Day 7 - Where's the Cheese?

Carmel Popcorn with Nuts

Today we set out to knock off item number 2 on the holiday list of to do's. That was to visit Local Cheese Products in Ingersoll. During the drive to Stratford, Ontario, where we had decided to have breakfast, we talked about what cheeses we would buy and for whom. It was fun. Now the conventional wisdom has it that this factory produces the best cheeses in the land, nay, the world. I have read and heard that it produces the best fresh paneer outside of India, the best brie outside of France and the best feta outside of Greece. Now doesn't that make your mouth water just reading that? It makes my mouth water. Bring on the cheese. Problem was: we couldn't find the factory - well let me qualify that. We found a big red building that had Ingersoll Cheese Factory painted on the side of it. The place was too quiet. No cars, no activity, no people. No Ingersoll cheese for us today.

So we headed back to Stratford and consoled ourselves by visiting the The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and purchasing one or two sweet items. With nuts.

On the way back home, we stopped in on Special K's father for a quick bite and to modify his settings for his HDTV and his email account.

I am wondering if we can top tomorrow with this much excitement.

Day 6 - The Mighty Octagon

Carpenter's Octagon

It hasn't started raining yet but it is supposed to tonight. I feel blah because the day has been perfectly cold and dreary. We walked to a restaurant down the street for breakfast and it was freezing. I was just wearing shorts and a short sleeved top. Any moment I thought it was going to start raining but now it is almost 6pm and it still hasn't started yet. Special K and I did some odd jobs around the house. That, if the truth be told, I did not want to do because,well I thought we were on holiday. However, it is very satisfying to do some of those odd jobs. There were workman here for the neighbours and for us. We are still having our windows done. There was a lot of wood cutting going on. Everything out back, and indeed inside, because the screen door was open all afternoon, is covered in a thin layer of sawdust.

The small girl from next door came over again, and together we explored the mysteries of the octagon, which, as it turns out, I have a talent for drawing with my eyes closed. She is five and while she understands that a octagon has eight sides, she is unable to grasp the technique (at least the technique I showed her) for drawing the figure. It is the angles of the required lines, I think, that confound someone so young. I promised her that by the time she is six, she will no doubt have mastered the drawing of an octagon, probably sooner than that. This seemed to bring on melancholy and she put her head in her lap. Special K came outside and asked her what was wrong. "Nothing", she remarked, "just that I cannot draw an octagon." So sad, we agreed. But we are confident that this is is a problem with a definite solution.

We thought we might hang the blinds and dispense with the sheets hanging over the windows but it's not going to happen. We bought take out sushi from the supermarket and are now watching "So You Think You Can Dance" which I am finding very painful to watch. Why make those poor young people who actually do have talent feel like they don't.

Day 5 of Vacation

The solar spotlights Ninja and Special K bought today

It threatened to rain all day, but held off long enough for us to make our Home Depot Run, eat lunch and put together more solar lights for the backyard. Special K broke the stake for one of the solar spotlights, while I put together an electric one only to discover that we were missing the power component for the light. It took me a long time to figure out how to put together what I did assemble.

Then the rain started. What a cold and dreary day it's been. We should have just stayed in bed and waited it out. Our neighbour's girl at approximately 5pm, leapt out of the car of her friend's mother, ran past her own house and straight up to our front door. We had promised her that we would continue doing the crystal experiment. The crystal experiment is taking far too long and we decided that we should downsize it to the introductory kit rather than the Geode kit we are working with. So we broke the news to the girl. She was ok with that as long as we kept her very occupied and stimulated right now. Special K loves watching the way she interacts with the world. We put together a puzzle, played dominoes and cards, blew up balloons (which she tried at first to fill up with water instead), played with an activity book, and played checkers.

Her father showed up at 6:30pm to pick her up.

