The City, He Loves me

Y'know what I realized last night? Mississauga is not a totally terrible place to chill on a Saturday night. I know I bitch a lot about living in the suburbs, but why should I be complaining about 'Sauga of all places? The mayor, as tiny and as fragile as she is, manages to scare away anyone to go up against her at election time, and the city is in surplus. Plus, working in real estate, it has the most cooperative tax department out of all the municipalities I've had to contact for closings. Um, but you don't care about that. And the Mississauga Transit is soo much better than the TTC (but then again, it's not saying much). So anyway, Mississauga = not so terrible.

I mean, for one, it's relatively safe even at 3 a.m. Buses may not be convenient (but that's not to say the TTC is) but at least it's not a long, expensive cab ride home. The hang outs are decent. They're definitely cleaner and classier than downtown Toronto. And the best reason of all why Mississauga is not so bad? My friends. Awww *tear*flick*

Thankfully Jeff organized a good get-together of old and older friends at West 50, otherwise I probably would've done something less than awesome on a Saturday night. It was my first time going there since it was changed from Dick's to West 50. Honestly, everything looked the same as I had remembered except they put in like 50 beer taps. Last night they had a pretty decent (and I use the term loosely since I don't think alot of cover bands are that good) cover band called "Running Red Lights". Nothing beats being good drunk with good friends.

The ride home was quite eventful, too. Not only is Mississauga not convenient with late-night bus routes, they're not exactly rampant in taxis, either. Oh well. I left with Justin, Konrad, Paul and Mel and thankfully we all live in the same walking-distance area. We were lucky to find a driver that was able to not only take all five of us in one cab, but also charged us a flat fee.

We grabbed late-night grub at Burger King. Of course, the restaurant was closed because it was 2 a.m. and we had no car so we attempted to walk through the Drive Thru. No such luck. There's a reason why it's called Drive Thru. Luckily the hot chicks behind us in the Civic offered to order for us.

Apparently on their way home, Konrad and Justin saved a skunk's life on the road who had two broken legs by putting it in the bushes. I don't know if I'd call it 'saving' the skunk ("Did it walk away?" "No, it kinda just dragged itself." *wince), but I thought it was pretty courageous of them to even touch the thing. Interesting end to an interesting night.

^What size is that?

^Paul likes beer

^Grade Eight Crew

^I think I was drunk enough to kiss anyone who asked. Konrad caught me at a good time.

^Paul likes beer...alot

^Up the nose!

^Justin jumps in just as the shot was being taken. Worst guy.

^That's better

^I wasn't even saying anything, I just made that face

^Running Red Lights

^Chug, chug, Jonny!

^"Would you happen to have any Grey Poupon?"

^"Driving" thru

^Chicka chicka yeahhhhhh

^Fast food in the early a.m.

Big Things are Definitely Poppin'

Things are happenin', happenin' for me in the upcoming month, I can feel it. I'm gonna sign up for hip hop dance classes again which begin at the end of the month and I'm finally welcoming the brisk weather we're getting. Another season, another change.

I'm hella excited for the RnB Soul Ball. The last concert I went to had SWV and Blackstreet. This time I will be seeing En Vogue, 112 and Keith Sweat! Yay yay yay! I hope Salt n Pepa or Lil Zane will make some sort of guest appearances so I can hear some of my favourite collabs with En Vogue and 112. Anyone else wanna go? Lemme know, ASAP. I'm not even gonna bother trying to win tickets from the radio again. Good luck never strikes me twice, but lightning does.

I think the love life is dying out again. The other day, my friend David accused me of being gay because I didn't have a boyfriend. I was slightly offended. Oh well. Back to regular, old, totally single life. Hey, at least no one can say I didn't try.

Last night I went with the Russians, that is, all the Russian people I know (minus Iljya, but he's like semi-Russian) to the Snowboard and Ski Show at the Exhibition Place. Do you know what it's like trying to get a herd of Russian guys to someplace you want to get to before it closes? It's like herding Russian buffalo. Anyway, it was also trying because these guys have no idea what the CNE is or what the Exhibition Place is (they're the same) and they only had lil' ol not-a-good-navigator me to lead the way. We finally got there with 2 hours to look around before it closed. I was surprised most of us actually bought stuff there. I finally got a new helmet (no more concussions?) and gloves. Can you say 'READY FOR WINTER'?

Iron Chef: Thanksgiving Edition

Tick-tock-tick-tock, yet another long weekend has come to an end, another Thanksgiving is over. Someone asked me why I 'celebrate' Thanksgiving if I'm not a religious person. Since I'm not a religious person, I have no idea what connotations Thanksgiving brings to those that are religious. In my non-religious case, Thanksgiving is for me to take a pause in my self-absorbed, crazy hectic life to stop and smell the roses. Or grilled prosciutto.

Last night, I went to Scarborough for my great-aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary. I think it's pretty amazing that anyone can be married to someone for that long. The funniest part of the night was watching my great-uncle try get a champagne bottle open and that priceless look on his face. Lots of family good-times were had, including crashing the wedding next door with my second cousin. Man, you just can't not appreciate having family. After dinner with my biological family, I spent some time with my second family: the Lams. I think movies were on, but I was pretty gone.

