Thank goodness January is almost over. It’s my least favourite month next to… Oh. February. Ick. There’s that to look forward to…
This January, I planned ahead a little and decided to not let it get me down. Or at least, less down, anyways.
Here are the things that have been getting me through:
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Frye engineer boots.
They were a big Christmas/Birthday present from my mom (my Birthday is in Early Feb.) They are warm and cosy, but also tough, resiliant and kick ass. With a warm pair of socks, they pretty much stomp on the heads of those (admittedly practical, but sorta fugly) sorels that everyone’s been wearing this year. And they’re going to last forever and look more and more amazing as they get broken in. As a bonus I feel like a superhero in the things.
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Columbia Dietrich Trench.
It was also a Christmas present (we found it for mega sale at Winners!). It is exactly what I wanted and I was surprised to stumble across it for such a reasonable price. It is a warm little wrapper of a coat that looks like sophisticated trench on the outside, but is actually kinda sporty and functional on the inside. Best of both worlds! It’s even pretty aptly named – If you enjoy swanning about in a moody, foggy, pre-war, noir-ish fashion. And I do.
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EA Sports Active for the Wii, with a little of Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout thrown in for good measure.
After a summer spent walking and swimming whenever possible, I pretty much lazed around all fall, and I felt icky for it. When both my sister and my brother’s girlfriend got Wii fitness games for Christmas, I started seriously considering the possibilities of using that cute little white box as a legitimate fitness tool. So I did a little research and decided to make Liam take me out and buy me my Birthday present early – in the form of these two games.
So, are they a real workout?
Yes, Definitely.
I am sore in all the right places after playing them, especially the EA game. While the resistance band that comes with the game is a little wimpy, as are the warmups, I am definitely feeling the burn, as it were. You don’t get too bored, as there’s a different balanced workout everyday. You can set it to whatever level of activity you feel you’re able to handle, and it’s not judgey (unlike the Wii Fit), just encouraging. Which is really the best part. It makes it really easy to set up a schedule, and follow through with working out everyday.
It is, however, still working out. You will sweat. You will get sore. You will not forget that you’re working out. It’s fun, yeah, but not as much fun as playing a traditional video game. Although you do get to do it from the comfort of your own home.
Gold’s Gym is just a fun cardio boxing game that’s a good addition to Sports Active when you’re getting bored with the more traditional workout it offers. Punching stuff is fun. Period.
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A slowcooker.
My mom got this slowcooker magazine/cookbook for Christmas in her stocking and I drooled all over it. We didn’t have a slowcooker, but thankfully they are cheap things to own. We found a cute one for 25 bucks, bought our own copy of the cookbook and have cooked our way through the thing, and every dish has been delish. Seriously, I have seldom used a cookbook so thoroughly, and I have a HUGE cookbook collection. Highly, highly recommended. Plus, I am totally won over by this whole “slowcooker” thing. It’s so cozy to have yumminess stewing in the house all day during these long, cold days.
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Nivea Smooth Replenishing lotion.
Yeah, this is just a cheap drugstore lotion. But it is also MAGIC. My skin went insane this winter with this crazy eczema thing, and nothing, NOTHING made it feel better. It was literally like wearing tight leather gloves made of my own skin on top of my hands and it was peely and bumpy, and euuuuuuuuughhhhh sooooooo gross and uncomfortable. I tried EVERYTHING. Mostly organic and natural remedies.
I finally got a sample of this stuff in a magazine, and thought why not? Things couldn’t possibly get any worse. Things didn’t get worse. They got better. My ouchies magically went away. Poof!
So I ran out and got a bottle and things have been hunky dory and super soft ever since.
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Braved the Snowpocalypse (Snowmaggedon?) to go to my cousins wedding all the way in Welland.
It was beautiful. Or I assume it was. It took 4 hours to do a 1 hour drive, so we kinda missed the ceremony. We totally rocked the reception though.
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Avoided the malls like the plague
Bought or made homemade presents instead.
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Finished Gears of War II on co-op.
Sometimes, I like to shoot stuff. This is going to come in handy this year, I think. As stress reliever, I mean.
