Thursday, May 23, 2013

Sometimes insomnia rocks



I'm starting to enjoy the fact that sleep abandons me at five or so. :D

Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Mine!!

Is that for me ?? Can I eat it ?????

Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Ssssttrreeettttccchhh...

Our younger cat is a strange one!  One of the things he loves to do is lie on his back, paws hovering in the air.  We can't look at him without fighting the urge to snuggle that white fuzzy belly!

He also loves our battered old armchair.  He'll lie on his back, head hanging off the edge.  Slowly, slowly, he head dangles farther and farther off the edge, until either the weight of it drags the rest of him down, or he finally shifts.

Finnigan


I think it's the tail curled up on his belly that does it for me in this photo!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Photo walk

So my daughter conned convinced me to go on a photo walk with her yesterday. two and a half hours later, I was feeling pretty much dead. we did see a few nice things though :)  Anna thought I should post one a day, but this gives me an excuse to go out more often :P





Thursday, May 16, 2013

Checking out Moriarty's

My older daughter wanted to take me out for Mother's Day.  We never go out on the actual day, though, so after some discussion and calender checking, we finally made it out today.

She asked me to choose our destination, and I picked a place we've gone by many times - it's easy walking distance from our home - and have wanted to visit for a while.  We were always on the way to someplace else, though, and didn't have the time.

Today, we made time!

We went to Moriarty's Bistro and Wine Bar, which is right next to the downtown Sherlock Holmes Pub.

Yes, that's awesome.  In fact, it's even more awesome than it seems at first!

For today, we were there for one thing specifically - their charcuterie.  I've heard nothing but great things about it, and have been wanting to try it for a while!

Theirs is a mix and match charcuterie, where you can choose any 2-5 items from a list.  We went with five for the two of us. 

Sadly, my cell phone photo of the board of deliciousness is rather terrible.  It does not do the presentation justice.


I chose the Fairwinds Chevre (the slice on the right) and Sheep Pecorino (the snowy white cheese near the cutlery) for the cheeses.  Along with those, I selected their House Terrine, which included figs and pine nuts, Soppresate (the sliced meat on the top right) and Smoked Brisket Jerky, another house specialty (under the Chevre).  These came with a jalapeno relish, curried cauliflower, clove beets (top left) and wine marinated (?) apples (on top of the clove beets) and spicy carrots - I can't remember what the spice was.  There was also a berry jam (sadly, another name I can't remember the name of) and course mustard, plus two types of crackers on the side.

It was awesome!  All of it. The spices in the pickled vegetables were just on the edge of being too much for me and my notoriously low tolerance for spice heat, but delicious.  My daughter especially loved the Fairwinds Chevre.  I think I liked the Sheep Pecorino better, but I liked both cheeses so much, I find myself vacillating.  The jerky was something special, too.

We'll be back for this again to try some of the other selections!


As an extra snack, my daughter also ordered the Truffle Buttered Popcorn.

Yes, you read that right.  Truffle butter.  On popcorn.

It was sooooo good!

Best of all, we came during Happy Hour, so the Truffle Buttered Popcorn was half price,  plus it was Off the Vine 1/2 Price Wine Thursdays.  My daughter chose the wine for both of us.  I got the Castillo de Monseran Garnacha, and she got the Wine Men of Gotham Shiraz.  Both were excellent, and I'm not a bit wine drinker at the best of times!

As for the bistro itself, it was quite enjoyable.  The aesthetics of the place is really nice, we were comfortable in our booth, the service was excellent and our server was very helpful when I asked questions about different items and asked for recommendations - which I am happy to have followed.

So if you're ever in Edmonton and hankering for a nice, quietly elegant place to indulge, I would definitely recommend Moriarty's!!


Wednesday, May 15, 2013

BlackBerry upgrade

So my phone got an os upgrade yesterday. The camera seems to still work, though I have to admit I'm looking forward to trying out the HDR features when I get a chance :)

Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Sometimes Insomnia pays off

I'm an early riser at the best of times, but sometimes I can't sleep past 5am. Today, I was rewarded for it :)

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Weather incoming

I've got a piece of software that takes amazing panoramic pictures... unfortunately the best way to view them is in the software itself. The export isn't too bad though :)
Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Smothered with love

The arm that you're seeing is Anna trying to choke the cat into submission. Funny enough, the cat is purring through it.  Every once in a while, Anna  seems to have the need to burrow her face into the cat. 
Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Living in the west...

So tumbleweeds are part of any good western movie, but finding one in the middle of downtown is still a little weird ;p
Sent from my BB Z10, that totally doesn't look like an Iphone ... totally doesn't.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Bored on a sunny day

So I'm working from home and taking a break. it's gorgeous sunshine outside :D


Monday, May 6, 2013

Gold?


Trying a La Dolce Vita at Cococo.
I think that's really flecks of gold on there!

Sent from Anna's phone

Update:  I asked and it was verified that the flecks were not gold, but they couldn't tell me what it actually was.  Whatever it was made of, it was very shiny. :-D

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Burned

This spring has been an odd one, with cold and snow dragging on for weeks (as you can see from previous posts).

This week, things finally warmed up.  At the time of this writing, we've hit 24C, with a predicted high of 25C (that's 77F for those on Imperial).

Taking advantage of the weather, my older daughter started doing some stuff on the balcony that had her coming in and out every few minutes.

Then this happened.


See that reddish ring on her index finger?  That's a burn that's starting to blister.  She happened to touch the metal door at one point.  I've burned myself on that door a few times, too, but never to the point that it started to blister!

Happy Spring!