Buon Gusto, Guelph, ON

I had lunch today at Buon Gusto, which is in downtown Guelph.

Cora Breakfast and Lunch, Guelph, ON

I had breakfast this morning at Cora's.

I ordered what I always order at Cora's ... blueberry pancakes.  They were really good.  The pancakes were hot off the griddle and contrasted nicely with the cool English cream.  There were lots of blueberries on top and some were huge!

Days Inn, Guelph, ON

I spent last night at the Days Inn in Guelph.

Here was the lobby.

Manhattans, Guelph, ON

I had supper this evening at Manhattans.

When I got there just before 6pm, it was fairly quiet but the tables were booked with reservations so I sat at the bar.

Jamie Mitges was playing piano when I got there ... he was good

I love love love pizza and ordered one with pepperoni, bacon and fresh tomatoes.  It was good.  The crusty was thin and crispy.

Glory Hole Doughnuts, Toronto, ON

When I went on my long brisk walks and was on Weight Watchers (I've temporarily fell off the wagon), I would walk by Glory Hole Doughnuts (on Queen Street W/Sorauren Avenue).  I promised myself that I'll stop in some day.  I went for a long walk today and instead of walking by, I decided today was the day!

It was a busy spot with people constantly coming and going.

There were four kinds of donuts to choose from.  I got a Ferrero Rocher donut ... and it was good.  It was soft and chewy and the toppings were really sweet!  Definitely worth stopping in for since I am off-program!

Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, ON

I walked through Trinity Bellwoods Park this afternoon to check out the cherry blossoms, which are currently in bloom.  It was a popular spot.

Tosto Quickfire Pizza Pasta, Toronto, ON

I had a late lunch/early supper today at Tosto Quickfire Pizza Pasta (on Richmond Street W, just west of Spadina Avenue).

I love love love pizza and I ordered a "shareable" Soppressata pizza (the middle size).  I was hungry and found it was just the right size for one person.  It was a good pizza.  I didn't find it spicy at all, though.  The crust was nice and crispy.

Book ~ "Exploited" (2016) Pamela Callow

From Goodreads ~ What if the face of justice belongs to ... the accused?

When Kate Lange is hired to defend an unconscious woman shot while committing a puzzling crime, she is stunned to discover that the gunman is none other than Parliament's own golden boy, Harry Owen.

What if the face of the victim belongs to ... us all? 

As Kate pieces together the case, the lines between guilty and innocent become blurred - while a devious cyber mastermind puts the finishing touches on an explosive plan. 

Kate is a lawyer with a large corporate firm in Halifax, NS.  She is ready for a change so joins Eddie Bent in his one-man firm.  Her first client is Leah, a young woman who broke into the home of the parents of Harry Owen, a member of Parliament.  Owen's mother is dying and his father, as a result of getting shot years ago during a robbery, is in a wheelchair.  Leah is shot and is critically injured. 

It turns out that she and her boyfriend, Aiden, were attempting to gain information to doxx Harry and discredit him.  Aiden bails on her in the house and leaves Leah to face the consequences.  We learn that they are members of the "Forum" which is make up of hacktivists.  Harry, in the meantime, hires Randall, who was recently one of the partners of the firm from which Kate had just resigned.

This is the fourth book I've read by this author and I found the story line interesting.  I had to Google "doxx", though, as I didn't know what it meant (it's mentioned many times) ... it's not explained until about the middle of the book.  I liked the writing style.  It is written in third person perspective with the focus on wherever the action is.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.

Harry has a secret that he doesn't want to get out, which I figured out pretty quickly and didn't think it was that big of a deal.  When I was reading this book, I had Seamus O'Regan (a member of Parliament from Newfoundland) in my head as Harry.  There has been an attraction between Kate and Randall since the first book and I don't know why they have fought it.  It's to the point where Randall says they "lo-" each.

