Monsoon

We went to the opera tonight (more in another post, perhaps) and decided to stop by Monsoon for dinner beforehand. They’re an upscale fusion-inspired place at Simcoe and Adelaide, pretty close to the new COC digs. And they have a 15% discount for COC members. They’re not cheap–they have a few mains in the 20scontinue reading

XOXO

“Love potion!” M — obviously absorbing more Harry Potter than is apparent at bedtime — exclaimed when she saw the display of XOXO (warning: much mauve, much Flash) Merlot/Cab at the LCBO. “XOXO means kiss hug kiss hug!” It came with a bonus package of icky little chocolates, too, so we eventually caved in andcontinue reading

In the “silver lining” category…

Well, at least we were home at the time.  Friday morning we were procrastinating over breakfast & the newspaper when there was a crashing noise from downstairs followed by the sound of water rushing through the pipes.  We ran to the basement to see water gushing through one of the potlight fixtures in the basementcontinue reading

French isn’t always a synonym for “overpriced”

We uncorked a bottle of the Rothschild Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 (Vin de Pays D’Oc) to go with our pizza this evening. It’s quite pleasant and only $10.15–sort of a cocktail/party/pizza wine. And I’ve always liked their label–a contemporary abstract thing that J. says looks like a bit like a Chinese brush painting of plum flowercontinue reading

Hey, we do *respectable* puff pieces

For some reason aldaily thought it was worthwhile to link to this piece concocted by the august-sounding Social Issues Research Centre. Executive Summary Gossip is not a trivial pastime: it is essential to human social, psychological and even physical well-being. The mobile phone, by facilitating therapeutic gossip in an alienating and fragmented modern world, hascontinue reading

Another tale of two vintages

You may recall our wine whine about how the 2005 Farnese isn’t nearly as good as the 2004. We got to do another 04/05 vintage comparison last night with the Coyote’s Run Unoaked Chardonnay. Coyote’s Run is an excellent new specialist winery in the St. David’s area of the Niagara Peninsula–near the river just downcontinue reading