I just made some minor updates to this blog. I forced all images to have captions and I added a "permalink" to the end of each post. A permalink is an address that can be used to link to a specific post at any time, even after that post has fallen off the first page. Anyway, there shouldn't be any problems with these changes, but if there are please let me know.

This weekend was much more relaxed than the previous. Friday night we had the annual deck opening party at work and I also went with Kim to see a set of films at the Worldwide Short Film Festival. The party was lots of fun, and I went back to it after viewing the films. The films included Chris Landreth's new short, The Spine, and although I'd seen it before, it was great to see it again on a proper screen. The set of films focused on psychological issues and so some were quite disturbing (and Chris Landreth's film fit right in). I really liked a couple of them, in particular the short called "After Tomorrow" from the UK. The set ended on a lighter note with the new Wallace and Gromit film, "A Matter of Loaf and Death." Wallace and Gromit is always good and was a fantastic balance to the other, heavier films.

On Saturday we did some shopping, took care of some wedding things, and watched the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Sunday we went with Chris and John to the Taste of Little Italy festival, mainly to go to Dolce to get some yummy Gelato. We also had lunch at Craft Burger. The festival was alright, but other than the Gelato it didn't seem that special. We did get a chance to visit three random open houses though which was pretty neat. The last one was especially nice (only $650,000). Also on Sunday, I managed to watch the extended editions of the other two Lord of the Rings movies: The Two Towers and The Return of the King. I have no idea how I fit that in since that is like nine hours of movie. Good times!

Of course I took a bunch of pictures too, and here is a selection.

Burgers being prepared at Craft Burger

Kim trying on funny sunglasses

Chris trying on Harry Potter glasses, too small!

Random church and blue sky

CityPlace continues to grow

Clouds and buildings

Dead roses in the dying sun

Flowers

This past weekend was full of awesome food and fun and photography (alliteration much?).

On Friday, Jen had a housewarming party in her new apartment and she provided delicious marble strawberry cake and made-from-scratch strawberry daiquiris. For myself I brought the "Mill Street Seasonal Sampler" which is six different bottles of Mill Street beers. I like lots of the Mill Street stuff and this gave me a chance to try two I hadn't had before: Mill Street Pilsner and Mill Street Belgian Wit. The Organic Lager and the Tankhouse Ale are still my favourites, but it was fun to try new stuff. Anyway, the party was good and I was able to chat with some people I haven't seen lately (like Holly and Simone!).

On Saturday I got up early and went with Matt to St. Lawrence Market to acquire various foods for later cooking-related adventures. The Saturday north market is really starting to come alive, but it's not quite at capacity yet. I can't wait till the summer produce season really gets going. I love seeing all the fresh and local fruits and vegetables and making delicious things out of them.

Saturday afternoon I cleaned a bit, made muesli, and read for a while on my balcony. It's such a perfect time of year right now; warm but not humid with an awesome breeze coming in off the lake. I can smell it when I sit on the balcony (which I'm also doing right now) and it smells like AWESOME.

Around 3pm on Saturday I headed down to the Harbourfront to check out the "1000 Tastes of Toronto" festival where local chefs and restaurants were serving generous samples of their often expensive food for $5. There was so much available and it all smelled delicious. I was a bit disappointed to see that most people were flocking to "safe" choices but I guess that's the way people are. But for $5 you'd think they'd be more adventurous. Since it was mid-afternoon I decided to only get one thing and I chose it by looking exclusively at the places without lines. I ended up getting something from the restaurant Amuse Bouche because I got close and it smelled really good. It was a pulled pork sandwich except that the sauce was made with cocoa, almost like the Mexican dish chicken mole. It was SO GOOD. The chef was there and super friendly and described what it was and offered hot sauce to give it some kick. I was so happy with my choice and I think I'll try to go to the restaurant at some point.

On my way back from the Harbourfront I stopped at Rabba's and ran into Keizo and Rob! They had been at the Jays game and were meeting Chris and John and Will to get some supper at Volo, a really good bar to get fancy beers and delicious food. I decided to join them and we had a great time eating and drinking. I was able to sample my third new Mill Street beer of the weekend, this time it was the Mill Street "Lemon Tea" which smelled like iced tea and tasted like the Stock Ale. It was a definite chilling on the patio in the summer sort of beer (which is what we were doing). Good times! After supper we played some random game at Chris's house (with more beer).

Sunday morning I got up early once again to go for a long walk with Matt. I've always wanted to check out the Leslie Street Spit so we walked all the way out to Leslie Street and then all around the Spit. We chose to take the Queen streetcar home though as by the time we were done we had walked 17km. The Spit itself was pretty cool, lots of random stuff and about a million birds. I know it's a protected bird area and stuff, but there were many more than I expected.