How To Eat Gelato

From Gourmet Gal's (Kathleen Peirce's) Blog

There is no point in learning how to enjoy gelato, that Italian style of ice cream, unless it is the very best of gelatos. Gelato, when made correctly, is the filet mignon of ice creams. Special K and I have found a secret little place in the Toronto gay village that serves the best gelato we have ever had. It is thick and cold and very very hard. So hard in fact that the staff have broken more than one gelato scooper trying to get it out of the tubs. But not so hard as to be a block of ice. No. It must have a smooth texture, bendable enough to melt, but hard enough to resist the inevitability of the warmth of your mouth until the last possible moment.

So now I can tell you how to eat it. First off, do not be in a rush. It must be in a dish, not a cone. Cones are for kids. And do not use a large spoon. A very small spoon the metes out tiny portions of gelato is best. Place each portion in your mouth and wrap your tongue around it so that all the aspects of the flavour you have chosen can be distinguished separately and completely. Then, as it melts, let it slide down your throat leaving bursts of sugar and cream in the recesses of your mouth. As you continue to eat, the remaining gelato will slowly get softer. As this happens gently stir your gelato in its dish between spoonfuls until it has the consistency of icing. Now you can pull it up from the dish like taffy, swirl it onto the spoon, and drizzle this onto your tongue. By the time you are finished your scoop, it will have turned from icing to whipped cream to something akin to a milkshake. This is the proper way I enjoy my Gelato.

So as not to discourage inevitable diversity in the art of gelato ingestion - feel free to share your ice cream eating methods with me.

Life of Ninja - Day 4 Vacation

Toronto's city-worker strike has exposed just how wasteful our lives are. Creative Commons photo by Laurie McGregor.

Toronto is entering week 5 of a garbage strike. I am not sure of all the issues, but one of the biggest ones is that the city wants to take away the privilege of banking sick days. The compromise is to make the raise a little sweeter. Now, I don't think that is too much to ask. In most jobs you can't bank sick days. I get six days a year and if I don't have to use them, I lose them. I'm not of the mindset that I should even use them if I don't need them. Isn't that unethical. But hey, who am I to say? After the first couple of weeks we took our garbage which wasn't really that much to Special K's brother's place. This morning we decided to brave it and go down to one of the transfer stations to wait in line. As it turned out. It was unnecessary for us to wait in line. Though the dump site was actually closed, and crawling with picketeers, a temporary site that no one was waiting in line at, was open staffed by non-striking city workers.

So, after feeling supremely lucky, we took ourselves back to Balzac's. It was quiet at 7:30am, and settled in for a coffee and a pastry. I had a blueberry, cranberry muffin and Special K had a cheese croissant. I read a Seed Magazine from a couple of months ago I didn't know I had and did some blackberry messaging with my sister and brother to plan a night out for my father's birthday. It was just my brother's birthday last week, mine and my Dad's this week, and my sister's a week after that. So birthday's were always interesting when we were growing up. My mother swears that she used to produce a birthday cake just before midnight on my birthday to catch both mine and my dad's since we are a day apart. I certainly do not remember that. Perhaps it occurred exactly once. And as it happens, Special K's brother's birthday is the same day as mine as well, so some years we actually celebrate together with her family on the actual day.

After our morning coffee , the plan was to go to Ikea and Hom(o) Depot, but Special K had another idea and we went first to another shop that had furniture. We have been looking for something for the bathroom for over a year. We finally did end up up Ikea and bought two shelving units, one for the bathroom and one for me for the bedroom for my more than overflowing books and papers. The age of paper needs to come to an end for me. Our place is bursting at the seams with all my books, magazines, memorabilia and other artifacts from the life of Ninja. Really I have to start to go completely paperless or our house will look like one of those eccentric places with newspapers piled high to the ceiling and arranged in a mazelike fashion.

We love our house, but it has run out of room. So we are now looking for creative ways to increase our storage space. One of those ways is to eliminate some of our material goods. Hence Ninja has to pare down her stuff. One thing I can do that is very possible is instead of buying magazines simply check them out online instead. I rarely have time to read an entire newspaper or magazine anymore.

