I biked to work today. There and back is 26kms. It felt so good to be out there. I wore my old MEC yellow biking jacket from my cross-Canada trip. I love that jacket. I had two lights on the front, very bright flashing red on the back, and my yellow jacket can't be missed day or night.
I followed the bike route all the way there and back, so it was actually a very quite route, with almost no car traffic. The Author Lang Bridge was a we bit scary, but I handled it.
When I got home, I dug out my old side-view-mirror which I will attach.
Also felt good to get a solid exercise in.
BTW - I miss Adam. BC kinda sucks without him.
Saturday 24 November 2012
It Never Rains, It Pours
Unless you live on the west coast, where it never pours, it just rains.
Last week was so busy for me. I had lots of company and lots of events going on. It was great to finally see some friends, although I was pretty tired by the end of it all.
Nick (from Winnipeg) came in a week ago for business. He's the rep for biking/sporting goods and many of the head offices (Sugi & Ryder) are out here in Vancouver. He was here for a few days, but I only got to see him as I picked him up at the airport and we went for breakfast at the Elbow Room Cafe. It's OK that i only saw him for breakfast, as I always believe it's not how long you spend with someone for a visit, what is more important is the fact that you made a bit of time to see each other face to face and catch up over, say, breakfast?
With Nick's new professional life as repping for these companies, he needed a little help with his accounting, so I volunteered, and to repay me, Nick gave me one of his bikes. I've been wanting a bike to get around the city and to work when it's nice out. For one reason or another, Nick was able to spare a beautiful Devinci "Oslo". OMG the bike is perfect and exactly what I needed for Vancouver. I can't thank Nick enough for this. It's super light, it has fenders (for when it rains, not pours), it's even got reflective tires so I'm more apt to not get run over at night. I promptly went to Mountain Equipment Co-op and beefed up my bike lock system. I never want to lose this bike.
Friday eve Sarah came into town from Victoria. She's in the final push in her CGA studies, which brings her to Vancouver for studying at UBC every couple of weeks. It was great that she came over, as I really needed a good friend on Friday night. We went out to The Yaletown Brewpub where we had pizza & beer, and I was able to pour my heart out to her. You know those times when you need someone to listen to you. I wasn't looking for advice or a kind word or for her to help with my problems, I just needed her to sit there, listen and nod. thanks buddy.
With Sarah off to UBC on Saturday morning, I headed into work for the morning/afternoon until another gang of good friends came over on the ferry for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. Larry, Rachelle and Dan where staying with me, and Kenny and Megan were going to meet up with us at my place before the concert. I've only been out on the west coast for about 6 years, but these 5 friends are the ones that go right back to the beginning. Camping trips, ski trips, hockey games, concerts, birthday dinners, the list goes on what we do together. With me in Vancouver now, it was great to get back together with them all.
Megan & Rachelle. Megan just had little baby Frank a few months ago. She looks great and happy and doesn't look as tired as she claims (though I'm pretty sure she would love a solid 8 hours soon).
Larry, Dan and Kent. Along with some frosty beers, we got into my liquor cabinet and were tasting some of my whiskeys on had. It's nice to have friends over to try them out.
Before the concert we went to the Hurricane Grill. It's an awesome little restaurant/bar that serves great food, has great service and has (and I quote) "the best nachos I've ever had"
The Concert was amazing. Both Flea and Anthony are both 50 years old, and they were performing like they were 20. Flea looks so amazing, abs, muscles, zero body fat and when he took to the mike I had to giggle at his child like, squeaky voice, and then felt warm and fuzzy as he profusely thanked the crowd as if it was his first concert.
The gang having the time of their life
The RHCP concert was a huge surprise to me. Yeah it was a "rock concert" but those guys are very musical and talented. The guitar/bass got together for a "solo", the drummer was amazing. They had a few more musicians in the back (keyboards, percussion). It was totally worth $90. It's always great when it's a sold out show. Oh, and yes, EVERYONE sang along to Under the Bridge.
After the concert we took went to The Two Parrots, a pub close to my place. It's a very relaxing place with a good atmosphere, pretty good food, cheap. It's kind of a younger crowd. We didn't stay long though, maybe we are getting too old, so it was back to my place for a night cap, and everyone getting tucked into bed.
The next morning, with me the last one struggling out of bed, we headed to The Oxford for brunch and to watch and NFL game. Larry is a big Cowboys fan and they were playing. Nick from Victoria had taken the ferry over in the morning and had joined us for the Western Final CFL game at BC Place. The guys were all into Caesar's and shooters, where Rachelle and I stuck to tea and coffee.
Me and Larry at the game.
