Sin City Boys, Motel Bar, Toronto, ON

The Sin City Boys are a band that had been around Toronto for many years.  Kevin, one of their singers, moved to Halifax a couple years ago.  He comes back to Toronto every year or so and the band reunites for a couple of shows.

They were playing this afternoon (and again tomorrow afternoon) on the street patio of Motel Bar in Parkdale.  Our friends, Mary and Malcolm, are fans and friends with the band and invited Gord and I to this afternoon's show.  We've heard them a couple times and it's a fun time.

Mary and Diana

Smoque N’ Bones, Toronto, ON

Gord and I had supper this evening on the patio at Smoque N’ Bones (Queen Street W/Walnut Avenue).

We started with Cornbread. 

I ordered Buttermilk Fried Chicken and a side of Mac ‘n Cheese.  Gord ordered Beef Brisket but then changed his mind to Pork Side Ribs. When Dean brought us our food, he brought both brisket and pork ribs.  It was a lot of food!  But rather than tell Dean a mistake was made, we shared beef brisket and pork ribs and took the chicken and mac ‘n cheese home for lunch tomorrow. 

The Scented Market, Guelph, ON

I've been following The Scented Market on Instagram for a while.  Because some might say I already have an overabundance of scented candles, I've been able to resist ordering from them because I've been waiting for my supply to go down a bit.

They recently had a sale ... buy one, get one half price.  When Dawn, my friend/neighbour/scented candle addict, reminded me on Monday the sale was ending that night (and she recommends their candles), I knew it was time to try them (Dawn is a bad influence!).  I made an order and they just arrived.

Beach Day Baby!!!! All things coconut and sunshine!

Farm Pickin' - that sweet summer smell of
fresh strawberries with a hint of cream and vanilla.

Farmhouse Fresh is a balance of lemon and basil.
When you are in the mood to clean and that
fresh lemon scent makes you feel spic-and-span!

Fruity Pie a fresh blend of all things citrus.

Book ~ "The Santa Suit" (2021) Mary Kay Andrews

From Goodreads ~ When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love - but Ivy didn't bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it.

At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit - beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it's from a little girl who has one Christmas wish and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?

Ivy's quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love. 

Ivy has recently been divorced from her husband ... he had fallen in love with her best friend so she needs a change.  She buys an old farmhouse across the country she finds online and she and her dog pack up move into it.  It hasn't been lived in for a while and is in worse shape than Ivy had thought (she bought it without visiting it).  She has to clean and fix the house plus get rid of the furniture, trunks, boxes, etc. that were left behind.  

She comes across an old Santa suit in a box in the closet ... the former owner was the local Santa many years earlier.  Inside the pocket, she finds a letter written by a child named Carlette asking Santa to bring her daddy home safely from the war.  Ivy is curious to find out who Carlette is and what happened to the family.  

This is how she meets a grandfather who hasn't seen or heard from his granddaughter in many years, a woman who is excited to marry a man she's never met, a local shop owner who needs marketing help to keep her business alive and many more.  Plus there's the very helpful real estate agent who sold her the house who is very helpful and handy in fixing things around her house. 

This was a quick read.  It's a cute story written in third person perspective with happy Christmasy endings for all.

Keg Steakhouse + Bar, Etobicoke, ON

I had lunch at the Keg at Sherway Gardens today with some of my Toronto office colleagues and some from Montreal and Vancouver (there were nine of us). It was great to see everyone as I hadn’t seen them since January 2020 (some even longer!).

Joseph was our server and he started us off with hot fresh bread.  Yum!

Prime rib was a special and that's what I ordered ... I asked to have it cooked medium-well.  It was delicious.  I had garlic mashed potatoes as my side.

Joseph was friendly and helpful and took good care of us.

Serendipity Soy Candles, Collingwood, ON

I ordered the Serendipity Soy Candles' Fall Candle Box (they are in Collingwood, ON) and it arrived today.  It costs $85 (the value is over $100) and shipping was free.  I had ordered their spring and summer ones.

