annie’s Neighborhood

Christmas around town.

M making a strange face on our street.

The train station (quiet)

Eaton Centre (pfft: ridiculously crowded)

Ads everywhere.

Ste-Catherine and McGill

*Nice day yesterday: very lazy. We got up late, made a huge breakfast (oatmeal blueberry pancakes, french toast, bacon, banana bread, poached eggs, fresh fruit), then hung out in the living room until 1pm when we finally started opening presents. Imagine: when I was a kid, I'd get up at 6am, so excited to open them. Now sleeping in and having a slow, lazy morning is much more of a gift! Some stuff we got: new camera, external HD for my computer, optical mouse, a new winter coat. Some things I gave: a nice microwave (Masa's been wanting one for ages), a faux-fur-lined hoodie, a real fur hat (Ken is still getting used to these winters), DVDs, an iPod port/player for Masa (that, unfortunately isn't really designed for iPhones grrrr). And some other stuff.

*Another Christmas celebration Monday night with M is back from US with the chitlin. We'll have dinner open gifts, etc. Nice to drag it out. Then another party Tuesday night a few blocks away with a friend, then we're having people over Thursday night to celebrate the end of 2009 and the start of my 39th year (actually my 40th year but I'm turning 39!)*Today is back to work. And shopping. M is watching animation. Ken is cleaning and playing video games.

*I watched No Reservations. Not even sure if or when I zipped this but what a piece of crap. It didn't even make me hungry like most food movies do: what a waste of a good zip slot. Not a big fan of Catherine Zeta-Jones but I do like Patricia Clarkson a lot. I hate seeing actors I love doing crap movies..also watched Elf (which we do most years): yeah, this one is bad, too, but it's supposed to be bad and doesn't pretend to be some high art movie just because the director lingers on the characters' hands for a while.

*Woke up at 5am with a phone call from some friends and former students in Japan. A bunch of them were all together and called to wish me a Merry Christmas. So sweet (though not sweet for waking me up at 5 am when we went to bed at 3!).

*Stayed up late watching St-Elsewhere on DVD. I love this show, though I don't really remember watching it as a kid. Maybe towards the end I started watching it, but so many famous people in it. And you can see how it influenced medical shows well until today: all and pan and walk scenes, all the interlocking stories and intertextuality. I gave Masa Monk season 7 (he loves this show). And my sister gave me an amazon gift certificate.

*A good friend gave me a waffle iron--woo hoo! Can't wait to try it out next weekend.

*I downloaded the Podcast of "A Christmas Carol" which I listened to on Christmas Day as I was cooking. I never get sick of this story.

*I love the new optical wireless mouse. I like how I can be across the room and get my computer to do what I want it to do.

*I also watched Christmas in Connecticut, one of my favorite Christmas movies. It always makes me laugh outloud.

*So much free time! I took (nearly) two entire days off which I never do. I start to get a little bit bored in all honesty but it sure was nice to have two days of doing nothing but cooking, watching movies, drinking, and wasting time!

Some photos testing out new camera:

my favorite ornament this year (a skiing polar bear)

Happy Holidays!

Team Vox
3 days ago
9 comments

6acardVOX

5 comments

Happy Holidays to you, your family, friends and neighbors from all of us at Vox.
See you in 2010!

Merry Christmas!

mcco12
4 days ago
2 comments

Happy year this year. Got a comfortable place, people around us, enough money, more than enough stuff. I miss friends and family far away but feel fortunate to be where I am this time of year.

It's 11am on Christmas Eve and my day is easy: I will work for a few hours later but mainly going to go shopping for food so that we can make a big dinner tonight and a big breakfast tomorrow. Open presents, watch TV, etc.

And starting tomorrow night, we are supposed to get a storm and some snow (though not as much as they were predicting earlier). And, best of all, it's not that cold. You know you're getting used to Quebec when minus 2 feels balmy and spring-like.

The best of the season to everyone.

Merry merry

Great film.

mcco12
Dec 20, 2009
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Never heard of it, actually, but Zip sent it to me (I don't even remember zipping it) and I really enjoyed it. Halle Berry is muted and kind of cold and hard throughout much of the film but strong, Benecio del Torro is fantastic as a heroin addict trying to get his life back on track. About loss, redemption, and recovery. The story chronicles a woman who loses her husband (David Duchovny) and tries to help her husband's best friend who she finds in a dumpy drug infested rathole in suburban Seattle.

There are several moments in the movie when I think the story's going to go one way but it doesn't. It's moving and, in the end, uplifting. And Halle Berry and Benecio del Torro have great chemistry....

