La Passione Italiana, Toronto, ON

Steve and I had lunch today at La Passione Italiana, which is in the 'hood where we work (Yonge/St. Clair).

It's a cute place.

It's cafeteria-style. You go to the counter and tell them what you want. There's lots to choose from ... like veggies, salads, lasagna, linguini carbonara, fish, chicken parm, veal parm, stuffed peppers, pizza, etc. You are charged according to what combo you buy.

I had chicken parm and linguini carbonara along with a Diet Pepsi.

It was pretty good. It was just over $11 and a good portion.

I'd go back the next time I have a craving for something Italian.

Williams Landing Bar, Grill & Hub, Toronto, ON

Gord and I had supper at Williams Landing, which is in our 'hood, tonight. Neither of us felt like making supper.

We'd been there at the end of August, about a month after they'd opened.

They have the restaurant decorated for the holidays ... this tree greets you as you come up the stairs.

I ordered the same thing I had the last time I was there ... the Pollo Arrabiatta pizza (house-smoked chicken, sundried tomatos, spicy tomato sauce, whole wheat crust).

It was good. Nice and hot ... and the arrabiatta sauce had some kick to it.

Gord had a Cuban (black forest ham, gruyere cheese, pulled pork, maple grainy mustard, pepperoncini) and fries.

He said he really enjoyed his sandwich.

It was fairly quiet when we got there but filled up quickly as there was a corporate holiday party happening.

The service was great. Servers were stopping by quite often to make sure that we were doing okay. We met Donna, the general manager, when she stopped by to check on us and chatted with us for a while. She was very nice!

Christmas is at the Eaton Centre

The Eaton Centre doesn't have a Santa this year.

According to an article in last week's Toronto Star ...

And as for Santa, well, these days when you go into the Eaton Centre, you won’t actually see him. Unless you go to the 24th floor where the new Santa Experience takes place. Parents can preregister their children for a free interactive one-hour morning session on weekends, in which Santa reads stories to children. At the end, parents can take their own photos of their children with Santa.

Or they can opt for cyber Santa — a 10-minute Skype visit with the jolly old elf between 6 and 8 p.m. weekdays until Dec. 23. There’s no cost and the Skype session can be booked through guest services (416-598-8560).

Although you don’t get the tactile experience of sitting on the big guy’s knee and telling him face to face what you want for Christmas, there is an advantage: no lineups, and you can talk while sitting in your pyjamas.

I walked around the Eaton Centre this afternoon and it seems like they have ramped up on the decorations.

Come take a tour with me ...

Toronto work holiday luncheon

I work for a company that is based in Quebec.

There are about 375 employees in our Toronto building. We had our holiday luncheon today at a hotel downtown. In total, there were 425 of us, with managers in from Quebec.

The first course was a salad.

I'm not a fan of salads so left mine alone. BTW, that banana-looking thing was cheese.

Everyone was given a ticket for the prizes drawn during the afternoon. Here are Natalie, Lucia and Steve at our table ... Natalie won a bottle of Mumm's champagne after the salads. Yay, Natalie!

The next course was butternut squash soup. I'm not a fan so passed on the soup.

The main was a turkey dinner ... turkey, dressing, potatoes and veggies. Here's mine.

It wasn't great. Not surprising considering they were feeding 425 people.

Imran was sitting next to me and had the vegetarian meal.

Here's dessert ... the best part of the meal!

There's was a comedian who was the emcee. He did a routine while we were eating dessert ... he was rather risqué considering it was the middle of the afternoon.

And here's our table (we all work in the pension area) ... Matt, Baljeet and me.

Imran, Paul (he retired last week) and Dave ...

Stacey, Natalie and Lucia ...

Lucia and Steve ...

Waiting for Ken

Gord's son, Ken, lives in Hamilton (about 45 minutes away). He is coming to town this afternoon and will be staying with us 'til Friday morning.

We have a futon/couch in our spare room and I got it ready for Ken this morning (we usually have it as a couch).

Here are Morgan and Crumpet waiting for Ken on the futon.

Is he here yet?!

Book ~ "Explosive Eighteen" (2011) Janet Evanovich

From Amazon ~ Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Like Smokin' Seventeen, I borrowed this book from the library ... I won't buy them anymore. They have become a quick mindless read but not worth spending $30.

The main plot was silly, though I did enjoy the subplot with Joyce a bit.

As I said with the last one, the author continues to follow with her tired formula. Stephanie is lusting after Morelli and Ranger ... check. Grandma Masur needs a drive to the funeral home and tries to look at the bodies when the casket is closed ... check. Stephanie's mom's nerves are shot so she irons and cooks, though she seems to be drinking all the time now too ... check. Stephanie's dad is surly and rude ... check. Lulu is eating all the time and gets violent when someone calls her fat ... check. The people Stephanie has to track down because they skipped bail are colourful characters ... check.

