Dad Wants To Start a Blog....

My Dad wants to start a blog. SO....we're gonna show him how!

: )

This is the house I live in.

So There!

I know. I haven't posted anything in a very long time. That's what happens. Brockville is like one big hiding place. You don't really know anyone, and they don't know you. You can work and work and work and come home to do your homework and you don't have to worry about the distractions of living in a great city (like Ottawa). In Ottawa we would have already seen Coraline and Slumdog Millionaire. In Ottawa we would probably pop by a friend's place occasionally. In Ottawa we would find ourselves not having to decide which shows we should go to...we would go to them all. I would get off work tomorrow night at 11:30pm and not have to drive an hour before arriving at Babylon. Hey, maybe an hour and a half if you include traffic, parking, getting a coffee for the road.

But hey, Brockville has it's perks. It's cheap, we can save a lot of money, it's a beautiful area, we can get a lot of work done...but let's face it, aside from getting to spend lots of time with my family (which is awesome...probably the best thing about living here)this sucks.

Spring is coming. A fresh start. I think I'm just getting tired of the cold...and I miss my friends. I miss James too. He's working every night, overnight. After this week my schedule and James' schedule will kind of match...we should both be getting Fridays and Saturdays off. Yay!

Grumpy Allison

Lush

Speaking of friendly service. If anyone ever reading this is in Kingston at the mall, go to the Lush store there. Wow. Nicest sales associate ever. James and I ended up there accidentally the other day. We went out for a drive through Charleston Lake Provincial Park, Athens, Mallorytown, Jones Falls Lockstation, and finally to Kingston. James had a bit of a sunburn and even though we were just taking a look, she fixed up a sample of dream cream for him and gave me a slice of Rock Star soap (which I now LOVE).

Go see them there...

Buell Street Bistro

Earlier this evening James and I went for dinner at Buell Street Bistro. My parents had given us a gift certificate and we wanted to try something new. So there we were on a very muggy night. I was happy to see plenty of friendly faces working there that one would remember from the Brock years ago.

We seriously had the friendliest service I've ever had in Brockville...and possibly at any restaurant. That's right, this tops the "SO this is how it works..." guy at Sushi Kan (I'm kidding, he was awful). Anyway, Susan at Buell Street is awesome and I hear some of my favourite Brockville pals are also working there now.

Now about the food. It was really good. With our drinks (Sangria and a Coke) came some lovely rosemary bread and butter. We ordered Escargot as an appetizer that came in a nice mushroom...gravy...sauce...which I prefer over the typical cheese and butter. James and I both decided on the Seafood Thermidor. How can you go wrong if you love the seafood like we do...Sole fillets smothered in sauce with scallops and shrimp (and a little cheese). It was perfect with a side of rice and mixed vegetables. I feel I should mention that it stayed nice and hot the whole time we were there. Turns out it's perfect conversation food. You can have a lingering dinner,pleasant conversation, and it will be HOT until the very last bite. Nice.

Although the desserts must be delicious, we settled for tea (James) and a double espresso (Allison). I spied a nice selection of teas and the espresso was pretty good. All in all a great dining experience and I will be back in the near future...

(forgot the camera in all the excitement...)

Alias

Guess who is finally about to watch the last two episodes of Alias!?!

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

The other night I was marking journal entries for my mom's class while watching this with James. I loved it!

It's been a long, long time...

James and I have moved to Brockville. We just got high speed this week. So much to tell, but not enough time at the moment. We will be back.

The Humanity of Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Oshima is a severely neglected Japanese filmmaker in North America. Oshima is probably most widely recognized for his controversial Japanese/French co-production "In The Realm of The Senses", produced in 1974, and 1983's "Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence", starring David Bowie and a young Takeshi Kitano. These three trailers reflect what is perhaps Nagisa Oshima's most fruitful and radical period of filmmaking- the late 1960's. Along with Hiroshi Teshigahara and Shohei Imamura, he is a Japanese favorite of mine.




1968's "Death By Hanging"



1969's "Boy"



1970's "The Man Who Left His Will On Film"

-James

Heeeeeeeeere's Charlie!

I guess we'd better introduce Charlie as well. She also goes by Charlie Bucket, Charlie Choo Choo Train, Charlie Rochester (that is unfortunately her kitty stripper name) and Grumpy face/bum/pants/pie. A certain brother, who I will not name for his protection, calls her Handycat. So mean!

Sometimes the duo are called the Brewster Twins or Sparlie and Charkie! They both get things like Smoosh Face, Kitty Pie, Cutie Bum and so on. One former roommate mostly called them NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and Don't! If you're my father you will likely call them (and any pet) Stinky...or more accurately "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh Stiiiinky".
-Allison

Sparkie and Charlie are not amused

I repeat. Sparkie, and Charlie are not amused by the change of cat food. They were happy to see that I paid attention to their discomfort and bought some of the old faithful food they have been eating their whole life. I even tried to gradually change the food by mixing the old with the new over a few months. This did not go over well. Oh well. As long as they're happy.
-Allison

Sparkie

This is our cat Sparkie and we love him. James likes to call him Meeeeeeeeeeeestah Spaaaaako (repeatedly). He also goes by Sir Sparkler, The Gentle Giant and Sir Sparks-A-Lot.
-Allison

Yummy Yummy Roll

Don't be fooled. These are delicious, but NEVER ask for more than one order as you may not be able to finish the. I normally only want two bite size pieces. They are warm and saucy!
-Allison

Salmon Rose Roll

I love these, a lot!
-Allison

Sushi Kan

Yes! James and I went out for sushi lunch. Delicious. You know, Sushi Kan is great for all you can eat sushi lunch. It's only $12.99 a person and everything is so yummy. I love sashimi, it's my favourite, but I don't mind that it's only on the dinner menu.