Really enjoyed this one.

Things We Lost in the Fire [HD DVD]

What I want....

mcco12
Dec 19, 2009
2 comments

for Christmas!!

AK 100: 25 film by Akira Kurosawa. Wow! 50 hours of some of the best films ever made. I've seen many of them already but the beautiful thing about Kurosawa is that you can watch his films over and over and still enjoy them.

Down side: it's $320. Lots of other things to spend money on this Christmas, I guess.

But, oh well: I can dream.

AK 100: 25 Films of Akira Kurosawa (Criterion Collection)

What goes around...

mcco12
Dec 16, 2009
2 comments

A few weeks ago, I was a friend's house who had made this really good soup. She roughly outlined the recipe and a few days later, I tried it. It was great! Then yesterday, I was at lunch with some colleagues and mentioned the recipe and how easy and delicious it was. Today, when I popped into the office, two different people told me they had gone home and made the soup. Then they had brought some and shared it with the office. Everyone was raving about it.

So maybe I should share it here. It's really easy and it's cooking on my stove right now as I speak.

Curried apple leek soup

So, you take 5-7 leeks, 3-4 apples (I've used Granny Smith and Red Delicious), two potatoes. You peel and core the apples, peel the potatoes, and chop everything up. Take 2 Tbsps of butter and melt it in a big saucepan. Add 2 tsps of curry powder and mix with melted butter. Then add in the chopped leeks, apples & potatoes. Stir fry for 5 minutes on med-high heat.

Put into a pot, add 3-4 cups of vegetable broth and cook on med-low heat for 25-30 minutes. Grind any remaining chunks up with an immersion blender and serve. Add a dollop of plain yogurt on top for extra kick.

Yum!

served with garlic bread mmmm (pardon the crappy iPhone pic)

December update:

mcco12
Dec 15, 2009
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Busy days! Been wrapping up two semesters, finishing up a big project and Thursday I start working at that new Quebec company. But after Friday, the next two weeks should be smooth sailing. Looking forward to it. All I have to do is work a bit, write a book review, and watch some movies.

Christmas, meh. Every year it seems like more of a hassle. I like having people over and I like buying gifts and wrapping them. But the stores are so crowded and everyone goes a bit nutty at this time of year, I think. Just a few more gifts to buy and I'll be done (and out of $$!).

So I started watching Hulu the other day, watched Rhoda and a big chunk of St. Elsewhere, but suddenly my identity cloaker wouldn't work anymore. So back to watching it all through Canadian TV websites (well not those shows because we can only see what's currently playing on CTV or Global). Why is Canadian technology always behind the US? The Canadian TV websites are slow, freeze a lot and have about 20% of the selection. Yeah, I know they are all produced in the US (most of what Canadians watch, even on Canadian TV, is US TV programs), but since the stations show so many, why can you watch so few on their sites?

Re-reading Mishima's Sea of Fertility Series. I am re-reading Runaway Horses now. Not sure why I felt like reading them again, I read the first three about two years ago but now I'm missing Japan a lot lately.

A friend pointed out that a university I used to teach at (in suburban Tokyo) is hiring a teacher. So tempting! It wouldn't be until April 2010, but even that would be too soon I guess. And figuring out what to do with this place, the cat, our stuff, etc., seems like too much to think about. Maybe in 18 months: the job is OK, but I love the area where it is and living out there on the Odakyu line (on the way to Kamakura): it's one of the most beautiful parts of Tokyo. Anyway, I could just do the job I am doing now from there, but maybe it'd be nice to be back in the classroom full-time just for a year or so. Do something different for a while. We're still into this place and the newness hasn't quite worn off (and we still have more work to do), but in a year from now, we may be ready to do it.

Tuesday night--my only night at home on my own. Though I work all night on Tuesdays, it's cool to have the whole place to myself. It never happens -- always either Masa is here or Ken is here or they are both here.

OK back to work.

runaway horses

yukio mishima

our tree - 2009

So cute.

mcco12
Dec 10, 2009
1 comment

This made me smile.

I'm Yours(ukulele)

Before and after

mcco12
Dec 9, 2009
1 comment

OK. Bad pictures (our digital camera broke a while back so we only have the iPhone camera), but this gives an idea of some progress our kitchen is making.

This is Ken (Masa's brother).

Two befores and one after. Still not done but coming along! Notice the floors, too!

We still need to install a shelf above the tiles (above the sink) to keep all the cookbooks. And this is just one wall! Still coming along, slowlyslowlyslowly....