Remington Steele on DVD

This is like my dream come true. Most of my friends know that when I was 12 or 13 I fell in love with Remington Steele, the character. Played by Pierce Brosnan. Consequently I fell in love with him too.
He is exactly the kind of man I want, mysterious, educated, classy, who can wear a tux for just any occasion. Remington Steele is who I want, sans the possibility of a criminal past, though.
The DVD for season 1 is out now. I’m going to get it. Maybe on my coming trip to San Diego. I will have it soon.

There is not such thing as a Toronto-Tijuana flight

Ensenada is a beautiful place, and my sister lived there for about 6 years. She is getting married there on August 12. I haven’t been there since 1997 and I’m looking forward to going again. There is no airport in Ensenada since it is so close to Tijuana, Mexico’s fourth largest city.
Well, there is no flight Toronto-Tijuana. So I will have to fly to San Diego and cross the border by car. Additionally, there is no flight Toronto-San Diego, so I will have to make a connection in Detroit on my way there and in Minneapolis on my way back (the last time I went, in May, I made both connections in Minneapolis).

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Simcoe Day

The first Monday of August is a holiday in Ontario (Simcoe Day) and in most Canadian provinces. But hah! they don’t have a holiday in Quebec. They will not have a long weekend. They will have togo to work on Monday. Mwahahahaha!

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I am now more convinced that Landmark Education IS a cult

The person that I know who went to Landmark Education kept telling me that it wasn’t a cult, it was just a self-help group. I wanted to believe him, I still think he is a nice person and hey, he said he had “learned something”.

Yesterday, thanks that a link that TBIT had on his website I came upon the Cult Hotline and Clinic and realized even more that what my friends have been telling me all along (to be careful, it’s a cult, get out of there now that you can) is quite true.

These are the things that made me take a second look at Landmark Education:

What types of cults are there?:
…Therapy/self-awareness (remember me justifying that it wasn’t a cult but a “self-help group”, hah!)
…Philosophical

Warning signs that someone may be in a cult

The following behavior changes do not necessarily imply there is a cult problem, but if someone you know has become deeply involved with a new group or organization and exhibits many of these changes it may indicate a cultish involvement.
…
Saying goodbye to all old friends and only seeing people affiliated with, or not critical of the cult (remember, my dear readers, about the woman from Hamilton?)
Signs that an organization may have cultish characteristics
…
+Has there been strong pressure for me to join or to stay? (they quite pressured me when I went to that “introduction” session with the person I know that joined Landmark Education).
+Am I being pressured to recruit others? (I saw with my own eyes, people who were asked to bring other people so that they could have an “introduction” to the Landmark Forum)
+Am I expected to reveal fears and secrets? (everyone in that “introduction” session was revealing what was “wrong with their life”. It was quite personal stuff).
+Have I missed important family occasions because I was encouraged to be with fellow group members instead or given an urgent task to complete? (I have heard that people have been pressured to miss weddings or anniversaries of family members because they were at the Landmark Forum and “how could they leave a unique opportunity for a family affair).
+Was I told that joining this group was my only path to happiness, peace, God, or even prosperity? (I was told that this would “change my life”)
Who is the “typical” recruit?
The recruit can be almost anyone including (these characteristics totally fit the person I know):
…
+ From middle to upper socio-economic family backgrounds
+Sixteen to senior citizen
+Of average or above-average intelligence
+Usually well educated, including college graduates
+Intellectually curious
+Idealistic or seeking meaning or purpose in life

Recruiters are persistent, seem very interested in you, don’t take “no” for an answer; and try to convince you that you are failing yourself or the world if you decline the offer to get involved. They will avoid responding to your questions while simultaneously pressing you for personal information. (This is totally what they did to me, I have lived it myself. This is my personal experience).

It makes me really, really sad, because I really liked the person who joined Landmark. But I get more and more convinced that this Landmark Education thing is indeed a cult, and this quite explains why he’s hanging out/dating people from that same group.

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Regal Beagle?

Yesterday we tried to go to the Maddie for lunch but it was booked for a private party or something. We went out on Bloor St. and decided to try out this place, the Regal Beagle, on 339 Bloor St. West. I thought it was a bit weird that it had a banner on the front saying “bento box special: tex-mex”. What the heck is a tex-mex bento box? and in a pub??
Anyway, we got in and at least they had Amsterdam Blonde on tap, which is nice, but when they gave us the menu we realized they had three items of “pub food”: fries, onion rings and something else. That’s it, they didn’t have salad or hamburger or anything. But they had a whole menu of Japanese things? really weird. That is not what we were looking for. We cancelled the drinks and flew out of there, we crossed Bloor st. and went to the Fox. Aaaah, a nice normal pub. I had a hamburger and they had nachos and a BLT.
That was our “bar-hopping” lunch hour yesterday.

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Is there such a thing as garlic ice cream?

Yes my dear 3 readers, there is! Garlic ice cream does exist. I have personally tried it. At Garlic’s restaurant in London, Ontario. This is a compilation of a series I’ve been posting on Garlicster:

I came upon the idea of Garlicster because of a restaurant in California, The Stinking Rose. I have never been to it, but I thought it was a great idea to have a whole restaurant devoted to Garlic. Recently I found out there is a restaurant devoted to Garlic in London, Ontario. I could not let the summer pass without me visiting. It was worth it.

This is the entrance to Garlic’s restaurant in London, Ontario, Canada.

