I came back home earlier in the afternoon after spending Saturday and Friday night with the boy. (We went to the Tenori-on Toronto release). About an hour after i got home and settled down, I realized that the power was down. I went to the mall to do some food shopping, and the mall was closed because power was off there too. Not sure what happened, but we all have electricity again.

While the power was out, i went to check on the garden. The tomato plants need a bit of pruning, but I tied up stems in some attempt to organize them. But I’m so happy that they’re thriving. Even my basil is doing well. I’ve been able to use the basil for salads and stuff lately too.

The cucumber plant was torn apart a few weeks ago by some animal. This bothered me, but I tucked the plant’s roots back in. The leaves were all torn up, but the roots, cotyledon leaves and the stem seemed fine. I had pretty much left it for dead, but miraculously it’s still going. New leaves have grown in to take the place of the tattered leaves. Lettuce and carrots are also growing in nicely.

Anyway, pictures:

More on Flickr!

Last night we went to see Dethklok and it was the most brutal show ever!

The entire evening was pretty neat. I took off from work early so I can catch a bus and be in Toronto by 5pm. The boy was running late, so I had about an hour to hang out in front of Union Station. It was a great day, the sun was out and it was neither too hot nor humid.  I ate a street vendor veggie dog… no corn relish. I should have gone to the vendor that had corn relish.

In any case, there was a guy feeding the birds. I find it fascinating how birds seem to have crumb detection from crazy high altitudes and from behind buildings. A little girl in a pink dress started chasing the birds around in a gleeful bout of cuteness. A hippy-ish ragged looking guy walking by gave a random pretty girl on cell phone a blue silk rose then simply walked away, which I thought was really sweet. A group of goth kids started waving to a bunch of bored tourists on a double decker, then shouted DETHKLOK RULES! And that made my day up to that point right there.

We had a nice dinner at the Mill St. Pub in the Distillery District. I was fascinated with the area. I worked in the neighbourhood about ten years ago, and it never looked like this. After that, we walked over the Koolhaus.   I managed to plead to security for the survival of my homemade cookies (made from scratch the night before!) She OK’ed them when I finally told her it was homemade and I had come straight from St. Catharines and had nowhere to stash them.   Yay for being whiny!

Dethklok was so much fun! Being that it is a fictional animated band, you’re not really supposed to take them and the music seriously. But me and the boy love the music and there was so much energy and enthusiasm from the audience.  The live performance along side of big screens showing Dethklok videos was just brilliant.

Today, I’m tired and sore. Doing yoga the night before, getting to bed at 3am because I’ve been playing Sims 2, and then being on my feet pretty much all night last night would do that to me. I got up really early because the boy had to catch a flight to Nashville for NAMM, which his job is sending him too. He’s in the air right now. I’m on his macbook (/gasp!) typing this post out.  In the next hour, I’m going to head over to Mississauga to visit my family.

If you’re not into the fixed gear culture, you probably won’t get it. The first “Fixed-push” video is a satire of the subculture of cyclists who ride fixed-gear bicycles.

Technically, I’m a fixed gear cyclist. Except, not really because I don’t own an industrial size messenger bag that could fit beer fridges, I don’t play bike polo, nor have I ever been employed as a bike messenger (or competed in bike messenger competitions.. apparently you don’t have to be a messenger to compete in one :p). Nor did I build my bike from some ultra cool retro frame I pulled out of someone’s old school garage sale and fitted it with stuff that has weird italian and japanese names that I have no clue why it matters. My bike was sold to me “off the peg”… what i see is what i got. Though it doesn’t have a top tube pad, it reviews well, and I kept the brakes on it and even had it equipped with … *gasp drama* … fenders! I do, however, own skinny pants. I don’t think I look so skinny in said pants, but they’re practical for cycling with and they go with everything.

The only thing I’m disappointed in about not belonging to the “fixed gear culture” is that I cannot skid stop for the life of me, and I cannot maintain a trackstand. I wanted to ride fixed for the ability to do trackstands, and so far, I’m not getting it. I guess I’m not so zen with the bike.

So the cherry tomato plants aren’t doing so well. The leaves are sort of tiny and mottled and despite my best attempts I couldn’t get good growth out of them. I’m going to continue to nurse them and see how far they go, but at this point, they’re on life support. I bought two new cherry tomato plants and this morning planted them. I figured since they were already outdoors they didn’t need to be hardened too much longer. The stems grew a little crooked, but they’re green and leafy. Maybe i’ll get a salad out of it yet.