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Received my favourite Christmas Present ever: unpasteurized CHEESE!
Seriously.
I like cheese. Plus the unpasturized stuff is not really legal here in Ontario. So there’s the added sexy-danger element.
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Had a nervous breakdown in William Ashely.
Registries are stressful.
Bone china? A thousand dollars a place setting? Really? And I need 16 place settings? What?
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Had an epiphany in Crate and Barrel.
Registries are wonderful!
As are stores with beautiful, well designed, edited, reasonably priced house wares (including gorgeous bone china – which is the sturdiest thing you can get, so you should use it for your everyday dishes).
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Bought Liam new shoes.
They’re grey checkered high top Vans. They’re pretty cute.
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Tested out champagne cocktails with friends over New Years.
Verdict: cheaper is better. Win-win!
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Built a wedding website.
Wedsite?
I dunno. A place on the interweebz to put weddingy crap. It turned out pretty nice. It will launch soon (as soon as Liam puts his copy writing skillz to work and fills in all the blanks).
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Had poutine.
Mine was Montreal style with smoked meat, mustard and a pickle. I thought it was pretty good, but I see what people are getting at with the gravy. It had a strong sage flavour, but I like that in a gravy, so I was cool with it.
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Bought flannel sheets.
This is a bigger deal than it sounds: Good quality flannel sheets in the winter are one of the best investments you will can make: seriously, they will change, and simultaneously rock your world. Just make sure they aren’t the cheap stiff ones. The soft ones: they are where it’s at.
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Were taken (for a wonderful engagement present from my sister and her boy) to Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar.
It was amazing, and not as expensive as you’d think There were four of us, and we had 8 entrees (shared tapas style), 5 deserts, a bottle of wine and it came in under two hundred dollars.
You can’t do that at the keg – and this was much more special.
The black cod in particular was awesome – really fresh and wonderful, like it had just come out of the ocean. I was in love with the cheese plate – beautiful local Ontario and Quebec cheeses served with honey comb and these amazing little spiced walnuts. The fries are as good as people say they are – although actually, I think Batifole’s are just a little bit better. Just a little though.
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Bought two wedding dresses.
Long story.
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Decided on a venue.
A very nice venue indeed.
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Made it through season one of Dexter.
Not bad.
Never thought I’d find a Serial Killer adorable, but, I do, I do.
(Boy, was I busy).
- Pumpkin Tortilla Soup @ the Kitchn
If you’ve still got pumpkin kicking around, (and I’m betting you do – it’s a proving to be a pretty ubiquitous/trendy ingredient this fall) this is a great recipe to try out – especially if you’re not in the mood for something sweet. The pumpkin makes the soup super velvety, and combined with avocados it just drove me crazy with it’s deliciousness.
- What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver
Umm, so Jamie Oliver put out a video game for the Nintendo DS. Weird, right? As much as cooking and video games are two of my greatest loves, I’m not sure they mix all that well, even if Jamie does put his rather awesome stamp on it. As a very good friend once put it (although I think he was talking about Nu Metal at the time) it’s like mixing soup with ice cream. I love both, but that doesn’t mean I want to eat them together.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Pie
Now this is an odd combination I can totally get behind: an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind themed pie, inspired by the movie Waitress. Yes, it’s tangerine flavoured. What’s not to love about that?
- milk eggs chocolate
Just a new little blog that I stumbled on that combines adorable illustrations with a strong design sense and vegan comfort foods. Sounds pretty nice and cosy right? BTW The girl who writes it is from Portland. You know how I feel about Portland.
- Cooks County Cookbook
I love the home-spun graphic design of Cooks Country Magazine, and of course recipes don’t get any better than those of the editors, (also of America’s Test Kitchen, and Cook’s Illustrated). Even more than all that though, I looooooooove regional and traditional American food. It’s one of my little obsessions. So, fingers crossed that Santa sends me this one for Christmas.
Whenever people ask me what I thought of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, usually I say I didn’t like it.
Which isn’t directly true – I did like it, in fact.
