on the road again

[highway #401]

Y took quite a few photos on our trip. I want to post them all, so I'm going to break up the posts.

I was expecting snow and rain on our drive to Québec City, but luckily, it was a beautiful drive. relatively speaking, very few cars and trucks were on the road, and just a few trains here and there. with a few pit stops, we got into town by evening. Y wanted to pick up some wine at the SAQ for his boss, who is a big wine connoisseur. armed with a list, we trekked over to a few wine stores to pick up a few specific vintages.

after, we pulled up onto Momo's driveway in Beauport, hungry and tired. inside the house waiting was Valentine, her cute and friendly terrier. Valentine usually sneaks right out when we enter through the door and then jumps back in excitedly checking us out. in the photo, he's giving Y that "I know I'm America's next top model!" look. Y also had a cat, Pipou, who passed away a few years back. because he developed an allergy to cats, we couldn't bring Pipou back to Toronto. Pipou was the coolest cat with six toes and a calm laid back attitude. he also had the uncanny ability to know when we were leaving to go back to Toronto, and so would walk around Y's head all night to keep him up. I think he missed us as much as we miss him now.

Tomorrow, photos of the cabane à sucre!

c'est si bon!

[break @ Beauport, Québec]

everyone is out and I get a little peace and quiet for a couple of hours. I'm visiting some blogs and getting caught up with the world. you know, it's a different world when you're watching the news on SRC, the French counterpart CBC. everything sounds so much more serious when you're having trouble following the language. especially when you're trying to say something to Aunt Claudette and you're thinking, I hope my broken French doesn't diminish the seriousness of what I'm babbling about. and then you realize why having a beer might be a good idea. I'm a cheap drunk, so I'll just blame the booze when I say something stupid.

anyway, I'm having a great time enjoying my first French Canadian sugar shack visit and shopping at the SAQ (the government-owned liquor store). got some pics and things to post, so when I'm back, I'll be busy posting.

Happy Easter to you all!

no snow please!

[trip]

I'm off to Québec in tomorrow morning for Easter. you'd think I'd go somewhere warmer to escape this flu. but I'm really looking forward to going to a maple sugar shack and to see momo.

I will try to blog while I'm there. see ya all when I get back!

justify my love

[poem]

For s.

I place my hand close to my face,
when I lay down, to sleep and dream.
I hope to feel my hand as yours,
though only in dreams I can reach out,
to touch you back.

delirium

[fantasy]

here's a pretend conversation I wish I had with every idiot client/advisor/lawyer I had to talk to over the last few weeks while I was (and still am) miserably sick:

"No, I'm afraid that is our position." I say that with a smile, diplomatically of course.

The client's advisor says something nonsensical in a whiny voice and then says, "But that's no fair! No one else asks for that!"

"That's because everyone else is either stupid or can't put up with your whining."

"I've been in this business for thousands of years, and this is the first I've ever heard of it!"

"You're obviously illiterate and were trained by a family of wild baboons. Which part of stupid do you not understand?"

The advisor puts the lawyer on the line, and he says, "Now, how long have you been doing this, sonny?"

"Long enough to know that you should know better and that you should stop giving dumb ass advice to cover your cheap stinking client's poor planning."

"I'm going to sue you m!%$#@ f***ers."

"Yeah, go ahead. Does it look like I work on commission?"

Lawyer blinks, and then puts the client on the line. "Why do you have to make this so difficult? We're going through a lot of distress right now."

"I'm sorry. No. Really. I'm sorry." I pause. "I'm sorry to tell you that if I had a dime for every person who told me that, I'd be able to quit and not have to listen to all of you spoiled, ill educated, thoughtless, selfish, whiners anymore."

Oh, I feel better now.

Big Bird vs. Godzilla

[field trip]

last Saturday, I got up early and headed to the office to catch up on some work-related reading and to catch up on last Monday’s work. for every extra hour I work, I seem only to be able to tread water for the hour I’ve lost. I’m not catching up, work just piles up, making my sleepy eyes heavy, shoulders tired, and I’m coughing still, so I feel old, a bit like a dinosaur on the verge of extinction.

I was thinking dinosaurs because later that day I was heading off to the Royal Ontario Museum for the feathered dinosaur exhibition. while I was reading about our aging population, I thought maybe a giant volcano would explode, lava pouring from the side, volcanic ash raining down from the sky, burying me at my desk, fossilizing my hand on the mouse. the only dinosaurs I’ll be meeting, though, will be our aging baby-boomer clients in need of proper estate planning.