Be Open To What's Next (amber)

Fill Your Life with Great Friends and Your Glass
with Great Wine (chardonnay & merlot)

Liberty Commons at Big Rock Brewery, Toronto, ON

Gord and I had supper this evening on the patio at Liberty Commons in Liberty Village.

The Sparkling Summer Sangria was tasty! 

 Gord started with a Scotch egg.  He loves Scotch eggs and has had it here whenever we go!

He also ordered a 6ix Reuben and swapped his fries for potato salad.  He wasn't too crazy about the potato salad.  I tasted it and it had an odd flavor.

Book ~ "The Stowaway" (2021) James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth

From Goodreads ~ Two years ago, Maria Fontana was the deciding vote on a jury that set alleged serial killer Wyatt Butler free. Now she and her family are enjoying vacation on a two week long transatlantic cruise. But when passengers are discovered brutally murdered in a similar way to Butler's ritualistic MO, the ship goes on lockdown. 

Maria, one of only twelve people in the world with intimate knowledge of the case, faces a perilous ticking clock. Is it a copycat? Or is she trapped on board with the bloodthirsty maniac she chose to set free?

I like the Impractical Jokers and often watch it,  James "Murr" Murray is one of the Jokers so that's why this book caught my eye.

Maria was on the jury of a murder case of Wyatt Butler who was accused of killing and dismembering children.  When he is acquitted, the public start emotionally and physically attacking the jurors for weeks and months afterwards.  To stop the abuse of the other jurors, Maria holds a press conference and admits she was the deciding vote.

Fast forward two years and Maria, her fiancé and her two young children are taking a two week cruise across the Atlantic Ocean.  Passengers start turning up dead or missing and Maria suspects Wylie is on the ship or there is a copycat killer.  She works with the head of security, once she convinces him she knows what's she's talking about, to catch the killer.

This was a quick read (I read it in a day).  I thought the writing could have been tighter.  The word "exsanguination" was used many times ... I had no idea what it meant so had to look it up.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence, especially against children.  I found it interesting that for someone so funny on TV has such a twisted imagination.

I wasn't crazy about the story.  I found the storyline once Maria and her family got on the ship farfetched.  She sees a weird looking man within five minutes on the ship and immediately assumes he's up to something and it has to do with the murder case she'd been a juror on.  A bit of a stretch, I thought.  At the end, because she is a psychologist, she knows how the killer's mind works and takes actions to mess with his mind.  Really?  It was obvious who the killer was as soon as they were introduced in the story.  I wasn't buying the who, the how or the why ... I thought it was silly.

Book ~ "Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion" (2021) Tori Telfer

From Goodreads ~ From Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey to Frank Abagnale and Charles Ponzi, audacious scams and charismatic scammers continue to intrigue us as a culture. As Tori Telfer reveals in Confident Women, the art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best - or worst.

In the 1700s in Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Rémy scammed the royal jewelers out of a necklace made from six hundred and forty-seven diamonds by pretending she was best friends with Queen Marie Antoinette.

In the mid-1800s, sisters Kate and Maggie Fox began pretending they could speak to spirits and accidentally started a religious movement that was soon crawling with female con artists. A gal calling herself Loreta Janeta Velasquez claimed to be a soldier and convinced people she worked for the Confederacy - or the Union, depending on who she was talking to. Meanwhile, Cassie Chadwick was forging paperwork and getting banks to loan her upwards of $40,000 by telling people she was Andrew Carnegie’s illegitimate daughter.

In the 1900s, a 40something woman named Margaret Lydia Burton embezzled money all over the country and stole upwards of forty prized show dogs, while a few decades later, a teenager named Roxie Ann Rice scammed the entire NFL. And since the death of the Romanovs, women claiming to be Anastasia have been selling their stories to magazines. What about today? Spoiler alert: these “artists” are still conning.

Confident Women asks the provocative question: Where does chutzpah intersect with a uniquely female pathology—and how were these notorious women able to so spectacularly dupe and swindle their victims?

