Posts Under Personal Category
This blog post is long overdue – considering the CNE (aka the Ex!) ended weeks ago – but hey, I’m doing pretty good considering I still haven’t blogged about my, er, Feburary/March trip to Europe. Oops.
I haven’t been to the Ex now in a few years – actually I think the last time I went was when I was still a student… so at least 2 years ago, if not longer.
I’m going to be completely honest: there was one main reason why I begged The Boy to go with me – despite the fact he, uh, was spending 5 nights a week working the overnight shift as a poker dealer at the Ex Casino – and that was DEEP. FRIED. EVERYTHING.
The CNE is pretty well known for a number of things:
- The (sketchy) midway rides (of which I always ride the giant Ferris Wheel)
- extraordinarily expensive parking costs ($20 – unless your boyfriend has an employee parking pass, ha!)
- The casino, of course – I’ve heard Rama & Port Perry are EMPTY during the 6 weeks this one is operative
- The Labour Day weekend Air Show (which I was supposed to go to, but skipped due to impending rain that never actually arrived)
- The crazy sculptures – made from rocks, sand, butter… yeah, butter!
- And (in my family, at least) the fact I always come home with a collection of overpriced, unneeded, midway game stuffed animals.
But beyond all that, the Ex is ALSO known for their overly oleaginous, caloricly careless – but disgustingly delicious – deep friend food. Mac and Cheese! Pickles! Mars Bars! Oreos! Ice Cream! Pop Tarts! Cola! You name it, they probably deep fry it.
Doughnut burgers being made - gained 5lbs just by looking. ;)
The CNE made headlines earlier this year when they announced they’d be carrying the famed Krispy Kreme doughnut burger. I didn’t try it – the line was horrendously long, and hey, I didn’t want to subject myself to 1,500 calories in one burger (and that’s without the bacon!). I would have split with the boy – but he didn’t want to end up eating most of it if I didn’t like it or “got full”. I don’t blame him. That happens a lot to us.
I did, however, try a few other deep-friend goodies (which probably added up to more than 1,500 calories, ha – but we shared ;)
The Deep Fried Pickle
Delicious. I don’t have another word to describe this. It was super juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and had a super tasty flavor. It also came on a stick, which won me over immediately. I ask you – who doesn’t love food on a stick?
The Deep Fried Mac n’ Cheese
Sold out. As in, I had to settly for deep fried mac n’ cheese curds, which I was assured was “the same only cheesier” – “hell yes, I’m in!” I said. I regretted that about 15 seconds later when I actually tried them. The dish was dry, lacked flavour, and honestly I couldn’t find cheese. Seriously. It was like deep fried mac. Really disappointing. I heard from a friend that the mac n’ cheese was much better – kicking myself for settling for the curds. I must admit they were substantially better once we made the discovery that leftover ranch dip from pickle + deep friend mac n’ curds = om nom.
The Deep Fried Pop Tart
OMG DELICIOUS! I do have to admit, I was deeply disappointed they didn’t have a chocolate pop-tart, and asked for a deep-fried s’more instead – but they were sold out. So I decided to “settle” for a raspberry pop-tart (I really wanted the sprinkley strawberry one, but The Boy doesn’t like strawberry all that much). Much to my delight, it ALSO came on a stick (again, food tastes better on a stick! ;) and drowned in icing sugar and chocolate sauce. Cardiac arrest? Possibly, but at least you’ll die with happy taste buds. I loved it so much. I am immensely glad I don’t have a deep-frier at home or I’d be eating these for breakfast every day (and weigh like 700 lbs). And probably deep frying everything else in my kitchen too – deep frying is kind of fun to do.
'Deep-fried Cola 3' by alanosaur on Flickr
The Deep Fried Coke
Didn’t eat it. Why? We searched, and searched, and FINALLY found it and were going to give it a whirl (even with the line) but… it looked disgusting. Like worms. Deep fried worms.
And we were stuffed. From eating everything else.
It was worth it, though – especially that Pop Tart.
Maybe next year.
So, I’m doing something new – it’s called 30 Days of Lists. If you know me, you know that I keep lists of EVERYTHING:
- to do lists
- idea lists
- budget lists
- songs to download lists
- grocery lists
- stores I want to visit lists
- people I need to email back lists
- wish lists
- this list! haha
So when I head about this challenge, I was down like James Brown. It’s pretty simple: each morning, a new topic is released and you write your list, photograph it, and post it to Flickr/your blog/the 30 days of list forum/etc.
Many of my… co challengees? fellow list makers? are blogging daily about their lists, but lets face it – I barely blog once a week as is (I’m busy and boring recently, though I am working on changing that I swear!) so I decided to try to do a weekly roundup. If you’re interested in following along daily, I am posting photos of my lists (artistic ones, haha) to Flickr, courtesy of my iPhone4 daily. You can check out everyone else’s lists in the public Flickr group.
