Saturday, December 31, 2011

12-31-2011



Even on mini-vacation, my OCD still makes me make sure I go running. At least I went to High Park to have a very scenic run to finish my 700 miles for the year (really since 4-11-11). I even ran though the park zoo and saw/smelled llamas, goats, reindeer, and a buffalo.

Toronto is really a pretty city to look at and I can only imagine how much better it would be in the summer when it's warm. This is the CN Tower that they built so you can see how pretty Toronto is from high up. Look at the picture, the blue sky looks clear and nice right? It should be perfect to go up the tower! But let's go get some poutine first. Yelp told us that the best poutine is from a blue chip truck that parks outside of City Hall. As we were looking for parking, look what we saw drive by. I was really worried that blue truck was leaving, since I was really hungry and ready to eat after my morning run. Luckily, they were just parking like we were, but they weren't open yet. We wandered around waiting, and found this crazy camera store owned by an even crazier camera guy. I really wish I took a picture of him, but his crazy was too crazy and intimidating for even my "must take a picture of everything" crazy. Finally, the fabled "blue chip truck that parks in front of City Hall" is open! This is way way better tasting than it looks, and made me love Canada just a little bit more than I already did.

Then we dawdled around a bit looking at where the New Years Eve party was going to be that night. Did you notice that the sky changed colors? We didn't. We probably should have before going up the CN Tower to admire the incredible view. The observation decks have views for miles. But only when the entire sky isn't one big, giant cloud of fog. I blame poutine for making this fog while we were waiting for the truck. It's ok. It was worth it. Besides, at least the glass floor was cool to look down and jump on to make Nicole nervous. We decided to have coffee and dessert while waiting for the smoke to clear. It didn't. Oh well, at least we can say we went up the CN Tower.

Something I may or may not be proud to say I did was go to an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place for my last meal of 2011. Korean BBQ is fun because you get to cook on fire. All-you-can-eat is embarrassing because I can't stop eating food like this until I'm physically incapable of motion.

After waddling out of the restaurant, we went here. How exciting, we're at the biggest celebration Toronto has! There's even going to be a Backstreet Boy (singular) performing tonight! Look how excited Nicole looks! That picture was taken exactly 30 seconds before we realized that this concert thing was really lame and kind of boring. It was really cold, crowded and we didn't have any booze. In contrast, our hotel room was warm, spacious, and stocked with wine and the Crown Royal pictured yesterday. It was a pretty easy decision to run away before even more people trapped us there. Besides, even in the wonderful land of Canada, they enforce open container laws (I know because I Googled it), so no one was really getting trashed on the street. This makes for far less exciting street people picturing, so I had to settle for just weird/embarrassing ones. Like this guy actually using a pay phone, this picture of big girls in tights, matching funny looking bicycles, and Nicole's seduction face.

We got back to the hotel in time to see where we just were on TV, but like good Americans, we watched the ball drop in Times Square instead. Happy New Year!

And so concludes year #2 of my 365 picture project (I guess it's now a 730 project). I'm looking forward to see what year #3 will bring as long as I don't get sick of posting stuff. Besides, 2012 will be my most difficult 365 so far (since it's leap year and I'll have to cover an extra day), and I might get to take pictures of the end of the Mayan world. Bye!

Friday, December 30, 2011

12-30-2011



We do our best to travel a lot. My motivation it to see as much of the world and have as many varied life experiences as possible before I die. I'm pretty sure Nicole's motivation is to visit ever Anthropologie in the world. She's doing pretty well so far. We've been to stores in three different countries and at least five different U.S. locations...just this year. Actually I should take that back. My real motivation for traveling is honestly just to eat food. There are lots of foods that you can't eat where we live like Chinese breakfast and very high on my list, xaio long bao also known as "Chinese soup buns". I'm pretty sure you can find these were we live, but they're really tasty as well as photogenic.

This was really photogenic, but I have absolutely no desire to find out how it would taste. Speaking of photogenic, we went to Dundas Square. It's a place every tourist goes to take pictures and they all pretty much look exactly like this. Tourists also go to Eaton Center to go shopping. Clearly, if shopping and picture taking defines tourism, Nicole and I are tourists. Here's a picture I tried to take of fast guy ice skating, but he was too fast to really get a good picture of. And he didn't fall down once. Here's a picture from Queen Street West. You can pretty much figure out what that street is like from that picture. Can you tell what this street is like from the picture? Here, this picture should help. Yeah, we're in Chinatown to eat more food. Yelp guided us to a place called Mother's Dumplings, which probably means that this is some one's mother. Additionally, these are dumplings. These really are one of my favorite things to eat, so having them twice in one day was ok with Nicole.

