Goody Friday!

Happy day!  Steph and Sophie visited.  They very, thoughtfully, brought food.

Right: The lasagna smelled incredible - too bad I couldn't eat it :(

We laughed and chatted, and the stacks of dictionaries (put away to make the station for James) all come out again ;)

Sophie is a natural with James.  He was so comfortable he just slept in her arms. Steph was happy to be sitting away from all that action.

 

 Steph also brought books (in a lovely decorated bag)!  It looked like Paul was going to enjoy them very much.

I took it then as my chance to give Steph her belated birthday present.  Yes, it's a five-finger mug!  And no, James is not named after James T. Kirk.  

Red Eggs-citing

Red cabbage seemed like a likely choice, but apparently they dye eggshells blue!

I was tickled: Here I was looking a food safe red dye for James's Full Month celebration eggs, when everyone else was probably working on Easter eggs.  Will this be my rebirth?

I'm hopeful and excited enough by the prospects to be lured into fun and fancy designs*.  One could make lovely marbled patterns using shaving cream (or Cool Whip so you can still eat the eggs).

But more realistically, I (we) only have time and energy for plain red.

Serious Eats uses beets for red, and What's Cooking America suggests raspberries and cherries (among many others).  The results, however, are pale compared with the intense and bright red of Nasi Lemak Lover's eggs (using Rose Syrup) and Demi Kehoe's (both are "birthday" egg recipes, not Easter eggs).

It's fun to daydream, but again, practicalities.  Whatever Theresa can find for me we'll use.

* Though still traditional enough to stick with hard-boiled eggs rather than anything fancy (specially packaged, flavoured eggs) like what Olivia said was the trend in China.  She'd also mentioned there was a "code" of sorts to indicate if you've had a boy or girl... I found one reference indicating an even number for a boy, an odd number for girl.

Good F(e)ast Friday

One great virtue about Paul is his punctuality.  When travelling with him I am either on time, early, or really early.  Which my parents (especially Dad) appreciate. 

For dinner at my parents' Friday, we were in the last category.  Um... as in really early.  So early it made sense for us to get off a few bus stops away to take a walk.  Which was actually pretty nice.  There was nothing too challenging for my ankle in the area and the sun was shining, finally melting some of the snow. 

And low and behold, right on theme, a piece of Easter:

Which got us talking.  This dinner at my parents' was meant to celebrate Good Friday, but apparently it's traditionally a day of fasting...?  Oops...

Well, I didn't know this and none of my family I think was going to be too bothered either way.  A day off is a good excuse for turkey.  (Now I'm wondering if there's a fast day as part of Chinese traditions... does our "No meat" meal on Chinese New Year Day 1 count?)

(Right: Our non-traditional Good Friday dinner with Dad and Theresa in fine chopstick arts form)

(Below: Kevin's riddle has Paul stumped?)

Long Weekend

The weekend didn't slow down. 

Sunday:  My wind-up alarm clock died (given into my over enthusiastic winding?).  I wanted to take it apart, but there's so much other stuff to do.  Picked up groceries with Mom - a straight ahead, no strategem food run. Then it was the Formation dress rehearsal.  (Yikes! Less than a week to go!)  Then at some point I went to sleep, fitfully (I think I need hear the ticking clock).

Monday: Met up with Paul and went over to Erik's to take advantage of the bread machine check on it, while he's away on vacation.  On our way back from Head Case (a fun visit where we found fascinators are not for Paul) we saw this:

Watched Amelie and got teary in all the right places. And we ate another bunny...

At some other point, I go to sleep.  I know it happened, but still very, very tired. 

Year End doesn't help. 

Good Friday

It was bound to happen: Ken dropped me. 

Despite fewer distractions (such as baby Alec, in the past), practice was shakey.  As we ran through the routine to the morning CJSR broadcast: His watch had scratched my head, he managed to elbow me in a turn... and then yes, he dropped me.  Better in practice than in tomorrow's dress rehearsal or the actual performance... but still not a good thing.  We switched to working on kicks (with plenty of space between us). 

Later, made it to Friday Feast where Rem was preparing (Easter) lamb, mashed potatoes, salad and delicious pie! 

The food definitely helped to sooth some of the practice pains. 

The company cleared up the rest. 

 

Gene and Johanna were there.  And a little later, Dawn and Jon arrived with baby Arilyn (they have been teaching her how to so sign). 

Some (non-alcoholic) drinks later... 

Paul gets dressed up. 

And Neil and Steph do some bicycle fixing.

I was caught starting some dish-washing therapy (Lana in the kitchen with a frying pan!), before calling it a night. 

Scenes from the weekend

A supervillian walks into a bar...

Rem passed his candidacy exam on Friday! We went to Remedy to celebrate. (Right: Rem plots his next move. / Left: A math joke I'm sure.)



Doug Hoyer presents...

