Monthly Archives: June 2009

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What a crazy weekend!

But it was pretty awesome!  Friday left a lot to be desired as my other problem child tooth was being a pain in my ass!  Thankfully its pretty much dead with only residual nerve endings left so its not exactly painful just epically irritating!  Work was kinda of insane, I got sung happy birthday a lot that day lol.  So I went from being 30, to 30 something :p  The best part of that day was coming home and having Krystal drop off my birthday cake!  Which was adorable, and exceptionally yummy!  OMG seriously the best chocolate mocha/with almond icing cake I have ever had!

I\’m still battling this cold/flu thing I have going on, teamed up with allergies which is just horrifying!  So needless to say I haven\’t been feeling a 100% regardless of the fact that I had my birthday soiree planned for Saturday.  The crappy thing about Saturday was I had a doctors appointment.  Don\’t get me wrong my OBGYN is actually really nice but I mean really who actually *likes* going to the gyno…  So he turned down my request to get my tubes tied and has been forewarned that I will badger him about it when I have to see him in December and any appointment after that lol.  Simply put: I DON\’T WANT KIDS!!!!!!!  The mere thought of having a child horrifies me and I would in all honesty would very much rather adopt *IF* I had the burning need to raise a child.  Like I told Dr. G there\’s too many un-wanted babies in this world that deserve a home, so why should I go to the trouble of spitting out one of my own?  That and I\’m sick of taking the pill.  No the $17.00/month cost is nothing compared of raising a child of course but it would mean FREEDOM from ALL forms of birth control. Le sigh…  *TMI WARNING* although one good thing did come out of my visit with Dr. G: He told me that when your on the pill your period is artificial and not even remotely necessary unless of course your trying to get pregnant.  SO he told me that yes its OK to take your 21 pills and start on a new pack right away without having to wait the customary 7 days before starting a new pack. Thank God for small favors!  So I\’m going to give that a whirl, I\’ll let you know how that all works out.

Anyway I was outta there by 1pm, and had some last minute things to pick up stuff  like garnishes for my martini fix, and some items to assist a friends foster pet shelter (reach for the stars rescue) since she was coming over to pick up stuff for her garage sale for charity anyway so I bought some new items for her for the animals, go to the bank, head off to the SAQ for some vanilla vodka and various other goodies to make various martinis that I had planned to experiment with later that evening and clean my apt because I was too tired to do it Friday evening.

I was almost tempted to cancel my party because I wasn\’t feeling a 100%, half of my guests were sick/had dental issues like myself and so on.  John was sick and couldn\’t make it so were going to get together sometime this week.  Every time I plan something either its a hit or a miss and I really thought that this was going to be a miss… I thought wrong!  My apt is tiny so I kept the guest list down to a minimum but it was fun!  Its nice to get together with people I  don\’t get to see very often and well who doesn\’t like birthday swag!  I have to say I have some VERY generous friends 🙂

I got a really nice book from Donna:

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris (Hardcover)

Which is HILARIOUS!  A tad crass and far from being \”PC\”, I recommend this as a gift to anyone who\’s into food or entertaining and of course has a sense of humor!  I generally as a rule hate recipe books since I prefer to do things my way.  I have a subscription a Kraft Canada\’s what\’s cooking magazine because its helpful and practical (not to mention free in Canada woo hoo!) and  how to cook everything which is super helpful if your just starting out since it has a TON of techniques & helpful tips, not to mention some great recipes as well.  In today\’s day and age with the internet I generally hit up epicurious.com for some inspiration if I happen to be lacking or want to make something new.

Krystal made my birthday cake for me which was as already mentioned AMAZING!  Not to mention a great gift!  Megan in true foodie form bought me my very own basil plant which was also equally awesome.  My mom got me a magazine subscription and new wheels for my suitcase (well she gave me her CC number and an amount to spend and that\’s what I bought).  Shane and Dana made a contribution to my summer tattoo fund along with some nibs which is Shane & I\’s favorite licorice ( I bought him some as a wedding present ha ha) and nerds (which I haven\’t eaten in well over a decade)!  Along with some party snacks which was very sweet!  Ania also sent me an awesome gift from Poland as I have already mentioned full of handy stuff for my modifications and my favorite candy!  So I did pretty good!  I bought myself some birthday swag at the SAQ so I did pretty damn good if you ask me!