By the time we got home and walked over to the local restaurant for lunch and back, the day was pretty much over.

Princess Diary - Day 3 of Vacation

This morning we made a trip to the Distillery District for a morning coffee with one of our buffins* to Balzacs, a premier coffee house in Toronto. Special K checks the news every weekend for road closures and events, so we were surprised when we approached the Distillery to find a crowd of runners who were obviously finished running and filling up the coffee houses and restaurants in the district. There was an uncharacteristic lineup outside Balzacs. So we ate instead at a place on Queen Street East called Joy. Our server was a cute small woman with a South African accent.

Since I am one of my ex-girlfriend's tech support, we went back to her place so that I could get her back on the internet. Her wireless connection died sometime between yesterday and this morning. I didn't know anything about the Mac Airport Express device before today and now I do and am duly impressed. Mac is all about the features. Anyway I managed to get her up and running in a wireless fashion, but I removed her SMC router in the process. I couldn't figure what it was being used for to be honest because the airport express didn't work with the router between it and the DSL modem.


When we got back home, we cleaned the house. I know it's our holiday - but I'll feel much better if we have a clean house. I have been listening to this audio book for the last few months whenever I clean. It's unabridged: The Mind Hunter, a true crime memoir by former FBI agent John Douglas. It really is a bit of a downer because he relates gruesome details of horrible crimes that, well, he admits, no should have to know. In any case I have a couple of hours left of the book - I find it riveting, but the only way I can concentrate on it is to listen to it while I'm busy doing something else.

That took us to almost four pm and the neighbour's kids were outside waiting for us again. They were adamant that we play with them. At least the girl was. Yesterday she said that her brother did not like temporary tattoos, most likely a ploy to ensure that she got our full attention. But today, since we had nothing else to play with, she decided that in fact, her brother did want a tattoo. He cannot really speak for himself on this matter at the tender age of two, so he offered his arm up willingly at her behest. He ran over to our place in his sister's Hallowe'en costume - a pink princess gown. He learned pretty quickly that he had to keep the front of the dress up if he didn't want to trip. His tiny little blue crocs got caught in the skirt and crinoline anyway and I had to untangle him. (Several weeks ago, the girl asked us if we were moms or kids. I guess there are only three kinds of people: moms, dads and kids. We're women, I responded. Did I ever want children? Maybe. Was I married? No. Might I get married some day? Maybe. To Special K? Maybe. Can two girls get married? Yes. But, but, but who would be the husband? Two brides, I say. She digests all this and goes back to playing. Of course, later I had to report back to her parents, lest her parents hear the conversation first from the girl. Luckily they think it is wonderful that the girl is so precocious). Her mother came over to rescue us, but not before she had to get her very own skeleton tattoo. Under much protest, the children went back to their own home, despite the fact that the girl said that she'd like nothing better than to help me do my bills, the reason I gave her for not being able to continue to play with her.

No sooner did we settle in to relax in the last vestiges of warmth and sunlight for the day when we get a visit from Special K's brother who has ridden into Toronto on his bike. It was certainly good weather for cycling. The summer has been that way. Not too cold and certainly not too hot. Mostly cloudly days with unpredictable rainfall.

Nice that we have a few fans.

*buffin - a kind of extended family relationship characterized by the ex-lover of one half of a couple who is still friends with and socializes with that ex-lover.

50 Things About Me That No One Cares About

1. What time did you get up this morning
7:00am

2. How do you like your steak?
Medium Rare

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Uchôten Hoteru

4. What is your favorite TV show?
30 Rock

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Japan

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Low Carb/High Protein Breakfast Bar and 250ml of soy milk

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
Japanese

8. What foods do you dislike?
Cooked carrots

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
Sushi Bar

10. Favorite dressing?
balsamic vinegar

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
mazda

12. What are your favorite clothes?
Blue Jeans

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
New York

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full
1/2 full

15. Where would you want to retire?
Gay Retirement Home

16. Favorite time of day?
Just Before Sunset

17. Where were you born?
Toronto

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
Bronco Bucking

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
I don't know what this means.

