Twenty-seven (the sequel) has been great - nothing crazy this year, just nice.  Last night went out for dinner with Matt to Sauvignon on Queen East - GREAT food, then went to see The Adjustment Bureau - really liked it - not as much action as I thought (GOOD), and more of a love story plot intertwined - highly recommended.  Today went to Starbucks and Cobb's for some caffeine and baked deliciousness, and now going to work on the basement.

Matt got me Glee Season 2 Volume 1, and a trip to Lulu in the future for some new stuff.  My parents got me a new Moen kitchen faucet (oh so practical - ours was leaking), the annual March Break Spa date with my mom (going on Tuesday to Elmwood), and also going to see GLEE on June 12th with my mom!  That was a great surprise - I was spoiled this year!  Got some money from family towards our trip in the summer too, so that was excellent.

I want to learn to make and ice this cake - it looks delicious, so of course it is by Martha.

Sort of Valentine's Day dinner last night.  We don't celebrate it, but we had an afternoon where I had finished school work and we were done packing for the day, and so took the time to prep all the vegetables, slow cook the lamb in a great wine sauce, and make polenta (which turned out a bit more liquidy than would have liked, but it was a first, and it still tasted delicious). Matt also bought me flowers (white and red tulips) while he was out getting groceries (love).

This is what I woke up to made by my lovely husband.  Yum! 

Heading to Mississauga to have a nice dinner with Steph, Jess, and Carolyn tonight - excited!  I made flourless chocolate tortes, which I am concerned are more going to end up like mousse or pudding since they don't see quite cooked...odd.  Well, they are in the freezer in the hopes that they solidify.  I'm planning to top them with some icing sugar and chili infused chocolate - yum!  Either way, they'll taste GREAT, but perhaps not the correct consistency.

We all agreed to see each other more - we went out at the beginning of December so are trying to make it at least every month if possible.  It's easy to get busy and get in to the bubble of self and boy.  Girl talk will be nice, and everyone is bringing something to add to dinner.

PS - we will miss you Holly and Killer!

Feeling better - Matt never actually got the full blown flu - just sick for a few days and then he was completely back to normal.  I am just finally over it now, I think - breath control still a bit weak.

Last weekend we did some packing, and this weekend was nice and relaxing.  Saturday lounged all day, and then went to a late dinner at Marcel's Bistro on King Street - great French food, including soup, braised rack of lamb, and creme brulee - yum!  It was nice to have a dinner where we got dressed up, took our time, had some wine, talked - so many times I feel rushed at restaurants, but going later after all the theatre crowd had left really helped.

Today Matt was packing for his 3 day trip to Ottawa for a conference, and we realized he has no black dress pants.  Well he does, but they are too short and weirdly baggy in the legs.  I FORCED him to the Eaton Centre and to Banana Republic for some new pants - and they were 25% off.  Since I forced him to buy them, I gave him my BR gift card from my birthday last year that I still hadn't used - I know - so nice, but now he OWES me, and you never know when I'll pull that card out!  Probably an extra super nice birthday present - Lululemon EVERYTHING!  Oh yeah, and along with this shopping trip I also got a Lululemon Stride jacket - nice and long and fitted and wonderful.  

I also took back the Coach purse my mom got me for Christmas, I didn't get anything new because they only had Spring stuff, but I'll probably get one suitable for travelling for our cruise.  The Coach store people DIED when I pulled it out - people LOVED this purse, I feel bad now that I gave it up - it was an incredible deep purple colour, but the style just wasn't me.  Unfortunately, it's into Spring colours now, so no more purple except for the pale stuff.  

We came home and had an early dinner of fajitas, watched Shrek Forever After, and now he's continuing to pack while I blog.  He's gone until Thursday, so I'll have the house to myself - maybe I'll start prepping for next semester like I should?  More likely I'll just mark, eat chocolate, and watch girly TV.  Yep - sounds like a plan.  I think I'll attempt to go back to the gym this week too - wish me luck!

My husband and I have started a new tradition last year - similar to what my parents do I believe - make a whole bunch of appetizers and eat them as dinner, drink champagne, and watch movies.  This year it will be Dexter Season 5 instead of movies!  I'm excited!  Hopefully we can stay awake until midnight!  Neither of us are big into celebrating it, but perhaps next year we'll actually have a house to have a party in!  Have fun everyone, but be safe!

Tomorrow:  Resolutions?

Cooked by my personal chef - Matt - he served blueberry blintz's with fresh berries on top.  A nice icewine from our Niagara wine tour to sip (our Christmas morning tradition) and it was perfection! What a great way to start Christmas morning!  Last year we had souflee, and the year before we did a cheddar-bacon thing - all very good!  I'm very lucky to have such a great cook as a husband!!!

Go ahead - be jealous.

Last weekend was great - Matt and I headed up to the cottage on Friday night, and spent the weekend in comfy clothes, relaxing by the fire, drinking wine, eating great food, and enjoying the hot tub.  It was pretty perfect.  We also watched about 8 episodes of the 2nd season of Dexter - yes - I know we could have stayed home and done that, but it was nice to change the scenery and be in the fresh air of Muskoka.  Matt also made a great dinner on Saturday - rack of lamb, root vegetables, fresh bread - yum!  I took some pictures of the cottage decor as well - I'll post those on my housing blog as a feature - Matt's mom has a great decorating eye.  All in all a great escape.