Later, met Catherine and Jaclyn at Axis Cafe for Doug Hoyer's CD release party. Standing-room-only became sitting-on-the-stairs-at-the back-entrance-only. Was laughing, charmed by:


a) the ukulele (electric - who would have known?)
b) Quirky lyrics and subject matter (e.g. worries on blind dates "Dress too slutty? Nails too fake?", and "Tattoo" a love song which apparently started as a sociology essay)
c) Mild squirming from Catherine and Jaclyn (it's not easy seeing family grow up... and sing about making-out with their girlfriend).


Overall a fun show. I hear he plays the accordian too. Look forward to seeing that.



And then at Dim Sum the next day...


"I wish you'd never get married so you can spend more time with us." Oh, Celina. *sigh* At least someone is benefiting...




Then onward to books!


And more books... and even more books! It was the Raise a Reader booksale in one of the airport hangers at Kingsway. Volunteered to help out for a shift and was just amazed. *dinner-plate-sized-eyes expression* Tables and tables covered with books. Boxes and boxes of books (donated from all over) sitting under the tables and next to the walls. Steph and I were to restock and tidy the tables as books were being taken away. Sorting came along pretty naturally. Aside from ocassional helping people with a "Ah-ha! I know exactly what you're looking for" moment, it wasn't exactly exhilarating work... unless you saw the misfiled books as commentaries. "Beowulf" is Adult Non-fiction and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" a book of Religion and Spirtuality. Silliness can get one through so many things.




"She's thinking of a stratagem." ~ Amelie in Amelie


Beth sling-shots me onto the dance floor carefully aimed (that girl is strong). Seconds later, our target starts dancing with someone. Seeing this, I veer off, returning to our side of the room. Regroup. Second attempt: Aim, shoot... target leaves the room. Slightly relieved, I tell Beth it's just not meant to be. But she has another plan. In the end, it was set. Travis was confused. But he is coming to Feast.

Still Saturday, and we still have an engagement with Math and Music. To Allendale Hall we go for the Martingales. We witness the debut of Rem on washboard. And Troll on mic.



Well what do you think?


Celina invites me over for lunch. She cooks spaghetti with a tomato chicken sauce. Kind of goopy, but tastey. A promising start.



Back to the book sale this time to comb through and buy. I buy trash, none of the good stuff I was recommending just yesterday to other customers. Why is this? Deep down am I a commitmentphobe?

Must be clumsy hand syndrome...

Red eggs show up at the Chinese one-month-old celebrations for babies... and for Orthodox Easter dinner! Sophie's and her mom have created a wonderful meal (though no Battlestar Galatica). When we're ready to start, the red wine Eugene brought goes missing (Apollo wine no less). We find the wine (having disguised itself as a bottle of vinegar and fooled at least one of us), and start, with a game: Egg smashing! Well, a little more civilised than that. Each, with our chosen egg, are to... um... tap with vigour our egg to our partner's egg. The one with the uncracked shell is victorious. Steph and her super egg wins at the table and will be blessed with good luck for the rest of the year (that's my interpretation at least). We all suffer a little from clumsy hand syndrome. But even with nearly tipped wine glasses and flying broccoli, we manage to not make too big of a mess...

Afterwards we look at photos from Eugene's trip to Hong Kong. Turns out his sister knows cousin Daisy. And we take a couple of pictures of our own.

Stop and smell the...

"Aw, where did these come from?" It's probably the 3rd or 4th person to and visit because of the beautiful roses that Vera brought me. Simply been spoiled since coming back to work this week. Flowers, cake (made with Vodka) and souvenirs from Toronto... now if only can get out of this mood. Think happy thoughts...

Lots of good moments for the long weekend. Sleeping in was divine. Vacuumed room and did some dusting. Took a nice walk with Chris. Last dance class went by fairly smoothly - despite collisions in tango - and now I'm free! Though that's only been a week, and I'm suffering from dance withdrawal...

Went to Steph and Rem's for dinner and the Easter Bunny made appearance... in a chocolate mole sauce. Definitely a much more secular meal than last year's lamb. Played Scattegories through the night. Silliness abound: Would one find a Bassoon in the ocean? Or would one more likely find a Bassoonist? Was later described by Steph as a "photographer with an accounting habit".

A very nice day with Catherine where we walked the malls out of the cold and then went over to my place. Yep, the two of us managed to squeeze into my room. Listened to music and she loaded games onto my laptop! Ah! That wasn't smart plan. How will I concentrate on Audit? Well, I guess it turned out o.k. Didn't have the proper hardware to actually run games. That disaster was averted. But there's still Facebook...

Next day, after finishing up taxes, migrated to the Facebook site to do a little more exploring. Still haven't done much with it, but people are finding me. Surprise! Jaime back from old Chinese school days. What do I say? I'm excited that she got in contact. But nervous about how much I've changed... or maybe that I didn't change at all. Silly brain. Didn't retain much of "The Tao of Pooh" (Benjamin Hoff) now did I?

In Bisy Backson fashion, thinking about weekend: Celina's birthday, library book sale downtown, and Audit class. Hm... sleep...