Canadian money has hockey on it. Another sighting of something specifically Canadian is milk in a bag. It's only funny to Nicole and I...well really just me, but this is a picture of the old elevator in our hotel that may or may not be too confusing for one of the people in the picture to use. And here's another Canadian thing that I like.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

12-29-2011



Phantomgram on repeat means that we're on the road and driving past Buffalo (the city and the animal)...to flee the country and see a big waterfall! We might have picked the exact worse time of year to do this, because everything was cold and frozen, but at least it looked really cool. Nicole looked cool/cold/very wet. I looked like a nerd/Vanna White. We looked at America.

You know the saying about "the grass is always greener..." or whatever? Well the grass is more frozen on the other side of the border. Nicole is always frozen is on the other side of the border. Toronto is on the other side of the border.

Hey look, we have a hotel room. They bumped us up to the second best room because we got there late and they gave away all the cheap rooms already. Since we got there late, Nicole was sleepy, but I dragged her out of the hotel to go eat noodles. Now please understand, the scheduling of this trip around the new year was purely coincidental. I really just wanted to go to Toronto to eat. Eat everything and that's it. As such, the next few post are going to be food picture overload. There will be some pictures of Canadian stuff, but really mostly just food. For example, for years I've heard of a legendary, exclusive cultural establishment that shocked every Canadian I met when they found out that the U.S. didn't have it. Of course I'm talking about Ketchup potato chips which are as Canadian as hockey, mooses, and geese that poop all over the sidewalk. See, I'm talking about Canadian stuff, but it's really just an excuse to post more food pictures.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

12-28-2011



Of course I'm not foolish enough to attempt to transport a handgun across borders, but I figured it would make for a much more exciting photo of me packing to flee the country again.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

12-27-2011



My cats still just hang out and sleep this close next to each other all day while I go out and try to be productive.

Monday, December 26, 2011

12-26-2011



My dad is still in the hospital after his nasty surgery, so we went to visit and bring him presents to cheer him up. And what would possibly cheer anyone up more than officially licenced Baby Lily™ merchandise.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

12-25-2011



It's Christmas, and my mom is here to inspect the authenticity of gifts. Sienna is working down to the last minute to make sure she's on the naughty list, but she and Mushroom get gifts anyway. Also receiving gifts even though she's probably on the naughty list too is Baby Lily. We got to watch her open them on Facetime.

So almost a month ago, I brought a giant present home from work and told Nicole that I was hiding it for my boss so his kids didn't find it. I then proceeded to have to pretend to shop for her and not know what to get for the past few weeks while she walked by this giant box multiple times every day. She was kind of confused when I told her to open my boss' kid's present, but she was willing to do it and pretty happy about it even though her gift was on the 7 Gifts to Avoid this Holiday list on Yahoo. She was much less excited about watching A Christmas Story. Then I stopped taking pictures for the rest of Christmas, but I'm sure all the haul of awesome presents will eventually show up on this blog as long as I keep doing it next year. Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

12-24-2011



After picturing in churches when I wasn't supposed to all around Europe, I figured it would be ok to take one sitting behind Mrs. Claus tonight at my mom's church for Christmas Eve.

Friday, December 23, 2011

12-23-2011



This reminds me of the Moonshiners show on Discovery. Obsessed.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

12-22-2011



This Mexican grocery is one of my favorite places in the world right now.

This place is one of Nicole's favorite places in the world, and they're having a huge sale which is great for me since I'm horrible at buying surprise presents. I'm much happier letting her pick out things that she likes, then wrapping them up for Christmas.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

12-21-2011



Real life is too real.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

12-20-2011



I'm not saying that Christmas could be over and I wouldn't be bummed out, but Santa is going to have a very difficult time topping the gift I received today. Today I went to the Mexican grocery by my house because they're now cooking super legit street meat. The grease means authenticity. I might eat there again tomorrow...and every day...until my heart explodes.

In other news, my cats just sleep all day.

Monday, December 19, 2011

12-19-2011



So today is supposed to be the start of my two week mental health vacation/holiday break. It kind of still is, but I had to bring the little glowing box pictured above home with me so I can work when I'm not at work. That little box contains the better part of my career, and would probably ruin my life if I ever accidentally dropped it. It actually makes me really anxious having it my possession and being responsible for it. It is My Precious.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

12-18-2011



It's kind of funny that Nicole spent the day making Christmas cookies with her grandmother and I spent the day hanging out with this rowdy dog doing "hoodrat stuff with my friends."* And we both had the respective best days possible.

* Click this if you don't get it (or even if you do).