Dinner was simple since I was feeling a tad lazy and well just not well in general but still managed to pull off some awesome pizza!  I made (from scratch) pesto Alfredo pizza w/sun dried tomatoes, extra old cheddar and Parmesan cheese since Donna has a tomato allergy(so tomato sauce was a no no) and classic pepperoni and cheese with my homemade pizza sauce and garlic and cheese bread sticks.  Had it been in the winter I would have made something more hearty but I thought I would keep it simple.  But it was a hit, everyone really enjoyed it and I had a really good time!

So now time for pictures:

My cake:

\"P8270064\"Birthday swag

\"P8270072\"Birthday swag from Ania\"P8050003\"

And my present(s) to myself  which will likely last forever since I don\’t drink that much (really I don\’t) 🙂

\"P8270071\"


I also got news that Carly\’s coming back to Canada for a visit and I can\’t wait to see her!  So that\’s pretty exciting!  I haven\’t seen her since she moved to West Virginia to be with her hubby so its been TOO long!  I\’m also toying with the idea of making a recipe book of my own…  I\’ve debated over it for a  while now and I just might actually do it.  But I don\’t know if I want to share my secrets with the world.


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I week post op…

I\’m pretty sure I made it past the worry about dry socket stage YAY!  There\’s still some residual sensitivity but nothing I can\’t deal with.  I was poking around the one area and it seems that my gum\’s are regenerating quite well which is good!  I fear for my back molar though because that one is actually attached to 1 of your nasal passages and guess what I got now: A bitch of a cold!

So I go from extreme nerve pain, to surgery, to recovery then BAM cold time!  It started on Saturday in the afternoon with some sneezing fits and then by Saturday night I was feeling pretty gross and stayed home the rest of the night and most of Sunday.  I only went out on Sunday to run a few quick errands to pick up some party food for my birthday party on Saturday since it was on sale YAY and then pretty much vegged out at home.

In any case I was REALLY happy to get my tax return!  This means I have extra vacation cash, paid some bills off and I NO longer owe EI from an overpayment I got while I was on unemployment back in 2006 I think YAY!  That was a nice surprise to wake up to since June kills me with birthdays and holidays grrr.  I have to ship out my nieces gift ASAP since her birthday is on the 16th and I don\’t always trust Canada post to get it there on time and I have a secret stash of goodies that I have to send off to Ania which I am certain she will enjoy 🙂

So aside from that I really have nothing new to report per say…  I have pictures that I really should get around to uploading on here and showing some stuff off.  I\’m trying to find a good widget or plugin for this thing to create thumbnails as opposed to huge pictures.  I\’ll figure something out eventually!  Hard to think straight when your so congested and a little loopy from allergy/cold/pain medication.

On a sad note my friends dog had to be put down.  When we used to work together, I would save the scraps from the roast beef and send home a care package with Clint for Koko which of course was the 1st thing I thought of when I had heard the news.  So with a little help from rainbow bridge , stealing \”borrowing\” pictures of his and his S/O facebook album\’s and my not to shabby graphic skills I made him a present ( this was a prototype, I actually centered it better and added more elements):

\"4clint\"

He really liked it!  I had it printed on an 8×10 and had it matted and framed into a 10×15 frame for him.  He was AWESOME to work with, a great boss and helped me out a lot and I knew that there would come a day I could pay it forward in a way and do something nice for him.  I was pretty pleased with the end result, which I can\’t find a copy of at the current moment, but you get the idea.

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The deception of appearance…

John\’s birthday was on Monday June 1st and I found that 90% of the time I almost always get him the same things.  Its not that he\’s \”hard\” to buy for per say but there\’s not a lot of things that he\’s into and my choices are limited in the gift department.  So I thought this year I\’d shake things up a little bit and do something different.  I commissioned Krystal to make him a birthday cake because he loves star wars and Krystal\’s quite gifted more so then I am.  Granted she\’s a pastry Chef and I\’m not and she was up for the challenge.  She did a good job on it since it was hard to find a decent stencil to work with.