This week’s roundup is short, since it’s the beginning of September and as far as “actual September” days go… there were only 4.
I really, really wanted a chocolate bar Thursday afternoon at work. I was tired and hungry and having some serious chocolate, candy, ooey, gooey, goodness cravings. I even was in front of the vending machine, money in hand – but I resisted, ate a banana instead, and headed home from work.
Except, I get irritated while driving pretty easily – especially during rush hour, especially when people are driving aggressively. Seriously, there’s a %*^# ton of traffic, cutting me off or riding my ass is not getting you to your destination any faster. So I’m driving home and encounter a jerk off, aggressive cab driver that WILL NOT let me merge in front of him – when there’s plenty of space to do so – at a red light (looking at you, Co-Op cabbie #2322). I even try to get his attention, and he looks RIGHT AT ME before giving me a literal s#^! eating grin and pulls up slowly the entire time. He then GETS THROUGH THE LIGHT, CUTS ME OFF, and slams on his brakes almost making me hit him. Yeah, way to go buddy. This is after he caused me to miss my turn by not letting me get in front of him; than I get lost, and take an extra 30 minutes to find the 401 and I’m hungry, tired, and cranky – so I impulsively pulled into a Tim’s, grab a doughnut, and scarf it down… then immediately feel bad about it.
I’m on my way to my Booty Camp Fitness class, so I rationalize I’ll work “extra hard” at boot camp.
Sitting on the 401 in Toronto traffic by pqholland
So there I am, in my ’97 Chevy Lumina putting along (yes, putting – you don’t do much else during rush hour except stop and go, never “going” much faster than 40km/hr!), and chatting to a friend (relax, via a bluetooth speaker phone!) when traffic speeds up a touch so I go to accelerate.
Only, Chevy Lumina decides she doesn’t feel like it. In fact, as it turns out – she doesn’t feel like doing much, including moving.
Yeah.
Let’s recap: Rush hour. Traffic is speeding up. I’m in the express (not collector’s!) heading home, and my car. stops. moving.
So, I swear, exclaim something to the effect of “I have to call you back my car just died!” and hang up on my friend (who probably freaked out in hindsight) and swore some more.
Now, my old car – a 1990 Mercury Topaz – used to stall. A lot. Including while I was in the middle of making left turns (that was her FAVOURITE time to stall, actually, but that’s another story).
So needless to say, I know what a stalling car feels like, and how to git’er running again. This, however, was not like any stalling car I’d ever experienced.
I try starting her.
Nothing.
Try again.
Nothing.
Start to hyperventilate as cars are honking at me and ducking out from behind me to get around, whizzing by at near 100km/hr now, and some are even SLAMMING ON THEIR BRAKES behind me when they realize I’m not moving. I put my 4-ways on. Oddly, only one of the arrows – the driver’s side – is flashing on the dash. Mental note.
Realize my car is still in drive. Put in park. Try to start.
Nothing.
This goes on for a good five, six, seven minutes – she’s not even turning over, I’m clicking the keys and there is literally NOTHING. No ding, no click, no egine noise. Just nothingness and the wind of cars whipping by me.
I get hysterical.
I mean, I’m stuck ON THE FREAKING HIGHWAY. During rush hour! Alone! It was pretty terrifying. So I start borderline having a panic attack, crying and trying to figure out ETF to do - call the cops? A tow truck? Get out of the car? Stay in? Close my eyes and hope it’s a bad dream? When suddenly, I start LAUGHING. Because the thought that the car is exacting revenge on me – teaching me a lesson – for eating that damn doughnut by making me miss boot camp crosses my mind, and I find that HILARIOUS.
So now I’m crying/laughing, and try turning the car over one more time.
IT STARTS!
I can hardly believe it, but decide not to take my chances with it dying again while I rejoice and move that sucker like I’ve never moved before to the shoulder. Park, four ways, turn off, call parents crying. Mom thinks I was in an accident at first because I’m so upset when I say “Hi”, and is relieved to find out I’m okay, on the shoulder, no accident, etc.
Anyway, while my mom is figuring out where I am and my dad is working on calling a tow truck (gotta love parents), one arrives – apparently a good Samaritan had called in my dead car to the OPP and it had gone out on the radar since I was in a high volume, high traffic time and considered a priority to GTFO the highway.
The (very nice!) tow truck driver can tells I’m freaking, and jokes with me to lighten me up, reassures me I’m safe now and he’ll wait for me to talk to my dad about what we’re doing and if I need a tow, and even jokes with me about how I’ve chewed my nails down to stubs from nervousness (good eye, Mr. Driver!).