The Lions vs the Stamps. BC lost, but it was still a good game. I'm still a bit of a Bomber fan, so I didn't care too much that my new home team lost. I just enjoy being at the stadium.
Rachelle and Nick (in BC Lion orange)
After my friends left on Sunday, I was pretty much wiped out. I had a great afternoon nap on the sofa, and then I drove up Davie St and picked up some Vietnamese Pho soup. So good and exactly what i needed before bed (at about 8pm)/
Monday morning at work was tuff, but I was able to make it through the day/week as our new espresso machine got hooked up.
sometimes it really is the little things in life.
Last week was so busy for me. I had lots of company and lots of events going on. It was great to finally see some friends, although I was pretty tired by the end of it all.
Nick (from Winnipeg) came in a week ago for business. He's the rep for biking/sporting goods and many of the head offices (Sugi & Ryder) are out here in Vancouver. He was here for a few days, but I only got to see him as I picked him up at the airport and we went for breakfast at the Elbow Room Cafe. It's OK that i only saw him for breakfast, as I always believe it's not how long you spend with someone for a visit, what is more important is the fact that you made a bit of time to see each other face to face and catch up over, say, breakfast?
With Nick's new professional life as repping for these companies, he needed a little help with his accounting, so I volunteered, and to repay me, Nick gave me one of his bikes. I've been wanting a bike to get around the city and to work when it's nice out. For one reason or another, Nick was able to spare a beautiful Devinci "Oslo". OMG the bike is perfect and exactly what I needed for Vancouver. I can't thank Nick enough for this. It's super light, it has fenders (for when it rains, not pours), it's even got reflective tires so I'm more apt to not get run over at night. I promptly went to Mountain Equipment Co-op and beefed up my bike lock system. I never want to lose this bike.
Friday eve Sarah came into town from Victoria. She's in the final push in her CGA studies, which brings her to Vancouver for studying at UBC every couple of weeks. It was great that she came over, as I really needed a good friend on Friday night. We went out to The Yaletown Brewpub where we had pizza & beer, and I was able to pour my heart out to her. You know those times when you need someone to listen to you. I wasn't looking for advice or a kind word or for her to help with my problems, I just needed her to sit there, listen and nod. thanks buddy.
With Sarah off to UBC on Saturday morning, I headed into work for the morning/afternoon until another gang of good friends came over on the ferry for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. Larry, Rachelle and Dan where staying with me, and Kenny and Megan were going to meet up with us at my place before the concert. I've only been out on the west coast for about 6 years, but these 5 friends are the ones that go right back to the beginning. Camping trips, ski trips, hockey games, concerts, birthday dinners, the list goes on what we do together. With me in Vancouver now, it was great to get back together with them all.
Megan & Rachelle. Megan just had little baby Frank a few months ago. She looks great and happy and doesn't look as tired as she claims (though I'm pretty sure she would love a solid 8 hours soon).
Larry, Dan and Kent. Along with some frosty beers, we got into my liquor cabinet and were tasting some of my whiskeys on had. It's nice to have friends over to try them out.
Before the concert we went to the Hurricane Grill. It's an awesome little restaurant/bar that serves great food, has great service and has (and I quote) "the best nachos I've ever had"
The Concert was amazing. Both Flea and Anthony are both 50 years old, and they were performing like they were 20. Flea looks so amazing, abs, muscles, zero body fat and when he took to the mike I had to giggle at his child like, squeaky voice, and then felt warm and fuzzy as he profusely thanked the crowd as if it was his first concert.
The gang having the time of their life
The RHCP concert was a huge surprise to me. Yeah it was a "rock concert" but those guys are very musical and talented. The guitar/bass got together for a "solo", the drummer was amazing. They had a few more musicians in the back (keyboards, percussion). It was totally worth $90. It's always great when it's a sold out show. Oh, and yes, EVERYONE sang along to Under the Bridge.
After the concert we took went to The Two Parrots, a pub close to my place. It's a very relaxing place with a good atmosphere, pretty good food, cheap. It's kind of a younger crowd. We didn't stay long though, maybe we are getting too old, so it was back to my place for a night cap, and everyone getting tucked into bed.
The next morning, with me the last one struggling out of bed, we headed to The Oxford for brunch and to watch and NFL game. Larry is a big Cowboys fan and they were playing. Nick from Victoria had taken the ferry over in the morning and had joined us for the Western Final CFL game at BC Place. The guys were all into Caesar's and shooters, where Rachelle and I stuck to tea and coffee.
Me and Larry at the game.
The Lions vs the Stamps. BC lost, but it was still a good game. I'm still a bit of a Bomber fan, so I didn't care too much that my new home team lost. I just enjoy being at the stadium.
