the pseudo-single life

A new template and new day. Actually, I swapped templates last night, but let's just keep that our little secret.

I have been living la vida loca lately. My husband and kid are out of town for eight days. While I should be sleeping, lolly gagging and partying like it's 1999 (for that is likely the last time I partied), I have been doing the the most heinous of chores. I have been prepping my outdoor stairs for repainting. I know, pretty dang exciting, but work that is much easier to do when one doesn't have to mind a very curious three-year-old. By prepping the stairs, I have mainly been sanding them, and sanding them, and sanding them. I still have about an hour's worth of sanding to do before I can actually start to paint.

It all started about two years ago when we had our old stairs replaced. I was assured by the fancy paint place that the latex/acrylic paint would be durable. The fancy paint store went out of business. My paint had already started to chip by then. And so here I am, sans husband and child, doing some pretty awful work. I have invested in a cheap mask and safety goggles, but my lungs still feel fairly sawdusty. And my muscles are just screaming "WTF" at me over and over again.

Okay, so my life is not entirely dreary. I do have my evenings stacked up with various dining excursions. Last night, my friend and I hit Habit (www.habitlounge.ca). The place had a nice vibe and the service was very good. I was kind of playing with the server and she tolerated me very well. The food, on the other hand, was kind of hit and miss. It is served tapas style, intended for sharing. We ordered the tomato and bocconcini salad, which came with pesto. This was delicious and inspired me for future parties. The other two dishes not so much.

We also shared the Moroccan style chicken wings that came with an orange and pomegranate sauce. Sounds yummy right? Well, they were just okay. The wings were lacking any kind of flavour infusion. The sauce was nice, but heavy on the coriander pods and light on the pomegranate seeds. We also ordered the perogies stuffed with yam, which they claimed to be their most popular offering. Here, the problem for us was texture. We both found the stuffing to be a tad too pureed, much like baby food. A little bit of chunkiness would have certainly improved their mouthfeel. The bathrooms had some pretty cool retro wallpaper and were very clean. I will likely check it out again, but -- and you knew this was coming --won't make a "habit" of it. Groan, groan, groan.

Next up, tonight I am not certain, but I am feeling like some seafood. Tomorrow night, we hit Gotham. In the meantime, my stairs await and my body protests.