I met Y down in Yorkville for a quick bite at Hero burgers, before heading into the ROM. the ROM is being renovated into a big crystal, designed by Daniel Libeskind. judging from the pictures and models, this renaissance is either going to look silly/boring or incredibly bold. in the meantime, the current exhibit is on the evolutionary connections between birds and dinosaurs, and had on display recent fossil discoveries from the Chinese province, Liaoning. the fossils were very well preserved snapshots of feathers, bones and scales of bird-like dinosaurs. we also got to enjoy a live bird show in the theatre, where we saw a beautiful hawk and the cutest little owl.

stepping into the exhibit, I felt like I had stepped back into first year biology. BIO150Y had probably over a thousand students cramped into Convocation Hall, completely at the mercy of a giant screen, a laser pointer and Dr. Brooks cladograms of the possible evolutionary relationships between various species. while I was forever turned off studying pre-Med afterwards, Dr. Brooks did inspire me to take his 4th year course on Phylogenetic Systematics, where I wrote a great research paper on homosexuality and evolution. it was a great excuse to spend evenings at the library reading about being gay and subconsciously plotting my coming out.

and so, at the ROM, we learned that this new find challenges our notion of how flight evolved and how dinosaurs could’ve evolved to birds. we know that they had possibly shared a common ancestor, but were birds really dinosaurs? descendents of dinosaurs? can I draw a tree diagram right now and analyze it? was it possible that the hot boy in my zoology class could’ve evolved to dating me? is he single now? shit, what was his name?

oh, these thought provoking questions. the memories of school made me miss all of the possibilities we thought we had, the fresh optimism that surrounded us in every corner, every class and every lecture. I miss the excitement that the world was opening up, the internet just beginning to bloom, the new millennium was just a decade away. that Saturday @ the ROM, I felt like I work with dinosaurs, I read about dinosaurs and I was looking at dinosaurs. I felt like a dinosaur.

afterwards, we dashed off to Whole Foods to grab some cookies and truffles to bring to a dinner party at the PianoMan's. we met up with brucebruce, sunshine and the-keeper-of-the-psycho-cat, and we all took off to the PianoMan's renovated house. the house was wonderful, full of space and charm. it was old, warm, and still felt lived in, even after the renovations. the food was fab and looked great: the roasted potatoes, spinach, and especially the lamb. thankfully, brucebruce had pre-warned our host that I hate lamb, and so Y and I got dinosaur meat, aka chicken. how fitting, I thought, as we all took out our camera phones and took a few shots. we also got to check out keeper's new replacement phone.

lamb (Icaridion nigrifrons) & chicken (Gallus domesticus)

after a great dessert and a bottle of Dom Perignon, and after PianoMan's entertaining performance of cabaret songs from his baby grand, he sent us on our way into the snowy evening. full of food and warm cheer, I didn’t feel like a dinosaur anymore.

you bastard!

[family portraits]

my boss gave his two weeks notice today. I'm going to really miss him, because he left me with the other loonies in the office. on that note, here are a few pics of my beloved loonies:

joe is waiting for the bus to take him away from his prison cell... er, I mean office cubicle.

WTF drinking in San Diego... Babe, where's her dude?

Y is thinking of acetates on eBay. *!@~#Taylor!#@#$%^&

somedays @ the office, I'd like to quote Mr. Garrison and say: "Okay. Now, let's try to get an answer from someone who's not a complete retard... anyone?"

find your South Park portrait!

don't feed the animals

[hurl]

man, I ate half a bag of chips while watching cop shows all night, Cold Case, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and SVU. I feel like throwing up now. I was also feeling kinda sad at how difficult it must be investigating crimes against children and sex assualt cases. I could never do that job. I'd be depressed all the time. but then again, that's what people at work say about what I do. I deal with death every day, but it's so far removed from me that I don't think about it. except that I do cry a lot in my sleep. I wonder what that means?

so, I'm scarfing down chips like it's the last bag on earth (we have another one in the cupboard actually). what was I thinking? I'm almost feeling back to my old self, and here I am eating crap on the couch and making me sick. I managed to type a few lines down for my next post and downloaded the photos for icyblog off my cell phone. but between dinner and the chips, I couldn't crawl back to my computer to finish. instead, you all are getting this hurling post.

[update]
now Firefox is hurling more than one copy of this post when I publish on my mac. screw you Firefox! and you too, blogger! oh these chips are making me insane.