Once I got home, I relaxed a bit and then started cooking. Kim was in London over the weekend but would be home for supper so I wanted to cook a something nice for her. Matt also joined us since I made a lot of food. I had a package of butter chicken spice mix that we'd been itching to try it out. There was a lot of prep work related to marinating and cooking the chicken in advance but it was all worth it as the result was delicious. We had naan and asparagus to round out the meal and Matt brought mango juice to drink. For dessert I made yummy strawberry-rhubarb crisp which we ate with vanilla ice cream. Supper was a definite win.

Here are some pictures I took over the weekend. My main failure with photography this weekend was that I didn't take any pictures of all the food I ate! I kept eating it before thinking to take a photo. Anyway, first up are some photos from Jen's party:

Cake picture number one

Cake picture number two

Strawberry daiquiris being created

View from Jen's balcony

Then there are some pictures from my dinner with people on Saturday:

Mill Street Lemon Tea beer

Will, Rob and me looking strange

John with his cash monies

Will on a street light

Giant light-up Corona bottle

Finally here are some pictures from our walk on the Leslie Street Spit:

Huge ship at the Redpath sugar plant

People on a path on the Spit

Random metal on the water front

A thistle in full bloom

A flower pot on the Spit

Pretty blue flowers

Rusted out old shed

CN Tower bump

Lots and lots of birds

Parallel swans

Foot bridge on the Spit

Turn winch manually

Saturday was busy! I got a haircut, new jeans and spent a good long time with friends. Matt, Adrienne, Adam and I visited with Michael and his finance Laura for lunch and the rest of the afternoon. We had the lunch buffet at Trimurti and so I ate way too much delicious Indian food. Then we walked around Queen street and the harbour front a bit before relaxing at Matt's house for a while.

For supper I rushed off to Jack Astor's to eat with Chris, John, Will and Kim before we all went to see Up the new film from Pixar. It was a fantastic movie as expected, it really pulls you in right from the beginning. The opening sequence was just amazing, it actually made people in the audience cry. Very good stuff. We saw it in 3D, and as with Coraline I didn't find that the 3D added anything to the story. It's a neat effect, but I think I'd rather just watch it in normal view and be more comfortable by not wearing the funky glasses.

Today was more relaxed, the only thing of note that I did was go for a walk to take a few photos, posted below. I've also included a couple that I took last weekend when my brother and I were home with my mom for her birthday.

Mom and Anthony walking in the woods

Anthony climbing a vine in the woods

Pirate flag at an office building, yar

Tall ships at the harbour

Dudes working in the rigging of tall ships at the harbour

Cool old fashioned TTC streetcar

String of lights at Harbourfront centre

Steamwhistle water tower plus the CN tower

This weekend was my mom's birthday and so Anthony and I took her out to dinner and a movie in London. For dinner we went to Auberge du Petit Prince which is a really nice French restaurant downtown. My mom and I both got the Chef's Four Course Tasting Menu with wine pairings. The chef just cooks surprises for you and they are paired with appropriate wines. It was exciting and delicious. My meal started out with escargot, then came a course of salmon with leeks, tiger shrimp and vegetables. The main course was beef tenderloin, that was cooked so perfectly it just melted in your mouth. This was paired with potato puree. For dessert I had a chocolate mousse thingy that was also super delicious. My mom's meal was tomato tart tartin, Chilean sea bass with Israeli couscous, duck confit, and creme brulee. My brother got the special of the day which was a roast chicken with stir fry noodles and shitake mushrooms. He also got a tasty beer from a microbrewery in St. Thomas, the Railway City Brewing Company. We all shared our meals so between us we managed to try so many different foods. It was really great. The service in the restaurant was excellent too.

After dinner we went to see Star Trek at the new Cineplex Odeon at Westmount mall in London. This was special because it has these special VIP theatres in addition to the normal theatres. Only people aged 19 or older are allowed because they serve alcohol, and they serve it right to your seat. They have really nice food, like restaurant style appetizers and sandwiches and things. Plus the seats are leather and big and comfy. There are also little tables between every second seat to hold your food or drink. It was quite the experience. Of course all this comes at a price -- an extra five dollars on top of the regular cost of a ticket. It was a fun experience, but I certainly wouldn't do it regularly.

I was just about to go to bed and noticed something odd through the window of our apartment. I can't see anything! We're on the 29th floor and we can normally see about a dozen other condo buildings all of which are really close by. At night they're all lit up. Not tonight...there is a huge cloud or maybe fog/mist everywhere and I can't see any of the lights in any of the other buildings. It's pretty freaky because I'm so used to being able to see lots of stuff out my window. It's like the city has disappeared.

Three culture related events this week. First, tonight we saw Riverdance at the Canon theatre courtesy of Patrick and Toni (they had a Mirvish subscription and left the country in the middle of it so we got their tickets to this show). I didn't have high hopes going into the show but it turned out to be really good. It's cool how dancing can express ideas if it's done right. Also the music was fantastic, I could have just listened with my eyes closed and still enjoyed the show.