So he gives me a good deal, and we get my poor baby all hooked up to the truck to be towed from basically Scarborough to Whitby. While the guys were dealing with that, I tweeted/facebooked my frustration.
One of my girlfriends works for a company that provides all the traffic news for stations traveling across the GTA/Toronto (etc):
Friend: WHERE ARE YOU ?! I AM TOTALLY WATCHING A COUPLE OF PPL THAT COULD BE YOU RIGHT NOW!
Me: I’m moving now but I was in the middle of the eastbound express between Markham & Whites Road-ish for about 5 -10 minutes until I got it started and moved to the shoulder
Friend: HAHAHAH oh man, yup, we were just watching you! hahah
Yeah, I’ve got friends in high places – literally. Pretty funny she was watching (and presumably broadcasting) my plight.
So I get the car towed to my dealership/shop, yadda yadda, the rest of the story is pretty routine and un-interesting (although the driver was from Porcupine, just south of Timmins where I lived so we had a good chat about that!); but alas, my poor Chevy Lumina is dead. Toast, done, junk, scrap metal, not being revived. The head gasket went, and it would cost way more to fix than the car is worth.
She served me well though (and we knew she was on her way out - weren’t sure she’d make it through the winter with a long commute, but I wasn’t QUITE ready for it to happen, financially and otherwise, since I was planning to save for a newer car over the next few months) and I would have, y’know, preferred if she had died like… in my driveway? Or even on a normal road (not highway)? But she got me through 2 years of post-grad school, a year living in Timmins (with FREQUENT drives from Toronto to Timmins and back), an entire, harsh, Northern Ontario winter, and a whole year at home freelancing, traveling to and from Toronto, to the Boy’s (45 minutes away from me), etc.
We had a good run, but still, I’m bummed.
I will miss my Chevy Lumina, and her sweet sunroof, faux-leather interior, taped-up passenger side headlight (haha, yup – see above photo ;), ripped center console arm rest (the rip was actually the perfect elbow dip) and ample storage space. Seriously, she was like a storage locker to me at times.
And, y’know, I’ll miss having a car in the meantime too.
- RIP Chevy Lumina :(
If you know me, than you know I have a problem obsession affinity for nautical-themed things… especially home-related things. ESPECIALLY living room decorations.
I think part of my, uh, affinity stems from my undying love for summer and my unwavering hatred for winter. Yeah yeah, I do love to ski and think a snow-covered town on a sunny day looks beautiful; but I’d much rather be sitting in my backyard (or on a beach ;) than hiding in my heated home.
My entire living room is nautical themed, and I love looking for new pieces to add to my collection. However, I am also on a self-imposed shopping ban at the moment; plus living at home (which means my cute living room set is in storage).
And while my room is slightly beach-themed, it’s just not the same as nautical… although the quote “We cannot direct the winds, but we can adjust our sails” does adjourn the wall (words to live by).
Regardless, who doesn’t love nautical themed things right now (or, uh, ever).
Anyway without further adieu may I present you with: ”Things Lauren wishes she owned but does not (yet)”
- Nautical Rope Clock, Home By The Seashore, $110
>> I LOVE this clock – in my last apartment I was out of wall space for my living room, but in a larger space I could make room for this. - Customizable Nautical Chart 18 x 18 Pillow Cover, Etsy >> saltlabs, $54
>> I really like that you can order a custom nautical chart pillow cover – you can pick pretty much any body of water, state, etc and get it printed on a pillow. How cool, right? - 24″ Wooden Ship Wheel, Nautical Gifts, $79.95
>> A ship wheel would make a lovely wall decoration, especially when surrounded by beach-related photos. - Striped Couch, CR Laine, $2,394
>> I need a striped couch in my life. I always envisioned a traditional blue set in my living room, but this yellow one is really nice. I think it would look great with deep blue walls… and my yellow/blue decorative pillows ;) - SW Canoe Shelf, Muskoka Furniture, 7″, $399
>> A canoe shelf is something I’ve been a fan of for a long time – one day, I’ll have one in my living room. They’re exactly what they sound like: a half canoe turned into a shelf (or a shelf made to look like a half canoe) – either way, they’re really interesting looking and I imagine would be a great conservation piece to have in your home. - “Set Sail” Frosted Glass Sailboat Tealight Holders, Set of 4, Favor Collection, $15/set of 4
>> I first found these about two years ago one some website and then was devastated when they sold out. Well, apparently they sold out because every wedding favor site in existence ordered them to resell (slightly marked up, of course – the ones I saw were 4 for $10 originally) As someone who loves candles and burns them a lot, I’d love to add these tea-light holders to my living room. - Totally Nautical Throw Pillow, The Land of Nod, $29
