weather tracker installed on my desktop and I would tell all the partners how to dress. Now that I'm hayfever I'm into the whole pollen count thing. I find all of this to be endlessly interesting and I will talk to people at length about it even if it's perfectly obvious that they don't care.

But that's the thing about weather - she is a tough mistress and there is much to know. Turns out I don't even know that much even with my keen interest and enthusiasm so tonight I learned how to read a weather map. Now I understand all of the curvy lines, the letters [H stands for high pressure system which also = migraine, which I had earlier today], I can see when a cyclone or depression is forming and most importantly I can determine the type and movement of fronts [these are the heavy coloured lines with either lumps or triangles on them]. There is also something called a station model, which has cool symbols and doodads, but I've never seen one in use. Also, those random numbers that pop up and aren't temperatures? Well, if it's a large numbers and the thin lines are close, you are really in for a world of hurt [they are pressure gradients] - they can indicate big storms and high winds. Take cover!

Day One Hundred and Eighty-Two - Dish Pan Hands

A difference that I've noticed between my blog and other similar thing-a-day/chasing 30 type blogs is that most people tend to do things that they might have missed out on during their childhood or things they thought would be fun when they were kids [not to generalise - this isn't always the case]. Mine [with some obvious exceptions] is more about doing adult things, even if they are painfully easy/mundane adult things [changing a lightbulb, hanging curtains, laundry stuff]. It's funny because when I was a kid all I wanted was to be an adult - but for these mundane things - like I envied my mum balancing her chequebook and my dad mowing the lawn [I've never done either of these things]. Still, I don't live a very adult life and I'm slowly becoming accepting of that. Many of these things I've never done point to me being very spoiled or pampered for the past 29 years, but that's not really true @ all. However, today's thing won't change your opinion on that [if that is indeed your opinion].

Today I washed the dishes without wearing gloves. I had something else lined up, but then I went and filled the sink with water with the gloves IN the sink, so I had no choice. It was really unpleasant. The feel of a wet sponge is so texture-wrong and like...spongey [imagine that]. Feeling the little bits of stuck-on food that have been released into the water - so unspeakably gross. Then having my hands get all wrinkly and dried out - I just hated it. I don't see how anyone washes dishes with bare hands. However, the gloves will take a couple of days to dry out, so it looks like I will be dealing with this again.

Truthfully, I didn't wash dishes until I was maybe 24 years old. We had a dishwasher @ home and my mum did the dishes everyday anyway. My job was to make coffee after dinner and then sit up on the counter regaling my mum with tales of my pre-teen/teen life. I'm so useful. I vividly remember the first time I did dishes - I even called Joseph in Belgium to tell him all about it [and yes, that's the only reason I did it - because he was 1000s of miles away...even then I would just wait for him to get back usually]. Funnily enough, my first job other than baby-sitting and paper delivery was as a dishwasher in a scuzzy restaurant/bar in my hometown. Big industrial sinks, big industrial containers of food, plates with cigarette butts on them, the whole deal. I did this for about two months during which time my hands/palms/fingers continually peeled [even though I only worked two nights per week] and garbage exploded on me. Glamourous. However, they might not have given me the job if they knew how unexperienced I was.

Day One Hundred and Eighty-One - Sweet 'n Sour

Although I like to eat a lot of different things I don't often like to eat fruit. A big factor in this is that our local grocery store su-ucks in terms of fresh produce. Because I like vegetables a lot more I go to more effort to sort through them and seek out the good ones. Recently I've discovered the joys of frozen fruit and I have been eating that in addition to the usual apples and bananas. The other reason I don't care for fruit is that it's too sweet [or in the case of grapes - one of my many sworn enemies - too sour and awful] and if I'm gonna go sweet I will binge out on vegan chocolate cake or Pep candy bars or general candy.

However, strawberries were on sale and, despite them being all the way from California [not that there's anything wrong with that] - they looked fresh and tasty. I have been burned many times before on strawberries and I felt a different approach was necessary. I thought I had heard somewhere something about mixing strawberries with vinegar, but until Googling I thought maybe I had just made this up. My Google-fu proving me right, I found a recipe and I mixed strawberries and vinegar. It was so delicious. I was super skeptical, but this is something that you must try. I took half of a clamshell thing of strawberries, cut them all in half [some of the big 'uns got cut into four], added one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and two tablespoons of white sugar and then mix it up. I let it stand for about an hour...and my gosh - the smell was bizarre [I have a sensitive nose though], but the strawberries had marinated and become tender and dense with flavour. I am a fan of vinegars, but I couldn't taste vinegar at all [or the sugar or the strawberries - it all mixed together to form a magical taste explosion]. You can add freshly cracked black pepper too if that's your thing [and it is mine]. I think this recipe would be great for strawberries that "aren't quite there" - yknow?

Day One Hundred and Eighty - It's-A Me, Mario!

Mario Kart for the Wii was finally released today and I went out, stood in line with other sweaty nerds and I bought it - marking the first time that I've ever purchased a videogame on its release date. While I think these are both steps towards me being less of a casual gamer, Mario Kart for the Wii is totally a casual gamer game. In addition to the game, it comes with a Wii Wheel - which is essentially a piece of plastic with a slot in it for the Wii-mote and as the name suggests - it is shaped like a steering wheel. I was a bit hesitant at first [as racing games are the games I'm best @ and I can even beat Joseph at], but I used a Wii steering wheel and eventually got pretty okay with it.

