Teena in Toronto

Wednesday, 24 July 2024

Duke's Refresher and Bar, Toronto, ON (Front Street)

I had supper this evening at Duke's Refresher and Bar on Front Street E. I like it there.

I had chicken fingers with a side of plum sauce (locally sourced chicken fingers breaded in our secret blend of seasonings + made-to-order) and fries. Yum! I've had them before there and no doubt I'll have them again.

From Goodreads ~ Millions of people have, at some point in their lives, waited tables. Some only did it in college, or got out by sheer determination, good luck ... or suicide. Others took it on as permanent employment. And many remain haunted by nightmare scenarios where they are the sole server in a restaurant packed with complaining patrons. For all those disenchanted current and former food service employees, Darron Cardosa has your back. His career began at a Texas steakhouse in 1984, and since 2008 he’s vented his frustrations in the popular blog The Bitchy Waiter.

Cardosa distills 30 years of food service into dark, funny tales - about crazy customers, out-of-control egos, and what really goes on in that fancy restaurant - that anyone who worked in the industry will recognize and relate to.

I've never been a server but I did spend almost a year as a bartender in a small motel bar in a small town in my early twenties where I served drinks to customers. Most of my jobs have been in the corporate world where I was dealing with clients so a lot of the skills and interactions can be transferrable.

I like humorous books so this one caught my eye. It was funny at times it was also mean and snarky at times too ... I imagine the author intentionally push it over the top in some instances and exaggerated in an attempt to get laughs. I found it a bit uneven ... some of the writing was interesting and funny whereas other times it was kind of boring which I skipped over (like his fiction towards the end).

I had supper with friends last night and our server, Josh, was great. I told him I was reading this book and some of the things the author said annoyed servers ... like saying the server's name often (I do this as I'm friendly and appreciative), introducing yourself to the server (according to the author, the server could care less), getting there early and not starting until all your friends are there (so hogging a table so there's not a frequent turnaround), etc. It was interesting to get Josh's perspective and we had a fun discussion.

I tend to eat out a fair bit and encounter all sorts of servers. I'm not there to be their new BFF but it's amazing the amount of servers who could care less about being "present".

Tuesday, 23 July 2024

The Cheesecake Factory, Toronto, ON

This evening I had supper with my pals and former colleagues, Helene and Baljeet, at the Cheesecake Factory at Yorkdale Mall. It's the first time I've been to a Cheesecake Factory and my only reference to it has been The Big Bang Theory.

Here we are ...

Baljeet, me and Helene

Helene, me and Baljeet

I had Tomato Basil Pasta (grilled chicken, fresh mozzarella, a touch of garlic and penne pasta). It was really good!

Baljeet had Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas (corn tortillas filled with chicken, cheese, chile and onion, covered with salsa verde and sour cream, served with rice and beans).

Helene had Korean Fried Chicken (crispy chicken tossed with our spicy Korean B.B.Q. sauce with avocado, kimchi, mushrooms, cilantro, sesame seeds, served over steamed rice).

All the meals were really large portions so we ended up taking home leftovers.

Josh was our server. He was so friendly and helpful and took excellent care of us (thanks, Josh!).

Wellington Market, Toronto, ON

Gord and I checked out Wellington Market, the new food court at The Well for lunch today.

There are lots of interesting choices and they aren’t major chain restaurants which is a nice change.

Book ~ "Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession" (2015) Elizabeth Benedict

From Goodreads ~ Ask a woman about her hair and she just might tell you the story of her life. Ask a whole bunch of women about their hair and you could get a history of the world. Surprising, insightful, frequently funny and always forthright, the essays in "Me, My Hair, and I" are reflections and revelations about every aspect of women’s lives from family, race, religion and motherhood to culture, health, politics and sexuality.

They take place in African American kitchens, at Hindu Bengali weddings and inside Hasidic Jewish homes. The conversation is intimate and global at once. Layered into these reminiscences are tributes to influences throughout history: Jackie Kennedy, Lena Horne, Farrah Fawcett, the Grateful Dead, and Botticelli’s Venus.

The long and the short of it is that our hair is our glory - and our nemesis, our history, our self-esteem, our joy, our mortality. Every woman knows that many things in life matter more than hair but few bring as much pleasure as a really great hairdo.