Lunch was better than I remember it. These photos show just a few of the items we had. We definately took our appetite with us. James is enjoying some orange peel chicken in the photo above...and about to enjoy some shrimp tempura!

The next photo is a white tuna sushi pizza with garlic sauce. We usually order the salmon sushi pizza and were pleasantly surprised by how good the tuna one was. Yum!

The third photo again shows the orange peel chicken, shrimp tempura and fried calamari.

Last, but DEFINATELY not least is a plate of salmon, tuna, tofu and crab sushi. In behind you can see my favourite "salmon rose" roll. It has salmon and cream cheese in it. If you love salmon, you've got to try it.

These photos are no longer in the same order. I'm sure you can figure it out.
-Allison

Watch Me

I'd like to take this opportunity to advertise a YouTube video that I love. Check these guys out. I'm certain that if they lived here in Ottawa, they'd be our pals...



http://www.youtube.com/user/klusmanp

-Allison

Sweet and Sour Pork Chops

I forgot to mention, for those who like to try new recipes. I made some sweet and sour pork chops the other night. Super tasty! The sauce is nice to put over rice or potatoes. It's a subtle flavour. I can't decide between this recipe and the dijon herb recipe, but James says the sweet and sour chops are better. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
4 medium pork chop
1 tablespoon oil or butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup organic apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon allspice (essential and so delicious)
salt, to taste
black pepper, freshly ground, to taste
(a clove or two of chopped can't hurt)

*Brown the pork chops in the oil or butter and place in a single layer in a baking dish.

*Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl, mixing to combine, and pour over the pork chops.

*Bake in a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Yum! Adam, you should try these...
-Allison

Mary Tyler Moore!

Oh, we're so busy with packing up the house right now. It would be nice to take the time to right something interesting in here. All I can think of is our AYCE Sushi lunch we have planned for tomorrow at Sushi Kan. It will be nice to do something fun like that before the crazy moving business starts. The day after the move is so busy too. I'm sure I'll post lots of photos from not only the sushi, but Holly's baby shower and Syvie and Oz's wedding reception.

According to Adam's blog, there is a Mary Tyler Moore Show reunion to look forward too. We're moving to a house with TV just in time for that. I heart Mary Tyler Moore. That show is one of my all time favourites. This show seems to be on topic a lot these days...

(Here is where I erased a rant about something that was annoying me. It was fun to write it here, but started to bother me just as much that I had written it.)

...Lesson learned. Don't lend out anything you expect to get back.

And now back to packing. I think we're almost out of boxes and ready to call it a night. There will be an awful lot of stuff left behind. We're planning on putting it all out on the street for the neighbours...and then donate what's left...
-Allison

Celebrating Tacos.......

Taco trucks are plentiful throughout urban California. You can always count on them to deliver delicious tacos. What we require in Canada are legions of taco trucks, ready to supply us with tacos, on demand.

A photo of the raw materials required to assemble authentic tacos (with an abundance of sliced steak and avocado). Tacos can be made with any meat product, but beef is always good.

Cinemascope

Beginning with the upcoming summer issue, Cinemascope Magazine, Canada's finest cineaste periodical, will be including exclusive film dvds. The dvds will be provided courtesy of Toronto's FilmsWeLike Distributing and the premiere film will be Portugese filmmaker Pedro Costa's excellent "Juventude Em Marcha (Colossal Youth)" (pictured above).

Unfortunately, the discs will only be included in subscription copies and not newsstand copies (So, I better subscribe!).
-James

The Great Unravelling

People's Exhibit A-


Farewell precious sweater, and farewell precious nose. All hail the mighty Reatarded appendage!

Last week I was deathly ill and I was unable to attend the Jay Reatard show at Babylon in Ottawa. His next performance on the Canadian leg of the tour was at the Silver Dollar in Toronto. As witnessed in the above video clip, Jay apparently encountered some scenester &*!%&*@%!-types in Toronto. Jay decimated a dimestore emo sweater by grasping a single follicle of polyester fiber and rendering it a pile of shreds in a matter of seconds. But, what follows is more exciting- Jay punches the sweater-sporting boy. The audio of the punch is clearly present in the audio . According to the promoter, a cord was unplugged and Jay is a prima donna. According to Jay, the crowd, undaunted by any security presence, destroyed portions of the band's rig- pedals, guitar pickups, and monitors, making the performance difficult to continue. Jay's reaction isn't surprising. Music is his livelihood.

To Jay's credit, he has promised to return and perform for free, making up for the shortened show (strictly for the 'fans', the beer swilling children can stay home.)

There is another clip of the promoter, but it's too embarrassing to post. As Jay departs, the promoter unleashes an anti-Reatard, crowd-supported tirade. Apparently, the same guy, when asked by Jay before the show about the security presence or lack thereof, responded with "I thought you guys were a garage band?!" What does that even mean?

Was Jay out-of-line for punching the guy in the face (and in turn, punching him right back into the sweaty crowd)? Perhaps. Probably not though. Perhaps the Toronto crowd could repair Jay's equipment for him? Not likely.
-James