It's kinda the dorkiest thing. You're just sitting there with this piece of plastic that is unattached to anything and you're steering it - I dunno - I think it probably looks really silly. Truthfully, I wasn't as superfantastic as I normally am with racing games, but I think it will just take some time to get used to. Luckily I'm only semi-employed, so I can make this a high priority.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Nine - Trya Banks Was Right

For the past few days I have been seeing my way through the day with bleary eyes and itchy...everything. As my friend Rory so eloquently stated - imagine if the Hindenberg exploded, but it was full of pollen. That's right - I have my first ever case of hayfever. Since moving to Toronto I've been lucky enough to develop all sorts of new allergies and respiratory problems, but this is a brand new one. I can't take any meds for this as they all contain ephedrine or hydrochloride something or other and it makes my heart go all wonky. Therefore, I have been seeking out any natural cures - with pretty limited success.

However, on a number of different websites [from different countries no less] recommended putting Vaseline in your nose to block any incoming pollen assaults. Originally, I didn't want to do this as I had a nightmarish reaction to applying Vaseline to my entire face in drama class [the whole drama department could be counted on for some pretty horrific skin, to be honest]. Vaseline feels gross. Today I was extra cranky as there was loud music blasting, the TTC on strike and one whole day to wait for Mario Kart Wii...so, to alleviate my hayfever discomfort I put Vaseline up my nose. The thing is - it really works [for me anyways]. The key is to apply a very thin layer just on the inside of both nostrils [apparently inhaling Vaseline can cause some serious complications, so don't use too much] - I used a Q-Tip. It reduced my outdoor sneezing down to zero and provided additional softness and comfort for when I had to blow my nose.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Eight - Monkey Business

Yes, I am a vegetarian [okay, I try - lately I've been trying very hard and even trying to be vegan when given the choice] and yes, I think animals are superfantastic and yes, I try to go out of my way to support companies that do not test on animals. However, I am not a big fan of PETA - they have a lot of problems. However, I find their strategies to be amusing [okay, they used to be - now they are a little dated] and they do raise a lot of awareness. However, I'm not sure how successful they are in changing the hearts and minds of the general public. One thing their website is very good for [www.peta.org] is providing a lot of useful information [for companies that do/don't test, for example] and for pointing one in the right direction to specific campaigns that might be of interest.

Although I like all types of animals, I do have a particular fondness for monkeys and apes. I also think if you are campaigning for animal rights, involving other primates [other than yourself that is] is a great idea. One area that gets a bit overlooked in terms of animal abuses is the entertainment industry - most people are aware of scientific testing on animals and the badness of circuses and stuff like that - but I am speaking about tv/films/adverts and their use of animals. It's something I've been learning a lot about lately [and Pam Anderson too, evidently as she "wrote" a column in the NY Times about this recently and was on Larry King Live tonight] thanks to a documentary and some other research. True, there is not a lot that one can do to speak out against the use of animals in media, but you can boycott companies and films/tv programmes and tonight I wrote letters in support of NoMoreMonkeyBusiness.com - the website makes this embarassingly easy. They don't have a nifty colourful link thing, so I will just say that if you are interested in learning more or supporting this cause, please click here.

It's a dream of mine to someday be associated with an primate sanctuary type place - where more fortunate celebrity monkeys/apes or lab monkeys/apes go to live the rest of their lives after they have outlived their previous "usefulness" - but it would be even better if places like that didn't have to exist anymore.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Seven - Elementary My Dear Watson

It was part of my original intent of this project to do things that required me to step outside of my comfort zone. I'm not sure how successful I have been at this, although the number of "things that didn't quite work out" seem to point to the fact that I have done this a number of times. A bit of a theme I have going is to take something I like doing and then do something new with it. Today is a fine example of that. I am a voracious reader. However, I am a bit fussy with what I read - mainly classics and the bleaker the better. As a result I have read "almost everything" - which is to say, everything that I've ever wanted to read, nonfiction notwithstanding.

When we were on holiday in England last winter Joseph shocked me by actually buying a book [and I did not buy a book, which is even more surprising as our house is primarily built with my books and his videogames] - it was a collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels. Of course, I turned up my nose @ this, but in my defence, Joseph hasn't read them either. I have never read one of these novels/stories [and actually I've never read a true mystery novel] so tonight I read a Sherlock Holmes novel. It is actually the first novel, A Study in Scarlet. I'm not quite sure what to say about it - I mean, I didn't hate it. I will certainly read the novel to its conclusion. However, I wasn't convinced either - the language is strangely verbose and the characters are all too character-y. As I am an avid follower of true crime and I do like puzzling out things like that I can't really speak to why this type of story doesn't have more appeal for me.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Six - Secretary

So I was just remarking to no one in particular [this is what I do] last week that no one really uses the term secretary anymore. And then, wham bam - all of a sudden apparently it's Administrative Professionals Day all over again. Unlike Christmas, there is really not a lot of build-up to this day. At my old job for two years we got manicures from Holt Renfrew that I never used [and instead gave to Courtney] - I don't like people touching me, but I guess as an administrative professional I should have put more of an effort into my personal appearance. And we all know how that whole scene worked out.

