Joining Fever

I've decided to do the things that make Toronto a cool place to live. In January I become a member of TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival). They opened their new building in the fall and the membership gives you discounts on films (largely documentaries and strange foreign films - some of my favourites) and free entry to special exhibits etc.

It's funny, as a theatre person, I've not had a subscription to a theatre in years (I was a Tarragon subscriber for a couple of years when I lived on Dupont), but would happily subscribe to a couple of the film festivals here. In part I felt it was important to support TIFF in their first year with a building and I just like their programming too.

Today I was a bit extravagant. As a Landmark Birthday is approaching, I decided to splurge and give myself a membership to the Toronto Temperance Society. I was lucky enough to visit it a few weeks ago with a friend who is a member and I just loved the vibe of the place. It is a private members club/bar which is basically set in Prohibition Era Toronto. The look of the place from what the bartenders wear to the music and the wallpaper all fits. The cocktails are all era appropriate and delicious. The rules of membership are also so civilized. No cellphones. No one under the age of 25. It just felt like somewhere I wanted to support. Plus the first time I was there was after seeing a concert at the Drake - the concert was amazing despite the crowd, who were not. The TS just seemed like an oasis of sanity afterwards.

I also figure I spend money on much more ridiculous things that I won't enjoy as much so why not? (I'm worth it :) )

More soup!

Apparently that's what I post about these days....
I had this delicious soup when visiting Oakville this past weekend and I have been thinking about trying to recreate it all week. Tonight is my first attempt.
It smells right so that's a good start....

It's basically a bunch of vegetables to which I will be adding cheese tortellini. Essentially it is just a vehicle to eat cheese tortellini and not feel guilty about it. However I have realized that I don't have the yummy Belgian bread that was consumed on Sunday. Boo. I think it won't be nearly as good without it...

Seriously, the next place I live is going to have its own laundry!!

Today I made soup.

From scratch.

This is the first time I have attempted such a thing -ever - which is why it is worthy of a post after many weeks of idle blog activity.

It is sweet potato soup - sort of a puree really as it isn't especially soup-y - and while I suspect that it is not quite the appropriate colour, being a tad on the brown side with an orange tinge, it is quite tasty. I mean I could almost serve this to other humans I think.

This soup required the purchase of an hand blender which I got yesterday on a very frustrating excursion to The Bay. I swear the service in there gets worse and worse. Even though I believe they are now owned by Americans, which I would have thought would have solved that. However, since everything is always on sale on the weekends at The Bay, sometimes it is worth the desperate aggravation.

I'm not sure why I didn't own one of these things before now - they are awesome. Mine came with a chopper attachment so I zipped the onions in about 30 seconds. Feels a bit like cheating really. I'm clearly not an expert at this yet as there are a few solid bits in the soup but that's okay, this was a test run.

Will I do this often? Probably not as I know myself and it is time consuming. But for a -20C day like today, it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

If someone could now just come over with some crusty bread, that would be perfect.

Waiting for Ikea

I wonder if waiting for Ikea will prove to be something like Waiting for Godot. Especially today with all the snow and my street being a dead end which I doubt ever gets plowed. All I need is Ikea having a lame excuse for not being able to deliver.

As of yesterday at 4:30 I did not have a confirmed delivery "window", so I called them. I was told between 9am and 1pm. Good enough. 30 minutes later I got a phone call from the transport company telling me it was actually 12noon to 4pm. So which is it? I asked. She assured me that it was the new timeslot and Ikea had just told me the "default" time. So of course I'm basically here all day waiting since I don't know who to believe. And with the snow, likely they'll get to the end of the street and not bother.

So much for trying to get settled and buying furniture!

A photo of the Xmas gift I sent my boys in theatre programming down at the KC. It took almost a month to get there - I could have walked it faster. Seriously. The winning combination of Canada Post and the US Postal Service.

When I said that I wanted to send them something to go under their tree (that would be in "my" spot), Max wrote, "There wasn’t a tree beautiful enough to replace you, so we did without."

Enough to bring tears to my eyes!! And you wonder why I miss them...

Gah!

I think my gym has gone bankrupt! I got a message tonight from one of the girls who works(ed) there saying it was closed. She didn't even get a call from her boss (the owner) but from another co-worker. I'm going to go by in the morning to see if there is a sign up or anything...

At least I have until the 15th to put a stop payment on my direct withdrawal but what a pain in the ass AND how frustrating since I was completely in the rhythm of going. Blah!