Normally, August and I get along really well. It’s My Birthday Month, after all, and normally lots of nice things happen to me and I get to see lots of friends and things like that.

This August started out pretty OK! and my Main Distractor made sure I had a pretty great birthday, cause he’s awesome like that. Well I mean I wrote about that last time.

So we went to Montreal for the weekend, which was pretty great: we ate some good food, everywhere from Kojax to Reuben’s to Newtown to Pintxo; we imbibed a rather large number of cocktails and related beverages; we saw some of my old friends; walked for miles and took lots of pictures.

Then we got home and found some douchebag had broken into our little hovel and stolen everything small that wasn’t nailed down. Which is a bit of a pisser. I mean it could have been worse, for sure, and we’ve barred the door a little better following the escape of the horse, if you will, but it’s just revolting to think of strangers in your house, touching your THINGS (what movie is that from?). Anyway, we’re insured, although the insurors seem to be moving pretty fucking slowly getting the billions of forms to us that we will have to fill out in triplicate or whatever the fuck in order to gain some recompense minus deductible and by GOD if I have to argue about “replacement value” I am going to being wrath down upon them. I have never had a claim on my house insurance, and I will brook no bullshit.

So that was kind of a shock. Then the following day, the monsoons came, and the roof started leaking. My MD got up there and cleared the standing water and cleared the spout things but we’ve decided we’d better get the thing seen to lest it all fall on our heads. Anyway, that’s the kind of thing that makes you feel like Job and wonder, what’s the third thing going to be?

The rest of the week has passed without incident, although my work situation has ratcheted up inasmuch as my one junior is MIA, I mean I know where she is but we have no clue when/if she’ll be up to coming back, and the summer temp is gone back to school, and the other student who jumped into the breach also returns to school next week, so it’s just…me. So I’ve been working extra hours with fewer breaks and it’s not really sustainable. Trying to get someone in next week, and that begins the whole training a n00b stress and fun.

In any case. I’m sure I’ll get through it, but I really wouldn’t mind winning the lottery tonight, OK, lottery gods?

Some pics from last weekend (some are mine, some are his–typically, the better ones are his).

Main Distrctor's version

The MD's shot of the dining room, cool, no?

MD got me on a v punk-rock day

Isn't he adorable?

So the other night, I was riding Enzo down Main Street, after an unsuccessful hunt for espe handbags. Thought to myself, “Self, wasn’t the new Andrey Durbach/Chris Stewart restaurant supposed to open one of these days?”

Well, my self was correct, and being as there was an empty parking slot right out front of Cafeteria, I hopped off and popped in to say hello to some of my favourite people in the world. I had a chat, took a look around, saw that there was a spot prawn and salmon sashimi dish and Dungeness crab tortelloni on the menu, and called my Main Distractor to say “Let’s EAT!”

I did stop back home to change out of my scooter togs, but we were back, salivating, in an hour.

It’s called Cafeteria, and there are no tablecloths and no printed menus. The menu is instead on a felt board, easily adjusted to suit the whims of the chef, the market and the season. The “starter” small plates (including soup of the day, a Caesar salad, an asparagus and chorizo dish, and mushrooms á la façon du chef) are largely under $10 (the sashimi dish being a worthwhile exception—the Main Distractor just INHALED that baby), and the “mains” are under $20. Options included chicken schnitzel with spaetzle, pot-au-feu, the Dungeness crab tortelloni which just blew us away, red snapper and a duck breast “steak et frites” that looked like it came with polenta fries.

Wines come in at three price levels: $30, $40 and $50, with some available by the glass, and there is also a specials board for wine, ranging from $35 to $70 a bottle when we were there. There is also beer on tap (Red Racer) and Big Rock cider by the bottle (that’s a good BC alternative to Strongbow, by the way; nice and dry).

The space is clean and bright, with enough room between tables for my large posterior to easily enter and exit the banquette (ahem).

I did enjoy eating at Ping’s, but there’s no comparison. The menu is straightforward, concise, and oh, so Durbach. Not kawaii like Ping’s, but I have a limited tolerance for kawaii in relation to food in any event. Conversely, I appear to have an unlimited appetite for restaurants operated by Chris and Andrey. We’ve missed Parkside dreadfully this past year and l’Altro Buca as well.

Cafeteria is on Main at 11th Avenue; they don’t take reservations. They’ll be serving dinner daily from 5:00 pm. You may very well find me and the MD chowing down OH and I will probably have an espe handbag, since I ordered a couple online this morning and they’ve already shipped

This reads like promo material, doesn’t it?! but I just love it so, I can’t help it.

So last weekend was a couple of things…it was my company’s annual junket, where they treat us to a weekend at Whistler, which is always nice. In addition, Sunday was the MD’s and my 18-monthaversary, so we took the opportunity to go for a nice dinner on the Friday up there.

We’d been talking about getting married at some point, being as we both agreed it was what we intended to do. I posited January 1, 2010, as being a nice date, easy to remember. Symbolic, bla bla bla. I had also decided that it would be nice to get married on Bowen Island, since I lived there for a time, and it’s the place I think of when I think of my dear departed Gram, who would, I think, have liked the MD a lot. So Monday, I drafted an email to one of the marriage commissioners on Bowen to ask her whether she might be available on January 1, and showed it to the MD. He responded, yeah it’s good, but don’t send it yet.