Saturday, December 17, 2011

12-17-2011



I've posted before about my obsession with chicken and waffles. Moreover, the majority of posts on this blog somehow reference me eating too much grilled cheese. When I found out that these two things were merging into something totally ridiculous, I pretty much scheduled my month around being there for it. This is a chicken and waffle grilled cheese sandwich with maple syrup and habanero hot sauce. I eat like a fat kid.

I risked getting yelled at by mall security for today's main picture because it's festive and seasonal. Here's something kind of festive, but completely unseasonal.

Friday, December 16, 2011

12-16-2011



Amending yesterday's statement regarding sobriety and drive-thrus, drive-ins are totally different. I'm always exuberantly happy to eat at Swensons no matter what the circumstances are. Besides, I believe being intoxicated around children while shopping for Christmas presents at Toys-R-Us is generally looked down upon in our society.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

12-15-2011



My coworkers do cool stuff. Like make movies and have film screenings in fancy theaters. That picture doesn't show it, but they pretty much filled the entire place and showed a really good film. This lame blog is pretty much all I have to show for myself.

After the after party, I was reminded that there is a direct, inverse relationship between my sobriety and my level of excitement regarding fast food drive-thrus. Can you say "McDonald's Manager Mustache Man" three times fast? I really shouldn't make fun of him though, because he gave us this wonderful holiday confection. Thank you, McDonald's Manager Mustache Man for your seasonal gift of deep fried joy.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

12-14-2011



Do you remember this picture of Mushroom from 10-10-11? We're upping the ante a little bit.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

12-13-2011



...that's all.

Monday, December 12, 2011

12-12-2011



I'm inexplicably terrified of having to set the security system at work. I feel like I'm arming explosives in a movie and have to run away before the building explodes.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

12-11-2011



With all this holiday partying, let's not forget the real reason for the season...Jesus is running for political office.

After ritualistic weekend breakfast, we went Christmas shopping, but I can't post any pictures of that because then nothing would be a surprise. Instead, you get to see yet another reason why Nicole an I are the biggest nerds you know. Yeah, we covered our ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars and a moon light with remote controlled phases. Falling asleep looking at this every night may or may not compete with kitten tea party.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

12-10-2011



Unlike the hot chocolate holiday party from yesterday, tonight's slightly different holiday party focused on some less "cozy" beverages. My goal for the evening was to actually not drink at all and just observe/document the chaos. Generally, nights at this bar, especially when my friend Tony plays DJ, end up a little wild. I like taking pictures with the flash on in these situations. It's like a Where's Waldo game when you can actually see everything that's going on. I'm honestly not quite sure what's going on here, but it happened pretty much on top of us for the entire party. How could anything with drunk Santa and this guy crowd surfing not be a party?

Friday, December 9, 2011

12-9-2011



I orchestrated an office holiday party with hot chocolate and marshmallows, and it's all entirely because of the strange paper toy spilling his eggnog pictured above.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

12-8-2011



Have you ever seen a truck full of corrosive poison? What would you even do with that?

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

12-7-2011



That's nine (9) full pages of hand drawn storyboard over two days. My favorite pencils are stumps and my eyeballs are about to fall out.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

12-6-2011



The gates to the barbecue pit of calorie hell have opened all together too close too my house. This is also probably the closest I'll ever get to posting a cheesy "mirror self-portrait" shot.

Monday, December 5, 2011

12-5-2011



The first real present has arrived and is now safely under the tree.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

12-4-2011



My cat Sienna really likes Christmas. As such, it's the time of year to risk bodily harm to get the decorations out of our sketchy storage space and put up our tree. I'm really serious about Sienna liking Christmas. She likes seasonal stuff like egg nog and Christmas music and ornaments that look like her. This is my ornament that's as old as I am. Nicole also likes Christmas music (though streaming a station on my phone is a lot easier than cranking a phonograph for every song). She even sings along. I think this is Sienna telling us that she approves of our decorations, and that she can now pretend to be a present for the rest of the month. She'll be here pretty much from now until we take the tree down. Happy holidays.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

12-3-2011



I know I post too many pictures of food, but I didn't bring my camera on my 12.5 mile run this morning, and spending the whole day cleaning our house isn't very photogenic. Slightly more photogenic is this awesome still-in-the-box Transformer I "liberated" from my parent's house (the same way I liberated my grandfather's Leica on 1-30-10). Look at this illustration and tell me it doesn't bring back instant nostalgia (provided you're a boy that grew up in the 80's). It also works on some girls that grew up in the 80's too, because it made Nicole want to dig out her old toys to play with (appropriately, my vintage 80's BMX bike is in the background). Barbie box. This is what she was really looking for. It's a cupcake doll that's supposed to smell like berries, but Nicole thinks smells like one of her coworkers. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. We ain't never growing up forever.

