Chef Mike

From our first afternoon together, I knew Mike's secret: he can cook*. I thought I could cook -- I can at least follow recipes and I can bake but I cannot hold a candle to Mike's abilities. That first afternoon, we visited Fisherman's Wharf where he bought fresh crab and cooked me an amazing dinner in my tiny little bachelorette kitchen. He still amazes me weekly.

Our friends are also regularly amazed by the spreads he put on -- he even went so far a few years ago to hold the Cobalt Chef challenge for his birthday. (You can view the original page for the challenge but it's from 2002 and I warn you, I used a really bright colour for the background; you may need sunglasses.)

Fast forward a few years and we started doing the Cramped Chef series of videos and Mike started collecting his recipes on his blog.

Fast forward again to this week.... In much the same way that I quietly puttered away and pushed together Haiku Miscellany, Hubby quietly created his own book, Impress The World Before 11 A.M. which is all about brunches! Have a peek:





I'll be sure to let you know when the Food Network comes knocking.

*He has never formally trained and technically is not a Chef -- hopefully I won't get run out of town for using the title lovingly.

Vacation's End

All told, this was one of the best fall vacations we've had.

This time last year we had just moved in. It seems hard to believe it's been a year, so hard that until I looked it up on the blog I wasn't completely sure what day we had moved in (it was October 9th).

With the getaway at the start of the week off, we got back relaxed for the rest of our week off. We balanced some hang time with getting-stuff-done and some time with friends and family (though Thanksgiving was extra tense this year -- not sure what really was going on there...). Kiddo and I did some crafting together including a "rag doll with Coraline eyes" that she designed and we collaborated to finish:

Hubby made lots of headway on getting the new deck stairs underway (the "deathtrap stairs of doom" have to go -- the new stairs will go down the back of the deck, toward the apple trees and easier access to the bbq. It's the first step toward prepping for the addition.

Today, Hubby pulled down most of the weird carport skeleton over the driveway to reclaim the wood for the project, too. And you know what? I really wish we had pulled that sucker down earlier. After it was down, I moved and re-stacked the wood we had hastily thrown there, and our driveway looked pretty good.

We had an unseasonably warm and dry week, too; tomorrow we are expecting rain with frost forecast for this evening. We turned the gas fireplace on today for the first time in months and I decided I had best get in the last of the cucumbers (the vines were dried up anyhow) and pull out the tomato plants. There were 6 cucumbers left and I don't know how many pounds of mostly green tomatoes... I think I may try pickling them...

Back to work tomorrow. Sigh. At least it's a short (if busy) week.

exhausted

Our trip up-Island netted no free lawn ornaments but Micro-She (the GPS) did get us into one gargantuan argument (just fantastic as we had both Kiddo and my Mother in the van with us) as it sent us on a long trip along Shawnigan Lake road for no good reason and then tried to send us all the way around the lake -- another 20 km!! In fact, Hubby decided at only the last minute not to throw it out the window at high speed. Aside from that useless detour, the day was enjoyable. And we did get lawn ornaments at JYSK ($7 each; just a little over the $5 ceiling Hubby was hoping for).

At home, I tidied and vacuumed the basement, did lots of laundry, and started the cleaning upstairs. Today was more cleaning, tidying, furniture moving and all that. Hubby's birthday party went well, but in the midst of dinner I realized I hadn't bought or made him a cake (oops -- I made up for it by going out to grab Dairy Queen sundaes later). There were lots of kids around though most were old enough not to be underfoot. We had the decks cleared and ready for people but it ended up being cool enough that most wanted to eat indoors. Otherwise, I think everyone mostly enjoyed themselves.

This week I don't think there is anything major on our books... which is good. I plan to settle in to garden planning and planting (I picked up some great pamphlets which include lots of info on companion gardening), and maybe get back to some crafting or writing.

Little Amusements

Today, I got this message in my email box:

[Flickr] You are Barack Obama's newest contact!

Tee hee. I love that the Obama campaign has a Flickr account (of course they've also been using Twitter and Facebook and every other Web 2.0 widget to great effect -- just go to BarackObama.com and check out "Obama Everywhere" in the lower right column for all the links).

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Now that Hubby is approaching the finish line for his Cthulhu sculpture, I have suggested that his next undertaking resemble something like this zombie sculpture -- Kiddo said we need to have one on the front lawn to "scare off riff-raff" (yes, she did use those words exactly). She also said we would need a gravestone to go with the zombie.

