Past, Future, Present

Nick was in town.  Haven't heard from him in a while and was a little surprised when he emailed.  When was the last time we talked?  Our attempts to stay friends, haven't been that successful.  Mostly my fault I guess I'm the one who hasn't logged into facebook in for ages...

There seemed to be fewer and fewer things to talk about when we are in the same city together.  But the great connection seems to be dim sum.  The perfect meeting then was to try then the dim sum at the newly renovated Golden Rice Bowl. 

Having Marc and Paul there seemed to make things a little less akward.  There were different things to talk about, different questions...

Which highlighted just how much has changed (or stayed the same).  Nick's girlfriend, his latest vacations, and Marc's temporary return to Edmonton (he seems unconvinced about joining  ballroom)...

It was nice to chat, but it also seriously made it clear how our lives just don't intersect anymore, and our pasts don't seem that relevant either. 

Nick headed back out to Calgary.  I went to dance training.

Amazing how cold it is again. 

Dance was frustrating.  Why has my body completely forgotten everything from Thursday?  I was so sad.  And achy.  Again, maybe I'm not really made for this. 

Tried to stretch out and find the positive.  But Paul then called and he cheered me up.

Wendy and Will's House Warmed

The dance workshops blew my mind.  And provided just enough exercise for me to not feel too guilty about eating all the deliciousness at Wendy and Will's housewarming party. 

Paul and I were the first to arrive.  Wendy was making sushi.   

Once everyone was there we took the grand tour.  It started in the basement, where Li Found expertly tapped and hit supporting beams.

And ended upstairs, where we discussed warm versus cool lighting (a gender split with the women preferring warm, the men cool).

We added the leaf to the table and sat down for dinner. 

 

Our lovely hostess ground fresh pepper for the meal.

Lorena and Joseph pulled photos out of their wallets to show just how cute their teenager kids were as babies (along with pictures of their fur babies).

After dinner, Joseph took to the kitchen to pan fry dessert.

 

Paul tried 年糕 (New Year cake) for the first time. 

Meanwhile, Monica demonstrated an alternative way to sit on the couch (and just how tired she was).  Wayne demonstrated exactly not what to do when your girlfriend falls on the floor. 

Finally Gifts: Bread - So you never go hungry. Wine - So your life is always sweet. Salt - So there is always spice in your life. And a Candle - So you always have light.

The fancy pink salt got the most attention.  Taste?  Salty.

How did you get this number?

Paul and I have an invention!  Article: A popsicle with art on it.  But, hm... how would we price it?  According to the art or the quality of the popsicle?  And is it best to sell on a hot or a cold day?

Many things to think about, as shown in Carole Price's Cushion Cover Cushion Cover business plan. 

We had time though.  Matahari wasn't too busy and we didn't feel rushed at all through dinner.  We did some people-watching and then Paul flipped through my latest read, Sloane Crosley's How Did You Get This Number. 

The book was a collection of essays, and so far contained a good amount of both funny ha-ha and funny uh-oh.  Though, possibly not so funny (ha-ha) when sections are read out of context. 

What Paul wanted to know was, why are these essays? 

I tried to find similarities between those "papers" I'd written at school (called essays), with the collection here.  Is it because there was an element of truth?  How is it different from a long blog post?  If it wasn't printed on the cover, I probably would have called it a collection of short stories or articles (the non-popsicle kind). 

Now with connections to the internet, I looked it up. 

"An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author."

I'm pleasantly surprised that the wikipedia Essay article's next line is: "The definition of an essay is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story."

The long blog post might not be too out of range.  Fingers crossed my blog posts can eventually reach that level. 

Perspective

The world is in turmoil.  We're in the time of upheaval.
Between uprisings and the earthquake in New Zealand (I can't believe the photos I'm seeing). 

We're in this surreal pocket of calm...
It seems wrong to be worried about the changes in gas prices.

Je-Paul-dy

Watson the IBM computer wins at Jeopardy! 

I tried to explain Jeopardy! to Paul.  Roughly: Clues are given, contestants then have to ring-in with the question that would have that clue as the answer. 

My bad example clues gave these results:

"Are you Montreal?"
"Are you a tuba?"

I think someone just needs to watch the show.

Family Day

"Woah!" 

And then they were bored. 

After dim sum with the family in honour of Family Day, Paul and I finally got the chance to take Celina and Kevin to AGA to see the Brian Jungen Exhibit.  Of course, I'd wanted a discussion on the pieces, but we can't always get what we want.  At least there was that initial response!

On our way out, there were some rare smiles.  Celina because she's snapped a photo of a cute baby.  Kevin because Paul's...?

 

There was a lot going on downtown, but Celina lead the way to the Winspear Centre.  One of her past dance instructors was to perform in the heritage dance performance show (below). 

 

 

While there were certainly some intricate formations in some of the earlier pieces, but my attention did drift until this group from Latin America (below).  Lively and passionate, the dancers really looked like they were enjoying themselves and putting everything into it. 

Then came this group.  Completely charming with their big expressions and playful choreography. 

 

I wasn't sure Kevin was all that impressed, but at least he kept himself busy, making paper airplanes from programs.  Which he and Paul then launched in the mall. 

Before finally heading back home, probably the highlight: Snacks!  (Yogen Fruz).

Google Solves

Things are moving along with Tony in the silver dances.  We squeeze in practice (for me learning) at OPDS and in the breaks of the classes we TA together.  But it's obvious: I need help. 

Most of the steps I haven't learned before so the routines copied down on paper form mean little to nothing.  I'm managing to build a little muscle memory from Tony leading me through them, but this isn't fast enough and means I can't practice on my own. 