Rachelle and Nick (in BC Lion orange)
After my friends left on Sunday, I was pretty much wiped out. I had a great afternoon nap on the sofa, and then I drove up Davie St and picked up some Vietnamese Pho soup. So good and exactly what i needed before bed (at about 8pm)/
Monday morning at work was tuff, but I was able to make it through the day/week as our new espresso machine got hooked up.
sometimes it really is the little things in life.
Monday 12 November 2012
My big trip to Seattle,,,
,,,, ended up not in Seattle, but the lovely and beautiful Industrial Park in Sumner, Washington.
Last week I received word that the entire office would be headed to "Seattle" to visit the head office of "The Rock Wood Fired Pizza" (The Rock). You see in addition to Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria (which there are 15 of in Canada), we also are the Canadian Franchisee for The Rock. Up till now there is only one in Canada, in Calgary, so it's not been much of an issue in our office. But there are now 4 more opening up, and we'll be playing a much more active roll.
The Rock (http://therockwfp.com/) is very different from Famoso. Started in Seattle, they have about the same amount of locations as us, about 10 or 15. And if you want to open a Rock in Canada you have to go through us at Famoso. Justin, Christian and Jason (my three bosses) were already down in Seattle with Sandy (the owner of the stand alone Canadian Rock in Calgary). So Kitson, Mitra, Polina and I all met at Polina's house in Kitslano at 7:30am to hit the road.
The visit to The Rock head office was quite interesting. We met Don and Jay who are the owners and were very interesting to listen to their story. Jay's son is an actor who was in Twilight (a vampire movie?) and his daughter is Jennifer Aniston's hairdresser. Not that I really care, but everyone else was in a tizzy about this info. Don admitted that most of the The Rock was a him being personally selfish adding whatever HE wanted to the restaurant.
Inside the head office was a "sitting room" that Don & Jay like to host guests. It had a sign above it that said "Saints and Sinners". Here is Polina being a Sinner
The room was pretty interesting with all these fake candles glowing.
Our tour of the head office moved onto the store room, where I snapped a few pics. that's Jay, second from the left.
More of the store room with Don on the far right.
Don owns a 65 Corvette with a new Corvette engine in it. It was pretty impressive.
It was a really great visit to Sumner, Washington, and Don and Jay were great hosts. They were both very interesting to listen to, and like all Americans I ever meet, were super friendly. The rest of the day we visited 3 Rock's in the Seattle area, driving around I was in the back seat with Mitra.
Always on the look out for something weird and kooky, only in America.
the next group of shots give you an idea of The Rock is like inside. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. The interesting thing is it's very popular with families and kids. that's Polina, Sandy and Jason.
though the restaurants have many unusual features, like the shipping containers above, there is always the theme of 70's/80's rock and roll with album covers everywhere.
A waste of perfectly good guitars? Perfect use for crappy guitars? or just an awesome chandelier?
They had shooters in Jello that you "inject". they were a lot of fun.
I ordered a 5 ounce Margarita that comes with a Corona tipped into in. it was actually delicious though I can't remember when I had a drink with 5 ounces of hard liquor in it. BTW you get to keep the bucket.
Once the evening snuck in, the real atmosphere on The Rock took over, with the lighting trusses shinning warm light over everything like you are at a rock concert. And everywhere you look is skulls, guitars and crumbling brick.
More drinks, this one was served in a lava lamp that lights up your drinks switching colours. We were injecting jello shooters into our Lava Lamp drinks.
No two The Rocks are the same, and everwhere you look there is something crazy and unique, like this church inside the restaurant that housed about 8 booths
I had the sampler of The Rock's beer they have made. It was actually really good and nothing like the canned American beer us Canadians are used too
The beautiful Polina enjoying a glass of The Rock's red wine. It's actually 50 or 60 dollars a bottle. They don't sell very much of it, but as I mentioned earlier, much of The Rock is just Don and Jay personal indulgences. The love red wine (and so does Polina)
It was a great trip, even though we didn't actually make it to Seattle, but instead Sumner, Renton and Tacoma. We made it back to Vancouver around 10pm that night, so it was a long day. The back of that Accura was starting to get pretty cramped. Next time, we're taking the Equinox, we're staying over night, and we are visiting the actual city of Seattle.
Last week I received word that the entire office would be headed to "Seattle" to visit the head office of "The Rock Wood Fired Pizza" (The Rock). You see in addition to Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria (which there are 15 of in Canada), we also are the Canadian Franchisee for The Rock. Up till now there is only one in Canada, in Calgary, so it's not been much of an issue in our office. But there are now 4 more opening up, and we'll be playing a much more active roll.
