Where did this year go?

The Boy and I put up our Christmas tree and wrapped 90% of our Christmas gifts. yep, December 2. Now. Xmas baking and two huge pushes for Team Diabetes.... see you in 2012 :)

My 30 things

I did it! I completed(ish) my list!

ok i didn't do it.. but look at all of the other things I did:
1. I went skydiving. Twice.
2. I went backcountry camping and survived!
3. I teach TWO things regularly.
4. I painted. That reminds me JS - your paintings are still coming!
5. I subscribed to a marketing journal.
6. I sang karaoke in front of real, live people.
7. I own property.
8. I visited Australia, loved it, and am dying to go back, million-hour flights be damned.
9. I went scuba diving - amazing new hobby!
10. I took a cooking class. several, really. and I will take more!
11. I mastered poached eggs. It didn't take me nearly as many tries as macarons.
12. I mastered hollandaise sauce. Vegan hollandaise, but hollandaise nonetheless.
13. I sent a package to someone far away. several someones!
14. I renewed a friendship.
15. I caught a fish!
16. I went horseback riding! Horses are scary.
17. I went for high tea. I love pretending to be fancy.
18. I made a croquembouche - a profiterole tower- from scratch!
19. I shot a gun!
20. I went sailing. This was a toughie but was pretty amazing.
21. I flew a kite. why did i wait so many years?!
22. I lost 10 pounds.. over and over.. the same 10 pounds.
23. I lost 10 pounds of clutter. also over and over. I'm my mother's daughter and i want to save stuff for a rainy day, but i live in condo. i'm working on it.
24. I rode a mechanical bull.
25. I repaired a piece of furniture.
26. I had a grown-up dinner party.
27. I surprised my parents.. FINALLY! (and yes, they were completely surprised!)
28. I went on a motorcycle ride.
29. I got Screeched In.
30. I made 8 batches of parisian macarons and there was something wrong with each of them, but I put in a fair effort.
30b. I repotted some plants! I'd always wanted to do that.

and now my list of 40 things before I turn 40 starts.. Just remind me to start more than 6 months before. geez. i need a break!!

p.s. weekend was a blast - The Boy took me on a surprise trip to Montreal and to eat at Garde Manger, Chuck Hughes' resto (SOOOOO good and so salty!) and then threw me a surprise party yesterday. I love him :) so far 30 is great!

Numbers 29 and 30 (not really): Get Screeched In and Master Parisian Macarons

Yes, ladies and gentlemen.. I am an honourary newfie. I drank the rum, kissed the cod head (thanks AW!) and said the line.. I is me, old cock. And long may your big jib draw. Or something. Line? Sure, I wasn't in actual newfoundland. But when will I be? Thanks to AW for organizing and creating the certificate.. and to DM and The Boy for photodocumenting the event. Super fun. Now what will I do with an entire bottle (-1 shot) of Screech?

I'm still in my 20's.. as I write this, anyway. My friends have gone home and it's just me and The Boy, munching on the crap macarons I've been trying to make. These things are a million dollars each in the stores. They are not cheap, but they are worth every hard-earned penny. I followed the same recipe, to a T, 6 times. And for rounds 7 and 8, I just had to try new recipes. Sometimes they were misshapen. Sometimes they were flat. Usually they were hollow. The last time, round 8, just now.. they weren't hollow (YAAAYYYYYYYY) but looked like crap. I can't successfully call it as mastered. Macarons are so finnicky it could be a gram or two off of one ingredient, too much beating or too little beating, egg whites too aged/not aged enough, too dry/too much humidity… AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH all in all, I could NOT master parisian macarons. With only minutes to go before the day changes over and I legally turn 30 years old, I did not complete my 30 things. But you know what? I need something to grow on.

Number 28: Go on a motorcyle ride

I was 8 and one of my neighbours was polishing a motorcycle in his driveway. My other neighbour, CR, had gone on a motorcycle ride and told me that she loved it (As a note, I ran into CR on the Ottawa U campus a million years later and she was getting off her own motorcycle and doing the shaking-hair-out-while-taking-helmet-off thing. So hot). The motorcyle neighbour said he'd take me for a ride if my parents said it was ok. I didn't even ask - I knew what the answer would be.

Fast forward 22 years and The Boy says it'd be a good idea for us to both get our M licenses in case we go somewhere like Europe and we want to get scooters to tour around the city. I've been wanting a city scooter anyway (although zoning out on the bus and playing Words With Friends will be hard to give up), but I think it's a good idea to actually go for a ride first. The Boy's friend DM says he'll take me for a ride. After work today, he picked me up and we went for a very fast and slightly rainy ride up and down Colonel By Drive. It was SO FUN! He was nice and didn't lean into the turns like the bike could have, and for that I am thankful!

So from my list, I want a gun and a horse and a kite and more scuba diving trips.. But do I want a motorcyle? The jury is still out. It was super fun but I am a scaredy cat.

Number 27: Surprise my parents

For their anniversary one year, I tried to surprise my parents by bringing them on a hot air balloon flight. It was too windy, it got cancelled, and my mom told me that I can't surprise them because they'd need to know how to prepare in advance, and besides, my dad is afraid of heights (challenge… accepted). So over the past few years I've tried giving them gift certificates out of the blue (not as good as chinese food), surprising them with a meal out (we can't make it then, how about another day?), surprising them at home (every time, they weren't home). Those people just can't be surprised. But this time I think they will be! The Boy and I bought them an end-of-season bbq, assembled it (The Boy) and left it in their foyer. And I know they will be surprised when they get back from their trip because DQ called me in surprise already when he went to their house to harvest tomatoes. They come back from their trip today! They don't read my blog (or even know about it) (or what a blog even is) so I think it's ok to announce it here.

