27 December 10

Inserts from the Harry Potter: Film Wizardry book I got for Christmas. It is truly delightful, almost like a pop-up book for adults; it is so full of little surprises like this.

26 December 10

I got a new mouse for Christmas! The scroll button on my old one had been broken for months, and the tracking was starting to go too. It's pretty amazing to scroll again without using the arrow keys. Also, look how cute it is!

25 December 10

Kenny, looking dapper on Christmas Day while playing with a magic trick Riley gave him. I actually have the best family and I love them all to death.

24 December 10

Spent Christmas Eve day sleeping late, wrapping the last few gifts and playing on tumblr. Jeff and I went to his mom's place for dinner; this was some of the food we ate. We then went to my parents' house and had some wine and popcorn and 'watched' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and went to bed at the respectable hour of 2 a.m.

23 December 10

Roommate gift exchange! This is Jesse with the socks I gave him (I also gave him some cufflinks made out of typewriter keys). He gave me the new Coupland novel and Sarah gave me a necklace she made out of crystals and a bullet casing. Awesome!

22 December 10

I helped Jeff split up some of the rum pot to give as gifts. Delicious, boozy gifts.

21 December 10

Iain and Steph came over so I could give them their Christmas presents. We ate dinner with Jeff and Jesse, and then... this happened.

20 December 10

After work I went to Dennis's to exchange Christmas gifts. I came home and wrapped a few other gifts, and woke Theo up with the click of the shutter when I took his photo.

19 December 10

It was a strangely warm day for late December and I walked to the grocery store wearing only a jean jacket and a scarf over this. Later I went to Malloreigh's for a Christmas baking exchange, where we all chatted over tea and delicious vegan goodies. She also gave me a gift: a zine she and Kaylie made of recipes of theirs, along with a little bag of nutritional yeast and a box of fenugreek leaves :)

18 December 10

After the hockey game, I met up with Iain and Steph and others for sushi and then theatre sports on Granville Island. Always a good time, and man do I love having Iain back in town!

17 December 10

Sarah hosted a Solstice party (a few days early) at our place. It was a fun time full of booze and food. I don't think any glasses even got broken, which usually happens at our parties.

16 December 10

Imagine my disappointment when, upon opening this box at work, it contained only a bunch of bug spray and fly paper.

15 December 10

This isn't that great of a photo, but how often do you see a plane ridin' down the freeway in pieces?

14 December 10

Alice triumphantly displaying our baker's dozen from Voodoo Donut. Sarah took us there after a delicious dinner at Navarre (and a trip to Fred Meyer for bottles of pinot noir to bring home). In the daytime we went to Powell's where all of us spent over $100 (I don't know if it's even possible to leave there and spend less) and got caught in a rainstorm when we tried to leave, so we sought refuge in a café/cinema nearby for warm sandwiches and soup. After dropping off books and leaving Alice to study and shower, Mom and I headed out to Macy's and Nordstrom Rack, where basically, this was me.

13 December 10

The street below our hotel room at the Benson. We spent the day shopping at Lloyd Centre, which was noticeably less horrible than the previous year, largely based on the fact that a) we had the granny cart and b) it was a weekday. Then we had a most delicious dinner at Pazzo, and continued boozing in the hotel bar. A group of old dudes bought us a round of drinks so we got nicely liquored up and then proceeded to raid the mini-bar in our hotel room after the lounge closed. Drunk on a Monday, awwww yeah.

12 December 10

Driving along I-5 in the fog, to Portland with Alice and my mom. We didn't stop for lunch and then we all felt too ill to eat much dinner.

11 December 10

It was my staff Christmas party at the Cascadia Hotel on Hornby, which was a surprisingly good time. I wasn't expecting to drink because I had no money and the bar was paid, but people kept giving me tickets for glasses of wine...

10 December 10

After work I met up with Alice and we went to Felisha's to drink eggnog&rum make a gingerbread house. It started off pretty good but then Raffi showed up and basically went crazy. Then he kind of destroyed it and Felisha considered just throwing it out the window but didn't want to attract rats.

09 December 10

For the first time in the history of cookoffs, I forgot my camera. So here is a shitty iphone photo of Malloreigh's drink - a warm vegan caesar (made with V-Go instead of Clamato) with olive and celery garnish. She served it with a faux-egg salad sandwich, and won. My last-minute decision of jasmine tea with amaretto was picked for best drink.

08 December 10

I went to the game with Steph, Tams, and Val. At the gate they told me I couldn't use my camera during the game because the lens was too big. But I snapped a couple at the end.
The game was awesome; in fact by the time it got to OT I wouldn't have even been upset if they lost because it was such a good game. But I'm glad they won because there were some really obnoxious Ducks fans in our row. Who actually likes the Ducks? I always assumed people just went to games in Anaheim because they basically give the tickets away down there.

07 December 10

Preparing for the cookoff. Jeff put the dough together while I was at work because I literally had no other time in which to do it. I rolled and baked them after coming home from yoga in the evening. If I were to make them again, I'd use all white flour instead of half white/half wheat, because while they were flaky and buttery, they were not as light as you'd expect from croissants.

06 December 10

My recipe card box.

05 December 10

Amanda's birthday present for me. She told me not to open it at the party, but to wait until the morning with a cup of coffee. It made sense after I opened it, because it was delicious homemade poppyseed biscotti. She and Laryssa stayed the night and in the morning we chatted over coffee and toast. Upon getting dressed I found a Tom Waits record in my underwear drawer, and when I brushed my teeth I found Plants & Animals tickets in the medicine cabinet. I love Jeff.
I bummed around during the day and then when Jeff came home we went for dinner with my parents at La Brasserie, a thoroughly delicious French/German restaurant on Davie Street. I had the venison. It tasted like a campfire.

