Christmas

Christmas was great. Dinner #1 (Dec 25th) was with my mom's side of the family, and will probably live on in infamy for the rest of our christmases together. At the very least, there will be a lifetime of teasing my aunt about what time the turkey will be ready (answer: hopefully before 10pm) and about her sitting on the floor & drinking martinis strategy for cooking dinner. Dinner #2 - also lots of fun, because for the first time ever, I beat my family TWICE when we played cards. Woo.

In gift news, my dad refinished my mom's old table set for me, and I'm really excited about not having to eat dinner on the couch every night. Mark and I got a ton of new books too, and I'm dying to just sit down and read for a month straight (alas, I will have to start mcatting before that will happen).

Titles:

The Upside of Down (Thomas Homer Dixon)
What is the What (David Eggers)
Black Swan Green (David Mitchell)
Heat (Monbiot)
Che (?)
Louis Riel: A Comic strip biography (Chester Brown)
Collected non-fiction of Joan Didion
The Children's Hospital (Chris Adrian) - I'm halfway through this one and it is soooo good.

and M's fantastic gifts:
Love that Dog (Sharon Creech; guaranteed to make hearts swell)
Elvis on the Trombone (Megan F. - probably guaranteed to be my favourite of the bunch)

Merry merry!

I'm home, alive, and skiinger than ever. I had a lovely time with the Kowgiers in Quebec; the mini-trip was a perfect balance of family, skiing, shopping and movies with wine. The only good ski day turned out to be Friday - it was cold enough, and a good base had been built on the mountain despite the lack of natural snow. Thanks to Matt's girlfriend Maria, the ski-instruction pressure was taken off me, and I was surprised that everything about moving around on skis came back to me quickly. The morning was spent on the greens, with a few blues thrown in for the challenge. Before lunch, Mark and I came across his parents, who succeeded in convincing me to try a black run (the same run I'd previously witnessed a spectacular wipe-out on). So, long story short, I skiied, skiied well, and skiied some black diamonds! Double-black, here I come.

Some photos:

Saturday was rainy and miserable, so I was able to rest on my superstar ski status from the previous day and go shopping. Mark's mom helped me find something nice for my mom, and aside for Mark (although now I have a plan), everyone is accounted for. We had a really nice night: dinner followed by Doctor Zhivago, and hugs all around.

I'm dreaming of a foggy Christmas?

Mark and I woke up EARLY on Sunday so that he could drive me back to Montreal. It was a slightly harrowing drive, not that we had problems, but we did see the tracks of a car that had run off the road. I called 911, and was transferred to a francophone who had no idea of what I was telling him. Eventually, an Eniglish speaker came on the line and I was able to give him an idea of where I saw it - hopefully everything worked out O.K. I definitely need to work on my French. We made it to the train station intact (despite going the wrong way on a one-way street) and I had a good trip home with my iPod, New Yorker (read! from start to finish!) and my Sunday Star.

Christmas at home has been really nice so far, and in about 5 minutes we'll be off to Newmarket for the big family dinner. More photos to come!

Finally, I wish I could say it in Polish... but to everyone: Have a very Merry Christmas, and I love you all :)

Shout-outy!

Hi Deborah and John! Thanks for being my favouritest geeks ever, for being totally fun and awesome, and for always letting me know about cool a)shiny things (Deborah) and b) bands (John)!

No Winter for a Year

Things are really starting to pick up. I can't believe that a week from now, Christmas will be over, I'll have been to Quebec and back for the Kowgier's lovely Christmas ski trip tradition, AND hopefully I'll have wrapped/given most of my gifts (which, for the most part, have been bought). I'm not even on my holidays yet!

Tonight:



Mom's coming downtown after work and we're going to see White Christmas at the Bloor, possibly with her Whitby friends - good times! I'm looking forward to it. I don't think I've ever seen the movie, and for some reason, I'm on a huge Christmas movie kick right now.

And now, the weekend recap:

Mark and I spent most of Friday night working on Christmas gifts, in preparation for the annual potluck with my high school friends. I'm so happy that I got to go to it this year; normally I miss it due to the ski trip, or other conflicts. Mark finally got to meet everyone, and I got to relax and chat with people that I haven't seen, in some cases, for six years. On a sad note: I may have ruined my reputation as the baker. Instead of making a cheesecake for the party, I brought (gasp!!) a store-bought Christmas log cake. I'm hanging my head in shame RIGHT NOW. The gang, all growed up:



On Sunday, Mark and I went with my mom's side of the family to Langdon Hall in Cambridge for a double birthday (mom's and nana's) brunch. It was beautiful - a great location, great food, and as always, a fun time with that group. Mark and I headed back downtown afterwards, and spent the night baking cookies and cuddling up on the couch to watch Elf. Hooray for the holidays!

New Arcade Fire!

Firstly: I'm not sure if he was the first, but Matt from You Ain't No Picasso has posted a new Arcade Fire song, Intervention, which was recently played on the BBC. Awesome.

Last night was lots of fun (and too mush sushi). We went with friends (incl. special guest Jason Jang, back from Korea) to Sushi Island for all-you-can-eat (aka see how much Mark can eat), and pushed everything to the limit. Post-indulgence, we waddled over to Sneaky Dee's to see Germans and Bocce (w/ Faceless Lazers). Bocce really blew me away - I'd heard some OK stuff from them on CD but they were danceably great live. It was a good night.

Also, I bought a hat. I feel a bit like a hat poser, but I like it.

Edit: I have no idea who two of the bands showing up on my top five (look left) are. Apparently, I like them, and am listening to them without knowing their names.

Proof

My brain! Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with it (aside from maybe being a little bit strange). I do, however, occasionally participate in fMRI research - one of the cool opportunities for people in experimental psychology. Aside from having my head wedged between extremely tight pads for stability, it's a pretty comfortable setup, and the hardest part for me has always been to just try and stay awake. But I do have a brain, and now I have proof.

Hi?

Half of my readership (if I assume, generously, a readership of four) is away, in beautiful tropical locales, but I will update anyways. Hello Paula, Mom, Megan, maybe Mark? Things of note in the past week: I had FUN at the work 'Holiday' party (shocking even myself), and I've been invigilating to pick up some extra holiday money. Watched over a health psych exam onSunday, held by a very nice prof who handed out candy canes, and was told that I was "absolutely adorable" by a student. AWWWW.

Plans now are to finish up with Christmas presents this week, and maybe do some
more yoga to shape up for skiing. Also: all-you-can eat sushi, and doing some more fun stuff with Jaime, who is fast becoming my go-to girl for Toronto fun!

Friday Nothings.

TTC: you suck. Not in a terrible way, just in a terribly annoying way.

COFFEE: Too complicated for early mornings. It was fine back when all I had to do was order (although the fumbling for money part was always tricky), but now the space-aged free coffee machine is taxing my brain before it should be taxed. It grinds its own beans and is great and all, but only dispenses the equivalent of a Timmy's small. So you either have to have only a little bit, or get too much and have to have some spill over the top of your mug. I realize that I could just get a bigger mug, but the point is that I've found a way for it to be PERFECT. Push the buttons for a chocomilk (which is hot chocolate made with mlk instead of water, amazing!), and when that's done, add an espresso shot. IT FILLS TO THE PERFECT AMOUNT FOR MY MUG. Except I keep screwing up and pushing the Mocha button, and ending up with two espresso shots. Now I'm over-caffeinated and hyper-excitable. Two buttons is too much for my brain to handle, apparently.