So, aiming to fit in a little better in my new job today I attended two Administrative Professional Day parties. From zero to two...so I think this is indicative of the fact that my career is really taking off. Although technically I do not have the word administrative/or [or professional] in my title, I am always willing to amend my job description to include the consumption of pastries. I'm not sure who sponsored the first party - it was in some big presentation room first thing in the morning and there was coffee, tea, juices, bagels and lox, huge croissants, lady yogurt [you know what I mean], a fruit platter and all of the trimmings. I met lots of people, but because of my random work schedule I'm finding it very difficult to match faces/names. Then, the second party was in the Executive Director's office and she brewed like five different types of tea including home-brewed iced tea [that's something I must do]. She also got in gourment cupcakes from one of our local cupcakeries. Turns out I don't like buttercream, however they looked too good to eat anyway.

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Five - You're The Earth Day, You're The Earth Day, You're The Earth Day Boy Or Girl

So, yay - Happy Earth Day! That one grand day when everyone cares about our fair planet, including my favourite DOOL stars [that's a lie, I have no favourite DOOL stars]. These days, we are bludgeoned with uber-annoying Earth Day messages for an entire week - so if ever you needed a reason to turn off your TV, there you go [again, I'm lying - don't ever turn off your TV]. I thought long and hard about some great thing I could do for Earth Day, but honestly I've been there and done that. I've planted trees and adopted animals and composted - so I decided to do something pretty mundane and I determined my carbon footprint.

I find the phrase carbon footprint to be annoying [though no more annoying that adapting the word "green" to everything], however I was able to find a new spin on things as I found a Toronto-specific website to determine my level of environmental horror. Turns out that at 7.1 I am less horrific than most of my fellow Torontonians. This is mostly because in the last calendar year I haven't taken a single flight - take one trip to Europe and your carbon footprint is bigger than Paris Hilton's real one. Which I think is pretty unfair, but it's something that is consistently mentioned as one of the most horrible things one can do. There is not much more I can do to reduce my carbon footprint, aside from eating more local foods and buying less packaged goods. They also seem to love organic food, but that is a bit of an untruth as organic food can actually cause more environmental harm if, for example, you are buying organic strawberries from California instead of the non-organic ones from just north of the city. Also, living in an apartment is limiting - I can't install a solar panel or use Bullfrog Power or really control anything about how my home is heated, cooled, watered and electrified. I can't even hang out my clothes to dry.

The sad fact is that there are no easy solutions. Most of the things that are going to do the most to save the environment will be difficult and wildly unpopular. Just as I don't want to give up on taking a holiday by plane other people don't want to give up their cars or give up eating meat or start composting. I have had people tell me this week that even using our green bin and recycling is too difficult and they instead choose to send all of their waste to landfill. Inspiring!

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Four - Lovin' Don't Pay My Bills

I promise to not have too many work-related things on here as it doesn't feel quite right to me. I mean, I'm not doing these things because of my own initiative and I'm getting paid to do them...I dunno. Also, I don't want to risk boring my captive audience - because, I mean...my stories about soup are obviously endlessly fascinating. However, my boss made a slightly big deal about me doing this for the first time, so I'm going to say it officially counts.

Today I reviewed my first grant proposal. This is one of those things were our organization kindly asks a corporation to fund us - generally for something specific, rather than a general donation. Obviously, I can't say too much about the contents of this as it's all confidential and understandably so. I wrote many-a proposal while @ my old job, but that was to propose our services in exchange for money [why does that sound so seemy when I say it that way?]. This is just asking for money in exchange for gratitude, a plaque [maybe?] and a general sense of well-being. Truthfully, I did not do much to the document. Just some minor spelling and grammatical corrections. However, if I choose to stay in development/fundraising it will be something I will be seeing for a long time to come. It's exciting to learn new things @ work, though [I could pretty much do my old job on auto-pilot] and to finally feel like I'm doing "something" [I have struggled to define what this might mean to me, but I think I'm getting closer].

[p.s. - internet is spotty @ best, so sorry about the lack of updates. i might get my own internets, but that won't happen for over a week. also, i have spring allergies like crazy and as a result i'm super cranky.]

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Three - Liquid Velvet

Okay, so I like soup. A lot. I could eat it everyday and twice on Sundays. I love making soup because it always turns out right. It can be endlessly changed and pureed or served cold - it's always excellent. I'm always a bit sad when the weather turns warm as I can't make soup without people thinking I'm crazy. So, it's a little surprising that there are forms of soup I haven't made yet.

Tonight I visited a restaurant favourite - in the safety of my own home as I made a bisque. Although bisque is traditionally made with pureed crustaceans - the ones that are too imperfect to be sent to market, to be precise - I made mine with three different kinds of mushrooms. Button, portobello, shiitake - I also love all types of mushrooms, although I do not like tinned or otherwise processed mushroom soup. A bisque is a deceptively simple soup with a rich and complex flavour. I used leeks and shallots to form the flavour base and then added fresh tarragon, the juice of one lemon and a good amount of sherry right @ the end to brighten up the creamy...cream flavour. Delicious!