YAY!

Numbers 25 and 26: Repair a Piece of Furniture and Host a Grown-Up Dinner Party, Not Just A Bender Location

The story of my wanting to repair a piece of furniture starts with Grey's Anatomy and Martha Stewart. It's no secret that A) I'm in love with Martha Stewart and everything she stands for, and B) I have a thing for gay men. So turn back the clock to when Grey's Anatomy was still starting out and made me cry in every episode, to when George (TR Knight) was still fighting for Meridith's love, and to when TR Knight hadn't yet come out of the closet. TR Knight goes on an episode of Martha! And they refinish a chair. Martha asks TR about a girlfriend (he did not have one... yess!!!!) and they chat about chairs at his house that he needs refinishing. Martha says she will help. And me? Well, I develop a plan. All I have to do is write a book, go on a book tour, get an agent to book me a spot on Martha!, make friends with Martha, and have her introduce me to TR Knight and we'd live happily ever after. And in the meantime, I figured he'd want a handy girl around the house, so I'd learn how to refinish furniture. But, alas, TR Knight came out of the closet, being maybe the 8th guy in the list of celebrity-or-otherwise crushes I'd had that turned out to be gay, and crushed my dreams.

Sidebar, the last time I was in NYC, TR Knight and Patrick Stewart were in a broadway show together. I kick myself for not going to see it. It pains me, it really does.

Anyway. Having this on my list has taught me two things:
1. Recovering furniture is easier than I thought!
2. I don’t like it.

The thing is, I don't love rules. I'm NOT handy, and I hate measuring. It's the reason the only thing I can sew are straight lines, the reason why I can't follow patterns, the reason why I can only crochet and knit scarves, the reason why my cookies never turn out, and the reason why my life is full of disappointment. But what I DO like - experimentation, creation, wonderment, and that feeling of complete satisfaction when that recipe DOES turn out. I am also satisfied when things turn out from perfected recipes and online patterns, but it's not the same. I don't feel project ownership. I don’t feel empowered.

Anyway. I had this great idea. All you need to recover furniture is fabric and a staple gun right? So I bought some cheap beige vinyl, got an allen key and a staple gun, and took The Boy's dining chairs apart. He'd bought them from some guy at work's brother who was moving overseas. They were a million years old and the black leatherette was holey. I popped out the cushiony pieces, tucked the beige stuff around and stapled like crazy. Four chairs and a very very very sore back later, I'd done it! And when KO came over for dinner, he said that the whole apartment looked airier. Amazing! Totally worth it.


The story of my wanting to host a dinner party came from one Thanksgiving potluck at my parents' house. I have hosted thanksgiving potluck every year since my first year of university, where I had a few friends over because they weren't going home to visit family. One Thanksgiving, LJ brought some amazing cheesecake and this made up chocolate-caramel deliciousness she brought in a mug (how she didn't actually just eat it by the spoonful escapes me) and DQ tried to make conversation with her.

DQ: So. You hang out at my sister's place a lot, eh?
LJ: Yeah. We're there a lot.
DQ: So. Do you guys predrink there before you go out?
LJ: Um. No. we just.. We hang out.
DQ: but it's always busy right? She's always having people over to drink?
Me: Shut up! We do more than just drink. Geez.

But it was a lie. I lived in the market and people usually came over for some drinks before we went out for dinner/dancing/etc. and I really really wanted to have a real grown-up dinner party. Not just a potluck, not a time when ppl came over and we made something together, not ordering pizza. And last night, I did it!

The Boy helped, of course, but it was mostly me! We made bruschetta (sourdough, garlic butter, boconccini, tomato, basil), roasted carrot soup (carrots, celery, onions, pickled garlic, skim milk) with smoked gouda (using his new indoor pressure smoker), salad (belgian endive and microgreens with goat cheese pinelles rolled in toasted walnuts and maple flax, all with a fig and fire balsamic reduction), two-salmon ravioli (atlantic salmon, smoked salmon, ricotta, green onions, dill, won ton wrappers) with pesto (spinach, basil, garlic, olive oil), and chai crème brulee. Sure, the ravioli kind of melted together and we had to do some last minute patching… but it tasted good. And we had a really fun time! There was wine and music and conversation and loveliness. Thanks so much to LJ, DC, and KO for coming over to help me scratch this off my list!

Number 24: Ride a Mechanical Bull

You know, I've had whiplash since the September long weekend. I went tubing with The Boy's brother in law and we hit a few wakes pretty hard. When I got back on the boat, this is the conversation we had:

Me: I think I have whiplash!
Everyone: Hahahahahah
Me: no, guys.. I'm serious.
Everyone: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

So I tried to sleep it off for a week and three massage sessions and four weeks later (now a total of five weeks), I am still a little bit painful. Of course, riding on a mechanical bull tonight probably didn't help. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. MB and JP met up with me at the Crazy Horse bar in Kanata (eeps) and MB and I went for a little ride! She was so helpful - giving me the pep talks, giving me a light up red maple leaf cowboy hat and buying my ride! I was uber nervous but she went first and totally rocked it. Amazing! I have no hip action (my dance instructors will agree) so I pretty much gripped onto the bull with my inner thighs (and calves and even my toes) and hung on for dear life. And it didn't so much buck me off as I slid off. That thing is slippery. I was on for 37 seconds the first time and less than 30 the second. But at least the second time I held on with only one hand! Yay me!

Would I do it again?

Only if I had to.