04 December 10

Amanda and her peacock-themed outfit at my birthday party. It was a lovely party with delicious food and many gifts of booze and hugs from friends. Every time I host a party I am childishly afraid that it will just be me and like two other people standing around in nice clothes in front of a table of food, but happily that hasn't happened yet.
The rest of the photos can be found here.

03 December 10

This shutout victory made me happier than their previous two games in which they scored seven goals apiece. Let's hope they can have some similar glory when I go see them against the Ducks on the 8th.

02 December 10

01 December 10

My dad and Sharon came over and we sat in the kitchen talking over wine and cheese while Sarah and Jesse got ready for the steampunk ball.

30 November 10

Another boring photo from work. It's the only time I see daylight during the week.

29 November 10

28 November 10

Jeff and I walked up to Companion Books so I could trade some things. We saw this precious/pathetic snowman on the way there; this is basically what happens to snow in Vancouver. I picked up this book of 365 aerial photos and a copy of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the latter of which is pretty bleak and uncomfortable to read. Good though.

27 November 10

I finally reorganized my books and it didn't even take that long. I really thought I had more.
In the evening times, Steph came over and I made us dinner and we watched Six Feet Under, just like old times.

26 November 10

I went to The Body Shop after work because I needed shampoo. I forgot about the whole... Black Friday thing. I waited in line at the cashier for almost half an hour!
Afterwards I met up with Jeff at work and we went to watch the game at Ceili's Pub, where we drank some beer and ate some food and talked about space-time paradoxes. Also some girls gave us free Guinness.

25 November 10

It snowed in the nighttime and most of the morning. I got to work ok, but I was right to take this photo out the window of the lunchroom on my break, because it started raining in the afternoon and was mostly slush by the time my shift was over.

24 November 10

23 November 10

June joined Jeff and me for sushi and then she came back here so I could give her a haircut. While I was seeing her out, I noticed one of my books was put back in the wrong place. I went to rearrange it, and the whole shelf tipped over. I called Jeff to come help me fix it, and while trying to reset the shelf, all the other ones decided to collapse too. So I just kind of crammed the books wherever until I had time to re-alphabetize them.

22 November 10

It was fucking cold outside. And sunny. I had to wear gigantor shades with my four layers, scarf, leg warmers, and Russian Hat. So sexy.

21 November 10

Steph and I went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows again, and got way better seats than at the midnight showing. I think I cried more seeing it the second time, ha.
When I came home the boys were making dinner and Terra brought over a cake! I'm not usually one for marzipan but the cake and filling were so delicious that I was able to enjoy it.

20 November 10

We woke up at Pia's on Saturday morning to find a thin blanket of snow over Yaletown. Kids were going nuts building snowmen in the park across the street. We decided to go for breakfast at The Elbow Room, which was pretty spectacular. Later I went to Grandview Lanes for Amanda's birthday, and then dashed home to get dressed for Jesse's James Bond vodka-tasting party, photos of which can be found here. We tried nine different vodkas, and I didn't even have a hangover!

19 November 10

Pia hosted a girls' night/sleepover at her apartment. Heather and Calan were also there. We played silly games and had a few drinks and realised how old we all are when we were ready for bed by 1:30, whereas as teenagers we had no problem staying up til three or four.
This is Heather having a cigarette out the kitchen window.

18 November 10

Went to the midnight Harry Potter showing with Jeff, Steph, and my sisters and their boyfriends. We apparently should have lined up like... two days before, because we got there at 9pm and were still in the front row of the upper level (still a fair bit of neck craning involved, but no pain the next day). We sat on the floor of an overly heated Metrotown while snow fell outside.

17 November 10

Hipsteresque polaroid of me drinking tea in the hallway. Like you do.

16 November 10

I came home from yoga and Jeff had apparently tried and failed again with my tomato soup recipe, so he threw in some masago and crab and shrimp and things and made a seafood bisque. It was quite delicious, I must say.

15 November 10

Apple cookoff day! Everything was amazing, as usual. This was Jeff's entry - poached apples, oatmeal raisin cookies (my recipe), candy apple ice cream, and peach-apple wine glaze. Other entries can be viewed here. For some reason I can't find the photos of Dan's nachos? I don't know.

14 November 10

I spent most of the afternoon making perogies for the following day's cookoff - quite the feat considering I had never made any kind of dough before, really. Then I put too much filling in and couldn't close them, so I had to redo them all before I could fold them up. It was frustrating and I was worried they would fall apart as soon as they hit the water, but they held together quite nicely.

13 November 10

I went to Steph's to watch the Leafs lose to the Canucks, and then when I came home the roommates and Ray were drinking in the kitchen. We hung out and had some whiskey and some weed and talked about all the things that are important when you're stoned with good friends and good music.

12 November 10

On my mom's advice, I bought these ankle booties instead of the blue leather flat oxfords I fell in love with on Wednesday. These are actually comfortable. I guess that's what happens when you don't buy cheap and/or used shoes.

11 November 10

It was Jesse's birthday, so we had a few people over and made sushi! Jesse and Terra did most of the work. This one is filled with smoked salmon and mango.

10 November 10

Waiting at the Chop Shop (I didn't get a haircut, the lady who does the waxing works out of there now). I fell in love with some shoes on the way there but I didn't buy them.

09 November 10

Baked potato stuffed with bacon and herbs, savoury chutney, meatloaf with carrots, onions, and parsley, sautéed veggies.

08 November 10