Day One Hundred and Seventy-Two - Queen Bee

Today Joseph and I went out for our inaugurual bike ride and managed to make it all the way to the Annex [which is an easy ride and I could have gone much further]. We didn't really have a destination in mind - well, aside from my love for ice cream [peanut butter and chocolate with Rolos!]. We decided to eat like old people [early bird special, alright!] and have a super early dinner [I think it was before 5:30pm - on the best of days we rarely eat before 8pm] at Juice For Life. I think they put crack in their food - I just can't break free from it and I know it's not as healthy as I think it is.

Generally I order one of the vegetable and/or immune boosting juices. Then when some swampy looking or beet-red [there's a reason for the beety-ness - it's beets] thing emerges I take a lot of grief for it while others slurp up fruity smoothies or power shakes. Boo! I love vegetable juice. Today, I decided to go for something different and I got some fruity frothy concoction, the Aphrodisiac. As a result, I tried royal jelly. For much of the time we spent waiting for our drinks I kept singing "I don't think you're ready for this jelly" over and over - which is really the number 1 thing you want to do in public. Turns out, I was ready for the jelly. It was intensely rich tasting and Joseph thought it tasted churchy [that it tasted like the incense they have @ Catholic churches, I thought it just smelled churchy]. The drink was otherwise composed of mango, coconut and soy milk and since I can identify those flavours I knew when I was tasting the royal jelly [and I never order things with coconut, although I'm developing a taste for it].

Next up - wheatgrass!

Day One Hundred and Seventy-One - Where In The World [Is Carmen Sandiego]?

[yes, a big delay in updating. my internet service has been out as my internet providers were on holiday. "things" have been happening daily and new entries will be trickling down gradually - like manna from heaven.]

There have been many of these "click here and do something good" websites floating around out there and while I think they are neat, I can't help but be cynical. It's what I do. More specifically, I suppose I'm something of a nihilist. Anyway, I'm also surprisingly naive and trusting and therefore I hope that they are all legit. And, even if they aren't - the ones that are the most interesting are the ones wherein you get to play a cool game. I like that.

The free rice/word game was fun, even though I was disappointed that I only did slightly better than less wordy friends. Tonight, inspired by Jen S. and her EverydayGiving blog I visited freepoverty.com [and gave away free water with their super cool geography game!]. Joseph beat me outright @ this, but he should be better @ geography since his native country serves as more than just another country's hat - meaning that he had more geography accessible to him. I got a surprising number of African countries right, but completely dropped the ball on Australia and South Asia. Luckily, it's addictive so I am going to keep playing. You should too!

Day One Hundred and Seventy - On Point

Inspired by the new exhibit @ the Shoe Museum and the arrival of their quarterly magazine, today I decided to do something ballet related. I'm not a big fan of ballet, although I've never seen it live, but it's kinda the art/culture equivalent of Ambien for me. Truthfully, I'm probably just a bit jealous that I was born without any grace. At all. So tonight, thanks to the Shoe Museum, my Google-fu and also YouTube I learned and practiced the five positions of ballet. A note to anyone who would also like to do this - it is best done without gigantic Hello Kitty slippers on. I tried that and very nearly fell over. It was fun/interesting to learn [like, three of the positions look nearly identical until you see them done, which is why YouTube is necessary], but also [in my case] so not good. I am glad there were no witnesses to me floundering around. I can't imagine what would happen if I attempted a jump or leap or plie or whatever.

As mentioned, I have no grace and very little physical coordination. I'm not much with dancing naturally or with learning choreography [even learning aerobics type moves - that's a no go]. When I was little my physical activity was limited to baseball, bowling and gymnastics [which might appear to require coordination, but not if you do it as awesomely as I did and honestly I think gymnastics is more about physical stuff than rhythm...unless it's rhythmic gymnastics]. However, I remember once a group of ballet students came to our school and I thought they looked very adult and a bit perfect. I did want to learn ballet for about an afternoon as a result, but we had no place to take lessons anywhere around my sleepy little town. It's probably for the best as I developed far too curvacious of a body to be much of a ballerina.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Nine - Slam Dunk

So last night during the adverts for the baseball game I was watching some old Seinfeld episode [and I must say that my love for this show actually grows over time - it was one of the first "adult" TV shows that was ever appointment television for me and now it's been gone so long that I love it all over, but I digress]. It was the one where Kramer thinks he saw Joe Dimaggio @ Dinkin Donuts [and I think it is Dinkin not Dunkin due to copyrights] - dunking a doughnut. I'm not sure why I never noticed this, but it suddenly struck me that I have never dunked a doughnut before and I'm not actually sure what the benefit of doing this would be.

I decided to remedy this situation as quickly as possible. Fortunately my new job is right by a Tim Hortons [and a million other vice-y food outlets] so on my way home from work today I picked up half a dozen doughnuts. At home I brewed up some fresh coffee [Tim Horton's coffee is beyond vile] and I dunked a doughnut. O-kay. Joseph remarked on how so many of my Extraordinary Things end up not so hot. This was kinda one of them. The doughnut [honey dip - I thought plainish would be best and this was my favourite kind as a kid because I really was that boring] was excellent, the coffee also excellent, but when dunked the doughnut too quickly absorbs the coffee and becomes all super-gross-soft and too mooshy. The flavour combination is fantastic, but the texture could not be wronger. I think this would work well with slightly stale doughnuts, although I highly doubt that cool guy Joe Dimaggio would be eating day-olds.