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And, finally, if you haven't already seen it, take a look at the (almost) finished version of the stop-motion animation that Hubby and Kiddo made the week before our road trip:

Spare a tip, recipe or rant?

Hubby has put out a call for content for three of his projects -- two blogs and one game that is also a Facebook application.

Mike's Big Four-OhhhhhhhhhYeah!

As the title implies, yesterday was Hubby's 40th. The morning started with gift-giving -- he finally got something he'd wanted for a long time:

Yep, robotic LEGO -- the foundation for his robot army.

For lunch, with family, we went to Don Mee's for dim sum (mmMMMmmm).

The big deal for the evening, though, was the pub-crawl and related merry-making. It was a challenge to figure out how it was going to play out -- apparently aging gen-xers don't really have anywhere to party in Victoria...

Just before we went out, Hubby received a birthday wish by video which has now, happily, been posted on YouTube for the world to see:



That put us in a pretty good mood as we walked to the first stop -- The Tudor House in Esquimalt. From there, the party moved to Bartholomew's where we were actually the youngest crowd in the house. After that, we wanted to see what had become of Hubby's beloved former hangout, the Old Bailey, which had been re-modeled into Smiths. It was kind of eurotrashy, but it served its purpose.

After that, we had some great debate about where to go. Several people headed for home but Hubby and I wanted to find somewhere with a dance floor. After a few attempts, we ended up at Hush (formerly Rumors) on Government street. It was a $9 cover and featured some of the lamest DJs I've ever suffered through. Honestly, the music was fine, but they had no control over the floor -- the music kept crashing into itself or slowing to a beat that ended up clearing the floor. Really, really lame. Sigh. We stayed about an hour, and just after midnight called it a night... but a good night.

Harry Potter Overload....

OK, so I read the book.... and I didn't have to wait in line to get a copy.

My sweet, wonderful, thoughtful hubby actually went out just before midnight on Friday and got me a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.... and some very uppity Belgian chocolates (one of them had saffron sprinkled on top!)

I got up the next morning (fairly early) and started reading... I finished at around 10 p.m. Insane. I don't think I have ever read 600 pages in one day -- not even in University. I did take several breaks... but for the most part I was reading all day. No spoilers here... I'll just say that I cried a LOT more during the last book... this one didn't really work for me for a number of reasons. Still, it was an appropriate end to the series. (And Ms. Rowling? I hope it really is the end of the series. Please don't be tempted to do a spinoff or follow-up!)

Since Kiddo spent the night away, hubby and I decided to take in a movie. You guessed it! Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Like the book, this is not my favourite of the movies either. They cut a lot out of the book and yet the film really dragged in places. Meh. Still, overall, pretty enjoyable night out.

And now, I can ignore Mister Potter until next year when film number 6 is released...

Idiot.

Here's the original... http://victoria.craigslist.org/bks/339331531.html ...but I suspect it may get flagged. Why? Because this is what it says:

I have a spare ticket to the sold-out Chuck Palahniuk reading on Monday May 28.

You can have the ticket for free, but only if you're a really hot chick. I'm not going to try to get you in the sack or anything; I just like hot chicks and I like being seen in their company... it makes me feel like a big man.

If you're a guy, or a chick who ain't hot, you can't have the ticket. I'll just throw it away. I'm like that. And it's good.

So... the ticket is yours for the taking just for being a hot chick.

And if you wear a vintage cocktail dress I'll take you to dinner, too. We don't have to converse.

Dude. Really? Welcome to 2007. Any woman who knows who reads Chuck Palahniuk is unlikely to fall for this crap. Moron.

Oh, and anyone who will be at the reading, keep an eye out for this guy. He'll probably be the only idiot with an empty seat beside him.

As I was writing this, I told my hubby... check out his reaction. Funny. :)

Building the perfect Cthulhu.....

Many of you have seen photos, or read hubby's blog about his "summer project" to build a Cthulhu sculpture (with a built-in fountain, no less) out of junk we've had cluttering up the place. Some of you have even seen the creation in progress.

Well, most of the junk has gone into the sculpture already, and the body is being built up with various other materials, but eventually that sucker will need to be fiberglassed. So, Hubby has put out a "wish" on the Robin Hood Fund for cash to finish it off (now if he could only wish for extra time!!).

Anyway, if you want to find out more about the wish or the fund, clicky below....




Supplies for my Cthulhu Sculpture

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