Is it time for a divorce?

As my loyal readers know, this blog is married to Logan’s Dave, it was our 6-6-6 celebration and we had a great blog wedding.
Well, my dear b-husband (blog husband) has not updated his blog in more than a month now. I find this unacceptable. I don’t think this nice, interesting(?), dynamic blog can be married to a dormant blog.
I think it may be time for a b-divorce. What do my 3 readers think of this? Should we end this b-marriage?

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Cooking class

Tonight Sam and Clarissa and I went to 10 Favourite Healthy Foods and What to Do With Them, a cooking class at Bonnie Stern‘s School of Cooking. Sam attended a corporate event and thought it was a good idea to learn how to cook more delicious healthy food.
Of course I didn’t think of the theme of the class and stopped at The Rose and Crown and had some nachos. I felt like a pig when I realilzed I was going to take a cooking healthy class just after eating a plateful of nachos. Oh well.
The School of Cooking is on Yonge and Eg and of course I didn’t think of the theme of the class and stopped at The Rose and Crown and had some nachos. I felt like a pig when I realilzed I was going to take a cooking healthy class just after eating a plateful of nachos. Oh well.
When we got there there was grilled cauliflower and broccoli with a creamy white sauce, and grilled chick peas that were just delicious, they were covered with garam masala and they were so good. We also drank some pomegranate sangria. Unfortunately we wanted more sangria but couldn’t have more.
Nutritionist Fran Berkoff told us the importance of Omega 3s, antioxidants and other healthy elements we need in our diets. Bonnie showed us how to cook lentil soup, sweet potato, spinach, salmon, tomatoes, blueberry muffins and dark chocolate bark. I didn’t like the soup that much because it had cumin, and I hate it. I also didn’t eat the blueberry muffins. I hate blueberry and they’re on their way to becoming my nemesis (right now my nemesis are sugar snap peas, but I’m not limited to only one nemesis).
After class we went to the Flatiron to celebrate our introduction into the healthy world of cooking by having a couple of cold ones.

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Radical lace and subversive knitting

I was subversive during the radical lace and subversive knitting exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City: I took some photos of the exhibit.

The truth is that when I saw the knitted ties that looked like snakes I was enchanted. I took a picture but accidentally didn’t turn off the flash, that made the guards follow us all around the exhibit to ensure we would not take more pictures.

We managed to take 2 more pictures of us knitting. There was a special knitting table to get into the mood. I tried to teach Federico, but I am not a good teacher.

He also took a pic of me knitting, not that me knitting is anything new on the internet.

The tiny little gloves and tiny little knitted jacket and sweaters were amazing. Smaller than for a Barbie doll. Sadly I couldn’t take a picture but if you go to the exhibit’s site, you can see a picture of the gloves (link, exhibit site)

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Portraits

Portrait maria
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto.

While in New York, we had our portraits made by artist Claudia Doring, who happens to be my cousin. We had so much fun with her and were quite excited to be painted by her.
My mom’s portrait turned out to be even more amazing than mine.

If anyone is in the New York area and wants their portrait painted by Claudia Doring, contact me and I will put you in touch with her. She’s well-renowned with a long career and on her way to being world famous.
(you can enlarge the pictures if you click on them, or go to my flickr photo page and see more of them)

La Traviata

After a brief stop at the house where we were staying, we changed and were ready to go the opera. I had ordered the tickets beforehand and had to get there 45 minutes prior to the show. We weren’t prepared for what awaited us.
There was a huge ice storm. It looked like snow but they were actually ice pellets and not snow flakes. It had accumulated on the ground and my mom was buried in snow.

Traffic was stopped. We finally treked to Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera.

I was so excited when I picked up the tickets, I was jumping up and down around the lobby. People looked at me like I was the crazy opera lady.

The show was amazing. I cried at the end. I’m not a cry baby, but the heroine dies, after all. Ooops, sorry, did I just spoil it?

An important reminder to my readers:
New York is just like in the movies. About 5,000 get out of the opera at the same time. Everyone is tired (the people sitting next to me even took a nap during the show), and absolutely everyone is looking for a taxi, especially when there’s 2 feet of snow/ice on the ground. You can spend about 1 hour looking for a cab and will not get one (I’m talking from experience here). Attention everyone, the best bet is to jump on the subway and try to get home by looking at the map and trying to decipher where the train you just got on will take you. The most important thing is to not confuse downtown and uptown, from there everything else will probably be easier. And do not be scared of teenagers acting up and shouting while on the train. Especially if they speak Spanish among them, haha, little did they know that I understood everything they were saying. They just wanted to scare people.

Just a regular night in New York City.

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Spanish painting exhibit

I could not get away from winter even during my vacation. We had a huge ice storm in New York.
We woke up early-ish to go to the Guggenheim Museum.

The main purpose of my trip was to see the Spanish painting exhibit, from El Greco to Picasso. So we met up with my friend Federico who is studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

We loved the exhibit. We thought it was exquisitely curated set up by themes. We had lots of fun trying to deipher a Miro picture of a nude woman. We were laughing out loud, it looked like a whale and Federico couldn’t actually see the womanly shape. We probably would have got an F on art class!
When we got out of the museum it had started snowing. We were excited to see “some snow” in New York. Little did we know what awaited us.

We went for lunch at Gino, a small Italian place on Lexington just in front of Bloomingdale’s. The food was delicious, it was just like being in Italy. Everyone who visits New York should go. Warning, they only take cash.

(Click on any of the pictures if you want to see them bigger)

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Arriving to New York

Maria and Lorri
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto.

The first night I went for dinner at 66, a trendy New York place. Delicious food, I especially recommend the sashimi.
I met up with my friend Lorri. I met her when we were both students in London and I hadn’t seen her in about 8 years.
We had a great time catching up, laughing and joking around.

Hot Docs 2007 lineup finalized

Alan Zweig’s film Lovable will screen at 6:30 PM at the Bloor Cinema (World Premiere) on Monday April 23 and at 2:15 PM at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Saturday April 28. I will be in the movie and already have my tickets for the Monday screening.
Hot Docs describes the documentary as

At some point, everyone has asked the question, why is it so hard to find love? In this final instalment of the autobiographical trilogy that includes Vinyl and I, Curmudgeon, Alan Zweig reflects with disarming candour on why, if he longs for a partner and children, he is still single at mid-life. Through intimate, heartfelt and often hilarious interviews with a series of diverse, smart and attractive single women, Zweig explores yearnings for the romantic myths of our culture and the difficulty of finding and sustaining relationships. Some women have come to accept and prefer being alone, but many still dream of a future they can share. When his mother dies, the reality of dealing with such painful life experiences alone hits home. Rather than remaining the objective observer, Zweig approaches his female subjects as kindred spirits, sharing their vulnerability and openness. A perfect mixed tape of love songs provides the backdrop for this courageously candid look at love and longing.

It sounds really interesting and I hope everyone gets to see it.

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Vacation

I’ll be back soon, with pics and all!

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Last week’s mayonnaise

Mayonnaise
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto.

I found this package of mayonnaise buried in the snow. I wasn’t very hungry, so I didn’t pick it up.