For those interested, some doughnut facts: Canadians consume more doughnuts per capita than any other country, doughnut dunking was alleged to have started when an actress [Mae something, not West] accidentally dropped a doughnut into her coffee in NYC, "Ich bin ein Berliner" does not mean "I am a jelly doughnut."

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Eight - The Measure Of A Woman

There are many units of measurement in this modern world - inches, feet, furlongs, farenheit, centimetres, litres [yes Americans, these are real things, not just crazy made-up Canadian words]...and so on. But what of something more cerebral, more heavy, more intellectual? Having been inspired by fellow thing-a-dayer Colette I decided to see how effective books are as a tool of measurement and tonight I measured myself in books. I am 58 books tall. These were mostly [and unsurprisingly] my fancy-schmancy art books from my undergrad education [see - they *are* useful for something Mum!], Joseph's less fancy [but no less expensive] science-y and anthropology-y textbooks and many other assorted hardcovers on topics ranging from opera to orangutans to woodworking. I used heavy books mainly because they are much easier to stack and were generally bigger if not thicker.

I'm not sure that books are the most effective tools for measurement. Colette was 78 books tall and she is four inches taller than me...and yes, I do realize that this is an imperfect system as everyone has their own books. It's special that way and maybe just a little magical [I mean, if it worked].

On a side note, I love my books. Even the books I haven't opened/read yet [yes, some of them are cling-filmed] - they are just fantastic. I love that I have books that I didn't know I had [yes, two photography/photojournalism books].

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Seven - Where Hope Takes Wing

I'm sorry to report that my days of official fun-employment are now over. Well, for the most part. Today I worked my first day at the Geneva Centre for Autism, my new part-time job. I will be working there three days a week, working in the Development department. So, working part-time means that I will still be part-time fun-employed, part-time destitute. Kinda the same old me. I suppose I will have to wait it out before resuming my fabulous formerly glamourous life that I had when I was working full time [please note: this might have never happened].

However, I am very excited to be working again. I'm also proud that I did this on my own and I think it indicates that I made the right decision when I quit my old job. I am now working in the field of my choice and I will be learning all sorts of new and exciting things. I did not want to go back to school to get another diploma [as much as I love school] if I could get the experience/skills another way. I feel like I have found that way. Also, this organization is amazing - they do excellent work, important work. For the moment I have decided to just keep volunteering and also do this part-time job and kinda take things semi-easy at least until the fall. It's going to take some getting used to - working without working 10 hours+ everyday!

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Six - Luddite

It's not that I am like the Unabomber and completely anti-technology and out living in some shack [unless I can have internet and TV out there]. However, I think I am resistent to new technologies [okay, except for rockin' new flat screen TVs - if anyone wants to buy me a large and expensive version of one of these, I will not complain], especially ones that become overly popular. If it weren't for my friend Sue I would have used a mobile phone probably only twice in my life [I find them difficult to hear with and awkward to speak into].

Another thing I'm completely unfamiliar with is digital cameras. I know I keep talking about getting one so I can big up my blog, but I'm not sure that will ever happen. I'm not a fan of digital cameras as I am an owner of a manual camera [yes, it weighs a million pounds and has no flash, but also - no batteries!] and any developed photos I've seen from them kinda really suck. However, today I was working as a photographer @ the PowerPlant and I used a digital camera. I suppose it went okay. There is something very...impermanent about it. I feel like I wasn't taking the pictures as there is no counter thing moving forward. The camera is so light and throwaway [kinda like the pictures themselves]. I demand weight-iness, I demand gravitas! Also, everything is so erasable. I don't like that - I like crummy, random photos that you have to get developed and wait for. I know - it's a shocking admission from the ever-impatient one.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Five - Ice Ice Baby

One of the many reasons that I fell in love with Italian was the prevalence and cheapness of two key ingredients in my life - espresso and gelato. For two Euros you could get one of each. Yum. I ate gelato multiple times a day in Italy and I thought that I had tried most of the flavours. I think I waited until our last night there before I tried stracciatella, which ended up being one of my very favourites. Anyway, good gelato is difficult to locate in Toronto, even though we have a metric tonne of Italian restaurants [it's a stiff competition between cheap sushi places and Italian restaurants].

Last night I hit the jackpot and was able to order a dessert sampler with three different kinds of gelato. There was just one on the menu that I had not tried, so I knew I had to have it and I ate gelato made with soy milk. Of the three I ordered [other two were pistachio and panna cotta - Joseph got sour cherry & chocolate]. It was soy milk and nocciola [hazelnut] and tasted divine. Kinda like Nutella or Ferrero Rochers - the insides...only slightly more classy [I'm all about class] . Joseph claims he could taste the chalkiness of the soy milk, but I couldn't and I was a bit disappointed in that because I like that about soy milk. The portions were huge - I like to think that one always has room for ice cream products as they are liquid...but yeah...this was a challenge. Don't worry, I emerged victorious.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Four - Vanity Food

I have been to New York before, but I have never gone into one of those delis [that I imagine are packed with tourists] where the name sandwiches after celebrities. It does seem very touristy and probably pretty meat-tastic. The closest I have come to this phenomenon is @ Papa Ceo's in Toronto - a pizza place that in combination with Miss Vickie's Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar Chips, cheese salsa, full-fat Coke and Haagen-Daaz, helped to keep me alive through three years of university residence food. They name pizzas after Italian celebrities and I find that to be dorky/cute.