The Rock (http://therockwfp.com/) is very different from Famoso. Started in Seattle, they have about the same amount of locations as us, about 10 or 15. And if you want to open a Rock in Canada you have to go through us at Famoso. Justin, Christian and Jason (my three bosses) were already down in Seattle with Sandy (the owner of the stand alone Canadian Rock in Calgary). So Kitson, Mitra, Polina and I all met at Polina's house in Kitslano at 7:30am to hit the road.
The visit to The Rock head office was quite interesting. We met Don and Jay who are the owners and were very interesting to listen to their story. Jay's son is an actor who was in Twilight (a vampire movie?) and his daughter is Jennifer Aniston's hairdresser. Not that I really care, but everyone else was in a tizzy about this info. Don admitted that most of the The Rock was a him being personally selfish adding whatever HE wanted to the restaurant.
Inside the head office was a "sitting room" that Don & Jay like to host guests. It had a sign above it that said "Saints and Sinners". Here is Polina being a Sinner
The room was pretty interesting with all these fake candles glowing.
Our tour of the head office moved onto the store room, where I snapped a few pics. that's Jay, second from the left.
More of the store room with Don on the far right.
Don owns a 65 Corvette with a new Corvette engine in it. It was pretty impressive.
It was a really great visit to Sumner, Washington, and Don and Jay were great hosts. They were both very interesting to listen to, and like all Americans I ever meet, were super friendly. The rest of the day we visited 3 Rock's in the Seattle area, driving around I was in the back seat with Mitra.
the next group of shots give you an idea of The Rock is like inside. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. The interesting thing is it's very popular with families and kids. that's Polina, Sandy and Jason.
though the restaurants have many unusual features, like the shipping containers above, there is always the theme of 70's/80's rock and roll with album covers everywhere.
A waste of perfectly good guitars? Perfect use for crappy guitars? or just an awesome chandelier?
They had shooters in Jello that you "inject". they were a lot of fun.
I ordered a 5 ounce Margarita that comes with a Corona tipped into in. it was actually delicious though I can't remember when I had a drink with 5 ounces of hard liquor in it. BTW you get to keep the bucket.
Once the evening snuck in, the real atmosphere on The Rock took over, with the lighting trusses shinning warm light over everything like you are at a rock concert. And everywhere you look is skulls, guitars and crumbling brick.
More drinks, this one was served in a lava lamp that lights up your drinks switching colours. We were injecting jello shooters into our Lava Lamp drinks.
No two The Rocks are the same, and everwhere you look there is something crazy and unique, like this church inside the restaurant that housed about 8 booths
I had the sampler of The Rock's beer they have made. It was actually really good and nothing like the canned American beer us Canadians are used too
The beautiful Polina enjoying a glass of The Rock's red wine. It's actually 50 or 60 dollars a bottle. They don't sell very much of it, but as I mentioned earlier, much of The Rock is just Don and Jay personal indulgences. The love red wine (and so does Polina)
It was a great trip, even though we didn't actually make it to Seattle, but instead Sumner, Renton and Tacoma. We made it back to Vancouver around 10pm that night, so it was a long day. The back of that Accura was starting to get pretty cramped. Next time, we're taking the Equinox, we're staying over night, and we are visiting the actual city of Seattle.
Sunday 28 October 2012
Getting Back Into It (with a little nudge)
All right now, focus, concentrate, get back into it.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Man, I could fill BC Place with the excuses I come up with, to not do things. Well, given that an excuse is a tangible item the size of a bread box.
I had a problem with my cell phone. My old phone was on the way out, and I needed a new one so I treated myself to a Samsung Galaxy Note. It's awesome. I love the phone, but about 3 or 4 weeks into owning it, I dropped it and shattered the screen. Yeah, the $300 screen. Long story short I lost all my pictures I had taken on it when they replaced the screen. This would include my last few weekends in Whistler (including about the only picture I have of Adam smiling) and all my pictures from my Alberta trip. As my mom would say, GDSOB.
Well, there is no use crying about ANYTHING that happens in the past. Move on, learn from my mistakes and try to remember to back up my photo's onto another device. Actually the sad thing about this whole thing is my phone comes with 16GIG of memory, but I decided to up this with an SD card adding 32 more GIG of memory. It's a lot of memory for a phone. 50 Gig? All I had to do is set the phone to store my pics onto the SD card (which I've done now) and all would have been saved, but instead they were directed to my internal phone memory which was wiped clean when they replaced the screen.
Anyways,, move on EH?
