July

I can't believe how fast the summer is whizzing by!  It's already July 13 and I've barely been updating my blog, not to mention I haven't had a beach day yet!

 I feel as though I've grown up A LOT through out the past week, probably because I made some "adult" purchases.

Number one was a water dispenser.  Our apartment building is around 100 years old and I'm sure the water pipes haven't been updated in...quite a while.  Instead of buying cases of water bottles which isn't environmentally friendly, we picked up a dispenser last week.

Cold water all summer!


Another interesting purchase I made off of Amazon was a...baby gate!  No, I'm not planning anything drastic...  We have graduated Oliver from X-pen to having the entire dining room while we're at work.  We grabbed a wooden stretchy gate from Canadian Tire for the kitchen doorway, but the living room doorway is 51" wide which was problematic for gating.  Most gates only stretch to 36".  The bigger gates are easily $100+, not an amount we intended to spend.

Fortunately, I was able to find an Evenflo extra-wide gate for only $36 on Amazon! It was can span maximum 60" and doesn't need to be fixed to the door frame...It works by pressure mounting.  I can see how this might be less suitable if a child was hanging off of it, but it works well for a puppy.

And yes, that is our massive Mr. Cat inspecting the barrier.

We also made a big purchase...physically and financially.  Our queen sized bed has been a problem for a while.  Because we made so many moves in the past four years, I'm sure the mattress sustained some serious wear-and-tear from being shoved and pulled and squished into small travelling vehicles.  We realized earlier this week that the large hump in the middle of the mattress (impossible to avoid even when the mattress is rotated) isn't going away.  

(Pillow top mattresses suck.  I remember when I was a teenager flipping my mattress over and over every couple months in order to allow the coils to settle back down into the other side.  It felt like a new mattress each time! )

Anyway,  we went all out and purchased a KING sized mattress and box-spring for a very reasonable price at a mattress outlet store on Barton St.  Pocket coil, pillow top (boo!) and with a mattress protector and it was extremely affordable compared to big mattress companies such as Sleep Country.

I'm getting more excited as we wait for it to be shipped in an delivered!

In the meantime, here are a few pics from this month so far!

Oliver is getting bigger before our eyes.  

Watching ships past under the lift bridge

A beautiful new plant Matt bought (and potted!) for me 

Our superintendent has a massive and beautiful garden at the front of the building

Licorice and Oliver retreated under some ivy to pant and cool down on a walk

I do have more photos but that's all for now!

I hope your summer is going well and you are enjoying the sunshine and long days :)

Peace

U Shao BBQ

This past week I had the delectable pleasure of trying out "U Shao BBQ" (Korean BBQ) on John St.  If you're from Hamilton or the surrounding area and are looking for an interesting experience with "group eating", I would recommend an evening at U Shao!

I should clarify, that by "group eating", I mean an experience similar to sushi.  I always find that sushi is best with larger groups of people, because you are to able to order a greater variety of items...and you aren't left trying to hide five maki rolls from the server to avoid being charged extra for wasted food.  I love going out for sushi with friends and U Shao is very similar to the sushi experience.

You walk in to a beautiful (and large!) restaurant.  The decoration and lighting are ambient.  There are no bright lights or loud noises.  Even the staff speak with almost hushed tones and are light on their feet.

Each table has it's own grill.

Every customer gets their own set of tongs and chopsticks.  The tongs are only to be used for handling and cooking the raw meat.

On the table was a set of five types of dressings/extras.  From the bottom up:  house sauce, kim chi, turnip, bean sprouts and tofu.  Matt grilled the tofu with the meat and it tasted very good.  As well, I had several tastes of the kim chi! Spiced cabbage which I REALLY enjoyed.

The kim chi

We all ordered virgin Pina Coladas. 

So basically, the idea of Korean BBQ is to eat meat.  Lots of meat.  If you're following a low carb diet, this is probably your safest place to eat ethnic food.  Meat and vegetables are primarily what is served, although one can order a side bowl or rice or miso soup if desired.