P.s. these toys are the exact same age as I am. I would like to think that I've accomplished more in my lifetime than they have, but I'm not really sure that I can make that claim.

Friday, December 2, 2011

12-2-2011



Occasionally, I catch myself having done something like this on my desk. Totally unconsciously. And I'm reminded of exactly how obsessive compulsive I really am.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

12-1-2011



The spoils of Cyber Monday have been steadily arriving. I believe this sets off a seasonal holiday that only cats celebrate. Sienna thinks it's called "Boxing Day," but I'm pretty sure that's something different.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

11-30-2011



It's here.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

11-29-2011



Now that Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday are all officially over (well not exactly totally over), I'm now prepared to begin to think about Christmas. Or in my job's case, whichever seasonal holiday you choose to observe. Speaking of my job, we have a Christmas (used to be a tree) ladder that everyone can decorate with office-made ornaments. I made Post-It-Note-bread-people that are wearing finger tip hats that I cut off my hobo gloves. Needless to say, I'm already pretty excited about Christmas.

Monday, November 28, 2011

11-28-2011



Oh, Cyber Monday. I know I made fun of your relative, Black Friday, but what you've done to my bank account today was cruel and entirely uncalled for.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

11-27-2011



Nicole and I have a policy of spontaneously awarding ourselves "prizes." Generally these are for minor accomplishments such as running 600 miles, or in this case buying a miniature, porcelain, teddy bear tea set to assuage for a really really bad sinus headache. Additionally, we're crazy cat people, and just so happen to have things like giant catnip filled tea bags laying around the house. It doesn't take a fortune teller to predict what happens next. Yeah, we're having a high tea party on an antique silver dish with our cats. That's real milk in the creamer because Mushroom takes her tea with milk. Not because she's British though, but because she's a cat. A cat that drinks tea. However, since catnip is pretty much crack for cats, Mushroom may have drank a little too much tea and ended up trashing the party then passing out. I belive that that's the definition of a successful cat party.

P.s. I'm fully aware what this post says about both my relative level of sanity and social life. I still like it and I don't care. I do what I wanna.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

11-26-2011



The number of nice days left in the year for hiking in the woods are probably very limited. Pretty soon this cave and these bees will be covered in snow.

Friday, November 25, 2011

11-25-2011



I hope everyone had a good time standing in line for hours in overcrowded stores to buy a stack of VHS tapes and DVD's for 10% off. I was out burning up turkey and pie calories in the woods stomping in the glorious mud, climbing hills, and chasing Great Blue Herons for 11.2 miles this morning. Enjoy watching that Brüno DVD you got for 99¢. I'm sure it will be worth it.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

11-24-2011



Thanksgiving is by far one of my favorite holidays. It celebrates eating, and if you've ever read my blog before, you know that eating is pretty much a religious activity for me. Quickly becoming another religious activity to me is running, so in addition to celebrating copious gluttony, we signed up for a Turkey Trot race in the morning. Since this was going to be a relaxed "fun run," I had grand aspirations of running with my little point-and-shoot camera to document the whole race. I started out well with a shot of the pre-race ritual of Nicole eating a bagel (maybe the ritualistic eating is why I like running so much). I even got a shot of the ritualistic, pre-race trip to the Porta-Potty. Now understand, I'm a bit of a germaphobe and have a paralyzing fear of public restrooms. Especially Porta-Pottys. Like night terror, screaming in my sleep level horrified. So before races, it's pretty much like a game show to get there early and pick the right door that no one has been to before me. Finding the closed down lid (pictured above) and still wrapped up roll of paper is pretty much like winning the all expense paid trip to Tahiti for me. Aaannnddd this is where my documentation of the race comes to a close. Right before we lined up, I decided that running with even a small, little camera would be no fun at all, so I stashed it in the car. Sorry, I really did want to get pictures of people huffing and puffing so they could eat at much turkey as they want. Maybe next year...but probably not.

In a move towards full disclosure, even the above photo is fake. That's not really the end of the race, and Nicole didn't really beat her dad. Her dad still has a bit of speed on her. Nicole's parents are cool. If you don't believe me, here's a picture of me doing festive holiday shots with my mother-in-law.

You can pretty much (rightly) assume that there was truckloads of food and that I ate it all, but I was too busy eating to take pictures. I did however take this picture because I'm still obsessed with the electric turkey saw power tool. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

11-23-2011



It's the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm fully prepared to out-gluttony this wee spider in terms of relative body mass to consumption ratio.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

11-22-2011



Look! Do I win a prize or anything? I hope I win something good...like maybe a new car.