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
Blah I don't know what this means.

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
Those of you not reading this.

22. Bird watcher?
No.

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Night.

24. Pets?
No.

25. Any new and exciting news that you'd like to share?
Big Screen TV

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
Courier de Bois.

27. What is your best childhood memory?
My baby brother coming home from the hospital

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
Cat

29. Are you married?
Yes.

30. Always wear your seat belt?
Of Course.

31. Been in a car accident?
Yes.

32. Any pet peeves?
Mendacity

33. Favorite pizza topping?
Tomato Sauce

34. Favorite Flower?
Portulaca

35. Favorite ice cream?
Vanilla

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Wendy's

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test?
I lost count

38. From whom did you get your last email?
Some spammer

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
Any Computer Store

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
No.

41. Like your job?
Yes.

42. Broccoli?
Yes.

43. What was your favorite vacation?
Japan

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
Special K.

45. What are you listening to right now?
The wind.

46. What is your favorite color?
Green

47. How many tattoos do you have?
One temporary tattoo of a mummy that the neighbour's daughter just gave me.

48.How many are you tagging for this quiz?
None

49. What time did you finish this quiz?
21:00.

50. Coffee Drinker?
Yes.

Day 2 of My Summer Vacaton

I am now sitting out on the deck in our backyard. It is lovely summer day. Unseasonably cool, but I love it. Most people do because it is not too humid. The sun keeps going in and out making for interesting light because half the sky is dark and half is cloudless. I can hear the gently falling water of our fountain that Special K just plugged back in. I feel a little guilty because I want to write and she wants to do chores. She just finished cutting the grass both in the front and in the back. I did a little weeding because of that guilt.

The neighbour's boy who is not quite three is running his mother ragged and Special K seems to be taking a break to play with him. She never stops moving.

I am planning to do some editing and contemplating on why I would ever want to go back to work. Oh yeah for the $$.



The neighbour's kids came over and I made cootie catchers with the girl and we put temporary tattoos on each other. We put a witch and a CBC logo on her. I have a mummy on my forearm and Special K is sporting a dragon on her bicep. Very butch. We played with them for a couple of hours and it was delightful. They are very adorable children and we enjoy being around them.

Walked to The Rushton for dinner. Had a delicious steak and frites.

Seems to be getting darker. There are rain drops falling on my head...

Uchôten Hoteru or Suite Dreams or The Grand Hotel

We've got a list of what we are going to do on our holiday and I am intensely curious to know whether we will actually do even some of the activities on it. Here is a sample:

1. Goto Japanese Film event on July 17^th to see Uchoten Hoteru
   
2. Ingersoll Cheese with Mr. Singh Fresh Dairy Products
3. Go to Kleinburg to see the weird dioramas
4. Book a Massage
5. See Mom and Dad
6. Stratford
7. Shaw Fest
8. House Project: The bathroom
9. House Project: The basement
10. House Project: convert videos to avi’s.
11. Get a copy of Now and Xtra on Thursday
12. Royal Botanical Gardens
13. See UP in 3D
14. Sheridan Nurseries
15. Garden

We saw Uchôten Hoteru tonight. It was rather long at almost two and a half hours. It was riveting for me from begining to end. It was charming, delightful, and wonderful. We went to a short reception after the film. We had amazing food and I had a little wine. It was almost spoiled by Mr. Corn Nuts who brought out a tub of nuts before the film started and proceeding to eat every last one all before the film began. It is terrible and loud. People were lookng at him and one fellow just up and moved before the movie started. Yeah you'll be able to hear the corn nut sounds on my podcast at http://www.ninja-radio.com/ . Perhaps next week. I don't know when I'll be able to post.

The movie was a mainstream success in Japan and aboard. As Scarborough Dude said, it's much more interesting when you know as much about Japan culture and the differences between the West and Japan as he does. Well Special K and I know a little. But just a little. Very Robert-Altmanesque.

Knock off number 1 from the list.