I like reading true stories and I thought reading about female con women would be interesting ... and it was.

The stories range from women scamming hundreds of years ago to recent times.  I hadn't heard of most of the women or their situations (I knew who Bonny Lee Bakley, who was murdered while married to actor Robert Blake, was and have heard about the possibility that Anastasia Romanov might have lived rather than being executed with her family).  I found myself stopping and Googling to get more information on some of the more interesting stories.  Plus I was curious to see what these women looked like and how they were able to use their looks to charm people.  It's amazing how gullible people can be (which shows how good these con women are).  I didn't know that best selling author Jude Devereaux had gotten duped into paying a psychic almost $20 million dollars over 17 years because she was "cursed"!

I liked the writing style.  It was fairly high level and didn't get into too many details, which I liked.  As I said, if I wanted to know more about a story, I Googled it.

Hugs & Sarcasm, Toronto, ON

Gord and I had supper this evening on the sidewalk patio at Hugs & Sarcasm (Queen Street W/Niagara).

The sangrias were fun!

We both had fried chicken sandwiches ... mine with no lettuce and fries and Gord's with no tomatoes and a salad.  The sandwiches were good and hearty and we'd get them again.

Olivia was our server.  She was friendly and chatty and took good care of us.

Trailhead Place, Ontario Place, Toronto, ON

Trailhead Place has been happening on the weekends over the summer ... this is the last weekend for it. They have set up picnic tables in the small parking lot just east of Ontario Place. I discovered it a couple weeks ago and had fun so was looking forward to going again.

Goodie bags are given out as you come in.

If you order something from the bar, you are given a basket of snacks courtesy of Kettle Chips, Duke’s and Ivanhoe.

Book ~ "Inside Comedy: The Soul, Wit, and Bite of Comedy and Comedians of the Last Five Decades" (2021) David Steinberg

From Goodreads ~ From David Steinberg, a rabbi's son from Winnipeg, Canada, who at age fifteen enrolled at Hebrew Theological College in Chicago (the rabbinate wasn't for him) and four years later, entered the master's program in English literature at the University of Chicago, until he saw Lenny Bruce, the Blue Boy of Comedy, the coolest guy Steinberg had ever seen, and joined Chicago's Second City improvisational group, becoming, instead the comedian's comedian, director, actor, working with, inspired by, teaching, and learning from the most celebrated, admired, complicated comedians, then and now - a funny, moving, provocative, insightful look into the soul, wit, and bite of comedy and comedians - a universe unto itself - of the last half-century.

From the greats: George Burns, Lenny Bruce, Sid Caesar, Lucille Ball, Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner, et al., to the newer greats: Carol Burnett, Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, Bob Newhart, and the man for all comedy, Martin (Marty) Short; to the greats of right now: Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wanda Sykes; and more.

Steinberg, through stories, reminiscences, tales of directing, touring, performing, and through the comedians themselves talking (from more than 75 interviews), makes clear why he loves comedy and comedians who have been by his side in his work, and in his life, for more than sixty years.

Here are: Will Ferrell, Eric Idle, Whoopi Goldberg, Mike Myers, Groucho himself and the greatest of them all (at least of the last half century), Jonathan Winters.

David Steinberg is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer and director ... I remember watching The David Steinberg Show when I was a kid and catching it in reruns over the years.  I like reading bios/autobios to learn more about people and get the inside scoop so this book caught my eye.

Steinberg started off doing stand-up.  He ended up on The Smothers Brothers in the late 1960s and his act was one of the reasons it was cancelled.  His career has included acting and directing shows like Friends, Newhart, Curb Your Enthusiasm and lots more.

I thought this book was okay.  He tells stories about the comedians and actors he knows and counts as friends ... from Groucho Marx, Jonathan Winters and George Burns to John Candy, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams to Will Ferrell, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon.

For the most part, I found it interesting hearing about people from someone who knew them.  I thought at times he rambled and was repetitive ... the writing could have been tighter.  As I was reading, I would come across a name from the past I'd forgotten about so I'd stop and Google them (so I got sidetracked often).  Steinberg is Jewish and there were lots of Jewish references ... I'm not so didn't know what he was talking about.