The author was raised and lives in Halifax (I was born and lived in Nova Scotia until I was in my twenties ... my sister lives in Halifax).  I liked that the author set the story in Halifax and didn't make it look like it was Any Town, USA.

This is the fourth in the Kate Lange series (so far there are four and I've read them all).  Though it works as a stand alone, I would suggest you read the others in order to get the back stories that are referenced in this book.  I look forward to reading the others in the series.

EGGcellent Diner, Pickering, ON

I had breakfast this morning at EGGcellent Diner.  It's in a small plaza on Kingston Road.

I ordered an "Old Fashion Breakfast" with peameal bacon and three eggs.  It was a big hearty breakfast and was good.

The server was really friendly.

Book ~ "Don't Bullsh*t Yourself! Crush the Excuses That Are Holding You Back" (2018) Jon Taffer

From Goodreads ~ New York Times Bestseller and Wall Street Journal Bestseller! Bar Rescue's Jon Taffer presents a new guide to getting what you want in life and business - to stop making excuses so you can get back to winning.

During his many years as an entrepreneur, consultant, and star of the Paramount Network's hit show "Bar Rescue", Jon Taffer has witnessed the destruction that results when people bullsh*t themselves. Excuses are the root cause of nearly every business and personal problem but fortunately, Jon knows how to fix your excuse habit for good.

This book is almost as good as having Jon in your face on "Bar Rescue", telling you the hard truths you've been avoiding. "Don't Bullsh*t Yourself!" is Jon Taffer's brutally honest, no-nonsense guide to help you kick those excuses to the curb. If you can stop bullsh*tting yourself and address your real issues, you will gain the power to turn your life around completely.

Taffer breaks excuses down into six major categories, illustrating them with real-life examples such as Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of a SEAL team mission in Afghanistan who barely escaped Taliban territory, and Christine King, founder and CEO of Your Best Fit, who, despite being paralyzed in a horrific boating accident, went on to build a successful fitness company. These inspiring stories, combined with Taffer's own experiences, will give you the confidence to identify and face your own excuses head-on.

It's Taffer Time! Time to stop bullsh*tting yourself and start crushing it! 

This book caught my eye because I'm a fan of Jon Taffer and Bar Rescue, a reality TV series that has been on since 2011.  Jon is a long-time food and beverage industry consultant specializing in nightclubs and pubs.  He offers his professional expertise plus renovations and equipment to desperately failing bars in order to save them from closing.

Jon feels that excuse-making is just a form of lying and when you make excuses, you are holding yourself back.  And why would you do that?  Don't Bullsh*t Yourself! teaches you how to identify and face those lies head-on and turn them around into positive action.

According to Jon, there are six major excuses:

1. Fear
2. Knowledge
3. Time
4. Circumstance
5. Ego
6. Scarcity

Jon's goal is for you to become accountable every day for every decision you make and every action you take.  He rejects excuses and embraces solutions.  You must be willing to make the changes necessary to turn your life from excuse-filled to one in which you are going after what's really important and not letting anything stand in your way.

I liked this book and I liked the writing style (I could hear Jon's voice).  Each chapter discusses the excuse, gives examples, provides ways to change the excuse into a solution, and has stories about people who have conquered the excuse and created success in their lives.  There are profiles of Bullsh*t Busters and at the end of each chapter, there is a DBY (Don't Bullsh*t Yourself) to-do-list.

This book would be good for business owners, if you starting a business or thinking of started one, if you are working their way up in a company or want to leave it, or if you want to change bad habits that are holding you back in life.

Book ~ "W is for Wasted" (2013) Sue Grafton

From Goodreads ~ Two dead men changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I’d never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue.

The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He’d been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He’d been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone’s name and number was in his pants pocket. The coroner asked her to come to the morgue to see if she could ID him.

Two seemingly unrelated deaths, one a murder, the other apparently of natural causes.