Monday, November 21, 2011

11-21-2011



These are egg rolls that my grandmother made. We keep a stockpile of them in the freezer for special occasions and when we want to be fat. Tonight is not a special occasion.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

11-20-2011



Don't let this really hip drummer fool you. We're at the Beachland to see my favorite bluegrass band. For real bluegrass with lots of cowboy hat wearing and yes, I have a favorite bluegrass band. This isn't my favorite bluegrass band. They're the opening act but they were still very good, and even sang songs about bears.

When I saw Trampled by Turtles last year (11-6-10), I was a lot closer to the stage and got better pictures. This time I was shooting though heads, so I didn't take as many shots. I really like seeing live music though and I always wonder why I don't do it that often anymore.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

11-19-2011



Look, Nicole is wearing crazy shoes again, and this time she's carrying a ladder. What could she be up to? Whatever it is, it apparently involves this very suspicious caulk gun and putty knife. Actually, she's not doing anything at all, because I won't let her do sketchy things like climbing on the roof since she's know to be "whoopsie" prone. Instead, I climbed my own clumsy self up on our sketchy roof to pretend that I'm a good and responsible homeowner. If you've ever read this blog before, you know that this is not true. Regardless, I could no longer put it off, and set on an expedition to find why water has been leaking though our walls and into our basement. This crack looks like a viable culprit. I did this which probably would have fixed it, but since I was already up here and had a full tube of nasty smelling sealant stuff, I did this to make sure I won't have to go back up here for another hundred years. Hopefully it works.

I wasn't sure if it was in bad taste to post about this on here, and it kind of creeps me out, but I think it's really crazy so I'm doing it anyway. Today while we were out doing stuff, we saw all sorts of police lights and people searching in the woods by a broken highway barrier. As always, I was curious to know what was going on, and always have my camera with me, so I took some pictures. The weird thing was when we got home, we googled to see what happened and if everyone was ok (so far they are), and came across this picture on a news site. If you look closely at the last two pictures, the guy in the yellow jacket is leaning into the car in both shots, and I'm pretty sure that little blue guy and I were taking pictures of each other. Creepy.

Friday, November 18, 2011

11-18-2011



Tell me I won't leave the house in a wool duffle coat, reflective running tights and Vans slip-ons to drop my broken car off at its sleepover. I'll make you a liar.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

11-17-2011



Peep kicks.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

11-16-2011



So back when I was in college, one of my friends started seeing a girl that liked to go to bars with her dad. In order to see said girl, my friend would have to meet up wherever said dad chose to be that night. No big deal. But wait, said girl's father happened to be gay and logically enjoyed going to gay bars. Gay bars with male exotic dancers performing on stage. This frightened my friend. As such, I was enlisted to come as "backup." I'm not really sure what exactly being "backup" entailed, but whatever, it was something to do that night right?

In any case, the reason that I'm telling this seemingly random story is because since my time in college, said gay bar has turned into a divey punk rock bar, and my friend's band was in town to perform on the same stage that I had previously watched a dude wiggle around in a thong on.

This band had a kick drum graphic that was pertinent to Nicole's interests. My friend's band was selling real records.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

11-15-2011



It really sucks that the sun goes down before I get out of work every night now, and I don't normally post pictures like this, but it was really pretty tonight.

Monday, November 14, 2011

11-14-2011



Often when people ask me what exactly it is that I do for a living, I'm forced to take a long pause, chew on my inside of my lip a little bit, then summarise that I work in advertising and quickly change the subject.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

11-13-2011



Some things will undoubtedly make you faster automatically. Being Kenyan, being chased by a bear, getting elbowed ten feet from the finish line etc. None of these things will automatically make you as fast as Nicole's new crazy colored shoes will.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

11-12-2011



We saw a lot of cool stuff today. I thought that this buck narrowly avoiding death in traffic would be the coolest, but it wasn't. Since I'm still on break from running, we went hiking on this path to enjoy whatever is left of the pretty fall season. I took lots of pictures of Nicole in nice light while we walked around beautiful scenery. It's also pretty cool to see horses, but that wasn't the best thing either. On pretty much any other day of my entire life, this would be the coolest thing I would see all day, but I'm still having a hard time declaring even the living icon of America the winner.

This is Sheldon. It sounds like the setup for a joke, but tonight at our favorite creole restaurant/bar, I watched Sheldon taking orders, serving drinks, and busing tables. You might be thinking that's not so weird right? Well, Sheldon doesn't work at said creole restaurant. Sheldon is a shellfish eating, beer drinking rabbi, and I'm pretty sure the coolest thing I saw today.