Dinosaur Comics = BEST.

So, my favourite (BY FAR) online comic is releasing a set of greeting cards through Quack Media and the set contains the best card ever. If you want to show your love for somebody wonderful AND for Mark and I AND for dinosaurs at the exact same time, then you need this card.



PS: Mark, you're the Mark to my Jenny.

Monday

Mark: comes after Sunday, before Tuesday.

Jen: Culinary highlight of the decade.

Mark: pfft.. decade.

... Monday was amazing. For Christmas, Mark gifted me with a "culinary experience"- a dinner at Edo that would take us "far beyond sushi." After spooking ourselves with bad omens (half hour for the taxi making us late for the reservation making us almost not have seats) we arrived at our places (which ended up being beside each other after all!) and stared dumbfounded at the THIRTEEN glasses in front of us.



The evening was narrated by the owner of Edo, who explained Japanese culture and cuisine, and about what we were eating. We were eating a lot. The first course was a shredded chicken and steamed egg salad, probably the prettiest dish of the night. This was followed by a gazillion other courses. They were:

- creamy potato and soybean soup
- tuna sampler (compare three types of tuna for taste and quality)
- Chef's choice sushi sampler (with Mark's favourite avocado and tempura yam rolls) and an amazing salmon mango roll.
- Sake dilled salmon in tinfoil pretty pocket think. This was also with an amazing sauce, and the tinfoil pocket came with an origami crane attached to a spear for easy opening.
-Chicken medallions with a Kobe beef pate filling
-rich chocolate mousse with a green tea and red bean cake

As for the glasses, three of them were filled with sake. One was a warm sake, one a cloudy sake, and one was a high quality 'polished' sake. Apparently, the highest quality sakes are made with polished rice, water, and yeast - and nothing else is added. Cloudy sake comes from unpolished rice, and is my personal favourite due to its subtle sweetness. We also tasted nine wines (three red, 6 white), and had a glass of champagne with dessert. It was incredible.

This post is nowhere near as elegant as I had hoped it would be, and doesn't do justice to the night. I had such a wonderful time and am so lucky that someone knows me so well. Thanks also go to Edo foor going above and beyond what would reasonable be expected of them.

Here are Mark and I with the wonderfully talented chef:



Loot from the goody bag! Awesome mini-martini/sake glass, or hilarious-yet-fragile clown nose? YOU DECIDE.

In case you were wondering.

Every time anyone says they need me to "bring it," I always think (thankfully not out loud) "oh, it's already been BROUGHT." I never would have thought that Bring It On (2000 Cheerleading movie that I had to watch for work, really!!!) would be influencing my thoughts for so long.

I'm just saying.

Snow day!

I'm sitting at work, having one of the quietest days ever. Except for the occasional student roaming the hallways, it feels like nobody is on campus. I'm probably not using the time as wisely as I should, but I am enjoying myself. It looks like the next few days will be nice and snowy too - hooray for winter!

Friends in Bellwoods

Jaime, Mark, Sharon and I went down to the Tranzac tonight to see the Friends in Bellwoods release show (Sharon was a nice surprise - I'd expectd her to be knee-deep in bunk-bed parts all night!). It was a really solid lineup (The D'Urbervilles, Sebastien Grainger, OhBijou, and the Paramedics - a Bry Webb solo project HOW EXCITING) and it couldn't have been more packed if it tried. We managed to be almost first in line at the door, snagged some of the few remaining tickets, and wedged ourselves into the crowd to enjoy the show. The Paramedics, who might possibly rename themselves 'The Splinters' were really, really good, although with Snailhouse and Bry Webb on vocals they couldn't really have been otherwise.

The D'Urbervilles:




The Paramedics:



The paramedics sometimes have a Zylophoner (ullulater? what?):



And for Megan, Bry Webb:


Voice of an angel, that man.

Sebastien Grainger was good, and my feet took me home before ohbijou, sadly, because I love them (them being ohbijou, I was not pleased with my hurty feet tonight). Tomorrow, I get to sleep in, which is probably the best thing ever, and the study my ass off.

Photos!

New Year's Eve:


Waterloo, on the way to Paula's in Windsor:


The girls, together at last:


Cooking GC dinner:


Eating GC dinner:



Someone is showing someone else some moves, I think:


Paula's new hat, on Sharon:


Paula's new hat, on Paula:


Mark and Laura, no hats:

Off to a good start:

Shake it...

I miss polaroids - as great as digital cameras are, there's nothing like the instant gratification of a polaroid. Case in point:



Tonight: Mandarin, finally (it's only been a year in the planning). I'm taking bets on what colour Maggie will be when we leave... my money is on green.