Friday was a great night. 4 of us from work (me, Polina, Mitra & Kitson) went to Famoso on Commercial Dr to try out the new menu items. It was a great table. The owner Ryan was there for a bit, as was Trevor and Correna (Trevor sort of works for us), Mitra's boyfriend Dawid was there with his friend Eric, and an other couple John and Margarita.
You would never think it but Polina was almost as tired as I was. And I can be VERY tired on a Friday night.
Here is Mitra, Dawid and Eric (who had the most beautiful smile ever, I wanted to pull his teeth out with pliers and have my dentist put them in my mouth. They can do that can't they?)
Me and Kitson. Me with a 5 day growth. Love that about my new job. Kitson's nic-name is Kitty or Kitty Cat, but I don't feel comfortable with him yet to call him Kitty Cat.
We had a great evening, and tried all the new pizza's on the menu. It's great working for a company you can really get behind. Every Famoso I've been too is great food, super atmosphere, friendly staff, a fun place to hang out, and it's really well priced.
The weekend is here, and I'm just relaxing at home having coffee. I'm going to head into work for a bit, as I am getting oh so close to being caught up.
here is a view from my apartment today. It's chilly out, we have 30cm of snow at Grouse Mtn. Looking forward to ski season this year.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Man, I could fill BC Place with the excuses I come up with, to not do things. Well, given that an excuse is a tangible item the size of a bread box.
I had a problem with my cell phone. My old phone was on the way out, and I needed a new one so I treated myself to a Samsung Galaxy Note. It's awesome. I love the phone, but about 3 or 4 weeks into owning it, I dropped it and shattered the screen. Yeah, the $300 screen. Long story short I lost all my pictures I had taken on it when they replaced the screen. This would include my last few weekends in Whistler (including about the only picture I have of Adam smiling) and all my pictures from my Alberta trip. As my mom would say, GDSOB.
Well, there is no use crying about ANYTHING that happens in the past. Move on, learn from my mistakes and try to remember to back up my photo's onto another device. Actually the sad thing about this whole thing is my phone comes with 16GIG of memory, but I decided to up this with an SD card adding 32 more GIG of memory. It's a lot of memory for a phone. 50 Gig? All I had to do is set the phone to store my pics onto the SD card (which I've done now) and all would have been saved, but instead they were directed to my internal phone memory which was wiped clean when they replaced the screen.
Anyways,, move on EH?
Friday was a great night. 4 of us from work (me, Polina, Mitra & Kitson) went to Famoso on Commercial Dr to try out the new menu items. It was a great table. The owner Ryan was there for a bit, as was Trevor and Correna (Trevor sort of works for us), Mitra's boyfriend Dawid was there with his friend Eric, and an other couple John and Margarita.
You would never think it but Polina was almost as tired as I was. And I can be VERY tired on a Friday night.
Here is Mitra, Dawid and Eric (who had the most beautiful smile ever, I wanted to pull his teeth out with pliers and have my dentist put them in my mouth. They can do that can't they?)
Me and Kitson. Me with a 5 day growth. Love that about my new job. Kitson's nic-name is Kitty or Kitty Cat, but I don't feel comfortable with him yet to call him Kitty Cat.
We had a great evening, and tried all the new pizza's on the menu. It's great working for a company you can really get behind. Every Famoso I've been too is great food, super atmosphere, friendly staff, a fun place to hang out, and it's really well priced.
The weekend is here, and I'm just relaxing at home having coffee. I'm going to head into work for a bit, as I am getting oh so close to being caught up.
here is a view from my apartment today. It's chilly out, we have 30cm of snow at Grouse Mtn. Looking forward to ski season this year.
Thursday 18 October 2012
Baby Steps
Yes it's been a while since I've blogged about anything. Are you wondering, is Eric's life that dull and boring that he has nothing to blog about. On the contrary. I've been busy, not only at work but at home, with trips, and biking and more excitement than most people wish for in a year. But, I will confess that taking the pen in hand (or computer under my fingers) is much like dieting. It requires a bit of will power.
The fact that I have so much to talk about, has sometimes been the reason for not writing anything at all on this page. So I have decided to take some age old advice, and start blogging again, in baby steps. Not about biking, or the trip to Alberta, or my new job, or the 50 million I won in Lotto Max, but instead about Butter Tarts.
My new job is not only new for me, but it's the first time that Famoso Inc. (which has been around for a few years) has it's own office. So we are trying to find our own identity as a group. Part of that is something else that is "age old", the Friday Beers. Yes we have Friday beers in the office, but we have added something cool, and that's each staff has to cook/make lunch for the entire office. There are 7 of us there now, so your turn only comes up once every couple of months. There has been BBQ Hamburgers, Pulled Pork Sandwhices, Curry Chicken on rice, and tomorrow is my day.