I loved the series in the beginning ... the writing was good, the characters actually had personalities and spunk (not going through the motions are they are now over and over) and the books had substance (now there's a lot of white space and large font to make the book bigger). Ranger and Morelli don't seem to care that she is bouncing between them ... basically they are looking for a booty call and getting one. After all the emotion she had for these two, it's sleazy.

Looking back, the last one I raved about was Lean Mean Thirteen back in June 2007. That's sad :(

Yes, I'll read the next one but because I hope this series gets back on track or is the finale.

Book ~ "Third Degree" (2010) Maggie Barbieri

From Amazon ~ On her way to meet her boyfriend’s parents, college professor Alison Bergeron stops by a coffee shop to steel her resolve. It’s a big event. Not only is it the first time she’s met NYPD detective Bobby Crawford’s entire family but it’s coming on the heels of a wedding proposal that she has left unanswered so far.

Then, as she steps into the shop, a brawl breaks out that ends in the death of Carter Wilmott, a merciless and loathed local blogger. The case couldn’t be any simpler, and Alison witnessed the whole thing, but when Wilmott’s car explodes in the aftermath, what looked to be a crime of passion becomes something far more complicated and maybe even premeditate.

With Alison and Bobby involved in the case and with each other, readers are in for a treat. Third Degree, the latest in Maggie Barbieri’s charming mystery series, is one heated mystery with plenty of steamy romance and cunning villains who are about to get burned.

I enjoyed this book. The writing was quick and fast paced with new and old familiar characters.

The plot was interesting and I bought the "who dunnit" at the end.

Alison spends a lot of her time pondering about whether she should married Crawford or not. This comes at a hard time of year for her, the month her mother had died a few years ago.

I'm not a fan of her friend, Max, who wasn't in this book all that much. Yay! A few times Crawford asked Alison why they are friends and she said it's because they'd been through so much together.

Alison's friend, Father Kevin, is in some trouble because he is being accused of getting too close to a student but it doesn't get resolved by the end of the book (sorry for the spoiler). That was a bit frustrating.

Alison is still a bit too nosy ... it doesn't make sense that she would board a boat that doesn't belong to her, not once but twice.

Bryden's, Toronto, ON

Gord comes from a fairly big family of great uncles, great aunts, second cousins, etc. but he doesn't know them.

I had signed up to Ancestry.ca in the spring and then found some of his cousins on Facebook.

We met his first cousin, once removed, Bob, and Bob's partner, Frances, for drinks and supper this evening. Though Bob is Gord's father's first cousin, he is only three years older than Gord. They didn't even know about each other until a couple months ago.

We met them at Bryden's in Bloorwest Village.

There was a dog on the patio whose owner was inside having a drink.

It was fairly quiet when we got there but was packed as time went on.

Gord likes Bryden's because they have a good selection of craft beer.

We had a great time chatting with Bob and Frances, who we've never met before. Bob is a fountain of knowledge about their family. He talked about their cousins, who their cousins' parents were, etc. back in Newfoundland. He was amazing!

Here are Frances and Bob.

Here are Bob and Gord ... cousins!

And here we are ... Gord, me, Frances and Bob.

Gord had Nigel Benn's Auntie's Jerk Chicken Wrap (jerk seasoned chicken breast with a mango salsa in a whole-wheat wrap) and potato salad. He really liked the wrap but said the potato salad was bland.

I had hickory medium wings and spicy fries with cajun mayo, which were good.

Our servers took good care of us.

It was great to meet Bob and Frances. They are really nice and it was fun to hang with them.

Pizza Hut, Hamilton, ON

I had an enrolment seminar to conduct in Hamilton this afternoon.

I went early so I could have lunch at Pizza Hut. Remember the bad experience I had there on October 31? I was curious to see if anything had improved.

I was greeted by Caitlind, who was very friendly.

I chose to order from the menu rather than going for the buffet. Since it was lunch time, it was fairly busy and most were heading to the buffet.

Instead I ordered a small Pepperoni Lover's Pan Pizza (a double helping of deli style pepperoni and extra mouth watering 100% Pizza Mozzarella) and a Diet Pepsi.

Aside from being a bit greasy, it was good ... hot and fresh. Caitlind checked on me to make sure that everything was okay, as did the other server.

Definitely a much better experience from the last time I was there! I'm going to write to the company and let them know that I had a better experience this time.