Oh, my inner tween melts

Thanks to the 501 streetcar and a red light, I got an unobstructed view of the Jonas Brothers making an appearance at Much Music. So many screaming tweens. So many.

Today

After three weeks of getting up early-ish in the morning, I can't quite sleep in anymore. This is not a bad thing.
So, this morning, I had a couple extra hours to get odds and ends done before heading out for the day. I even made myself some breakfast. Oatmeal to be exact. I used to just eat two meals a day back when I slept in all the time. It's probably better for my system to be eating three meals a day again.
Went out for waffles at Starving Artist, this new trendy place in the Bloor/Lansdowne area. I'm not really sure why they decided to wafflise their bacon, but it tasted pretty good. I was expecting that my plate would have baconised waffles and then the normal bacon that comes with my order as well, but it turned out that my bacon was wafflised and I still had waffles with my order. It was a little much, but it was still tasty. Especially when doused with maple syrup.
On the way back home, I stopped off in Chinatown to get some groceries. The Toronto Chinatown Festival was going on, so I thought I'd wander around a little bit before loading up my shopping bag. I was really tempted to try the deep fried ice cream, but I was still full from brunch. Darn my slowing metabolism. I'd never seen it before and it looked kind of cool how they were globbing the crunchy ice cream on the marble slab. Oh, how I wanted to try it. Sigh.
After picking up my groceries, I hopped on the streetcar and somehow missed my stop. It was strange. There's always someone that gets off at my stop so I had just assumed that I would follow the crowd and someone else would ring the bell. By the time I realized that no one had rung the bell, it was too late. Ooops. Oh well, I got to watch a plane landing on the island because of it.
Oh, and I have at least 7 different mosquito bites from last night. Gross.

Found

I'm sure it's been claimed by now, but two weeks ago, on a rainy Saturday night, a fish was found. That's right, a fish. A big fish, in fact. Lying on the side of the road. How did it get there? To whom does it belong? Where was it heading?
I mean seriously, it's a fish. A really big fish. Lying on Front St. West.
You can't tell me that this is normal by any means. I mean, look at the size of it.

AGO

Awhile back, I went to the AGO to check out the Surreal Things exhibition. I remembered this exhibition from the V&A Museum a
previous trip to London. At the time, I decided that I want to take advantage of the free admission to London museums so I didn't pay the admission to see the special exhibition. I was pretty happy to find out it was coming to the city, and included in the admission price.
The big Dali painting blew me away. The weirdness of it, the details, it was crazy. I also liked the jeweled lips and teeth.
We didn't really see too much of the rest of the gallery. We'd all seen it
before and none of us were too eager to stay a full day and overload on art. We did hang out in the beautiful open wooden atrium on the north side of the gallery and walked up the enclosed spiral staircase. It's such a great space and the AGO did such a fantastic job with the renovations. It was definitely worth the two year closure, in my mind. Well done.

Shakespeare in the Park

Last night, I went to Shakespeare in the Park, presented by CanStage. This year, they put on a production of The Tempest, a play that I knew nothing about.
I kind of perused the synopsis, but didn't really seem to take any of it in and put faith in the company's ability to make the plays accessible to people of all ages and people who have no clue how to understand Shakespeare's nonsense. They succeeded once again.
I know that there were a lot of moments that went over my head, but I got the main idea of what was happening and that's all that really matters to me. For the most part, I thought the casting was done quite well. The main characters all had strong actors, but some of the supporting cast seemed a little bit useless.
I always enjoy going to High Park to watch Shakespeare, because it's a nice venue for the show and as I said, a very accessible way to watch something that I really don't have much interest in. I'm trying to expand my horizons, okay? Sure, every year of high school, we studied a work by Shakespeare, but it wasn't until other people in the class or my teacher explained what was going on that I understood what he was talking about.
I also enjoy the fact that it's Pay What You Can experience. Another way to make it accessible. I admit that I don't pay the full suggested amount, but I do pay something each time I go. It can be pricey to see a professional theatre production of any kind, so this is a great idea. It's great to show up early, stake your claim to some grass (it's not assigned seating or anything, just an open grassy amphitheatre) and have a picnic dinner. Last night, there was a lot of take-out cartons, blankets and lawnchairs, as well as swanky basket kits and a communal corkscrew for opening bottles of wine.
It wasn't too busy last night, but I'm willing to bet that's because of the gloomy grey skies that were around all day long. We got a little bit of a shower before the show started, but it cleared up in time for the show.
The one crappy thing about the experience, for me, are the bugs. I did put a little bit of bug repellent on before heading out for the day, but still ended up with one mosquito bite (at least that's all I've discovered so far). How annoying.