\"p8190026\"Anyway we rarely go out so I thought it would be nice to go to the old port for dinner to my favorite restaurant Le Merville.  When I was there last summer the service and food was fantastic!  This time around, the service left A LOT to be desired.  Most restaurants in place Jacques cartier are pricey and fairly high end.  This place is classier, not too expensive depending on what you want and the food is awesome so that\’s a good deal for me.  We went out Friday night and since we both had to work I got ready after I got home and purposely wore something nice but made a point of showing off my 85% of my tattoos in said outfit.  It was a beautiful evening, a nice warm 25 degrees out and it wasn\’t humid and I was curious to see the reaction I would get whilst going out to dinner.

We show up, there\’s a wait for the terrace and I hate to be crowded and didn\’t want to contend with bugs.  We were given a nice table with a big open window so we had the outdoor ambiance without actually being outside.  Our server was only 1 of 2 working the floor and she was French and I could tell that her English wasn\’t too strong (which is fine) but she gave me a look of utter disdain when we sat down, I mean seriously if my tattoos/appearance horrify you please be more discreet about while your serving me.  She asked us what we wanted to drink, dropped some bread off at the table and left. Since I was only 4 days post op I had to stick with something easy to eat so I ordered one of my favorite pastas and John ordered steak.  So when she returned with our beverages we placed our food order at the same time.  So we sat and talked and munched on some bread and our food came out in a timely fashion, our serve accidentally touched my boob while placing my food in front of me (which happens often lol) which she apologized for profusely and then we never seen her again!

Granted I don\’t like to be bothered while I\’m eating but if I order steak or someone at my table does especially you REALLY should make a point to ASK if its done to your liking!  Its common courtesy to check up on your table a few minutes after they\’re delivered their meal on the off chance there\’s something wrong.  So it takes me longer to eat then John so I\’m watching her check on her tables, offering them water or beverage refills, smiling and blah blah blah being all attentive and nice which we got NONE of.  Every time she walked past us which was often because we were seated close to the little bar they have set up it was like she cringed every time!  OK granted John and I don\’t look nearly as old as we are and yes I understand that tattoos AREN\’T to everyone\’s liking and I respect that but it pisses me off when people ASSUME because I \”LOOK\” young and I have tattoos that I don\’t deserve decent service like she was obviously giving her other tables.

So we finished eating, had to wait about 10 minutes to get the bill which I specifically asked for ( they usually give the bill to the man I\’ve noticed) because dinner was on me that night and then I had to wait another 5-10 minutes for her to take me to the bar so I could pay with debit.  I tip generously, especially in Quebec because I know first hand how hard a servers job can be, and I also know that they automatically have to pay 10% of their total sales to the government in taxes to claim tips so even if your table doesn\’t tip 10% its coming out of your pocket  & you have to tip out to the bar & kitchen in some cases however I have yet to work in a kitchen here in QC where the kitchen get\’s tipped out with the exception of my current job.  Anyway I generally add the taxes which is 13% and tack on a few dollars.  Except this time I used the calculator on my phone and worked out 15% on the bill which was $53.50, worked out to $8.06 so I rounded up the bill to $63.00 dollars leaving her a $9.50 tip.

WELL!  What a CHANGE in attitude, she was all smiling and being really nice to us, said good-bye/have a good night about 5 times, come back soon blah blah blah.  John was like WTF was that all about.  So I told him, I left her a nice tip which she likely didn\’t expect.  I will admit that it was partially out of spite, I generally don\’t tip as well for such low quality service but I wanted to prove and point and kill a stereotype at the same time.  Which I hope that I did, but maybe I didn\’t, I don\’t know if I\’ll ever find out.  My mom wants to go back when she comes here in the summer and we\’ll see if she\’s my server once again.  Because one thing is for certain that she\’s most likely going to remember me and I hope that its in a positive way.  After all one should never judge a book by its cover because appearances can be deceiving.

As for dinner itself, I told John that if he ordered fillet Mignon which he was welcome to, he wasn\’t allowed to order it well done or *I* wasn\’t paying for it lol.  I said it would be sacrilegious to the cow that provided it so he manned up and ordered it Med which I know he hates blood and medium is cooked enough that its not bleeding but still nice and tender like a steak should be!  I had fettuccine Alfredo which was nice enough, I could tell that it was made the simple way using fresh cream, butter & cheese.  Didn\’t detect any garlic or black pepper which to me makes an essentially good pasta and I LOVE garlic but the pasta was cooked perfectly and even though it was epically fattening it was still pretty yummy overall.