That day started fair but turned torrential, with crazy rainshowers. I didn’t have my raingear with me, so asked the MD if he could come and pick me up at work so I didn’t get drenched on Enzo on the way home. He did. We stopped for groceries, and then on the way back to the house, I said, so, January 1 is too soon for you to commit to, huh? and he said, well, no, not really…how about this weekend?

When I picked my jaw back up (happily he was driving), I said, well sure, and we discussed why the sort of sudden decision, and he said what I had said to him on occasion, that we know we want to get married, what are we waiting for, really? had sunk in. While I might have been able to get into the whole big wedding planning thing, he wasn’t keen on it, and both of our friends and family are so damn scattered about that it would have been v difficult to corral them (not to even mention, expensive as hell, and our friends aren’t any richer than we are), and I think really he just didn’t want to spend the next three months listening to me discuss the details and options that one has when one has three months to plan a wedding. So.

Looking at the dates and the weather, we arrived at today: September 30, 2009 (09/30/09 in American) since the only other sunny day foreseen was Sunday, October 4 (and I simply couldn’t take THAT’S A BIG 10-4 jokes for the rest of my life).

That was Monday. We talked about it around 6:30 or 7, I made dinner, we ate, we went and got our license. I started emailing commissioners to see if we could find someone to marry us at such short notice.

Tuesday morning I got up early and found and ordered a great outfit to wear. We talked about rings. I had done some research online (that’s a shock to you, no doubt) and we had actually looked at some diamonds together on the weekend, and at lunch time I went to a couple of stores and saw what was available and at what price. Sent him pics, and Tuesday after work we met up and went shopping. 5 emails to different commissioners later, I got a response! (there were a few later responses, as well, but when you have a two-day timeline, you go with the first responder.) We were set for Wednesday, although during the day, not in the evening as we’d originally hoped. The MD got himself a couple of new shirts, and we got our rings. We had hoped to get our next-door neighbours to be our witnesses, on the fly, but the daytime timing meant that wasn’t going to happen. In spite of intending to keep ALL friends out of the loop, so as not to favour any over any others, I went to the internets to see if anyone was able to come and be our witnesses. Carey and Lise jumped into the breach, commendably, and also took some pics. I hope I look OK in them

Wednesday, I went to work early, and asked my boss if I could have the afternoon off, to get married. He was extremely gentlemanly about it, and not only gave me the afternoon off, but congratulated us and cut us a nice cheque for a gift.

By 11:00 a.m., I was getting very antsy, wondering where my clothes were. Got on the online help, found that 2/3 pieces were on their way, scheduled for delivery by 5:00 pm, the other piece wasn’t shipped as they didn’t have the correct size. DAMN YOU, INTERNETS!

Went to the mall again to see if I could possibly find anything resembling either the third missing piece or something to replace it, or even something altogether different, since my pale options were basically nonexistent: I wear a lot of black and red, people. I look good in it. Nothing out there.

Got some Pol Roger at a wine store. Stopped in to get some flowers, stuck behind a lady ordering flower delivery to an address she didn’t have. Ai.

Back to the office. No clothes. It’s nearly 2:00, the wedding is at 3:00, Plan C it is.

Had held it all together basically all day but the prospect of getting married in a black dress somehow just sent me over the edge, I have always been vehement about the impropriety of wearing black to a wedding (if you’re a woman). I’m a superstitious person, there it is. Had a mini breakdown and I suspect basically every bride goes through some of that. It could have been much worse. The MD was able to cuddle me back to a semblance of normalcy. I got dressed in my awesome black birthday dress, and put my face on, our witnesses were nice and early. Lise was able to lend me a little cute pin to pin my lace (which is good cause otherwise I was going to borrow a pair of the MD’s boxer shorts )

I put the boutonniere on my MD and tied the ribbon on my hydrangea (which would have looked really cool with my originally-planned outfit).

The commissioner came, set up his stuff, married us, speaking of jungles of passion and oceans of tranquility, I cried like a baby, he had us and our witnesses do all our signing, and was on his way. We were done!

We had some Champagne and started facebooking and tweeting LOL…things are a little more casual when you get married in your living room.

Skyped with the MD’s mum, spoke to and skyped my parents, etc.

Dinner at l’Altro Buca, courtesy of the bride’s parents, bless ‘em.

It’s been a lovely day, and I stopped to tell you all about it lest I forget some of the details.

Good pics to follow, but here’s a start:

rings

Enjoying the nice weather.

Back on Enzo (got my parking back, yay).

Got some decent players for my hockey pools.

Planning on making an actual turkey in Mr Wolf for Canadian Thanksgiving (his first!) to share with some friends and neighbours. May try to bake a pie for my Main Distractor.

Heading to Whistler for annual junket this afternoon. May detour and show the Main Distractor Bowen Island on the way back, he’s never been.