Prep, prep, prep

It's been awhile since I taught full day stints. I'm always amazed at the amount of time it takes to prepare lessons. I mean, really prepare lessons. It's exhausting, yet I love it. There's so much room for improvement, but I'm also quite proud with that work that I've created. I don't know how teachers can rest on their laurels. My greatest fear is being caught in front of the class unprepared. I couldn't fall asleep last night. My mind was racing of things that I could do with my students and how I would have the themes being presented flow nicely. I literally had to get up, out of my bed to add to my lesson plans. Multiple times.

Crazy, cool

I think if I were to visit this place as seen here, I would probably be content sitting on the floor and just staring the whole day. I was pretty mesmerized at the Oceanário de Lisboa, so I can just imagine how much more awestruck I'd be.
Amazing.

- via funkaoshi.com

Ooops, but still good!

I got the hankering to make gaspacho. I bought a couple things that I thought would go in the soup, and as it was getting late, I quickly chopped things up an tossed them into a pot. As things were simmering, I decided to take a look on the internet and see what experts put in gaspacho. In everything that I've ever cooked, I never use a recipe. I look at it to know what ingredients to use, but then I experiment with the quantities and just throw it together. I don't think I've ever really made anything that really requires going by the recipe exactly, so it's worked out fine so far, but I'm sure at some point, I'll need to actually read the recipe.
Anyway, so I'm looking online, seeing if the ingredients that I guessed were in the soup were correct or not, and whether there was anything else that I should add. After adjusting my ingredients in the pot a smidge, I continued to read the recipe and every single one that I looked at, I never saw any mention of heat or cooking the ingredients.
Ooops.
I had thought to make a hot chunky soup and then stick it in the fridge to let it cool, but apparently that's not actually what you're supposed to do.
Luckily, my version tastes amazing.

Good start to the day

This morning, I put my sneakers on wand went for a run for the first time since March. I haven't worn sneakers since then. Strange. I wore them almost every day for such a long time and all of sudden, cold turkey. I just had no reason to wear them. Strange.
My string of "free" sneakers is also over. I need new ones, but I'm wondering if I should even get a pair. And if I should invest in nice ones to start the trend over again. We'll see.
Anyway, I ran on the path by the waterfront, and it was a beautiful. One of the reasons I decided to run in the first place was because it was such a nice day outside.
Caribana was getting set up, and since I'm music-less when I run, it was nice to have blaring music to run to. Caribana has such a nice vibe. It was just getting set up, so it wasn't too crazy, but I took advantage of the music and people watched as I jogged by.
There was also a huge crowd of people waiting to get into Ontario Place. That's what happens on a beautiful day.
On the way back, I saw a strapping athletic lad put down his basketball to play ring around the rosy with two small children. It was the sweetest thing.
I didn't make it to the market today, but I don't mind. I've actually got a little bit of a backlog of food in my fridge/freezer so I didn't want to be tempted by the market.
Chatted on the phone with someone whom I miss and went to a condo open house which kind of rejuventated me. It got me thinking, for sure, but I'm still optimistic that everything will work out for the best.
I'm off to the Distillery District to continue this great day. See ya!