We made a reservation for 7:00 and were received nicely. The menu is not entirely devoted to garlic but it has about 15% of its dishes with strong garlic content (or so they say).

I ordered a garlic martini and proceeded to examine the menu.

This was a normal martini with either gin or vodka and vermouth. The difference is that instead of olive or twist it had a clove of garlic inside. It was nicely roasted so it was easy to chew. An interesting take on the regular martini.

The roasted garlic arrived accompanied by grapes and toast to spread on.

This is the roasted garlic. They give you a whole head of garlic accompanied by toasted french bread and some grapes. It is really good. Since the garlic has been roasted it is pasty and has a nice subtle flavour. I spread it on the bread, but I had to add some salt to it. I think the addition of the grapes was a really nice touch.

The cream of garlic soup looked a bit like cream of mushroom and it was really good, but the garlic taste was subtle, it could have been stronger.

It had a subtle, not that garlicky taste. It could almost have been cream of just anything. It was good, though. Here is a link for the recipe, found on Garlic’s website (garlic soup).

The caesar salad absolutely disappointed me, the dressing tasted like bottled dressing. After the garlic-intensive caesar salad I had earlier this summer I thought in a garlic restaurant they would be having something similar. The garlic linguini had a better taste of garlic on it, unlike the bacon and blue potato pizza, which was advertised as garlic intensive too. The garlic flavour was overcome by the flavour of the bacon.

Bacon and blue potato pizza

The most interesting part of the evening was the garlic ice cream which was exactly that: garlic ice cream. As weird/gross as it sounds, it was actually pretty good. It appears to be made from raw rather than cooked garlic. It was accompanied by a clove of garlic dipped in chocolate, interesting again, and good.

By far the most interesting dish I had that night. Here is a link to the recipe from Garlic’s website.

Here is a link to the menu, there is another Garlic’s in Stratford, ON, Canada.

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Portraits in the Park

Last night I met Rannie and some other bloggers at the Sculpture Garden on King just east of Church. It is a beautiful place to hang out, there is a restaurant right there with a patio and there was a guitar player, it was a beautiful afternoon to just sit there, read your book and people-watch.
Later we went to C’est What for a tasty dinner and beer.
By the way, I finished One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest and I really really liked it. It is an older book and you notice it by the style, but it’s great. There is one particular scene, towards the end when the Chief is hallucinating that is just amazing literature. Now I want to watch the movie to compare.

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I am so not prepared for the apocalypse

The first clue I had that something was wrong was when Liz IMed me asking me if I had power, I said yes, I’m at work north of Bloor, what happened? Apparently there had been a 10 to 20 minute blackout at BCE Place.
After 1 or 2 PM, I could see on Thestar.com that there had been a blackout south of Gerrard all the way to the lake and east of Yonge to the Don Valley. I live in that area. The note in the newspaper said that it would be up in about 4 or 5 hours.
I was at the Duke of Richmond for after work drinks when my cellphone started ringing. Callista was calling me to see what I was going to do for dinner, I told her I was out and hadn’t got back to the building. I was a bit worried that I had to climb up 11 floors. Ten minutes later Andy called, asking where I was and letting me know about the power issue. I got home after 7 and of course there was no power, luckily, the emergency power plant keeps an elevator on so I didn’t have to go up by foot.
I looked for my walkman, only to find out that it had no batteries. I couldn’t listen to the radio. I knit by the window for a little bit until the sun came down, then I lit some candles and knit a little bit more (after all I’m under a knitting deadline for that shawl I’m going to wear at my sister’s wedding).
I should have had dinner at the Duke, because I had no can of tuna at home, and I couldn’t cook anything else. Oh well, I did have some french fries but I should really get some emergency non-electricity-needed-to-cook-it food.
I turned on my emergency flashlight (ever since I lived in London I’ve had an emergency flashlight because of the electricity issues there, I’ll tell the story later) and surprise surprise, two years of not needing it had made the batteries almost run out. I could read a bit of my book under the flashlight, but after about 45 minutes the light was just too dim. I had to go to bed then, it was about 10 PM.
The power came back at about 6 AM this morning. It was all over the news, obviously. Even the Toronto Sun wasn’t delivered on time, since they’re one block down from where I live, they didn’t have power either.

Today I’m going to buy lots of emergency batteries, I shouldn’t have left them run out like that, I mean what if it is really the apocalypse, right?

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Beautiful Cotton Braid by Rowan

This is the Rowan Cotton Braid that I bought on Saturday at The Naked Sheep. I am making a shawl to wear over my dress at my sister’s wedding. I started with 8 stitches and I am increasing with a yarn over on the second stitch on each row. The rest is garter stitch. I am using 10 mm needles and I hope to be done before the end of the week so I can proceed with finishing the shawl I’m making for my mother with the Goldielocks shawl kit I bought a couple of weeks ago at Lettuce Knit (this one has been taking longer since it’s knit with 6 mm needles). All my other projects are on hold now since I’m on a tight deadline. I’m flying to California on August 11. I think I’ll be able to make it.

Happy Monday!

I went yesterday to see The Island and I have to say that I enjoyed it. It’s not the best movie ever, but it’s entertaining. I find ita combination of Brave New World, Minority Report, and some elements of Total REcall. I enjoyed the car chases.

This morning I woke up at 5 AM with the fire alarm of my building going off madly. The concierge talked on the loud speaker and said that the fire department was coming. I didn’t move and they turned it off at about 5:30, after that it was difficult to go back to sleep since the sun was already coming up. Happy beginning of week, everyone!

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