Happy Birthday Pat!

Happy Birthday Mr. James Patrick Santos! =) Wish I could've been there for your "surprise" 12am greeting with the Family. Instead, I'll just reminisce and remember last year when we almost surprised you while you were in the.... never mind! =)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! - From me, Vineet and Joey.

Boubker Ait El Caid

Just finished Babel. Really interesting movie (and significantly better than my last 2 movies this week - Marie Antoinette and Rocky Balboa). But what impressed me a lot was the casting of Boubker Ait El Caid as Yussef - the Moroccan kid who accidentally shot the American tourist, played by Cate Blanchett. Among the characters, he was one of those that really stood out for me.
I just look back at the Oscars and all the acclaim given to Abigail and just feel that some of that should been thrown the way of Boubker Ait El Caid. I mean I do think that Abigail is a great little actress and she was great in Little Miss Sunshine (a movie I enjoyed immensely) but I think that Boubker's performance was so much more deeper and was still as a very critical supporting role in the story. And it's just a shame that you can hardly find pictures of him on the site, and I don't think he was even mentioned in the Ensemble cast winners (where the Japanese cop and dad were included - if you ask me, he played a much more important role than they did!).
Oh well. Just thought I'd write about him.

Sunday Brunch

Sunday brunches are one of my favorite things. It's always laid-back, relaxed and for some reason, EVERYTHING seems to taste great at Sunday brunch places.
Today though I started off with higher expectations than normal because the restaurant we were going to was tauted as one of the best brunch places in Toronto. True enough, the food was fantastic! It's a place on King West called Bistro & Bakery Thuet. It's a French restaurant (with a bakery) owned and operated by Chef Mark Thuet. The place was packed and we were happy to have only a 5-minute wait for a table for two.
I ordered the "Seared smoked pork loin, Quebec maple syrup, Thuet brioche French toast", which was heavenly. I haven't ordered French toast for myself in over 2 years now (although I have been known to occasionally pick off other people's plates) because the quality is so erratic. There are some places it turns out too rubbery or too soggy or too something. But this one was heavenly! It was so light and fluffy (probably cause bread was always freshly made since they were a bakery), the maple syrup was just right (not too sweet, not too maple-y), and the smoked porkloin made it all filling enough for brunch. Vineet ordered "Omelette au jambon, fromage et fines herbs". An omellete with ham, cheese and fine herbs is relatively simple right? But this one just had the right balance of taste and was nice and moist inside.
To make this a fair review though, I do have to say that the service was so-so. The hostess was very nice and acommodating but the waitstaff seemed so harrassed and left much to be desired. But the food was definitely good enough to make us come back and give it another go!

Conehead.

Poor little 5-lb Joey! Had not been fed for 21 consecutive hours, had blood work done, was under general anesthesia, was neutered (ouch!), was micro-chipped in between the shoulder blades, had 2 baby teeth pulled which required 2 stitches on his gums... and on top of that he has to be a conehead for 5 days so he doesn't lick and infect his wounds.

It's not the same...

Joey is at the vet for the whole day for surgery. He is getting "fixed" The house is really not the same without him =(

Spring is here!

March 21. Spring officially starts today!! And the high and low forecasts for the next ten days are all above zero! =)

Kuya Cheech!

While Vineet and I were in Alberta, Payal and her dog Cheech kindly took on the task of pampering Joey for 6 days. This was the week that Joey realized he was a dog. He came back home a changed man... I swear, he looks bored to be with me now and just looks forward to his walks when he can play with other doggies. Here he is pictured with Cheech, who I think he sees as a kuya (older brother) cause he just kept following whatever he did (including learning to pee with one leg up!)

Alberta Mini-Vacation

A friend had told us that if we were going to Alberta, we just HAD to stay at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. I'm definitely glad we did!

The lake was perfectly positioned against a backdrop of 2 mountains, meeting in the middle of the lake. And from the opposite side, the Fairmont was perfectly perched on the edge of the lake. The lake was frozen over and the effect of the snow on the frozen lake, mountains and trees was amazing -- and we enjoyed it even more with a sleigh ride around the lake! I am definitely looking forward to seeing it again in a different light in summer... maybe next year =)

The next day we went to Banff, which is a nice, relatively quiet ski town. It was amazing though how much variety of cuisines was available in such a small strip! The highlight of that stay though was a trip to Banff Upper Hot Springs! It was cool to be out while there was snow all around, but it appears that hot springs and/or hot tub outdoors is a very critical part of the skiing lifestyle =)