My hair is long and one length. I don't fuss at all with it other than wash and condition it with nice smelling shampoo and conditioner. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, I spent more time on it ... I had bangs and a bob so had to dry it and curl it under. But my job had me doing seminars at times depending on the clients' schedules and sometimes I had to do early morning seminars (like 6am) ... I'm not a morning person so hated having to fuss with my hair that early. I grew out my bangs about 20 years ago and let my hair grow so I'd have wash 'n wear hair. The only time I've coloured my hair is back in the late 1970s/early 1980s with Sun-In and a bit of temporary colour last summer.

So it was interesting to read these 27 essays about how different women felt about their hair and how much it meant to them. It was also interesting to read how the different cultures value hair and the different rules they have about it. The majority (if not all) of the women were older than me so it brought back memories of perms and going to bed with old-school rollers/curlers since hot rollers, curling irons, etc. hadn't been invented then.

Sunday, 21 July 2024

Twisted Hat

I knitted another twisted hat. It’s a fun and easy pattern once you get into the repetitive groove.

I found the pattern here.

Directions are for size small; changes for size large are in parentheses.

Hat circumference at bottom edge: 16 (18)" [41 (46)cm]; Hat stretches to fit 20 (22)” [51 (56)cm]

I used 4.5mm [US 7] and 5.5mm [US 9] needles and 4 ply yarn.

Hat is worked in the round on double pointed needles.

With smaller needles, cast on 90 (102) sts. Divide sts evenly around double pointed needles. Join to work in rounds, taking care not to twist sts. Place marker for beginning of round.

Ribbing Round:

[K1 through the back loop, p1] around. Repeat ribbing round until piece measures 1½" [4cm] from beginning.

Round 1: Change to larger needles and knit.
Round 2: [K2, yo, k2, k2tog] around – 90 (102) sts.
Repeat round 2 until piece measures 8 (8½)" [20 (22) cm] from beginning.

Shape Crown

Decrease round 1: [K2tog, yo, k2, k2tog] 15 (17) times – 75 (85) sts.
Next round: [K1, yo, k2, k2tog] around – 75 (85) sts.
Decrease round 2: *K1, yo, [k2tog] twice; repeat from * around – 60 (68) sts
Next round: [K1, yo, k1, k2tog] around – 60 (68) sts.
Decrease round 3: [K2, k2tog] 15 (17) times – 45 (51) sts.
Decrease round 4: [K1, k2tog] around – 30 (34) sts.
Decrease round 5: [K2tog] around – 15 (17) sts.
Decrease round 6: [K2tog, k1] 5 times, k2tog 0 (1) time – 10 (11) sts.

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Thread yarn through remaining sts and pull to gather. Secure end. Weave in ends.

ABBREVIATIONS
k = knit

k2tog = knit 2 sts together

p = purl

St st = Stockinette stitch

st(s) = stitch(es)

yo = yarn over

Saturday, 20 July 2024

Sunny Morning, Etobicoke, ON

Gord and I had some errands to run and we stopped in today at Sunny Morning on the Queensway for breakfast ... it's been a while since we've been there.

We both bacon ‘ n eggs. Gord had his with fruit and I had mine with home fries. Yum!

Community BBQ + Hangout, The Theatre Centre, Toronto, ON

Gord and I spent the evening volunteering at The Theatre Centre's Community BBQ + Hangout.

Hamburgers and hot dogs were complimentary and the line-up was long.

A portion of Lisgar Street (south of Queen Street W) was closed off for it.

From Goodreads ~ Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. But this morning that will change. And one innocent question could be deadly. What have you done?

The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked.

But Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer.

How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia.

Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers.

Diana is a popular teenager so everyone is surprised when her naked body is found in a farmer's field. Surprisingly there are lots of suspects for the police to interview. Mourning her are her mother, who believes Diana's presence is still with her, her broken-hearted boyfriend, Cameron, and her best friends, Riley and Evan. As the story evolves, we discover that many in the cute friendly town have secrets they don't want revealed.

I've read a few books by this author and thought this one was okay. I liked the writing style. It's written in third person perspective with a focus on wherever the action is along with Diana's ghostly narrations and Evan's diary entries. Though there were lots of red herrings as to who could have murdered Diana, I thought the "whodunnit" was a bit of a letdown and kind of came out of the blue. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Book ~ "The Off Season" (2024) Amber Cowie

From Goodreads ~ The Venatura Hotel desperately needs a facelift. Too bad renovations are murder on a marriage.

While recovering from a professional setback, documentary filmmaker Jane Duvall stays at a remote hotel during the off season with her new contractor husband, Dom, and his daughter, Sienna. Surrounded by an immense forest and the mighty Fraser River, Jane wants nothing more than to bond with her new family. But she’s unsettled by the cold quiet presence of the hotel’s owner, Peter, who is overseeing Dom’s renovations.