This week was busy at school, and I didn't go to the gym at all - it's getting ridiculous!  I need to get back into it, but I need some motivation.  Matt is running a half marathon tomorrow morning and he is continuously getting in better and better shape!  I do not enjoy running - hurts the joints and the lungs.  I prefer cardio & strength training classes.  I also want to start doing Yoga, or at least Goodlife's imitation "Body Flow" class again!  *sigh*  I need to get going because the year is only going to be busier - I need to push through this slump.

I found out on Sunday that my mom's cousin, Patricia, died.  It was very sudden - a bleeding ulcer.  Her husband found her in the bathroom.  So scary!  She was my mom's age, so it was really shocking for my mom - so sudden, so young, and we just saw her at the wedding less than two months ago.  I went to the visitation on Wednesday with Matt - it was tough to see her husband and son.  I felt weird that everyone kept asking me about the wedding and honeymoon and was so happy for us, but I guess you have to talk about something with family you barely see!  Keep Patricia in your prayers, please.  My mom said the only good thing is that she will now be with her mother, Irene, who died a few years ago.

I think I'm getting . I had a sore throat starting Wednesday night, was worse Thursday, then mostly went away Friday.  Now I am very sniffly and sneezy.  Also dopey - may as well use all the dwarfs to summarize my life.  I pray that Matt does not get it before Monday.  He went for a short run on Friday and felt very winded early on.  I cannot ruin this run for him!  Instead I will get him sick throughout the work week :p

Last night we ordered pizza and relaxed.  Tonight he's making dinner (sausage & pepper penne), and we'll relax again.  Sunday he runs at 7:30AM - I'll be there at the end anyway, he's trying to make it under 2 hours.  I would like to do some shopping tomorrow - I need some MAC products (my makeup artist did NOT follow through on her promise to get us the 60% discount on MAC stuff after the wedding - grrr), I need some sensible but cute work shoes, and I'll check out some shirts and pants as well, but will hold off on them unless I love them.  I don't have the money to spend right now! 

That's all for now - pretty boring I guess, but it's nice to have some time to relax still!

Just a quick weekend summary while I eat my cereal this Monday morning.  Friday we went to the Jays game with my uncle and Marika.  Great game - they were so close.  Came back from 6-0 in the first inning to being tied 8-8, and finally losing 9-8.  Oh well - still very fun.  The last one they got crushed and it was such a bad game so I can't complain about the action in this one.  Came back and went to bed pretty early.

Saturday slept in, lounged around with a cafe mocha (made by Matt from our new espresso machine) pretty much all day, took a nap, then finally got out of bed and walked to Vineyards and got some good wine.  Ordered Indian (yes, butter chicken is a "boring" choice, but delicious), and watched "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  I just finished the first two books and the Swedish version was actually pretty good!

Sunday slept in a bit again, went to the gym, then spent the afternoon and evening starting to watch the first season of "Dexter" because we both wanted to see it for a while but never got into it.  WELL - we definitely did now!  We finished the first 9 of 12 episodes in the first season yesterday!  Crazy!  It is a great show - very dark, but very plot twisty and interesting.  I'm addicted!

All in all, a nice and relaxing lazy weekend with the husband.  No being kicked out of our place, nowhere to be, just home! :)

So there is this scary shiny metal machine in our kitchen.  It has all these buttons, and steam comes out of it periodically, and looks like a high-tech space craft that will eventually abduct us.  It is more commonly known as an espresso machine, and up until yesterday, neither Matt or I attempted to use it.  We are simple people in terms of coffee and tea, but we really wanted this because who doesn't like lattes and mochas from Starbucks?  We got it at a shower in June, and has been setup, but unused, until NOW!

Matt decided yesterday that he wanted to pour espresso on ice cream a la beautiful dessert from Terroni.  So we figured it out.  Actually it wasn't that hard.  You scoop the espresso, you push it down, you load it, and press the 1 cup button.  I'm surprised at home much espresso is used and you only get one teeny cup out of it!  I tried to reuse the grinds a second time but it was pretty watery and Matt was disgusted with me...I guess its an espresso faux pas!  So we poured the espresso on the ice cream and it was beautiful and when it all melted it tasted like a vanilla latte! Yum!  I suppose I was supposed to eat the ice cream as it melted but my yummy drink seemed like a better idea to me.

The espresso itself is quite strong and bitter so my next challenge will learn to use the milk steamer/foamer to make the more yummy drinks.  I'll have to get some chocolate and caramel syrup as well to make the yummy Starbucks drinks.  Question - when do you add sugar if necessary?  Do you add it to the milk and then steam it?  Do you add it to the espresso and then add the milk?  Espresso gurus - answer me!  Any favoured espresso brands?  We got a canister of "Illy" from Loblaws, which had a surprisingly low selection of espresso brands...I thought more Toronto people used them?  Maybe they just go out to get it all the time.  Can you use ground coffee in an espresso machine?  So many questions!!!

Ahh yes, and the end of this wonderful coffee adventure ended up with me being WIRED and hardly sleeping.  New Rule: No espresso after 8pm.  It will save me from bugging Matt and trying to keep him awake with my incessant chatter!