dunhill, your website appears to be having some technical difficulties. that fantastic men's clutch in your lookbook doesn't seem to be showing up in your online store. thought you might like to know. a gratis manclutch for my troubles seems quite reasonable, but some of those sterling pig cuff-links would not go unappreciated either.
I am getting some serious exam-related tmj. big jaw pain. it always seems to happen around exams. exams also tend to derange my snacking patterns. but I cannot decide if it is from eating too many snacks or too few. probably too few. well I guess I will go have a bowl of rice pudding.
I am going to explode I just found monogrammed hangers. CHERRY OR WALNUT HOW WILL I EVER DECIDE?
as we were leaving the house this morning, I asked mila if she even noticed that I was wearing a sweet themed outfit. I am talking dock shoes, button-down white oxford, diagonal stripe rep tie, pincord blazer - and a rather fetching lavender manscarf.
her first thought: "purple?" okay all I had in purple was a manscarf so obviously that was wrong. "nautical?" closer I guess, but still wrong. I was sporting a pretty textbook east coast trad look, so it really should have been pretty obvious. it is a good thing that I appreciate my theme looks, because mila sure does not.
p.s. I forgot a knife today so I am gnawing big hunks of pork tenderloin off my plastic fork. needless to say, this egregious lack of etiquette is ruining my trad look. also it is jerk pork. I wish I had a lobster or some crab cakes or something. I do not feel that they eat jerk on martha's vineyard.
p.p.s. I need some madras trousers.
WOW NEIGHBOURS, I GET IT. YOU HAVE A SUBWOOFER. YOUR STEREO MAKES SO MUCH BASS. YOU LIKE AVRIL LAVIGNE. I GET IT. TURN DOWN YOUR STEREO.
can I have some money please? I really need a polished nickel and lucite butler's table. also I found a monogrammed decanter today. I will probably need one of those when I am older.
p.s. also can I have a plane ticket because they do not sell my lucite tray in canada.
so my blogiversary is coming up soon. may 29th, to be precise. obviously I have noted this event in my agenda. mila, however, is resisting my suggestions to add it to her planner. I do not know why she is so against sharing this special day with me.
david lee, I see that you are so passionate about white asparagus that you will allow no one in your kitchen other than yourself or your sous to peel the albino spears. I like that passion a lot. I see also that you find peeling asparagus very therapeutic, "a good way ... to relieve the stresses of the day." you are such a gentle soul, david lee. if I had to pick a chef named lee to hang out with, it would be you, no contest.
toronto life your new ratings really are bonkers. I am making very little headway in relearning them.
bill clinton your crossword puzzle was okay I guess, but based on will shortz's intro I thought it was going to be a cryptic. please let hillary know that if she ever runs for president your puzzle cost her my vote.
one of my dining heroes recently reported on a dinner that lasted from 7pm until 1am. I counted 16 courses in his photo essay. and there were 6 amuses. jealous.
maybe I will go study now. might be nice to get a couple of lectures in today. or maybe I will just go eat some ice cream and call it a day.
just finished tinkling the ivories. now I need a shower. it was so hot in the den tonight. I am not complaining, I love the heat. I am so glad that it is hot. but it did result in a bit of man glow during some of the more vigorous passages. does that count as a workout? I sweated, so I am thinking it must. I even used the left pedal a few times, so both my legs got some action. it was like a total body workout. I think that earned me a few vanilla wafers, at least.
oh yeah also, the ontario architects awards for 2007 were released april 16. thanks for the heads up, everyone. good thing I didn't run into an architect between then and now, because I would have looked awfully foolish when they asked me what my thoughts were on the 07 winners (180 queen west? KPMB you are fantastic, but that project got my vote for the 2007 puglies. kind of north york chic, you must admit. no offence).