As mentioned before, I spent Saturday night at Dev's for our annual Thanksgiving dinner. A total of 24 people showed up this year. That has to be some sort of record. In either case, it was 24 of my best friends and loved ones. To accommodate everyone, we had to resort to covering the two Poker tables with garbage bags and table cloths, which worked out perfectly. Thankfully no major spills, and we were able to play Poker after. Whew. Otherwise it would've been a real tragedy (no, really. Alex would've killed us if we spilled food on his table).

For the competition, Dev and I prepared two dishes, an entrée and an appetizer. For our appetizer, we had grilled prosciutto over hashbrowns with some mango and basil. Our entrée consisted of baked tilapia with a kiwi-mango-mandarin salsa, garnished with lemon sauce and tomato mousse. I eloquently called it 'Lil Devil floating on Cloud Nine'. Nam and Alex prepared kiwi, shrimp and grilled tomatoes. For their entrée (Alex: "OK, I'm Russian. What's an 'entrée'?"), they did potato skins stuffed with mashed potato mixed with dill and bacon and mango chicken. I'm going to reserve my personal comments about everyone's dish because I really don't think I should have a say. I'll have to post the pics of the dishes as soon as Alex finishes sending me the rest of the pictures.

So who won? Team 'Devil', of course. Natch.

And in the spirit of THANKsgiving, here comes my thank-yous:

La Famile de Horreur ~ the family tree is messed, but it's been a blast. Also, I'm proud to say I come from a good-looking family, especially the women. Who wouldn't be thankful for that?

Kathy and Mel ~ for organizing the rules and preparing the voting ballots. Way to put some thought into it.

Dev ~ for teaching me that I don't always need a recipe book (although, I won't totally disregard them) to create a dish. Be spontaneous! And for opening your home to 20+ people!

Alex and Nam ~ for confirming that I don't totally suck at cooking. I can always count on you guys to make me feel better about myself. I love you, BFFs.

Those who brought more food ~ I dunno what you were thinking, but thanks!

Paparazzos ~ Yuri, Megan, Quang, Paul... thanks for capturing the moments. And send me your pics NOW!!!!!!!!

Everyone else ~ Thanks for coming! Hope everyone had fun witnessing the chaos and experiencing the craziness: Nam's potato comment ("This is the best fish ever! It's so flaky!...Oh, it's potato"), spraying whipped cream in Alex's mouth whilst passed out, etc.

And here comes the picture flow (from Alex and Yuri's camera)...

^I promise I never sneezed in the food

^Hungry hungry hippos

^Nam and his sous-chefs

^Fried Red Tomatoes

^Dying of laughter and too much food

^Mel brings down the ballot bag

^Itis!

Long XXX Weekend '07 begins!

Yayyyyy, long weekend (for those who are bowling-illiterate, a strike is represented by an X and three strikes in a row is called a 'turkey')! Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this the last long weekend before Christmas? A couple weeks ago I started planning the X-mas vacation with others. It's currently a toss-up between Christmas in Whistler or Seattle. However, it's really hard to fathom snow right now in this balmy Fall we've been having. I couldn't sleep properly last night because I was roasting.

This weekend I have not one, not two, but three Thanksgiving dinners planned. The first one begins tonight with an Iron Chef competition at Dev's. Dev and I have teamed up against Nam and Alex and we're cooking din-din for about 20 people. I look forward to seeing everyone, both familiar and too-familiar faces. My voice is totally shot from last night, so it'll be a semi-loud Thanksgiving this year (take one for the team, Nam).

Last night I was out on a date with S. We had dinner downtown and walked around for a long time. The date was fine and it was really nice being downtown last night as the weather was really perfect for it. Can never go wrong with an evening downtown. At one my point, my blouse popped open. But that's alright, I have nice boobs. I dunno if I'd see him again because he's a smoker. Why'd I agree to a date anyway? Because I wanted to. And I guess I could've just nipped it in the bud and enforce my No-Smoking ban, but I did make the valiant effort, so at least we can say I tried to deal with it. However, I am not one to tell someone what to do. I would never ask someone to stop or quit, that would have to be on their own accord. And so goes the single life...

He also brought me flowers, which was sweet, BUT we all know that I'm a chick, in a body of a dude, in a body of a chick. I know he doesn't really know me that well, but Lil doesn't roll like that. I'm the best of friends with Fauna, but me and Flora do not mix well. If only PETAF (People for the Ethical Treatment of Foliage) knew how badly I can treat my garden and house plants...

The flowers were a really nice surprise, though. It was a good call, but how was he to know that I'm not a genuine chick? The parts are there, the heart isn't.

Chanel Un Perdedor

Does anyone remember that one Saved by the Bell episode where Jesse claimed that Kelly Kapowski was so cool that if one day she wore something as absurd as a pizza on her head, the other girls would follow? Hmm...

^*barf

^Chanel Spring 2008

Coco Chanel must be spinning in her grave.