But as Kinsey digs deeper into the mystery of the John Doe, some very strange linkages begin to emerge. And before long at least one aspect is solved as Kinsey literally finds the key to his identity. “And just like that,” she says, “the lid to Pandora’s box flew open. It would take me another day before I understood how many imps had been freed, but for the moment, I was inordinately pleased with myself.”

In this multilayered tale, the surfaces seem clear, but the underpinnings are full of betrayals, misunderstandings, and outright murderous fraud. And Kinsey, through no fault of her own, is thoroughly compromised.

W is for ... wanderer ... worthless ... wronged ...

W is for wasted.

It's the late 1980s and Kinsey Millhone is a private detective in her late thirties in Santa Teresa, CA.  The body of a homeless man is found on the beach with Kinsey's name and phone number. When contacted, she has no idea who he, Terrance Dace, an alcoholic and drug addict, is. She discovers that Dace is a long lost relative and she is the beneficiary of his estate valued at almost $600,000. This prompts Kinsey to investigate and she discovers Dace has three adult children and an ex-wife who now want to lay claim to the money, even though they had kicked him out of their lives years ago and turned him away months before when he went to visit them.

A second story involves a shifty PI named Pete Wolinsky who was hired by a husband to tail his wife who he suspects is having an affair. Pete discovers there is more to this. Dodging bill collectors, he sees a way to take advantage of what he has learned and goes for it. All he wants to do is raise some cash so he can take his beloved wife, Ruth, on a fabulous cruise for their 40th anniversary next year. Unfortunately, Pete is killed, an apparent victim of robbery.

The stories seemingly have nothing to do with each other ... it's not 'til near the end that they come together and we find out how they are connected.

I thought this story was okay.  The two stories kept going back and forth and I was wondering how they would be interconnected ... everything comes together in the end.  I found the Dace story more interesting than the Pete story.  It was in first person perspective when it was Kinsey's story and third person perspective when it was telling Pete's story. As a head's up, there is swearing.

This book challenges Kinsey's lack of need/want for a family because she comes across relatives on her father's side she didn't know existed. It also shows a more softer side of Kinsey because she befriends Dace's homeless friends (despite their rough edges) and Henry's new cat, Ed.

This is the twenty-third in the "alphabet series" featuring Kinsey Millhone.  Though it is part of a series, it works as a stand alone.  I discovered this series in the mid-1990s and have read them all.  I started rereading them last year.  With the author's recent death, Y is for Yesterday will be the end of the series.

Gyro Bar! Souvlaki Kitchen, Toronto, ON

I had lunch today at Gyro Bar! Souvlaki Kitchen (on Queen Street W at Roncy/King Street W).  It's been open since September and on my radar for a couple of weeks (an Eggsmart used to be there).  It's not a fancy place but it's comfortable.

I ordered a chicken souvlaki dinner without salad.  It was really good.  The chicken was freshly cooked just for me and tender.  The potatoes were lemony and oily.  The rice was plump and tasty.  The pita bread was warm.  The tzatziki was refreshing and cool.  I was given two ... I used one and took the other home.

Book ~ "The High Tide Club" (2018) Mary Kay Andrews

From Goodreads ~ When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons Brooke Trappnell to Talisa Island, her 20,000 acre remote barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa but Brooke has never met her. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter with Brooke, who is an attorney, but Brooke knows that Mrs. Warrick has long been a client of a prestigious Atlanta law firm.

Over a few meetings, the ailing Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, secrets, betrayal and a long-unsolved murder. She tells Brooke she is hiring her for two reasons: to protect her island and legacy from those who would despoil her land, and secondly, to help her make amends with the heirs of the long dead women who were her closest friends, the girls of The High Tide Club - so named because of their youthful skinny dipping escapades - Millie, Ruth and Varina. When Josephine dies with her secrets intact, Brooke is charged with contacting Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bringing them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who’ve actually never met.

