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 =)

V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! =)

Got a call from the concierge that there were flowers waiting at the front desk so I just put on jeans and a jacket over my PJs and went right away.

These roses look so elegant! I have to go look for a vase that will do these flowers justice now. Unfortunately, I don't think I have anything long enough for these roses... and I don't want to cut their stems too much cause they're so nice and long!

55 pins...

This is what 55 bobby pins look like. That's right, it took 55 pins to hold up my hair. This was part of the trial wedding hairdo that I had last Friday at the salon.

SuperBowl Squares

My first time to watch a whole football game... well, almost whole cause Vineet and I came late to Thad's place.

Vineet and his friends have a Super Bowl tradition of playing Snow Football before watching the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, this year was uncannily cold at -30 degrees (without wind chill) that they had to forego their game and ended up playing basketball at the condo. The rest of the tradition continued on though when we went to Thad's place to watch the game.

The picture attached is part of the traditional betting on the last digit of the by-quarter scores. We didn't walk away with anything but at least we got food and drink =) Matty K was the big winner, getting 3 out of the 4 quarters... I figure he deserved it since he had the longest drive to join in the tradition. He came all the way from Kitchener just for this!
It must be noted though that I fell asleep in the last 15 minutes of the game. It doesn't really reflect the quality of the game or my interest level, I was just plain tired!

Joey Speaks...

WinterCity Festival

Toronto must be the city of Festivals. Although it's not at its craziest (that usually comes in the summer), there is still something happening on most weekends. This past weekend the WinterCity Festival opened so Vineet and I spent our Saturday at Nathan Philips Square. Yes, the weather's been below zero for the past 2 weeks and people still go out.. oh well.









We went through the American Express Gallery where they featured "Paintings Below Zero", abstract paintings made of ice (and gave away free coffee / hot chocolate from Starbucks), watched the skaters on the ice rink (but didn't go cause we weren't sure if Vineet could keep me up given he's been out of practice and I have zero skills on ice - except for the 2 or 3 times I went to the SM Megamall rinkin high school!), saw the world's largest SnowGlobe, took in the free concert (we were able to hear the Jon Levine Band - really liked their song HAPPY - listen to it on Jon Levine Band Home Page) and the free side shows (see Gustavo the Impossibilist in the pic).

Move over Martha Stewart...

... well, not quite. But thought I'd share the "Stepford Wife"-ly things I've done the past week.
First, I made blueberry cheesecake which was a hit with Vineet. It was almost from scratch - except I used pie filling for the topping =) He claims it's the 2nd best cheesecake he's had... unfortunately, the one we had in Boracay still topped it. But hey, not bad for a first attempt!


Second, I crocheted a sweater for Joey! It's been cold here and I couldn't find a sweater for Joey that I liked so I made him one. Vineet now calls me Granny Leila =)

Surreal.

That's what Delia said when I talked to her over the phone and I agreed. She was the one who told me the unfortunate news that our house in Manila caught fire!!!!!!

Luckily, no one is hurt. However, the damage is significant enough that my mom, my sister and her family and my lola had to move out and rent a house to stay in.

It's weird when big accidents like this happen. You always think they never happen to you, nor do they happen that close to home. As Del said, surreal.

I swear....

Joey (my puppy) farts. And for such a small (4lb.) dog, his farts quite a bit of a stinker. Just thought I'd share that.

Snowing in TO!

Today was the first day that I woke up and it was snowing in the city. It was nice to wake up and look outside the window and see snow! So I put on a jacket over my PJs and went out on the balcony to take this pic. You can't see the lake in this one, cause of the snow falling. The "real feel" temperature today was -13 degrees!

Mont Tremblant Pics

Check out http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser. Thought this was a cool way to share our Tremblant pics over Christmas =)

Toronto Sunday

Just to give you an idea of what we do on a Sunday in Toronto when we just want to relax...

1000: Let Joey out of his crate so he can "do his business then go back to bed for a bit more shut-eye
1115: Eat Dunkaroos while watching TV and playing with Joey
1200: Shower
1250: Vineet and I go for "street meat" just outside the condo since we need a quick lunch cause we're walking to the Air Canada Center to watch the TO Raptors vs. Washington Wizards.
1315: Raptors win by 7-pts (sad given their lead was 21 pts. early in the 4th). We then say bye to our usual "seatmates" at the Raptors game... since we got the East Coast pack
1530: Pass by the Video rental store since it's on the way home. I got "teen movies" of course. Hehe.
1600: Pick up Joey at home to bring him to the park. He made lots of new friends!!!! And he was "off-leash" at the park for the first time. A moment to celebrate as his dad Vineet was finally able to "let go"! =)
1700: Vineet plays XBox while I play with Betty and catch up on email

That's the day so far... =) Now, we just have to figure out what to do for dinner.

Ski Shot from my Instructor Yvon