I just didn’t love it – which I think is the expected reaction to the book (I have similar feelings about Ironman). It was good, but it didn’t capture me. I think it has a compelling narrative, but the unreality of certain elements pulled me away from the whole. I just couldn’t get personally involved with the story, because it was too fantastic.
And I actually think the shock of getting personally involved with the fantastic is what draws people in to this story, and makes them laud it so.
Maybe I’ve just read too much magic realism to be surprised by such conceits.
Something that is fantastic, but wholly real is Yann Martels What is Stephen Harper reading? project/blog. It’s an oldie but a goodie. An entry Of note, is his letter about sending Jenna and Laura Bush’s recent childrens book to our Prime Minister. No mention is made of the identity of the authors.
This I love.
Another good blog find is Jezebel’s Fine Lines column. If you were a teenage girl in the last 30 years, you will love it too. Unless you were illiterate as a girl. Which I admit, is a total possibility.
Next week they will review The Girl with the Silver Eyes which was one of my favourite YA novels as a fifth grader. It reassured me that I felt like such an awkward, bespectacled, weirdo because I had magical superpowers. Duh.
So I am terribly excited about that upcoming one, in particular.
Past review of note include The Crazy Mixed Up Files of Miss Basil E. Frankweiler, the Little House on the Prarie books, and some of the more obscure Madeline L’Engle titles (not “A Wrinkle in Time,” in other words). Ummm…? Did these people find my diaries from when I was 13?
Since the damn column seems to be effectively spelunking my pre-teen-hood here’s hoping The Mysterious Disapearance of Leon (I mean Noel) makes it on the list someday soon. And maybe some Diana Wynne Jones too.
Another thing I love right now is Okami.
If you have a Wii you should RUN out and get it immediately. It’s definitely one of those games that makes having the platform worthwhile – between this and Super Mario Galaxy we’re pretty happy with our investment.
It has very similar game mechanics to the Zelda games, but takes place in a breathtakingly beautiful world, coated in floating cherry blossoms and pastoral settings.
It is rendered like a brightly coloured japanese print, coated in swashes of calligraphy – which is where one of the more innovative aspects of it’s gameplay comes from – you are given a brush loaded with black ink and must draw on your environment to enact changes. This (as you could imagine) is a lot more fun given the Wii’s controller than on the original Playstation 2 release.
The aspects of Japanese culture and folklore that are woven into the plot are also a welcome and fascinating addition. The game doesn’t spend much time explaining these elements (which will probably be quite foreign to most western audiences) and I actually quite like that about it – you are left to discern, and interpret things for yourself, which leaves the world you inhabit rich, exotic and mysterious.
Most of all I am left hungary for sushi, sake, and miso when I play this game (Katamari has a similar effect on me, but it is more direct since you are left to actually pick up japanese food with your growing Katamari ball).
And finally, you probably missed Reaper this fall. Or you might have caught the first (Kevin Smith directed) episode and moved on – understandably so. The show seemed to drag under it’s premise (a young man must complete tasks for the devil because his parents sold his soul out from under him). It became repetitive and task oriented. Not bad, just not surprising or new, like the pilot held the promise of being.
Well you should have stuck with it like we did, because as soon as it came back from the strike it came back (to quote the show) with a vengeance. Oh, and you know the fat kid from Breaker High who’s in this? Yeah, turns out he’s really, really funny. As is Micheal Ian Black, who guest stars towards the end (but you probably already knew that). As is Veronica Mar’s Ken Marino (you may remember him as Vinnie Van Lowe), also a recurring star. Actually, this show has perfect casting, right down to their chosen devil.
I think the show can now officially pick up the crown Buffy left in it’s wake for pop-culture saturated, supernatural, youthfully angsty show. Although I have to say, with it’s cadre of slacker boys as its core characters it feels more like Buffy as written by Judd Apatow.
Totally one to download, or rent when the 1st season DVD comes out.
I am pretty much obsessed with making Mii’s (little customizable characters on the Nintendo Wii). I’m pretty good at it too.
Me and Liam. Self-explanatory
My cats. In Mii form. Yep. I’m that girl.
Hiro (from Heroes) and Bjork. Some how they both just seemed to lend themselves really thoroughly to being Mii-ized.
the Sis on 