As part of my feast, I have fallen back on Canadian Living for their Maple Butter Tart recipe. OMG, they are so good. I, of course, love anything made from white bleached flour, sugar, and additional sugar (maple syrup, brown sugar, raisins, etc), but these are just amazing. I make the pastry dough from scratch. Again it's a Canadian Living recipe called Sour Cream Pastry, or something like that. If anyone wants the recipes, let me know and I'll post them.
The pastry is super easy to make, just follow the recipe exactly (right down to the ice cold water). I eat about as much raisins and walnuts that go into the tarts.
A few things in this picture are worthy of note. If you are ever going to have any success in the kitchen, be sure to have a great hand mixer (don't worry, they're cheap, even a good one), paper recipes (so you can jot down notes on it as you tweak your recipe), a great set of glass maxing bowls and of course, PAM.
Oh look at that bad boy go. And those raisins in the back are just itching to be cracked open.
oh, is that a bite out of one? I couldn't possibly serve that to a group of people.
Growing up on the Manitoulin, there was always the trip "off the Island" and that always lead you through Espanola and onto the Trans-Canada Highway. At the junction of Hwy 6 south and Hwy 17 (E & W) was a gas station/restaurant called Pacey's. It was nothing fancy at all, self serve gas, dirty bathrooms, cafeteria style food, but they had the best homemade butter tarts. Growing up, I think my dad had a bit of a sweet tooth for these butter tarts, and as I grew up, I followed in his foot steps, enjoying every oey gooey bite. My 2,000 km car trips from Minaki back to S Ontario each year, I would spend the entire trip visualising my old car pulling into Pacey's, gassing up for the final haul to to Manitowaning, and getting two butter tarts, savouring each bite after 7 long months.
Until of course the Tim Horton's/Wendy's was built right next door. I will always remember my first trip back after they were built, I saw them there on the left, all lit up, parking lots full, driving thru lined up till the traffic has gone all crazy. But it didn't even dawn on me that Pacey's would be closed. I pulled in, gassed up, went inside to pay, and looked to the empty dark place that was once a vibrant, exciting food stop on the Trans Canada Highway.
I turned to the gas station cashier and said, "What happened to the restaurant?"
To which he replied, "It lasted about 3 months after the Tim Horton's opened up and then it closed".
"But I just drove all the way from Kenora, and wanted a butter tart"
"You should of called first"
The fact that I have so much to talk about, has sometimes been the reason for not writing anything at all on this page. So I have decided to take some age old advice, and start blogging again, in baby steps. Not about biking, or the trip to Alberta, or my new job, or the 50 million I won in Lotto Max, but instead about Butter Tarts.
My new job is not only new for me, but it's the first time that Famoso Inc. (which has been around for a few years) has it's own office. So we are trying to find our own identity as a group. Part of that is something else that is "age old", the Friday Beers. Yes we have Friday beers in the office, but we have added something cool, and that's each staff has to cook/make lunch for the entire office. There are 7 of us there now, so your turn only comes up once every couple of months. There has been BBQ Hamburgers, Pulled Pork Sandwhices, Curry Chicken on rice, and tomorrow is my day.
As part of my feast, I have fallen back on Canadian Living for their Maple Butter Tart recipe. OMG, they are so good. I, of course, love anything made from white bleached flour, sugar, and additional sugar (maple syrup, brown sugar, raisins, etc), but these are just amazing. I make the pastry dough from scratch. Again it's a Canadian Living recipe called Sour Cream Pastry, or something like that. If anyone wants the recipes, let me know and I'll post them.
The pastry is super easy to make, just follow the recipe exactly (right down to the ice cold water). I eat about as much raisins and walnuts that go into the tarts.
A few things in this picture are worthy of note. If you are ever going to have any success in the kitchen, be sure to have a great hand mixer (don't worry, they're cheap, even a good one), paper recipes (so you can jot down notes on it as you tweak your recipe), a great set of glass maxing bowls and of course, PAM.
Oh look at that bad boy go. And those raisins in the back are just itching to be cracked open.
oh, is that a bite out of one? I couldn't possibly serve that to a group of people.
Growing up on the Manitoulin, there was always the trip "off the Island" and that always lead you through Espanola and onto the Trans-Canada Highway. At the junction of Hwy 6 south and Hwy 17 (E & W) was a gas station/restaurant called Pacey's. It was nothing fancy at all, self serve gas, dirty bathrooms, cafeteria style food, but they had the best homemade butter tarts. Growing up, I think my dad had a bit of a sweet tooth for these butter tarts, and as I grew up, I followed in his foot steps, enjoying every oey gooey bite. My 2,000 km car trips from Minaki back to S Ontario each year, I would spend the entire trip visualising my old car pulling into Pacey's, gassing up for the final haul to to Manitowaning, and getting two butter tarts, savouring each bite after 7 long months.
