Hump day entertainment!

Hadn't realized how much I enjoy Wednesday's including:

• day off (🥳)
• longer walks in the morning as the sun's coming up (sadly, later every day...)
• catching the beat of the music (to bop along to!) from an outdoor exercise class wafting in the air as I'm walking in the park 🤩🥳♥️ (I miss listening to music during my workouts but it’s something to give up in order to concentrate on the sounds in the neighborhood. C’est la vie!)
• Also participated in the Boss Family Workout at 1pm on Instagram, yaaaassss! 👌

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMES!!!

After text messaging her birthday greetings this morning:

'Hey 👋,

Happy birthday 🥳 !’

I was smart enough to leave it at that as I left all the 'planning' to mom and off to work I went...when I was picked up afterwards by the rents, heading down to her place where mom dropped in (surprising her as she was in a mid-work phone call) to steal her away for dinner at The Keg!

 

  Ceaser salad and calamari appetizer; calamari and Ames'  Prime Rib

I ordered the Garden Burger with fries while Mom and Dad split a New York Striploin

Ames enjoying her meal and afterwards, an ice cream cake (on the house!!!)

Weekend activities included:

Breakfast yesterday at Eggspectation off the Esplanade...

Then off to the  Toronto Premium Outlets in Halton Hills!

My fave taro milk bbtea with tapioca

I’ve been spending the day going through my tv recordings. Finally finished:

• the last three episodes of the masked singer since May 6, 2020.  
• One World: Together at Home celebration of frontline healthcare workers from April 18, 2020 that was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon
• Let's Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince from April 21, 2020 that paid tribute to Prince's influence on music:

H.E.R & Gary Clark Jr. - Let's Go Crazy
John Legend - Nothing Compares 2 U
St. Vincent - Controversy
Juanes - 1999
H.E.R Feat. Misty Copeland - The Beautiful Ones
Usher - Little Red Corvette
Usher Feat. FKA Twigs - KISS
Susanna Hoffs & Chris Martin - Manic Monday
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
Morris Day & The Time - Jungle Love;Cool;The Bird
Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl)- Darling Nikki
Maya Rudolph
Earth, Wind & Fire - Adore
Common Feat. Sheila E. - Sign O'The Times
Beck - Raspberry Beret
Gary Clark Jr. Feat. Sheila E. - The Cross
Fred Armisen
Sheila E. - America
Larry King Live! - December 1999
Baby I'm a Star - Musicology Tour, March 2004
Let's Go Crazy Feat. Beyonce - 46th Grammy Awards 2004
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Let's Go Crazy - 2007 Super Bowl Halftime Show
57th Grammy Awards 2015 - presenting Album of the Year
Minneapolis, MN 2014
April 21, 2016 - Passing
Princess & The Revolution - Delirious
Mavis Staples & The Revolution - Purple Rain
Everyone- Baby I'm a Star

Currently watching a live online piano performance by Sasha Beresovsky with the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic (thanks to the site link Patty had sent me two weeks ago!). What’s odd is that the music (Beethoven’s piano sonata in C major, Op. 53 ‘Waldstein’) is not matching the video screen...it’s pretty distracting so instead of watching the performance,
I’m simply listening...thus leading me to
multitask. Lol!

World of Dance!!!!

The Season 4 finale showing occurred on Wednesday and it was fantastic!!!

The four competitors: Oxygen, MDC 3, Jefferson y Adrianita and Géometrié Variable danced with such amazing talent (they were all such different performances with all sorts of techniques but it definitely brought back flashbacks to my performing days - such as when I was a ballerina, at piano recitals; even back to days of 'Blood Brothers' & 'Chess')!

Even though they are all such fabulous performers, MY personal favorites are Géometrié Variable, the group made up of three members that specializes in a unique style called 'tutting', which consists of a combination of popping and animation to created spectacular moving shapes. These guys made the biggest impression on me (& as J. Lo says, 'I don't know...how did they just make this sexy?'). #géométrievariable

Géométrie Variable: Semi-Finals - World of Dance 2020

Always love watching this show because it includes dancing, the spectacle of the judges (Ne-yo, Derek Hough & J.Lo) interaction and comments as well special guests (Twitch!!!)!

Looking forward to season 5!

