So my sub-head includes the words “easily distracted” and I wanted to share a roundabout example of the things I am so easily distracted by.

The Main Distractor and I went to brunch yesterday, a place close by as he is on call this weekend and liable to be called to the laptop for hours at a time, fixing mysterious things. It had recently come up, prompted by my looking at a map (DANGEROUS!) that if we had, you know, all the money we could want and all the free time that would magically materialize if we had all the money we could want, we’d like to go on holiday to somewhere in, say, the South Pacific or Indian Ocean or something, one of those palpably foreign kinds of places. There was an ad on the TV for some Julia Roberts movie that had a tie-in contest to go to Bali, and so I started exploring Bali destinations on my iPhone. This was all mode more tricky by the fact that I don’t care to go somewhere with chancy politics, likelihood of a coup, or that exploits its people like serfs. Complicated still more as my knowledge of the politics of this part of the world is sketchy at best :p (“Let’s go to Fiji!” “OK.” “Oh wait, their politics are terrible, we can’t go there.” “OK.” “Oh, let’s go to Tahiti! Gauguin! but you would fall in love with a beautiful woman and not care about me any more!” “They speak French there. I don’t speak the language.” “You could learn! I speak French!” “Let’s go to Hawaii. I speak English.” “Hawaii had a royal family who were treated terribly, I think.”) This all led to some semi-serious research in that while there are lots of $500/day hotels in Bali and environs, there are also some that are a little more accessible for the likes of us, although the airfare makes a trip to Europe look cheap.

One of the hotels I found had a pet elephant, and looking a little more, I found several hotels in Indonesia and in India that have either house elephants or proximity to nature reserve elephants or a sort of elephant show, which certainly startled me. I couldn’t and still can’t decide whether this is a good thing, I mean saving the poor loves from starving or being poached is clearly a good thing, but confinement and exploitation are somewhat in the eye of the beholder and potentially quite different from the POV of the elephants. So I’m not sure what to think, although I know I would be completely enchanted to meet an elephant. (There’s so much you can learn/when you’re on a pachyderm!)

Another bit of travel that we are unable to complete just now, but which I cross my fingers for a massive cash infusion more than usual just at the moment, is to go to London in early October in order to attend a William Gibson Board mass meat-up in celebration of the release of his newest, Zero History (available for pre-order now at the usual places! or go buy it September 7 at your local indie bookseller!). Friends met and unmet will be there, and I haven’t been to London in far too long. So I looked at London hotels, and came up with a good few that I would love to stay in. It’s always tricky with the budget-no-object places though, since while I have a certain tolerance for frou frou and baroque whatnot before my eyes start rolling, the Main Distractor’s uniform of choice–baggy shorts and a concert t-shirt–tends not to fit in snooty surroundings, and there’s a limit on how often I can ask him to wear long pants, basically. Not that my wardrobe is stylish enough for 5-star London hotels, either! but I would be willing to upgrade if the need became apparent

In any case, if the gods smile on us and we’re able to suddenly take off first class to LHR (between $5K and $15K per person, depending on airline and desirability of the itinerary), we have a choice of two suitable suites available on the desired dates (one at £6K or so for the week, and one at £11K or so). I will let him choose without showing him the prices (The thing is, they’re far from the most expensive digs available. The other thing is, that if the many zeroes in my bank balance all appeared to the right of a whole number, rather than to the left, I would be perfectly fine with spending practically a year’s salary for a week in London in order to catch up with friends but I’m crazy that way, I guess.)

And that’s how I end up knowing things like the fact that there are elephant hotels, and the Savoy won’t re-open from its 2.5 year renovation ordeal until just after we would want to stay there (I took my parents to tea at the Savoy a few years ago, and loved it), and the Dorchester will prepare you a Champagne picnic basket so you can dine al fresco, and Brown’s (where I have also had tea) is really terrifyingly expensive to stay at although proximity to Smythson’s makes it a seductive location nonetheless, and the really top shelf places don’t check you in at a front desk, but apparently whisk you directly to your room (to spare you the inconvenience/humiliation of queuing in public, perhaps?), and while I don’t mind the Paddington Express, I think it would be rather nice to ride into town in a fancy car from Heathrow sometime, as I’ve never done it.