Until of course the Tim Horton's/Wendy's was built right next door. I will always remember my first trip back after they were built, I saw them there on the left, all lit up, parking lots full, driving thru lined up till the traffic has gone all crazy. But it didn't even dawn on me that Pacey's would be closed. I pulled in, gassed up, went inside to pay, and looked to the empty dark place that was once a vibrant, exciting food stop on the Trans Canada Highway.
I turned to the gas station cashier and said, "What happened to the restaurant?"
To which he replied, "It lasted about 3 months after the Tim Horton's opened up and then it closed".
"But I just drove all the way from Kenora, and wanted a butter tart"
"You should of called first"
Monday 17 September 2012
Tuesday 4 September 2012
Top of the World
That's where I was this weekend, and that's how I felt too. With Friday & Monday off, there was no other place for me to be than in Whistler. The biking season is fast coming to an end out here, even with the rest of Canada baking in some Indian Summer weather (is that inappropriate to say now?), Whistler on the other hand is a little to high in elevation to enjoy HOT summer weather in September. Yeah, the village might be nice and warm, in the 20's with the sun shinning, but as you creep up the mountain, it get colder and colder and colder. It even snowed up there the other day.
Adam was in Vancouver taking a break last week and visiting me at my place, so I had some company as we packed up Friday morning, and headed out. Man it always takes a longer than you think to pack the car and get moving. But we ended up in Whistler early enough to unload the car, change, and cycle over to the hill for a few evening runs for a few hours. Then it was home to bust out the Costco burgers and Adam's new propane tank for the BBQ. NICE.
Saturday ended up being a bit of a adventure. We got to the base of the hill, were we ran into Duster Dave, a biking buddy of Adam's, who is in Whistler for the summer, originally from California. He was waiting for Brent, another California transplant, and we were invited to join them as they were going to tackle Top Of The World. It's a new run that starts at the very peak of Whistler Mountain. According to Wiki (and they are NEVER wrong), your up at 7,156 feet. There is nothing up there but rock, absolutely nothing grows that high up. And suprisingly, there is even alot of snow up there.
The Trails we did are new this year, and they are limiting the amount of people that use them to just a hundred a day. That may seem like alot, but that's 100 riders, and you get one shot at it, compared to the thousands that are on the trails in the lower mountain bike areas, doing run after run after run. You also have to pay an additional $15 (on top of my season pass) to get to the very top. Once up there, you can see for ever in all directions. It's absolutely stunning.
From the time we purcahsed our tickets in the Village, riding the lifts to the top, biking down, and back to the Village was 3 hours in total. It was an amazing run, with some great guys.
I tried to take some pictures of the day in a life of Eric in Whistler, so this was what Saturday's Top Of The World Run was like.
The day always starts with a good check of your bike. The day before ride has shaken the shit out of everything, so you want to make sure your good to go, chain, cables, brakes, tires, air, fluids and for got sakes, tighten everything back up. It can sometime take an hour or more, depending on what is broken from the day before.
The line ups are not that bad, it's just something you have to deal with. When they are short, enjoy it, when they are long, well, Adam always has some texting to do
From Whistler Village, even as you strain you eyes to see the top, where we are going is still further up than the eye can see (yikes).
In order to get to the absolute top of Whislter Mountain, we need to take the gondola up with your bikes (instead of the chair lift). It's a tight squeeze, and about a 20 minute ride.
Once at the "Roundhouse Lodge" (6,000+ feet up)we get off the gondola, and onto The Peak chair lift for another 1,000 feet up.
like I said, nothing grows this far up.
and there seems to be way too much snow for a biking adventure, but look at the view that is starting to sneek up on me.
It's one of the things I love most about mountain biking. This sport will take you to some of the most beautiful spots on earth, no matter where you decide to get on your bike, you will always be amazed.
,,,
Sometimes the mountain wins, and there is nothing you can do but get off your bike, and climb down.
'
I didn't know there were "Gay Trails", I better go check this out.
The trails we did Saturday were Top of the World, Kyber, Tunnel Vision & Babylon by Bike (which wasn't as gay as we were lead to believe). Brent called his wife about 10 minutes from the bottom, and she was totally sweet in loading her 3 month old baby in the minivan and coming to pick us up. The trails left us about 5 kms out of town, and the ride back would have been painful on the bike, after riding for 2+ hours.
Adam and I parted ways with Brent and Dave, and actually headed back up the mountain for a few more runs. But not before a beer break and some carbs.