Wishes knitted dishcloth

The Year of the Dishcloth is organized by the Kitchen Sink Shop. September's pattern is Wishes.

I used Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn and a 5mm circular needle.

Cast on 36 stitches.

Border

• Rows 1-3: K36
• Row 4: K3, P30, K3

Wishes pattern

• Row 1 (and all odd number rows): K36
• Row 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12: K3, *K3, P3* 5 times, K3
• Row 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24: K3, *P3, K3* 5 times, K3
• Repeat Rows 1-24 of the Wishes pattern one more time (2 total)

Border

• Rows 1-4: K36

Bind off and weave in the ends.

Happy 19th anniversary, Sister Sarah and Joey

Sister Sarah and Joey got married 19 years ago today ... in a lovely park in Halifax, NS!

Book ~ "Malibu Rising" (2021) Taylor Jenkins Reid

From Goodreads ~ Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over - especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud - because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own - including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

June's parents owned a small restaurant in Malibu in the 1950s.  They plan on having her eventually take it over but she has bigger dreams.  She is swept off her feet when she meets Mick, an aspiring singer, who promises her he'll take her away from the restaurant and give her the life she's always dreamed of, which includes a house with a bathroom with double sinks.  They get married, start having children and Mick's singing career takes off.  Alas, Mick isn't faithful and the marriage breaks up.  But Mick realizes what he missed and June takes him back and they get married again.  Not surprising, Mick wanders off again and ignores his family.  This leaves June having to go back to working in the hated restaurant so she can support her four children.

Jump ahead and it's 1983 and June's children are now adults.  Nina, the oldest, is now a model and rich.  Years ago, she started throwing an end of the summer party that has gotten bigger and grander over the years as her popularity grew.  Anyone who knows about the party is invited ... it's a mix of the famous and the non-famous.  She's not really in the mood to host the party because her husband recently left her for another woman.  Her brother, Jay, is doing all he can to ensure the girl he has his eye on attends the party.  Hud, another brother, is keeping a secret ... he's been dating and is in love with Jay's ex-girlfriend and he knows Jay isn't going to be too happy about that.  Kit, the youngest sister, is still trying to figure out who she is.

I thought this book was just okay, I wasn't crazy about it.  It's written in third person perspective with the focus on wherever the action was.  It jumps back and forth in time with June's story and then back to her children's story the day and night of the party in 1983.  As a head's up, there is swearing and drug use.

There were so many people at the party (which a big part of the book) that I had a hard time keeping track who was who ... I wondered why they were even mentioned and why should I care.  There was a lot of detail given about them when they didn't  have any impact on the storyline.  Like the guy who brought a couple bricks of cocaine to the party and shared it with everyone including a waitress.  Or the woman who was heading back home to some small town to get married (she was settling) and wanted one last crazy fling and her goal was to get naked in the hot tub and make out with two guys at the same time.  Huh!?  I didn't need all these details to know that the party was crazy and out of control.  A general sentence of two would have suffice ... in this case, tell me rather than show me would have been okay.

I wasn't crazy about June or Mick and thought their characters were a bit extreme.  June was a doormat who kept waiting for Mick to come back and Mick was a slimy dog who abandoned his family.  I didn't really feel anything for the main characters.

Brazen Head Pub, Toronto, ON

I had lunch this afternoon on the shady patio at the Brazen Head Pub in Liberty Village.

Mill Street Organics were on special for $7 ... sounded good to me!  When my beer arrived, though, there were lip prints on the rim of the glass.  Ew!  So I asked for a new one ... and it took about 20 minutes for it to be replaced.

I ordered wings with Buffalo sauce and asked for ranch dressing rather than blue cheese.  When it arrived, it came with blue cheese.  My server assured me she had asked for ranch dressing (she was friendly and nice).  The manager brought some ranch dressing over shortly and apologized for the error and for the dirty beer glass.