Knowing that a trip to NYC is not a possibility in the near future and also accepting that society is very unlikely to name a sandwich after me, I decided to take the bull by the horns and today I created a sandwich and named it after myself. [okay, grammatically that sentence is a mess, but I'm in a bit of a food coma @ the moment and therefore not feeling entirely intellectual]. I have been wanting to do this Extraordinary Thing from day one, so I am excited to have finally done it.

So - you are craving a Shelby? Here's how to make/serve a Shelby sandwich.
- the bread should be either marble rye or caraway rye - it should be lightly toasted [really lightly - more like just kinda warmed]
- a generous amount of spicy deli mustard [grainy] should be applied to one of the slices of bread
- the sandwich filling should include: wild albacore tuna [the water packed kind, not oil], crumbled Danish blue cheese [preferably a creamy variety], small cubes of avocado [half an avocado], 1/4 of a red onion, minced as small as possible without being too fussy about it, freshly ground black pepper
- the filling should be mixed together using real mayonnaise - probably around 3 teaspoons
- it should be served with regular ruffled potato chips [I prefer Ruffles brand and I am a bit of a brand ho about this], two dill pickles and a glass bottle of Coke Zero [if you can get your hands on a glass bottle]

Enjoy!

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Three - Now That's What I Call A Sticky Situation

Due to a highly toxic combination of laziness and lack of skirt/dress wearing [I tend to wear skirts/dresses everyday, but with being unemployed I mainly just wear pajamas and sweatpants - very sexy] I neglected to shave my legs for some time. Also, it's been a long, tough winter and cold so I need all the help I can get in maintaining ye olde core temperature. However, last weekend I decided to wear a skirt and I attempted to shave my legs. This did not go well - I am one hairy little monkey and shaving resulted in about one-third of the hair being removed. Bummer.

Many, many years ago Joseph and I were quite taken with this particular infomercial for a hair removal system called [...wait for it] Nad's. Oh my. When viewed @ 3am this is the most frakking high-sterical thing one has ever seen [yes, we are now and forever 12 years old]. They just kept saying nads and it was all serious and talking about all of the different places one could use/put Nad's. Well, recently we noticed this product @ Zellers and I thought about giving it a try. Since my earlier attempts @ clean-shaven legs was thwarted tonight I tried Nad's Hair Removal product. Ummmm - I'm not sure if you know this - but infomercials are all dirty, filthy lies. Really. Bad things happened. I should consider joining some class action lawsuit or filing a consumer report, but it was only $10 and someone who is too lazy to shave her legs is far too lazy to do either of those things.

I decided to "Nad myself" in front of the TV - mostly because I live in front of the 12 and the Blue Jays were playing in their first extra inning game of the year and I foolishly thought they would pull out the win. Also, it's supposed to be non-messy. That was a lie. The gel/wax stuff was kinda hard, but pliable and very sticky - I couldn't get it to come out of the container without leaving trails of stickyness [like honey]. I was supposed to apply a thin layer, but this proved impossible as it is unspreadable. So, with smooshed down blobs of Nad's on my legs I applied the cloth strip thing [that's apparently reusable...which - ew] and prepared myself for pain-free removal. Except, not. There will be pain [which is not really as bad as women say, but it does still hurt]. What there won't be is a significant amount of hair removed. Sorry about that. I tried over and over again - and really I just got really sticky and candy-smelling. Like I put melted Jolly Ranchers on my leg for some reason [note: I think I may have actually done this - I was really into Jolly Ranchers in the mid-90s]. Eventually, after getting the cloth strips stuck to my arm, my fingers all sticky and the remote control being @ risk and slightly sticky...I called it a night with maybe one-third of one leg kinda Nads-ed. One thing that I hate [and I don't know why I didn't think this would cause me problems] is being sticky. And I was sticky [still am - it doesn't seem soluble].

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Two - Kin Khao

My relationship with Thai food has been documented here, there and everywhere, so I won't get into it again. My success with my own Pad Thai has sorta rekindled my appreciation for Thai food and since it is the best restaurant closest to my former place of employment - it was a natural choice for lunch today. This particular restaurant has the most exceptional hot & sour soup and I used to have it at least once per week. However, when dining in the restaurant I feel obligated to eat more than just soup. I usually get a big order of spring rolls because I love the spicy dipping sauce, but I'm trying to be a bit more health conscious when dining out these days [mostly since my @ home choices kinda suck lately - too many fudge popsicles and candy bars and chips]. However, fried food is incredibly difficult to step away from since it's a winning flavour explosion, so instead of having some tired vegetarian Pad Thai [that wouldn't rate next to mine] I decided to order something new and I tried Thai fried rice.

It was definitely unlike regular fried rice - I mean the kind that I always order in Chinese restaurant. I think the rice was of the sticky rice variety and it was perhaps flavoured with some fish sauce and garnished with lots of fresh coriander. The tofu [fried, duh] was good as was the bok choy...however the less said about the barely cooked other vegetables, the better. Also, an appearance by the ever-scary baby corns...*shudder*...