I had an eye doctor’s appointment the other day, sent by the guy who checked my prescription. Because my pressure was high (right up there at the high end of normal). OK, I don’t know the first thing about glaucoma, so I looked it up on the wikipedia, and got fair enough scared. My baseline testing appointment isn’t for more than two months, so I guess it’s not something I’m really in imminent danger of having trouble with my eyes, but still.

So I asked the Main Distractor, “Honey what would we do if I go blind?!”

And he answered me, “I guess we’d get another dog.”

Save the Words, from Oxford Dictionaries, dedicated to preserving the arcana of the English language, a subject dear to my heart!

I’ve adopted obarmate.

Look it up.

the Main Distractor and I were on our way to work (drove today, and dropped him off too), and I was saying how my message boards all announce today’s birthday as being me, 43, and god that’s old, and he says, Yeah you old lady, and I said, Oh I know, and he said, I should be saving for a hip replacement for you, not a diamond ring! and I said Hey we have socialized medicine here, the hips are free! but the government isn’t handing out any diamond rings. Fuck you, hip replacement.

I just thought it was funny :p

So this year, the Main Distractor and I went to Chicago to see Lollapalooza. We should have gone last year, when Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails were playing, but it didn’t pan out. So this year, we went to see Depeche Mode and Tool and Lou Reed and whatnot.

There’s also a Gibson board friend who lives there, and it turned out that a Radiohead friend from LA would be there too! so that was good.

We had a fairly easy trip there, in spite of really not very much sleep the night before…we scored exit row so had lots of room. We got to our hotel, and although lots of people on Trip Advisor had said good things about it, lots of people had had puppy freak-outs due to supposed small room size and various other imaginary problems. We found everything quite satisfactory, in spite of having all of our clothes, lots of crap and electronics, and the portable drugstore I somehow seem to travel with even though I don’t wear that much makeup or use a lot of product on my hair. It just adds up. Anyway, I can recommend Hotel Felix, if you don’t need tons of room and minibars and that kind of thing. Room service may be online soon, too. We had a great rate and were very happy with it, cause we could walk almost everywhere we wanted to go.

So we went to Frontera for Cochinita Pibil (I like mine better, but his was good). We had deep dish. We managed NOT to get a Chicago dog, dammit! and I also neglected to get a meatball sandwich while I was in the land of meatballs. But anyway. An “Italian pork” sandwich and a hot roast beef, snacks at Trader Vic’s, and one night eating from Whole Foods’ ready-made stuff…decent enough dining

I had an anxiety meltdown or something at Lolla the first day (it was pouring rain, and hadn’t any gear with me. I had to get a rain jacket and I got some substantial flip flops to wear in the mud). I was in the Crystal Castles crowd and there were too many people, and I just couldn’t be there, could not. Too many people pushing past me, couldn’t manage it. So I went home, lamely, but I was nonfunctional, crying although not sad or upset, just tears going down my face like that. That was the night I ate Whole Foods supper :p The MD stayed and saw Depeche Mode, and the set list was really great! I’m sorry I couldn’t stick it out. He said he ended up 6 people back, though, and there’s no way I could manage that at the best of times. Also, my feet were destroyed by the flipflops! I was v disappointed by this. And they’re still rather painful, I have an abrasion on both feet and few of my shoes don’t rub that spot to a greater or lesser extent.

Anyway so Saturday, I had a bunch of bands I wanted to see, but the MD texted me that the crowds were even worse than the day before, so didn’t go. I started the day with a massage in the hotel spa (v nice) and then had a nap. Rather than go get freaked out at Lolla again, I took it easy and then met up with tristero and her family, who were visiting. Had a great time hanging out with them and then the MD met us for dinner at Pizano’s after Tool.

Sunday, we lounged about the homestead I think? and then headed over to see Lou Reed. Happily there was a perfectly uncrowded area where we could hear him just fine and see the video screens. I feel like it wasn’t a total waste of a $200 ticket or whatever it was, because there really aren’t a lot of chances to see Lou Reed. We also heard a few songs from the Band of Horses set as we made our way to the exit. Their sound mix was abysmal but they still sounded pretty OK.

Then we went up to Trader Vic’s and had two very strong cocktails each and some snacks, and then we went to the Irish pub near the hotel, and got stuck into the bourbon and possibly the whiskey as well. Memories are v cloudy indeed, and the next morning was not pretty. We had resolved to exercise more caution in these matters next time.

So Monday we packed up, woozily went to breakfast at Portillo’s around the corner, and then walked over to the Lake and then went to Navy Pier and rode the big Ferris Wheel, which was expensive but fun.

Some pics.
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The Main Distractor linked me to these, and I had to share. Too kewt!

In Rainbows

Ten things you always have in your pocketses/purse/car/nearby, OK!

1. iPhone, these days.
2. iPod.
3. iWall…, oh no, Jobs takes money OUT of my wallet, not the other way around. My wallet. Sometimes even with cash in it.
4. Lip stuff, either balm or colour.
5. Keys. Actually keys might be higher up the list.
6. Eyebrows. If you don’t know, I won’t tell.
7. Kleenex. Damn allergies.
8. My Main Distractor (well, he’s only a text away!).
9. Snacks and/or gum.
10. Contact lens solution.