Wing night was super tasty/random last night. We went to the Balkan Bistro, which is a family-run Turkish restaurant near Baldwin. It was just a little place (and there were 10 of us) but it was super cozy and the family was really friendly. The food (the important bit) was spectacular. I had something that I don't remember the name of, but it had veal, tomato sauce, eggplant puree and lots of random spices. Sooooo good. Every meal came with potatos, rice, something that I couldn't identify and a really nice salad. That is, the meals were way too much food (although I'm not really complaining). Jen and Matt got veal schnitzel and Rob got these really good pork dumplings that came in a creamy yogurt based sauce. Toni and Dave got this really interesting mix of ground beef and rice battered in an crispy egg mixture. I got to try them all and they were all really good. My favourite was definitely the dumplings though.

Tonight was climbing as usual and I had a really good night. I climbed a higher difficulty than ever before and I also climbed a couple from the difficulty immediately below much better than usual.

I collect the Simpsons on DVD (along with lots of other shows, but this story is about the Simpsons). They recently began releasing "special edition" versions of the box sets where the box is shaped like the head of one of the characters. Now this new box is kinda cool, but it looks nothing like the previous box sets and as such doesn't look right on the shelf with the others. Yes this is very anal retentive, but I can't help it. They should all look the same! Season 6 was the first one with the new box. Seasons 7 through 9 also have a new box, but you can still get the same thing in a normal style box as well. It's just season 6 that you can't get in a normal box.

So today I resigned myself to the fact that one box would look weird and picked up season 6 using a gift card from Christmas. I got home and opened it up, silently cursing the stupid non-matching box. But when I looked inside, there was a slip of paper advertising a website that lets you order a standard box for season 6!!!! So cool!!! I went to the website and all it costs is shipping and handling. So I'm ordering it right away. The order form even had a place to indicate your reason for wanting a new box, and one of the reasons was "Anal Retentive (box must be identical)." I totally picked that option.

So this has made me happy for the rest of the day, not just because my properly matching box needs have been fulfilled, but because someone out in the world acknoweldged my exact opinion and has done something to accomodate it. Thank you, awesome anal-retentive person, whoever you are.

I forgot to mention something from the New Year's party. Jen got Reena a roll of yellow duct tape (awesome!) and one of our guests made a frisbee out of it and some of my pennies. Here's an in flight picture!

Frisbee in flight!

So I held a New Year's party this year at our place here in Toronto and it went really well. We had around 20 people show up for at least part of the evening and everyone seemed to have a good time. It felt good to do it because I've always had New Year's celebrations with my friends at my house in the past, especially in high school. It was nice to do it again.

Also, although it is a lot of hassle and stress, I kinda enjoy throwing parties. The only thing I don't like is how you can't relax as much at your own party. It's neat to put it together and see everyone have a good time though.

Here are some amusing picture from the evening:

Alex and Andrew

Mike being crazy

Me in my fancy new shirt

A bunch of people, and Rob

Matt and Mike

Jen with cheese fudge

Me, Jen, Lisa, Brian

Tim and Andrew

Rob falling off a chair

Will