On Friday Matt and I are seeing Tafelmusik perform "The Creation" by Haydn as part of the "World Creation Festival" where choirs and orchestras from around the world perform the piece in honour of the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death. The classical music world seems to be all about celebrating the deaths of its composers. Strange.

Finally, today I ordered tickets to go see one of the sets of short films in competition at the World Wide Short Film Festival here in Toronto. Film festivals are awesome and shorts are tons of fun. The set I chose has Chris Landreth's new film, The Spine which I'm super excited to see. Chris Landreth also created the film "Ryan" about the amazing NFB animator Ryan Larkin and he actually won the academy award for best short for that film. Another film in the set I got tickets for is the new Wallace and Gromit short, "A Matter of Loaf and Death." Wallace and Gromit are awesome.

I've added nine more photos (all from Ireland) to the Photos section of my website. I'm thinking I should get a maybe get a Flickr account or something instead. Or at least produce a separate RSS feed for my photos.

I've updated my Ireland trip journal with a Google map showing the route we took on our travels. Check it out! Google Maps API programming is fun!

After having most of my friends ridicule me for not having Skype I finally broke down and bought a webcam and installed it on my laptop. I really should have gotten on this years ago but I just didn't for some reason. I have no idea why not but I suspect it's because I'm becoming old and thus resistant to new technologies. Another example of this would be Twitter. I have no intentions of joining that bandwagon any time soon.

If you would like to video chat or whatever with me on Skype my user name is mclausch.

I finally finished my Ireland trip journal so you should go check it out! It's a bit long though so you might want to just look at the pictures.

In addition to the trip details I had a couple general thoughts that I'm going to post here.

First, driving. That was fun/special/insane. It actually wasn't too hard once I got used to the narrow, winding, hilly roads, the roundabouts, and the fact that I was DRIVING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD. Plus the manual transmission gave me another thing to worry about. As a result I think the driving took a lot of my energy. I would still rent a car if I did the trip again because it seemed like so much of the cool stuff was difficult and/or time consuming to get to by bus. We really enjoyed the flexibility of being able to go wherever we wanted and whenever we wanted. It meant that we could spend as much or as little time as we wanted in any spot. But this flexibility came at the cost of increased anxiousness around driving and finding parking and making sure the car was safe and had gas and hadn't exploded. I really feel like I accomplished something by successfully driving around a foreign country. It's always cool to learn that you're capable of doing new and scary things. But I'm not looking to repeat that accomplishment any time soon.

Next, cell phones. I paid €10 to have a cell phone in Ireland for the whole week. I used it many times to book accommodations or to get in touch with Rob and Patrick. Sure, I already had the actual phone loaned to me by Rob, but I was just so impressed with the ease of getting it activated. The cell phone people didn't care who I was or where I was going. I gave them cash, they gave me a SIM card and then I had a cell phone. Incoming calls on cell phones are free in most of the civilized world (not Canada...) and so I was able to have several long conversations with Patrick. Being able to call ahead to book rooms meant that we never had to commit to a city or destination until we were sure we could make it. And having a cell phone while driving made me feel a lot less concerned about getting lost or getting in an accident. I wonder if Canada will ever stop being a horrible place to own a cell phone.

Something else I liked about this trip was the fact that we were able to see so many of our friends while traveling. Obviously this trip was a special case because of the wedding, but it was still really awesome. I love traveling and seeing new places but I also love sharing experiences like that with the people I care about. So being able to get together with some of my closet friends at the end of the trip made the whole experience at least ten times better. Everyone was excited and had different stories to share and the whole atmosphere was unbelievably positive. Of course being at the wedding of Patrick and Toni probably brought that out in people but it still made for a wonderful feeling.

I had my new camera along on this trip and for the most part it worked out pretty well. I'm still a bit clumsy with a few of the settings which I found annoying at various points but on the whole I was really happy with the camera's performance. However, now that I'm home I have the same feeling with regard to my photos that I get on all my trips. I spend time trying to make "good" pictures because I like to take good pictures. But that time spent on photography means that I have less time for enjoying the trip. It also means that sometimes I fail to take more general representative photos of certain areas that will help me to remember the trip years from now. I think if I had a just a little point and shoot camera I'd take more of those sorts of photos. I think next time we go on a trip I'll make sure to take both my D90 and a smaller camera and so we each have a camera and Kim will be able to make sure that we get photos that will help with the memories.

Finally, I'd just like to take a minute to talk about the wedding. I haven't been to many weddings in my life (although this year looks like it's shaping up to be the year of the wedding) but this was the best by far and I think it will remain the best for the rest of my life. Toni and Patrick put so much time and effort into planning it and as a result it turned out amazing (at least from my perspective). Not only were all the details and practicalities perfect, but they were also able to create such an wonderful atmosphere. It was fun and extremely joyful. I'm so very happy for them to be together and to be moving on to their next adventure. They truly are some of the best people I've ever met and Kim and I will both miss them dearly. But they'll be coming to our wedding in October so we'll get to see them one last time before they leave for Australia.