Because one should always be prepared for any eventuality, however remote.

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.”

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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I think I haven’t had a proper, you know, blog post, for more than a month.

And what a momentous month it’s been, too!

The MD and I had our actual one-year anniversary, versus all the monthaversaries we’d celebrated heretofore. It was swell. We checked Choobie in to the daycare for the weekend, and went to the Planetarium, and stayed at a little B&B in the West End so we could do stuff in the city and wander home after on foot or a cheap cab. We went to dinner at the place we first had dinner together, and then we went to see a friend’s band, which was fun.

Next morning we got up for breakfast, which I can’t remember at all what it was. We went to the Art Gallery and saw lots of Art. We went to the movies and saw Duplicity, which wasn’t really very good. We went back to the room and relaxed for a bit and then got dressed and went to The Sylvia to watch the sunset from the bar and have a delicious cocktail. Then we went to l’Altro Buca, which is the replacement restaurant for Parkside’s location, and that was extremely good, of course. Then we stumbled home…no, we took a cab, my shoes of extreme cuteness were not suitable for drunken stumbling.

Next day was gorgeous and sunny and we went to Science World on the way back to the homestead. it was a v nice weekend, we both enjoyed it

Since then, the MD’s Stuff has arrived. There has been a lot of moving of stuff, throwing out of stuff, taking stuff to the storage, and related stuff.

This past weekend (13 monthaversary!) we went to Seattle, to see the long-awaited My Bloody Valentine show (YES! it was AWES!). We also got to have dinner with Peter and Cecilie and their friend Richard, and it was lots of fun. We may be heading south again to see Metric next month, depends on a couple of things.

So aside from absorbing stuff and stuff like that, the MD’s parents are coming to town for a visit in just over a week. Concurrently, my parents will be down for a weekend (OH NOES! PARENTAL SUMMIT!) We have restaurant reservations already although we haven’t decided everything that will be going on. They’ll be staying with us so there is some amount of cleaning/arranging of stuff. this weekend we’re organizing the laundry room. Which excites me more than I would have thought it would.

We had Chinese food for dinner. I open my fortune cookie, and it says, “All your fantasies will come true.”

I show it to the MD.

He looks at it, and says, “That’s not a coupon, you know.”

Working backwards…Parkside last Friday. 6-course chef’s tasting menu.

Celeriac and cauliflower soup, porcini foam? truffle oil? lush, served with an Italian Bidoli Sauvignon Blanc
The scallop dish with grapefruit, guanciale, fennel, watercress and whatnot, a beautiful Parkside vinaigrette, served with a Hendry rosé
The shortrib ravioli, with a La Quercia Montepulciano
The deer, the lovely lovely deer and red wine reduction, Australian Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon
The steak fiorentina with the most incredible onion ring in HISTORY!, with a Moulin de Gassac Guilhem
The famous lemon tart, which I likely would not have ordered on my own, but which was delicious of course, so glad I got to try it. With mascarpone cream I think? and blood orange sorbet. Served with an Asti Moscato, and then Mr. Stewart gave us a taste of his Tokaji, which was quite quite lush.

Farewell, dear friend. Hope to meet you again one day.

I made a very successful orecchiette with ricotta and basil and tomatoes.

For Valentine’s Day, we stayed in and had a seafood feast. The standout dish was the tarragon crab salad, made with Dungeness claw meat (!!! so spendy! but SO GOOD), followed by the shrimp cakes with lime chili cream sauce. The teeny heart-shaped cheesecakes were not photogenic and hence are not pictured, but were very tasty.