Then we went on a horse and carriage tour which he had never done through the old financial district with Nina as our guide and our lovely horse Charlotte who I got to feed a carrot to after the ride was over.  John didn\’t want to go anywhere near her and after I fed her she looked at him and seen that he had nothing snorted and looked away ha ha.  Then we walked around the dock for a bit but it was starting to get cold and bugs kept flying up John\’s nose so we went home and had cake.  Overall it was a really nice night and the most \”grown up\”  & expensive date I\’ve ever had but it was well worth it!  😉

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oh geez…

Why oh why do I torment myself?  Now don\’t get me wrong, I adore Carly and I love reading her blog as I do with all my other friends blogs of course!  However last night while chewing on my wad of gauze and trying to eat yogurt (whilst pretending it was something yummy that I couldn\’t eat ha ha) I stumbled over to see what Mrs. Carly had been up to since I had pay her blog a visit last.  Man I tell you I was DROOLING!  Take a look for yourself and tell me that doesn\’t look yummy!  So I had to say that I \”hated\” Read: drooled over with envy 😉  her blog pictures simply because I was and still am jealous that she got to enjoy such AWESOME looking food!  If I ever end up that way I\’d love to check that place out!  Anyway moving along…

I GOT TO EAT REAL FOOD TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have to be SUPER careful for the next 2 weeks until this gaping hole in my mouth closes over and the stitches fall out.  I\’m a little off balance from the painkillers and tripped over the area rug going into the tea room and almost did an epic face plant.  Thankfully no one was there except for my 2 co-workers because that was a little embarrassing!  Damn small feet of mine don\’t help either, I always miss-judge my steps because I purposely wear shoes bigger then my feet really are for 2 reasons: I\’m TIRED of people commenting on how small my feet are in spite of the fact that I am almost 6\” tall, no they\’re NOT cute it throws my balance off more often then not so wearing a larger size makes them \”appear\” to be in proportion to the rest of me.  Also the shape of my feet is odd to say the least.  My arch doesn\’t really exist, in fact my feet are almost flat.  In part due to working at such a young age (14 by choice) and being on my feet all the time so finding shoes that are wide enough is usually an issue best solved by buying a size or two bigger.

So aside from some minor residual discomfort and the odd pang of pain from doing stupid things like stepping down to hard, or bending down too low and trying really hard not to sneeze I\’m doing OK.  I ate like a champ today which was nice!  My diet is extremely limited mostly because I am SO paranoid of getting \”dry socket\” that I would like to avoid that at ALL costs~!  In any case it was nice to eat since the last proper meal I had was pre surgery but its SO frustrating not being able to eat normally.  Because one of my molars (you know the one I had looked at 2 weeks ago that\’s full of cotton) isn\’t exactly helpful when it comes to chewing so i\’ve stuck to stuff that I can tear up into bite sized pieces.  I\’ve eaten a lot of toast with peanut butter today.  After bleeding for almost 12 hours from the surgery my blood sugar was way low and having to take regular rounds of pain killers my stomach wasn\’t having it either so the bread helped stave that off and the peanut butter gave me some much needed protein.  We also had salmon \”Patti cakes\” at work today which consists of : Salmon, mashed potatoes, celery, onion and seasoning so I was able to eat that too which helped me feel less nauseated and light headed.  Getting your teeth pulled has a long lists of don\’t and flat out no\’s:

Don\’t sneeze, spit, cough, brush your teeth, do anything strenuous, smoke, eat real food, drink/eat anything hot, no alcohol for 12-48 hours depending on what it is among a ton of other things.  Thankfully I can brush my teeth but that\’s strange now because I\’m terrified of going too far back and hurting myself!  I have to stay more on top of my salt rinses though, I\’m allowed to do them every 1/2 hour to help speed healing and its a must after I eat especially because I will be dammed if anything get\’s lodged in there!  I *think* I\’m doing OK though so far!  I lived through getting 4 wisdom teeth out in one shot will no major ill effects so here\’s to hoping I have the same results this time around!