Even half way up, the views are incredible. You can see Whistler Village in the back ground.
We tried our best at taking some video, not bad from my crappy old cell phone.
Adam on Frieght Train
Eric doing the step-up on Frieght Train
Me trying to follow Adam on my bike. Not easy with one hand holding the cell phone and your trying to look Adam beside me and the road ahead.
Adam doing Drop In Clinic
Adam doing the Rock Wall, followed by Duster Dave
Me doing the last two jumps on Dirt Merchant
The only way to finish a day like Saturday was with a giant steak dinner, BBQ'd to perfection, with asparagus, and new potatoes,,, before
Adam was in Vancouver taking a break last week and visiting me at my place, so I had some company as we packed up Friday morning, and headed out. Man it always takes a longer than you think to pack the car and get moving. But we ended up in Whistler early enough to unload the car, change, and cycle over to the hill for a few evening runs for a few hours. Then it was home to bust out the Costco burgers and Adam's new propane tank for the BBQ. NICE.
Saturday ended up being a bit of a adventure. We got to the base of the hill, were we ran into Duster Dave, a biking buddy of Adam's, who is in Whistler for the summer, originally from California. He was waiting for Brent, another California transplant, and we were invited to join them as they were going to tackle Top Of The World. It's a new run that starts at the very peak of Whistler Mountain. According to Wiki (and they are NEVER wrong), your up at 7,156 feet. There is nothing up there but rock, absolutely nothing grows that high up. And suprisingly, there is even alot of snow up there.
The Trails we did are new this year, and they are limiting the amount of people that use them to just a hundred a day. That may seem like alot, but that's 100 riders, and you get one shot at it, compared to the thousands that are on the trails in the lower mountain bike areas, doing run after run after run. You also have to pay an additional $15 (on top of my season pass) to get to the very top. Once up there, you can see for ever in all directions. It's absolutely stunning.
From the time we purcahsed our tickets in the Village, riding the lifts to the top, biking down, and back to the Village was 3 hours in total. It was an amazing run, with some great guys.
I tried to take some pictures of the day in a life of Eric in Whistler, so this was what Saturday's Top Of The World Run was like.
The day always starts with a good check of your bike. The day before ride has shaken the shit out of everything, so you want to make sure your good to go, chain, cables, brakes, tires, air, fluids and for got sakes, tighten everything back up. It can sometime take an hour or more, depending on what is broken from the day before.
The line ups are not that bad, it's just something you have to deal with. When they are short, enjoy it, when they are long, well, Adam always has some texting to do
From Whistler Village, even as you strain you eyes to see the top, where we are going is still further up than the eye can see (yikes).
In order to get to the absolute top of Whislter Mountain, we need to take the gondola up with your bikes (instead of the chair lift). It's a tight squeeze, and about a 20 minute ride.
Once at the "Roundhouse Lodge" (6,000+ feet up)we get off the gondola, and onto The Peak chair lift for another 1,000 feet up.
It's one of the things I love most about mountain biking. This sport will take you to some of the most beautiful spots on earth, no matter where you decide to get on your bike, you will always be amazed.
,,,
Sometimes the mountain wins, and there is nothing you can do but get off your bike, and climb down.
'
I didn't know there were "Gay Trails", I better go check this out.
The trails we did Saturday were Top of the World, Kyber, Tunnel Vision & Babylon by Bike (which wasn't as gay as we were lead to believe). Brent called his wife about 10 minutes from the bottom, and she was totally sweet in loading her 3 month old baby in the minivan and coming to pick us up. The trails left us about 5 kms out of town, and the ride back would have been painful on the bike, after riding for 2+ hours.
Adam and I parted ways with Brent and Dave, and actually headed back up the mountain for a few more runs. But not before a beer break and some carbs.
Even half way up, the views are incredible. You can see Whistler Village in the back ground.
We tried our best at taking some video, not bad from my crappy old cell phone.
Adam on Frieght Train
Eric doing the step-up on Frieght Train
Me trying to follow Adam on my bike. Not easy with one hand holding the cell phone and your trying to look Adam beside me and the road ahead.
Adam doing Drop In Clinic
Adam doing the Rock Wall, followed by Duster Dave
Me doing the last two jumps on Dirt Merchant
The only way to finish a day like Saturday was with a giant steak dinner, BBQ'd to perfection, with asparagus, and new potatoes,,, before
and after
The rest of the weekend was just as amazing. Great runs down the mountain, beers, food, almost wiping out, laughing about your sketchy landing, or bragging about finally landing that jump "just right".
I have more video from the GoPro, but the file sizes are HUUUUGE and I'm having trouble uploading. To be continued,,,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)