I must recommend the city of toronto archives website. they have thousands of sweet photos from the past 100 or so years. I am talking subways, streets, construction, train tracks, buildings, aerial shots, streetcars, sweet vintage styles, highways, black and white photos, bridges, that sort of thing. please do not visit the website too much though, as it has been kind of sluggish lately.
a few minutes ago, I had never heard of chef kent van dyk. but I just saw his profile on chefdb and suddenly I have an intense urge to attend some catered events. see, chef van dyk apparently runs "trust me catering" in this fair city of london. questionable corporate name aside, this guy has done time at le bernardin, the french laundry, eigensinn farm, susur, and the fat duck. I am getting woozy from all the michelin stars (actual and would-be. and american. SNAP!) flying around in that past sentence. surely there is no chef in london with a more impeccable pedigree than this. I need to find this guy. I WILL EAT YOUR FOOD AND WE CAN CHAT ABOUT ERIC AND THOMAS AND MICHAEL AND HESTON AND WE CAN CRACK JOKES ABOUT SUSUR AND HIS BMW.
with this post marking three centuries of posts, I am also coincidentally almost at a perfect 45,000 words. the internet says 45,000 words is a great length for a novel. so I just need to fill this post and then it will be off to the publishers. publishers of books on paper printing press font ink chapters index table of contents library bookshelf editor dust jacket THE END.
there is a window between my solarium/EV HQ and the den. I do not know why there is an interior window, it is really quite strange. fortunately there is at least a small sliding window, so that if mila is in the living room and I am supposed to be in my office studying, I can close my office door and then climb through the window and escape into the freedom of the rest of the condo.
unfortunately, ever since we moved in this window has been less than sparkling. it has always had a fine layer of window smudge. it is not so bad most of the time, but in the mornings when the sun is shining in you can really see it. I just sit here looking at all the smudges and feeling myself going crazy because I am being beaten by a window. this window has been completely and utterly refractory to any attempts to clean it. I have gone through gallons of windex and litres of vinegar in an attempt to wash off the grime. I have read so many martha stewart articles about how to properly clean a window, but all of her suggestions were powerless against this obstinate interior sheet of glass. I have pumped on spray after spray of windex and let it sit for a couple minutes, to no avail. I have delicately misted the window and then immediately wiped it clean, with equal lack of success. so finally I resorted to a generous wipe-down with palmolive, because it struck me that the pros seemed to use a soapy wash to clean windows, not some namby-pamby spray-on ammonia. MY WINDOW IS SHIMMERING. OR IT WOULD SHIMMER IF I COULD SEE IT. BUT I CAN BARELY SEE IT BECAUSE IT IS SO CLEAN. PALMOLIVE I LOVE YOU.
good weather is clearly here, as the children across the park have decided to hit the pool. unfortunately, with this development comes shrieking and yelling and general clamour. it isn't even that hot out - children, can't you take your unpleasant din inside or something?
in other news, I have finished reading my first lecture so far this term. a few more power study sessions like this, and I will be on my way to a pass for sure.
great, tomorrow is cinco de mayo and our bag of lime tostitos is almost gone. to be honest, I cannot see it making it through the night. perhaps I will heat up some taco shells and eat those instead. too bad mila's germinating avocado tree is not yielding avocados yet, or I could have some guacamole with my taco shells.
anyway, moral of the story here, I was leafing through my new agenda, and there was this page showing all the holidays in countries around the world. my new agenda is a svelte little moleskine number, which I have to say is quite classy. mila made me get it because otherwise I just tried to make her remember my appointments. so far I have not written anything in it for today and onward, so if anyone has any suggestions for something I could put it, I would appreciate it greatly.
so these holidays: canada seems kind of cheap with them. I am seeing holes in february, march, june and august. actually I am pretty sure we have a holiday in august so I do not know what these moleskine people are taking about. it is a good thing I am so taken with the gentle mottled texture of this little book's cover, because otherwise this blatant error would probably give me cause to toss my agenda and return to my attempts to have my schedule maintained by mila.
how could I have forgotten to share: I finally got some manpris on the weekend. they are brown and linen and in general pretty sweet. so I guess it would be okay if it got scorching hot out so I could break them out some time soon. perhaps I will iron them tonight just in case there is a freak heat wave.
run, don't walk, to buy a box of president's choice wheat snax. one of the best new dry carbs I have had the pleasure of tasting in a while. and when I say dry carb I am not kidding around THEY ARE SO DRY. sawdust. delicious sawdust, of course. I am talking rich mahogany or zebrawood or something. and they have the most delightful kick of sweet at the end. fantastic!