Great Cycle Challenge Canada - Riding to Fight Kids’ Cancer

=> Mich's Journey <=

‘You GO, MICH!!! My FULL virtual support, friend!!! xoxo, kris!!!

Total shameless promotion for donations to Mich’s cycling journey, yaaasss!!!: https://greatcyclechallenge.ca/Donate/Rider/274769

RyU zoom catch-up & binge watching...

Had a great and very much needed zoom catch-up with my Ry U gf's yesterday
(it's been around 3 years since we'd last met up).  Got a glimpse of Ravi and Evan as they'd gone out for a walk (my goodness, it was the first time to meet Ana's little boy!) to leave mom some peace for our 2 hour sess. 

These are the best kind of friends...the ones where it's like we've known each other forever (well, kind of as I'd met them through a randomly picked up PR class that I had decided to pursue AFTER finishing my undergrad at UT and figuring out my next step).  We had been grouped together for a project by Professor David Turnbull (who persuaded me to pursue my communications studies as Seneca college!) and we all clicked and stayed in touch!

Margaret's since gotten married but still works at CAMH so occasionally goes in to the hospital (at this time during the pandemic). Erin still works with HotDocs and together with my update, it looks like we're all going pretty well during the pandemic.  

Nearing the end of our second zoom portion (before getting kicked off, lol), with our ever PR backed thinking, we've planned another zoom session for the end of September, fingers-crossed!!!

Later on, watched this amazing performance of Patty's friend, Hai Jin, that she had so kindly sent me the link for last week.

Regarding television movie binge watching, during the week I had caught Stand By Me- with Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack directed by Rob Reiner, 1986.  Men in Black 3 - with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, 2012 and The Great Gatsby - with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan directed by Baz Luhrmann, 2013

Had an incredible catch up conversation with my forever bestie, Shelley. It was a very much needed discussion...by the end of our two hour convo, my phone battery had gone down to 36% (we had started at over 90%)! 

Our chat touched upon the sad reality of our times, of the fact that we'd most likely never be able to take part in aspects of our lives that we had gone through together such as st. mike's partying days (aka the clubbing aspects-not that we really need to go back to that...), hangouts with groups of friends and going out for food with no care in the world (THAT, we do!). 

On the bright side, it had also definitely brought back memories of much of the good times (Not Just Noodles-eggplant dish we loved to split, yogurt smoothies we loved to get at the organic juice store-that's now gone due to condo developments, in between all our studies at her apartment off of Grenville Street, we used to tv binge on Gilmore Girls & One Tree Hill) we had from back during our uni days!!!

BESTIES!!! *heart heart!!!*

Civic holiday weekend

After visiting Ames and Mr. Trudeau earlier in the day, came home and watched 'A Few Good Men' as it was the tv movie that was playing Saturday night.
Considering I had not seen the 1992 movie previously (even though I knew Tom Cruise is in it), I was surprised at how many celebrity names were ALSO in the movie (other than Cruise, there was also Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak and James Marshall) that I recognized.
Then the four of us spent yesterday shopping at Outlet Collection at Niagara amidst the rain clouds.

While Ames went hunting for steals and deals with mom,
dad and I hung out at the Aroma where I had the mocha!
During this great time (that I had to kill), Fayewood happened to give me a shout to chat about a Podcast/Instagram proposal that she's looking to start as a fun side project aimed to give high school/college/university students/new/mid-career/retirees direction in exploring career paths. We had a really nice discussion and we've got ideas on how to make this work!

As today is Monday, I was able to go for my morning walk as well as join in the Boss Family Workout that still occurs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Instagram in the early afternoon (Maddox joined a bit too!).

Watched Hitch featuring Will Smith, (Eva Mendes and Kevin James to name a few other faces I recognize) as it was being played on television earlier. I vaguely recalled my interest in the movie when it first came out as I enjoy anything that involves Will (tv-The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air/movies-MIB’s;Independence Day/family-RedTableTalk) and hadn’t seen anything with him in a while... what a good idea!

A really nice feel-good movie!

Mon Sheong Fun Run and Walk 2020

Sincere thanks to all my family and friends who sponsored me for the Mon Sheong Fun Run and Walk 2020!!! The team did well but I’m going toot my horn by pointing out that I was the overly ambitious one! *wink wink*

Although today's the last day of this fundraising adventure, it does NOT mean my own fun walk is done and over...my endeavour to this health and fitness cause remains a top priority!

