May Grocery Challenge: results

One month ago, I signed up for one of Krystal's monthly budget challenges at Give Me Back My Five Bucks. May's challenge was to set a grocery budget and stick to it.

I set a goal of $95 per week for Amanda and I. Let's have a look at how we did.

Week One: May 3.

Total: $88.05. A pretty slim week of shopping, even including two Mother's Day cards and a big pack of paper towels.

Week Two: May 10.

Total: $111.53. We went over this week. The budget-busters included a bouquet of fresh tulips at $7.99 (or two for $15, but we only got one). They looked great on the table when my parents came to visit. Also note a $6.99 3-in-1 set of food storage containers. We needed these because Amanda's cat food container was worn beyond use. I suppose we could've gone to the dollar store for those. A $5.89 roll of foil, $2.69 roll of parchment paper and $8.98 giant box of kitty litter also beefed up the bill. None of those things are technically groceries, but we got them all at the Superstore.

Week Three: May 18.

Total: $110.71. Over again! But we got some deals! A big bucket of Electrasol dishwasher tabs for $13.99 -- I don't remember how much we saved, but the per-unit cost was the best on the shelf, by far. $5.99 for kitchen garbage bags. And, pop was on sale for $2 off per case of 12, so we stocked up. Otherwise, we'd be on target.

Week Four: May 24.

Total: $84.97. Now that's more like it. T-bone steak, premium toothpaste, and we still came in under budget.

Finally, week five: May 31.

Total: $104.63. Oh? I don't know what broke us this week. The Angus Burgers were on sale, and we spent nearly $8 on grapes, but ... yeah, that's a mystery.

Number-crunching: Total for the (long) month: $499.89. Divide that by five and I get $99.98. So, just under a hundred bucks a trip.

That's a fail. Five bucks a week average over the $95 budget. Now, the $95 was just a made-up figure ... and the analysis shows that if I were looking at strictly grocery items, we'd be on track.

All in all, a fun exercise, and thanks to Krystal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks for running the challenge.

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See the full receipts: http://www.bigasssuperstar.com/bigass-groceries-may2008.zip

Bacon + Vodka = Bacon Vodka

As simple as it sounds, in this recipe at Brownie Points:

Bacon Vodka

makes up one pint

Fry up three strips of bacon.

Add cooked bacon to a clean pint sized mason jar. Trim the ends of the bacon if they are too tall to fit in the jar. Or you could go hog wild and just pile in a bunch of fried up bacon scraps. Optional: add crushed black peppercorns.

Fill the jar up with vodka. Cap and place in a dark cupboard for at least three weeks. That's right - I didn't refrigerate it.

At the end of the three week resting period, place the bacon vodka in the freezer to solidify the fats. Strain out the fats through a coffee filter to yield a clear filtered pale yellow bacon vodka.

Decant into decorative bottles and enjoy.

'Nuff said. This sounds amazing.

Thanks to lilsis for the link.

A flame-broiled retraction

Just over a year ago, I levelled a heavy accusation at Burger King.

In a post titled "My Beef With Burger King", I alleged that the flame-broiled Whoppers at the airport outlet were not flame-broiled:

My other beef has to do with how I observed Whoppers being cooked at the Halifax International Airport (now Robert L. Stanfield Halifax International Airport).
Much to my surprise, it appeared staff were *frying* the burgers. Whoppers are supposed to be flame-broiled. Cooked with fire. Special machines. That's the whole BK gimmick -- flame-broiled Whoppers.
So I called Burger King Customer Support to inquire. They promised to call me back after investigation. It's been a month and a half, but no one has returned my call. So, I'm posting the audio of the inquiry. Here's a 3.2 MB MP3: bk-airport.mp3.

Well, we passed through the airport again on our way to Cuba.

I asked the chap behind the counter whether their Whoppers were flame-broiled. That just confused him. One of his coworkers said they go over fire. I took a closer look and, whaddya know, they do have a Whopper flame-broiler back there. Yes, they do. One of those belt-driven dealies that takes the patties on a conveyor from cold to hot and dripping with greasy grill marks. The airport Whoppers appear to be the real deal.

So, apologies to Burger King if I raised an unnecessary stink. You still should've called me back about it. We could've sorted this out a year ago!