>> This may or may not be an item from the kids section, but then again I’ve been known to turn kid’s toys into decorations. Honestly though, what nautical-loving adult wouldn’t love a soft life-ring shaped pillow? That’s right, I said shaped. Life ring images are popular on pillows these days it seems, but this is one of the few pillows that is actually SHAPED like a life ring. Nice. - Anchor Chalkboard in Shabby White, Etsy >> TheDoorStop, $68
>> Chalkboards + White + Anchor = Love. Not only could I change the message or picture daily, but even without the chalkboard aspect this would look so awesome on a wall. The chalkboard just makes it 100% more awesome. - Nautical Navy Sailboat Print Pillow Cover, 16×16, Etsy >> DesignsByNancyT, $16
>> It’s probably pretty easy to tell by now that I’m a sucker for decorative pillows. This one is no exception – I just love the white, whimsical sailboat print. - Brass Nelson Nautical Lamp, 10.5″, Vermont Lanterns, $89.97
>> Gorgeous, gorgeous. This is a reproduction of an antique lamp, and let me tell you – I’m in LOVE. It’s an oil burning lamp (yay emergency storm lighting!) although the manufacturer claims they can be made into an electric fixture if you were so inclined (but seriously, why mess with such a beautiful oil lamp?) - Rope Tied Knot, Williams Sonoma Home, $66
>> I love these knots – they seem to be popping up everywhere. While I’m sure there is a less expensive option, I saw this one in person recently and fell in love. Lots of people are using these as doorstops (or just decorations) but I would totally use them on my bookshelf as bookends. Since they’re made of rope, they’re fairly heavy and therefore can be used for lots of different purposes around the house. - Dock Grommet Picture Frame, 13 x 15 (fits a 5×7), Nauti & Co., $70
>> I wish they had the larger frames in stock – hopefully they’ll get more. I have three nautical-themed photos framed that I hang in my living room (my sister took them) and I would love to frame them in these frames from Nauti & Co. They make their frames (and other nifty home things – like coffee tables!) from salvaged wood from docks, boats, etc – making each frame completly unique.
If you know of any super awesome nautical themed decor I missed, let me know in the comments!
Sparklers = love
Because holidays also = love.
And spending time with friends and family = love.
Fireworks = love.
Long weekends = love.
You get the idea ;)
This long weekend was no exception.
It started and ended with sparklers.
On Canada Day (which was a Friday this year) one of my best friend’s had a pool party/BBQ/fireworks in her backyard, so The Boy & I travelled to Cambridge for the festivities.
She went all-out with Canada themed decorations (thanks to Dollarama – LOVE that store, seriously).
And of course, I baked (and brought!) stereotypically themed ‘Canadian’ cupcakes.
Moose, beavers, and red-and-white “eh?”‘s – very fitting for Canada Day, don’t you think? (more on those later)
They were a huge hit – her 8 year old son really liked the fondant top on the “eh?” ones. I have to admit, that surprised me a little, since fondant is an, uh, ‘acquired’ taste. I only like it in small amounts – I roll it VERY thin when covering cupcakes! It really shouldn’t have surprised me though, as I recall The Boy’s 4-year-old niece ALSO really liked fondant last summer when I used it on his birthday cake.
I guess kids like fondant!
Even my friend’s dogs loved the Canada Day Cupcakes – well, the look and smell of them at least; since they had chocolate – no tasting for you, puppies!
It was really hard to resist feeding that cute face. A nacho or two may have been “dropped”.
Of course, there were the obligatory fireworks (that’s a short video I shot on my iPhone) and playing with sparklers. I didn’t have my T2i with me, so the photos of fireworks and sparklers really don’t look like anything other than blobs of light. Unfortunately, there’s not much to be done with an iPhone4 when it comes to fireworks – but any other camera and you’re pretty much good to go.
Anyway, after experimenting with sparklers and long exposures on the fly (and on the beach!) last weekend during The Boy’s birthday party, it really made me want to try again – with a remote and tripod, this time.
So we did, a few days AFTER Canada Day – that’s where the top photo came from. The boy tried his hand at a few – he got his name pretty fast, and then progressed to trying words not appropriate for this blog.
Silly boys.
I also wrote my name. It took a few tries, and truth be told, watching The Boy successfully write his name. I needed to slow down – there was no need to rush, since we were using the bulb setting this time around (and not a timed setting)… yet I kept trying to write fast, as if I needed to beat a CLICK.
There were a few failed attempts at writing the word “Celebrate” (you try crossing a “T” with a sparkler!) and MANY failed attempts of me writing my name wrong before I finally nailed it, so we ran out of sparklers before trying anything else.
Sad, but what can you do?
Everything was closed by that point.
I’ll be trying some more light painting in the not-too-distant future, I’m sure.