90% of the rice came home with me - it shall be part of a multicultural dining experience tomorrow evening - I eat too slow @ restaurants.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-One - Mythbuster

I like to watch Mythbusters, although I do so with a rather skeptical eye. I mean, I don't know a huge amount about science [luckily I live with someone that does], but I tend to think that there methods are somehow questionable. Even when they do the revists of myths - I can still find fault with the way the operate. Still, it's an enjoyable show and I think it's great that it gets people interested in science. Most of the things they do are somewhat hightech and also usually involve explosions and therefore, I can't really compete as I operate out of my one-bedroom apartment in the middle of a city with no yard.

However, I stumbled upon a myth when I was looking into the vernal equinox [if there is some event or special day or significant newsmaker that I haven't Wikipedia-ed in the last year...well, I'll be damned]. It was the common misconception that one can only balance an egg on its end on the spring equinox. I wasn't aware that one could balance an egg on its end EVER so I was intrigued. Having seen some photographic evidence, I was a bit convinced I could do this [even lacking in patience as I do]. I tried very hard to do this yesterday, but no dice [Joseph thinks the kitchen table is uneven]. Joseph was successful before me, but I kept trying and I finally balanced an egg on its end and a glance to the calendar tells me it's not the equinox and therefore I busted a myth. This is one of those times I wished that I had a digital camera, but I am confident that I can repeat it. There seems to be no real trick to it, aside from patience and a very flat surface. I left the eggs sitting on their ends for a couple of hours - very hypnotic.

Day One Hundred and Sixty - My Kid Could Paint That

I love art. Fortunately I have absolutely zero artistic ability [aside from the occasional collage and my ability to deftly apply googly eyes to things to make them high-larious]. I feel this is fortunate because if I were graced with any innate artistic talent I would just spend a lot of time trying to make my way as an artist and eventually ending up cold and penniless and dying young and underappreciated [all of that could still happen I guess, but just don't expect to get rich off of my great works of art which would be worth millions after I die]. Joseph has a lot of talent and with great talent comes great...art supplies. A while back I bought myself some watercolours as I felt that would be an accessible way to tap into my artistic side. After a couple of afternoons of mucking around and only discovering that I'm even worse @ art than previously imagined, I gave up.

However, with this project I'm learning to not just try new things, but to revist things from my past that have not gone so well [and some that have gone well that I just didn't bother to keep doing for whatever reason]. Tonight I broke out the watercolours and I painted an abstract work of art. And yes, people look @ abstract art and they do think it's easy and that their 3 year old paints better...well - I do challenge you to create an abstract work of art. I think because I am apprehensive about art it makes me unordinarily tentative, which does not make for great modern art. And, even if you can just go for it with scribbles and paint everywhere, I think you will find that it does start to develop some inherent meaning. It just does. Mine is mostly based on Battlestar Galactica because I'm deep like that. It's not quite ready for framing, but I am proud of it. Watercolours are interesting in that the medium [the paints/brush] become the art. Things get messed up because they are inaccurate and the colours have to be teased and cajoled into doing the "right" thing and that makes the art better. Well, my art. You might actually be talented or something.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Nine - A Kiss Without The Squeeze

Joseph has quite the sweet tooth. I rarely indulge in too many sweet things, although DeathCold 2008 has made me long for ice milk fudge bars so Joseph bought 2 dozen of them for me. For the most part though, I enjoy covering things in cheese. Today when Joseph decided that we should have an appetizer of apple pie before dinner I was reminded of the old saying that "an apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze" and I put cheddar cheese on apple pie.

I get the whole mixing of sweet/savoury things, I really do. I'm just not sure that this is one of those times. It didn't taste entirely bad, it was just unusual. I kept tasting pastry, apples, spices...and cheese. There was very little harmony. Rest assured - cheese is still awesome, but just not with apple pie.

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Eight - When Ambition Meets Faith

I do the Facebook thing and my very favourite thing about Facebook [besides looking @ people's pictures and thinking I'm the only one out there that still looks like a 15 year old] is the movie reviews. I like to call it Shelby's Facebook Movie Reviews Dot Com and I do kinda quirky little reviews and I'm really harsh on films and it's wonderful. Lately, I haven't been doing them - in part because this blog demands something of me everyday and I've been trying to do other writing as well. In addition, no one but me is the slightest bit amused by the reviews and while I doubt that significantly more people are interested in this blog, I have been doing movie reviews here and I will continue to do so.

I do think that going to see a new film or seeing some iconic film that you've never seen - yeah, that counts. I don't include every new film I see - just some of them that I see on otherwise lazy days [I also say Star Wars Episode 2 today, but the less said about that, the better] and that are otherwise interesting. Today I saw There Will Be Blood. It was very good, but I'm sure with it topping dozens of Top Ten lists for films of 2007 you really don't need me to be telling you this. When I saw the milkshake scene I admit that I thought Daniel Day Lewis was over the top and I'm rarely impressed by that type of acting [which is why Jack Nicholson's whole career is really...not fantastic]. However, when you see it within the context of the whole film suddenly it's almost subtle. The acting is fantastic - from everyone [even the sweet little boy and I am not a fan of children or child actors] and the music/score just what you need/want from a PT Anderson film. It's quite brilliant. And out on DVD on Tuesday so go get it! And get Blood on your TV!