Cherry on the top is that the last sponsor’s from my foremost bestie, the end!

Half a world apart catchup between a couple of us (K squared, Fayewood and I) tonight!

Absent from the convo was Dr. T (unfortunately MIA) and Maija who's been reuniting with her three little ones but no matter, we'll all catch up again soon!

Now I've just finished up watching a Budweiser Stage at Home performance featuring City and Colour with Leon Bridges (that was occurring during our chat).

Safe social distancing get-together 😎

After work yesterday, Winnie came by my 'hood for a visit. We went neighbourhood walking and stopped for a drink along the way.
I can now safely say that Winnie's no longer a bbtea virgin!!! 😉

Outside of TenRen's!

Willowdale
park
selfie!!! 🤩

Winnie doesn't realize that she's sharing the spotlight with my hand...thumbs up!!!👍

PEACE!!!✌️

WATCH OUT for the attack of the right hand!!!
ps. She's a-ok!!! 😎

Life of Pi

I had bought the novel written by Yann Martel when it was first published almost twenty years ago (2001) and was intrigued and excited to see how Ang Lee brought the story to life when it came out on film ten years later. However, I never got around to seeing it in theaters...which is ok because I FINALLY saw it last night on television!!!

Even though it's been some time since I read the novel (that has gone the route of 'who knows where' since moving a couple years ago), it was read pretty easily even though this it explored the issues of spirituality and metaphysics. The film brought back novel flashbacks of how Pi's name came to be, his life before, during and after his survival of the life-changing misadventure. I adore how Richard Parker's name came into being as well (I've actually google searched the name and there's quite the list for Richard Parker!!!) as it's so logical and practical.

It also showcased questions about the nature of reality, how it is perceived and told ESPECIALLY as isolation (something that doesn't seem very possible in this day and age unless it was arranged...but even then, it's a life choice to choose to be antisocial nowadays) was a main factor to Pi's life in the film. Although as I reflect about the concept of isolation now, I don't think this is imaginable for me. It's a fantastical idea now.

Yesterday, after a full day of work in a nice cool office environment, I was delighted to catch up with Jordan after dinner! As we live so close to one another, he came by my place and we walked over for ice-cream dessert at Sweet Jesus!!! As 'Hella Hazelnut' was all out, I was lucky to fall back on another favorite, 'Red Rapture' (which is vanilla ice cream, red velvet cake, cream cheese icing, raspberry sauce and meringue crumble)!!!

After purchasing our dessert in cups, we mosy-ed over to a parkette where we devoured our sweet treats...ideally better to have it melt in our stomachs than in the heat...DELISH treat with great companionship!!!

Then this morning mom and I stopped over at the North York Farmer's Market.

We got some goodies including jam, pastries and Timmies!!!

DELECTABLE!!!!!

A nice view of the back...

Chilling view from the front...

ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA about becoming my dinner sustenance 😱
YUM! 😋

Brunch and Baby Shower!!!

As we had planned to visit Ames and Mr. Trudeau earlier in the day, Ames booked a lunch seating at the Hot House Café. Normally, when we stop by the Hot House for their Sunday brunch buffet; because this is not possible now, we make do with patio dining on their normal menu! I had ordered the funghi pizza made up of bechamel, forest mushroom duxelle, rosemary, truffle oil, mozzarella and asiago cheese...YAAAASSSS!!
However, I was only able to have one slice of my fabulous meal as Dad had ordered a Reuben so I split the other half of the sandwich him. Totally fine as this leaves leftovers for work lunch this upcoming week!

Afterwards, I stopped by Henry and Laurianna's drive-by baby shower up in Thornhill park. I literally dropped by to wish them a happy shower, took some photos of the awesome spread before taking off with a popcorn gift!

Below are a couple of photos of the gift I'm proud of decorating!

Happy Canada Day!!! 🇨🇦

Began the day with a fabulous homemade brekkie!!!

Then visited Ames, where we, as a family
all dined at the Bier Market...
first time out at a reso since back
in March when the city was shut down!
Toooootally WORTH IT!!!