Marigolds in the back, cherries along my makeshift bamboo trellis, roma plants next and sweet basil plants in the foreground.

In the 2nd veggie patch, my one cucumber seedling is doing well. The lettuce and the carrots have come up  and need to be thinned.  I may take the spinach out and plant a pepper plant instead. I’m not that big of a fan of spinach anyway.

I just finished dinner.. President’s Choice World’s Best Meatless “Chicken breast” with grilled tomatoes and asparagus. I’ve somewhat succeeded in kicking my morning habit of coffee, and I took it a step further by eating mostly raw meals. Though right now, to me, raw means salads and lots of it. Over the weekend, I was able to indulge with food a bit. I even had a couple of lattes. Tonight was the first time I used a heat element for myself at home, other than a crock pot full of vegetarian chilli for a vegan potluck we had at work on Friday.

I had a great weekend. I spent it in Toronto with the boy, even though I should have been here spring cleaning. But I wanted to see him, and I got a lot done on Saturday morning. We played a lot of Gears of War co-op, visited Ikea and even made our own pizzas. Working with pizza dough was interesting, but it was something fun that we got to do together.

Back to Monday, back to work, even at home. I can’t deal with all the weeds in the backyard. It’s really disheartening. But the seeds I’ve planted in various places are coming up, which is really nice.

Tomato update: I left the tomatoes out for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it was windy and the wind knocked my romas over. They seemed to survive though, and i promptly brought them back in. Today, I left them out for a lot longer. It was very sunny and warm. Unfortunately, i think one of them got too stressed out, so it started to wilt. I brought it back in and propped them up with wooden chopsticks. I’ll keep bringing them outside, and hope that the stress won’t kill them outright.

Tonight, I’m treating myself to gazpacho. Most of the ingredients are from the market, at the most Ontario grown.

4 large tomatoes, peeled
1 red bell pepper
1 english cucumber
1 handful of chopped cilantro
5-6 fresh basil leaves
1 handful of chopped scallions (or red onion)
3 garlic cloves
1/4 olive oil
1/4 cup of white wine vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
salt, pepper

(optional stuffs: tabasco sauce, other fresh herbs, avocados, parsley)

Half the pepper and half the cucumber are finely chopped and set aside in a large bowl. Everything else goes in the blender. You can chop up the tomatoes and veggies coarsely if you like. Blend until smooth. Add the liquids to the big bowl and mix the peppers and cucumbers together. Season to taste. Cover, and chill in the fridge for about an hour for the flavours to blend in. Waiting is important for delicious gazpacho.

I think a lot of recipes call for tomato juice to thin the concoction and add more flavour. Honestly, I don’t think it needs it. If you want it less chunky, forget chopping anything and put all of it in the blender and set to liquify. If you want more liquid, add water. If you want to bother, you can even strain the pulp, though I wouldn’t because all that stuff is healthy. If you wanted more flavour, add more herbs. Yum, cilantro!

So I get headaches when I don’t get my daily fix of caffeine. Also, I don’t feel rested after a full night of sleep. I figured it was time to get myself off of caffeine. I started today, which was kind of a bad time because my weekend was sort of exhausting. We started the weekend with a housewarming party for a co-worker in Oakville. She has an awesome place, and the snacks were plentiful and delicious. I spent the weekend in Toronto, with the boy and friends, shopping, drinking too much coffee, some wine, lots of sugary stuff. Not exactly outright hedonism but it was fun for a while.

When I got back home, the litter box needed changing, the plants needed watering, and over the course of a weekend it seemed that the weeds had just gone nuts. I have a headache from not getting enough sleep, and quite possibly from skipping my morning coffee. I did need to have a Hershey Almond chocolate bar or else I would have been completely useless. The chocolate bar perked me up a bit, and I was able to continue working through the day. I still have a headache, but for the most part, I’ve been so good about food.

I’m going to make myself an asian spinach salad. A big one. And veg out in front of the telly. I’m going to attempt to eat raw foods for the most part, if I can. I’m hoping by the end of this week, my brain will be back on track. I’ll be honest though… quitting caffeine might be just as hard as quitting smoking was for me.