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Seven - Born On The Fourth Of April

It's my dear friend Rory's birthday today and therefore I was okay with making a couple of sacrifices: 1. Delaying the BSG premiere by one day and 2. Going to a new and unusual place to celebrate. I had a number of social things on the calendar lately and pretty much everything is going to have to be canned due to DeathCold 2008. However, a birthday is a birthday so I bundled myself up and off I went up north to Yonge/St. Clair where I went to a karaoke bar [and didn't make an arse out of myself]. I really hope that Rory had as good of a time as it appeared that he was having. It almost seemed like too much fun. Sadly, I have no embarassing photos [I think I will buy a digital camera after I start getting paid], but the images of Rory's touching tribute to Heath Ledger/Martin Luther King remain seared into my brain. It really was one of the most unintentionally hilarious/wrong things I've seen all year. Kudos to you Rory! And happy birthday!

The whole experience gave me flashbacks to the Greentree and the days of my youth. Because when me and my friends were very young, we were too young to pass for underage drinkers @ more reputable [and in town] establishments, so off to the Greentree on Thursdays we would go. Yes, it was a shack attached to an inn in the middle of nowhere [that smelled] and it was always overheated and filled with drunken snowmobilers and also - karaoke and lots of it. Nothing innovative, just the standard Grease megamix, Guns n Roses and maybe that "fishing in the dark song"...but dang if the beer wasn't so deliciously cold [and I didn't drink beer back then, but it was so tempting there and so refreshing]. Other than beer I think the only other things they served were Blue Lagoons and Singapore Slings. In my efforts to keep it classy, these were most often my poisons of choice [especially after an incident involving beer and me getting sick on someone's shoes - quite literally].

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Six - Gin-gi-vi-tis

My teeth are extra sensitive or maybe I'm just extra fussy...but being sick there is plenty of opportunity for gross teeth feeling. Between the throat candy things [that do absolutely nothing], cough syrup and all of the juice - my teeth feel bathed in a film of scum. It's really pleasant. There is some dopey advert for an electric toothbrush that say something like their product has the power of two toothbrushes at once. This little claim kinda stuck with me and rattled around in my brain until I just had to know what would be so fantastic about two toothbrushes @ once. So I brushed my teeth with two toothbrushes simultaneously.

It was quite late @ night and really - this is the ultimate lazy solution to your bedtime toothbrushing woes. I also think children would enjoy this as I know it's difficult to make them brush [I always hated the dentist so I was not a difficult child]. However, it does use twice the amount of toothpaste and you will look like a ginormous jackass doing this. I have a pretty big mouth and it was a lot to cram on in there and still brush effectively. Also, lots and lots of toothbrushing foam was created. It was fun and I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be trying this again - though I might suggest it would work better with two identical toothbrushes - one of mine was really big, the other was my regular tiny toothbrush. It's all about symmetry, people. And suck it electric toothbrushes - I have once again defeated you!

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Five - The Aviator

So, feeling like an eccentric recluse weirdo, but without the millions or billions of dollars it might take to afford such a lifestyle, I have been resorting to some mundane, yet bizarre things to keep myself busy. Today I happened to secure two empty tissue boxes and I was instantly reminded of a slightly more famous, slightly more insane eccentric recluse weirdo. I'm speaking of course of Mr. Burns. My mucus filled brain instantly seized upon this opportunity and I made a pair of slippers out of empty tissue boxes.

I think that either tissue boxes are getting smaller or feet are getting bigger as I have very small feet and they would barely fit in the box. These slippers were wonderfully easy to construct [instructions are: insert foot into box, tear cardboard slightly to allow for a better fit, relax in great comfort], however they are not so practical. They are difficult to walk in and also quit slippery. They do not provide the warm fuzziness of my blue Fraggle Rock slippers or the cuteness of my pink Hello Kitty slippers. I am also uncertain why one would choose these for germ-blocking protection. However, I'm no crazy billionaire like Howard Hughes - he obviously knew what he was doing [there is no record of Hughes wearing tissue box slippers, but as he himself said - one should never check an interesting fact].

Hop in the Spruce Moose!

Day One Hundred and Fifty-Four - Click It

Courtesy of Jen and her blog/project, EverydayGiving I was able to find a great thing for today that did not require me to do anything more than click. This was quite excellent for me as DeathCold 2008 mounted a ferocious comeback sometime over the past 24 hours. Needless to say, I'm quickly burning through my lengthy list of things that I can do @ home with no supplies or energy. [fellow thing-a-dayers - I advise you to put together your own lengthy list for times such as these]

Today I visited The Hunger Site and hopefully my meagre clicks did some good. Honestly, today I wasn't going to be much good @ doing anything else for anyone, including myself. The site is interesting because they have multiple causes - world hunger, breast cancer, child health, literacy, the rainforest and animal rescue. It seems to be legit, so please - visit and click away. I click on so much crap all day long on the internet [when my interwebs are working and not a series of clogged tubes] that I feel quite guilty about not clicking on anything useful 90% of the time.