Josephine, Milly, Ruth and Varina were best friends and called themselves The High Tide Club (they would go skinny dipping when the moon was full and the tide was high).  They were gathered in 1941 at a grand party to celebrate the engagement of Milly to Russell.  He was a nasty violent man who disappeared that night, never to be seen again.  A couple years later, the friends had a falling out and lost touch.

Fast forward to 2018.  Brooke is a single mother and a lawyer, picking up clients that the bigger firms don't want.  Josephine is now 99-years-old and dying of cancer.  She lives on Talisa, an island that has been in her family for generations.  The state wants to take it and make a park out of it but Josephine is fiercely fighting it and she hires Brooke to help her.  In addition, she has another job for Brooke.  Josephine had lost touch with Milly, Ruth and Varina and she wants Brooke to find them or their descendants.  When they gather, Josephine tells the story of their friendships but passes away before she can tell the whole story.  It's up to those left behind to piece the rest of the story together.

This is the second book I've read by this author and I liked it.  Though I figured most of the things out fairly quickly, it was interesting to see how they were revealed to everyone else.  The story bounces back and forth between the early 1940s and today (the chapters are labeled so it's obvious).  I liked the writing style.  It is written in third person perspective focusing on wherever the action is and first person when the story goes back in time.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.

I liked the characters, today and in the 1940s.  I found the story line of Brooke connecting with her son's father a bit of a distraction, though.  It's almost as if a woman can't be complete without having a man in her life and it was a loose end the author wanted to close.  It seemed odd that Lizzie was soooooo attached to her cat and the cat seemed to disappear from the story about halfway through, never mentioned again.   I don't have children and haven't spent a lot of time around them but it seemed like Brooke's son had the vocabulary and mannerisms of a child much younger.

I look forward to reading other books by this author.

Book ~ "The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy" (2015) Kliph Nesteroff

From Goodreads ~ In "The Comedians", comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff brings to life a century of American comedy with real-life characters, forgotten stars, mainstream heroes and counterculture iconoclasts. Based on over two hundred original interviews and extensive archival research, Nesteroff’s groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past one hundred years.

Starting with the vaudeville circuit at the turn of the last century, Nesteroff introduces the first stand-up comedian - an emcee who abandoned physical shtick for straight jokes. After the repeal of Prohibition, Mafia-run supper clubs replaced speakeasies, and mobsters replaced vaudeville impresarios as the comedian’s primary employer. In the 1950s, the late-night talk show brought stand-up to a wide public, while Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl and Jonathan Winters attacked conformity and staged a comedy rebellion in coffeehouses. From comedy’s part in the Civil Rights movement and the social upheaval of the late 1960s, to the first comedy clubs of the 1970s and the cocaine-fueled comedy boom of the 1980s, "The Comedians" culminates with a new era of media-driven celebrity in the twenty-first century. 

If you are a fan of comedy, you should check out this book.  It covers the history of comedy over the last 100 years and starts right at the beginning.  The chapters include:

• Vaudeville comedians
• Radio
• Nightclubs
• Television
• Late night
• The emergence of Las Vegas
• Stand-ups' great change
• The mid-1960s
• Hippie madness at the end of the 1960s
• The first comedy clubs and the 1970s
• The stand-up comedy boom
• The 1990s
• The new millenium

I liked the writing style.  I found there was just enough information about the various comedians over the years without getting bogged down with too much detail.  The author conducted more than 200 interviews in addition to using pre-existing sources.  It was interesting get the scoop on the comedians ... who was liked and disliked, how they got started, how they handled the changes over the years, the rampant drug and alcohol use, technology, dependence upon the mob, racism, swearing, the emergence of comedy clubs, and more.  As a head's up, there is swearing and references to drug use, violence and adult activity.

As I was reading this book, I found myself thinking, "I forgot about him/her" and leaving the book to go online to Google whoever the author was talking about.  So it took me a while to read this book because I kept getting distracted, digging for more information.

There are some pictures (more would have been nice) and notes and index at the end.