I am icyblog

[meme]

I'm almost back to 100%! but my brain is still a bit slow. in the meantime, a list, a meme, a bunch of things to know, or to forget, or maybe to remember. got this one from the Fash Mag Slag, who got it from nongirlfriend. I'm not a big fan of these things, but I got a kick out of reading some on blogs and doing this one.

I AM: introspective, shy in a group, but funny and mouthy when provoked.
I HAVE: an iBook and an iPod and a lot of books, but very few possessions that I care about. I’m not into “having” things. I just like to have an imagination.
I WISH: I had telekinesis, because I’m too lazy to reach for the remote.
I HATE: people who do not listen carefully nor closely read what’s given to them. if I wanted to talk to a blubbering illiterate, I’d call Bell Canada client services. I also hate gullible people who believe in urban legends emailed to them, along with memes like this one.
I FEAR: the ocean, me staring into the never-ending water, feeling like I’m drowning. and strange noises at night, the smoking lady in suite 602, and walking on the path of death at night.
I HEAR: the hum of cars driving in the snow outside my window.
I WONDER: why. the whys about a lot things. why are people so cruel. why do we not know. why do people not care.
I REGRET: nothing… because I try to learn from all my mistakes.
I LOVE: movies and films, wong kar wai, David Lynch, good novels, brilliant short stories, William Gibson, Ian McEwan, noodles, my iBook, talking, talking about literature, dreaming, modern art, food reviews, trying new restaurants, working on my biceps, looking at the ocean.
I ALWAYS: check the stove before I go to bed. talk too fast.
I AM NOT: as patient as people think I am. I just hide my contempt well.
I DANCE: badly, because I have no rhythm. and I’m a klutz. and I only like dancing when I’m flying.
I SING: sometimes during Karaoke, usually alone or with Y. I sing bass.
I CRY: only in my sleep. sometimes when I wake up, I have tears in my eyes and a slight sadness in my heart.
YES or NO QUESTIONS
YOU KEEP A DIARY: NO, just this blog. used to keep a journal.
YOU LIKE TO COOK: YES, but I hate cleaning up.
YOU HAVE A SECRET YOU HAVE NOT SHARED WITH ANYONE: YES, and at least more than one. and I won’t share them with anyone.
DO YOU...?
HAVE A CRUSH: my lunch buddy. the starbucks boy who went back to school, the Japanese guy who picks up his coffee at 8:45 AM, the cute busboy at the Churchmouse and Firkin.
WANT TO GET MARRIED: maybe. depends on the prenuptial agreement.
GET MOTION SICKNESS: No, but maybe when I get older.
THINK YOU’RE A HEALTH FREAK: No, but I try to eat and exercise properly.
CURRENT HAIR COLOR: dark brown, black. two white hairs.
EYE COLOR: dark brown
BIRTHPLACE: Kowloon, Hong Kong, under British rule.
FAVORITE NUMBER: 22
COLOR: was creamsicle orange, now aqua blue
DAY: Canadian Thanksgiving or movie Tuesdays
MONTH: June or September
SONG: right now, Paul Piché’s “Mon Joe” and the Sisters of Mercy’s “Temple of Love”
SEASON: autumn
DRINK: coffee, Bordeaux, gin & tonic, orange juice, ice tea, Tie Guan Yin tea, jasmin tea, dry vodka martinis.

it was all good

[return]

I'm back! I've been catching up on my blog travels, seeing what's everyone up to. while I am still coughing, I am feeling better, at least better enough to pay attention to what I'm reading. it's funny how I miss dropping by the blogs. I also thought my little birthday brownie was funny, but then someone said it looked kinda sad.

just so no one gets the wrong impression, I had a nice little birthday get-together a few days after. I was still pretty sick, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable time with beingboring, brucebruce, Y and eL at the Bedford Academy (which doesn't have a website, but I thought this University newspaper review was kind of nostalgic). I like the downstairs room very much, so I was a little bummed that we had to sit upstairs. we sat in a quiet corner, with a hole in the roof. the fireplace didn't work and I was freezing as the cold winter air slowly and gently blew in from the hole. and I couldn't see what was on tap. every beer I ordered wasn't available. but the nachos! they were yum!

the next night, Y made me my birthday dinner: filet mignon, mashed yams & potatoes, asparagus and a lovely bottle of burgundy. it was delicious! even though I was coughing and feeling pretty miserable, my little celebrations made it all so much more bearable. thanks guys!

icy sick

[warning]

this cold is just not going away. I've been coughing like crazy and just plain miserable. and I'm warning you all, I've been spreading the germs. but blame Y. he started it.

I'll be blogging soon. thanks for all the get well soon wishes.