When she starts asking questions, Dom grows distant and Sienna becomes belligerent. Undeterred, Jane uncovers secrets that make her question exactly who she married, including a series of strange disappearances at the hotel in previous seasons. When a rainstorm of epic proportions threatens to flood the banks of the river and claim the Venatura Hotel, Jane must solve these mysteries if she’s to survive the off season.

Jane is a filmmaker in British Columbia and reeling from the backlash of her latest documentary and a bad break-up. She heads to Spain on vacation where she meets and falls in love with Dom, who is also from British Columbia. They agree to get to know each other naturally and not Google each other. All she knows is that he's a widower, he's 13 years older than her and has a teenage daughter named Sienna who is an exchange student in France.

Less than six months later, they are married and they moving to the middle of nowhere in British Columbia to a hotel owned by his friend, Peter, that is closed for the winter and where Dom will finish renovations. Once there, she realizes that Dom expects her to be a "wife" and do all the cooking and cleaning, which she begrudgingly does. She has no idea how or when Melissa, Dom's late wife, passed away as he doesn't want to talk about it (he said he wasn't ready to talk about it). Sienna treats her like crap and does a couple despicable things and Dom chastises Jane for getting mad and reacting.

When Jane discovers one of the former workers at the hotel had disappeared and no one seems bothered about it, she sees a story and she and her partner start working on it. That's when she realizes there is more to it than just a missing man and starts to dig deeper.

Really? I found it hard to believe that Jane would be that dumb to marry a guy she chose to know nothing about and who was secretive about his past. Sienna was nasty and able to get away with it. I found none of the characters likable. It's written in third person perspective with the focus on Jane. I wasn't crazy about the writing style as I found it a bit draggy. The story had an interesting premise but didn't deliver for me. As a head's up, there is swearing.

Twisted Hat

I knitted another twisted hat. It’s a fun and easy pattern once you get into the repetitive groove.

I found the pattern here.

Directions are for size small; changes for size large are in parentheses.

Hat circumference at bottom edge: 16 (18)" [41 (46)cm]; Hat stretches to fit 20 (22)” [51 (56)cm]

[K1 through the back loop, p1] around. Repeat ribbing round until piece measures 1½" [4cm] from beginning.

Round 1: Change to larger needles and knit.
Round 2: [K2, yo, k2, k2tog] around – 90 (102) sts.
Repeat round 2 until piece measures 8 (8½)" [20 (22) cm] from beginning.

Shape Crown

Decrease round 1: [K2tog, yo, k2, k2tog] 15 (17) times – 75 (85) sts.
Next round: [K1, yo, k2, k2tog] around – 75 (85) sts.
Decrease round 2: *K1, yo, [k2tog] twice; repeat from * around – 60 (68) sts
Next round: [K1, yo, k1, k2tog] around – 60 (68) sts.
Decrease round 3: [K2, k2tog] 15 (17) times – 45 (51) sts.
Decrease round 4: [K1, k2tog] around – 30 (34) sts.
Decrease round 5: [K2tog] around – 15 (17) sts.
Decrease round 6: [K2tog, k1] 5 times, k2tog 0 (1) time – 10 (11) sts.

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Thread yarn through remaining sts and pull to gather. Secure end. Weave in ends.

ABBREVIATIONS
k = knit

k2tog = knit 2 sts together

p = purl

St st = Stockinette stitch

st(s) = stitch(es)

yo = yarn over

Sunday, 14 July 2024

Linda's Eating Place & Coffee Shop, Midhurst, ON

Gord and I had breakfast this morning at Linda’s Eating Place & Coffee Shop in Midhurst, ON. It was a a busy spot. We met our friends, Mary and Malcolm, there and they got there ahead of us. They had a 10 minute wait for a table and had just sat down when we got there. There was always a line-up.

The sign in the washroom ... ha!

Wasaga Motel Inn, Wasaga Beach, ON

A friend of Gord's got married this yesterday in Wasaga Beach and we spent the weekend at the Wasaga Motel Inn. It wasn’t fancy but it had what we needed. Mario, in the office, was friendly.

In talking with others staying there, our room seemed to be the only one with a couch, coffee table and coffee maker. The bathroom was wacky ... it was looooong and narrow. The toilet was millimetres from the wall which made it hard to use. Ha!