Long awaited and finally here: Videos! 

Followed by another problem: Compatibility.   

Strangely enough, the files play on my laptop at home, but do not on the computer at work. 

The solution: Blogger (and by extension Google) to the rescue.  I simply had to upload the files in a blog entry and then play it from there.  Simple... well, maybe not that simple, but at least I can watch them at work now too. 

O.k. brain, do your stuff, change what I see into movement.

Foodful Saturday: Bagels, Crepes and Chopsticks

Is there a St. Viateur? 

 

Paul's present from Montreal were lovely bagels from the famous 24 hour bagel shop. 

The strange coincidence: At Stephen's party, someone had mentioned looking for bagels in Montreal at a weird time in the night/morning and finding this place! 

After this mid-morning snack, we headed out to Whyte Ave for lunch.  The newly opened Crepeworks had given free crepes vouchers for monetary donations to a charity.  A great promotion for us to go and try out their wares.

The restaurant aimed for a slightly upscale feel (eclectic art on the walls and upbeat music), but couldn't fully escape fast food tackiness with their plastic crepe combinations displays (though admittedly, they were very helpful). 

Food court favourite flavours dominated the menu's savoury side (chicken Caesar, California...), but thankfully everything was fresh. 

Despite my criticism of the atmosphere, the food won me over.  As Maria had written in her review, it certainly was tasty.

We even decided to buy a dessert crepe (a slightly more familiar selection with fruit, chocolate, and cream fillings - deliciously rich). 

For a late dinner, Paul and I tried a Chinese dish from Jackie's cookbook.  A perfect for the new chopsticks to have their debut. 

Get Together Somewhere and Stuff

Michael: I like this plan.

And I liked that there was technology to let me know when the plan changed. Instead of the "Bow-el d'Sucre", we were successfully redirected to Remedy to celebrate Stephen's latest prime birthday. 

Smuggled cupcakes from the Whimsical Cake Studio for the birthday boy (and belated-birthday boy) joined other Remedy delights, including a drink that looked like it was from Star Trek (actually was lime Italian soda). 

I didn't know most of the people there, but it didn't feel too awkward.  I was too caught up listening to their energetic and excited talk of their latest projects and ideas: A cool t-shirt design, some piece of art... There was even something that sounded a lot like a community version of Feast. 

 

Below: True to Remedy form, wittily selling cake and returning dishes to the counter.

 



Not Planned, but our outfits matched!

Paul arrived (almost) directly from his Montreal return (less adventurous than the way out), as other people were leaving.  The smaller group, however, offered some nice quiet talk. 

 

Happy Birthday, Stephen!

Swans Another Way

"I'll be right back," as I grabbed my camera and headed back to the bathroom.  Beth and Val gave me a look and then followed me. 

And there:

Much better.  I'm not sure what it is, but it called out to be photographed.  We then returned to Beth's office. 

The plan to meet up with Beth had evolved somewhat.  "Go and watch Black Swan at the cheap theatres" had turned into "Meet at the office and go window shopping", since it turned out we were too slow and the movie is now no longer at any of theatres*.

After some laughs with Val, we were off to downtown.  But we strangely brought back to our original plan: There in The Artworks window a whole display in tribute / inspired by Black Swan!  Um... I should have taken a photo of it. 

The rest of the afternoon we went through The Artworks looking at, touching, and smelling pretty (and too expensive) things.  Beth talked about crown mouldings (a lovely setting for jewelry I'd liked, but didn't know the name of), diets (tracking of vitamins and finding one Brazil nut can fix it all)... and it was just nice to be.  I can't believe we took so long to do this.  Vacation time can be so great. 

* Beth later revealed while a part of her still wanted to see it, there was another part that would be scared by what the film could do.  It reminded me of Catherine's warning (paraphrased): Be careful of what you put in your head, you might be able to get it back out...

"Prepare for a daring adventure."

I quickly regretted the fortune cookie once I realised truly how nervous Paul was for this trip to Montreal.  Really, anything could have been on the fortune... including a bad prediction about the interview. 

It wasn't.  But it should have said "Prepare for a daring adventure," because the shuttle ride was exactly that.  As he tells it, it was the driver's first day on the job.  He'd missed several turns and made these huge loops to get to various hotel pickups.  And, you guess it, (as Paul and the other passengers had joked), he failed to recognise the aiport exit!  Metres away from the turn off, after a whole lot of insistance from the passengers, he grudgingly came to a rolling stop to take the turn.  And still didn't seem to believe it until they actually arrived at the airport.  Wow.

Thankfully, the rest of the travel was o.k.  In a crazy way, maybe the shuttle adventure was a good thing.  Such a stressful trip to the airport must have exhausted any of his worrying energy... right?  Well, my fingers are crossed that he's more relaxed for the rest of the trip.  

Office Valentine's

Monica is back!  And before she even got through even half of her emails a special delivery arrived.  Surprise!  A Happy Valentine's Day gift from Wayne.  She started sharing the bouquet before even taking a picture.  But we have here a reasonable shot :)

Meanwhile, when the question was posed to Olivia regarding "the Chinese version" of the holiday for her and her husband, she said they're not romantic like that anymore - married life is very different.

The other topic that came into conversation was the instability in Egypt.  Incredible. 

It was a little difficult to keep focused between all this and being sick.  I was dreading TAing dance class, but a visit from Paul recharged my batteries.

(Above: Paul really excited about his gifts.)

(Below: A very cute family portrait, by Paul.)

Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day.