Thoughtstorming

I still haven't gotten around to uploading any more photos... maybe soon? I have some more now, mostly from the Em. Haines show that I attended with my lil' cuz. I'm starting to realize that my whining about lack of siblings & thus blood ties unseverable by squabbles can be possibly cured. I found someone who will shop with me, borrow my shoes, AND make snappy/witty comments about singers that are probably quite accurate (not that I want any more shopping - I'm starting to get stomach-achey at the thought of a mall & all of the mass-produced lifestyle add-ons that go with it).

Cuz & me:



Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton:



So far, 2007 has brought back the going-out (definitely not the outgoing) Jen, my new little black book has been packed with things to do and people to see. I finished my first novel (The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian) and am trying to resign myself to a dialed-down schedule that includes more appointments with Physics, Biology, and Chemistry rather than jump into another novel (apparently, I think I might make it till the end of April before caving?).

Lately, I've been inexplicably anxious. I've been feeling fluttery and fretty, and have been getting regular doses of heart sinking feelings that I can't quite explain. I'm pretty sure that it's mostly a result of not being tethered to a secure life plan, and not knowing exactly where I'm going. I really can't wait for this awkward stage to be over - and hopefully it will at least result in some personal growth. I really hate to think that any part of my life could just be wasted, even if I have no choice right now but to wait for what I really want.

2007: Optimism

After a fantastic New Year's weekend at Paula's (pics to come), I arrived home to 4 wonderful things:

1) A letter from my landlord/the city, informing me of a zero-point-eight-two percent rent reduction.... wooo?!
2) A completely unexpected box from Insound, which contained a wonderful 7" featuring Jens Lekman. Insound, you rule.
3) Mark's Valentine's present, ordered after, but arriving before, his still m.i.a. Christmas present.
4) The first issue of my Walrus subscription! Thanks M! I'm in love with the cover, a wonderful display of colour, with the word optimism printed very secretly across the rainbow. I've decided to make it the theme of my year (I have yet to decide between secret optimism or in-your-face optimism).

In that vein, here are some of the things that I'm looking forward to:

- Budgeting (this may be too optimistic), not fun in itself but will result in
- A fantastic world trip! France? Spain? Poland? India? WHO KNOWS!??!
- Learning more French.
- Studying (I've only been out of school for 3 months and already I'm yearning for the grind...).
- Fantastic local trips! Whether they be to Mtl., Windsor, or even to Greektown.
- Greektown! Sharon is moving there TODAY and I'm very, very excited.
- A Japanese experience, I've even got a new dress for it (thanks Mr.M, it was a super Christmas surprise).

I also resolve to send in my taxes this year, and possibly also last year's taxes...

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.

Add-a-y day!

Last night was fun, lots of it. I got to see mom's bff Peggy & some of her family, as they were visiting from Australia. I also had a realization about my childhood that may explain some things about my post-childhood (i.e., NOW): since I mostly talked with adults, I thought I was more adult-like than child-like. Now, I realize that the adulty speak to me is a far cry from adulty speak between adults. Damn. I got stuck with the restrainty adulty talk.

The show was pretty awesome - I got to see Sarah, meet her friends and make a bad pun within 1 minute of an introduction to a geophysicist (school of hard rocks HAHAHA). Plus/minus were really good and really interesting to listen to - one part sappy emo lyrics, one part crazy technical rhythms, and one part super cool. I picked up the cd and it's been in my head all day. We didn't get home until close to 2am, but the tiredness today is more than worth it.

Tonight I'm going to sleep.

+/-

I'm getting excited about going to concerts again, mostly do to the realization that I'm really going to regret squandering my time in Toronto. This doesn't mean that I've decided to move away any time soon, I've just decided to stop taking the music scene for granted. I could probably see a good show 3 times per week if I wanted to. Things like money, laziness, feeling older than/disconnected from the music scene are holding me back, for no good reason. Shows are cheap, I'm not by nature lazy, and I'm not old - I just have an insecure brain that debates things too much.

While tonight's already pretty busy (I'm going to be seeing an old family friend who's here briefly from Australia), I'm going to try my very very hardest to get to one of my favourite places (Sneaky Dee's) for an amazing free show, +/-. I'm also planning to hit up some more in the next few weeks - passionate-about-music Jen is being reborn. Hooray!

One more thing.

I got distracted by the Mexico post, but I really want to thank everyone. I basically had the best birthday ever, between Mexico, Seema's phone call all the way from Saudi frickin' Arabia, and the fantastic iPod from my fantastic friends and family. So, thank you.

Also, in the Mexico post, I forgot to mention a really cool something: Dad and I had lunch with Peter Elkas' parents! P.Elkas being the singer/songwriter who used to front the Local Rabbits (Sally A-AANNN!) and whose ep Mark and I listened to together on the night we met! It was an utterly cool, completely random moment, and it's left me craving a listen to Sally Ann...