We ordered A LOT of meat.  It comes raw and using one's tong, you lift it onto the grill and proceed to cook it to your preferred taste:  rarer or more well done.

I was actually SHOCKED when I took my first bite of the sliced beef.  The meat was EXQUISITE.  I was concerned about it being stringy or chewy, but it was soft and tender.

We tried lamb, ox tongue, beef, pork, mussels, calamaric, fish, lamb, chicken, beef ribs...and we even deviated and added grilled vegetables and pineapple!

Mushrooms, onions, green pepper, zucchini, sweet potato.... It was all so...good.
One of my favourite combos was the grilled pineapple and shrimp:

And the mussel was actually good too!

We finished the meal off with some refreshing ice cream and Matt ordered a chocolate pudding that was...pretty strange and nasty.  

I snapped a quick picture of the menu 

So there you have it! An extremely filling and delicious meal.  I wouldn't do it more than once every couple of months, because like sushi it leaves you feeling EXTREMELY full and a bit bloated.  It's a great place to go eat, talk and hang out.  We were there two hours and the staff never once hassled us or urged us to hurry up.  

I hope you go test it out!

(You also view their website here.)

A Love Affair

I'm cheating on my boyfriend...with a beach.

Every morning I drop him off at work and leave him for the beach.  I walk with beach, I talk. 

Licorice comes along and we all enjoy each other.

Driving in the morning~

Nature & Utility~

Surfers On My Beach~

On a freakishly warm day last week Licorice was able to get some swimming in~

But a couple days later, it was TOO COLD~

Peace & Beauty Are Everywhere~

~Much Love

Easter & Springs: My Favourite Things!

Okay, it's officially here... My favourite season has always and will always be spring!  The outside smells so fresh and earth with the ground thawing out and nature coming to life.

Easter is also my favourite holiday! Something about it being in tandem with spring and representing new life and birth is exciting.  

Warning:  this post is photo heavy!

Licorice and I took a long walk this past week and I enjoyed snapping some pictures.

A couple views from the top of the James Street stairs

Then we walked around in the park for a while at the top of the stairs and saw some cool things

In this park, it almost looks like a moor in Scotland

Licorice and I love that park.

A few more things that make me happy...


Watching the sunset from my bed ~

Easter eggs ~

My new hurricane lamp (from Giant Tiger!) ~

Matt put up the mirror/candle piece in the hallway ~

I snapped a sunset pic from work this week ~

That's all for now! Hope you are all having a blessed and wonderful Easter!

Odds & Ends

There isn't much to write on right now.  Things have been relatively sedate since the wedding.  I'm still trying to motivate myself to unpack certain things that have be left in boxes.

This morning, when I took Licorice for his walk prior to leaving for work, I heard a cardinal singing in trees outside of my apartment.  Just last week we had a bit of  a snow storm.

This is my apartment building.  As you can see, it's an old piece of architecture; the supers told us it's 90 years old, at least.  Our apartment is around the front of the building and I will try to take some pictures of it soon.   

(I absolutely LOVE my apartment.  I never realized how frustrated I was with my old apartment until I moved! Hey, I have a parking spot ALL THE TIME! I never have to worry about finding one when I return home from an excursion.  My heat is ALWAYS ON--too hot even! And my supers are awesome! They have solved almost all our problems already!)

A view of James St. from the top

Slippery 

Last year I went through a particularly bad time where I was truly struggling with loving my body and accepting myself. I came home from work and found a heart taped to my mirror in my dressing room.

When we moved to the new apartment, it was taped again to my mirror for me to see every day.  That is only a small demonstration of how amazing Matt is.  Me, below, with no make up.

The kittehs are happy at the new place too.  There's SO MUCH ROOM for them to run around and behave like maniacs.

Matt is hilarious and still makes me laugh after being together almost 2 1/2 years.

Finally, twilight was beautiful earlier this week.

Spring is coming... Every time I think of that phrase or feel that delicious excitement for the musty smell of thawing earth and bird calls, I think of...

"Aslan is on the move"

That's all for now! Hope you're enjoying the segue into spring as much as I am!