Random whatsits of recent weeks

Some notes on stuff that's been doin':

Amanda and I went Thursday to check out the dream homes being given away in the QE2 Lifestyles Lottery. The bigger of the two is ginormously huge. Like, huge huge. Almost-too-big huge. It has room in the basement for further living-space expansion. Either that or you should shoot some epic films down there. And that actually sounds like a good plan. The second home is smaller, but still kinda nice. The consensus seems to be that we'd keep the first one and live in it for a year upon winning, then perhaps sell it. The second one, though, would be a re-sell in order to buy something obnoxiously fantastic in the south end of peninsular Halifax, then renovate the heck out of it and buy me a little car.

I checked out the Music Nova Scotia open mic at The Seahorse last week. It's hosted by my friend and former coworker Laura Simpson (no relation, though her husband's name is Scott Simpson). Laura had been recommending I come check the place out, and seriously consider playing a few songs. Problem for me is that they don't want people playing covers. That's about all I do. So I'll have to get writing some original songs.

While there, I ran into the proprietors of onlinemusicnetwork.ca. I asked how it's even possible that my cover of Cub's "Ticket To Spain" is #3 on their all-time top 100 chart. Google their web site and find out.

I'm working on a heavy-rocking cover of Mika's "Big Girl". His original appeared here earlier via YouTube.

We've been barbequeing again off and on. I love steak. You can't hear how much I love steak through this medium, so ... y'know, think of a food you love that you make crazy noises about, and that's how I feel about steak.

More to come later, I expect! Be well, be happy, be healthy, and be in touch!

Bacon: the candy of meats

Learn how to make this rolled-up bacon, butter and cheese waffle-crepe.

Then make me one.

Followup to Donair Salad request

I sent out an email about my Donair Salad article. I asked for feedback from King Of Donair, Bash Toulany's, and Venus Pizza, as well as from two webmasters who feature extensive sites about Halifax donairs.


Chris at TheGreatness.com (a fantastic Donair resource, btw!) responds:

Dunno. I would think, given the Mediterranean emphasis on salads and the North American "chicken caesar salad" phenomenon, that such a salad would make some
sense. It's a natural evolution from the "doner kebab" and green salad combo that is common in Turkey and, by extension, in European towns with large Turkish populations. But Canadian donair has a well deserved reputation of being the food you eat when you don't care about healthy eating. How do you mix that with the healthy clientele that usually wants a salad? Maybe it would work, but it's one more item on the menu to keep track of.

So far, none of the other leading donair innovators or commentators have replied to my request.

Someone must make this: Donair Salad

Jason was heading off to Burger King to get a salad today.

Why? Because he had a coupon.

Still, a salad? At Burger King? Home of the Whopper? (See My Beef with Burger King article.)

It suddenly dawned on me ...

Someone in this town needs to introduce a DONAIR SALAD.

DONAIR SALAD, yo!

Can't you just see it? Or smell it with your mind's nose?

A salad ... a salad with, y'know, lettuce ... but with the usual donair toppings of onions and tomatoes ...

... topped with donair meat ...

... dressed with ... I dunno ... DONAIR SAUCE?

It seems obvious! We have donair subs, donair burgers, donair pizza, perhaps even donair fries. But a google search only turns up a couple of instances of Donair Salad, and I don't think they're even in the Donair Capital, Halifax.

Someone. Please. Make. Me. A. Donair. Salad.

Low in carbs. Crunchy. Meaty.

Add it to your menu, and I'll write you up a recommendation here at www.bigasssuperstar.com. And it'll be an especially good recommendation if you give it to me free.

It's nice to get away

Amanda and I spent the weekend in beautiful Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

We went there in the summer for part of our vacation, and Amanda rightly suggested we return for our "official" arbitrary anniversary in the fall. So ... we did!

Ahhh ... two nights in the luxurious King George Inn, with a two-person jacuzzi tub, genuine artificial fireplace, antiques, a newly-installed king-sized bed, and the meticulous hospitality of Faith McStravick, the "pancake queen" innkeeper.

Only problem was ... the town was pretty much closed. It's the off season. No farmer's market. Few shops. The Port Royal habitation across the bay was closed for the season.

And to my extreme disappointment, the First Computermuseum of Nova Scotia does not even exist any more. That's right. Their web site doesn't say so, but the storefront housing the museum is completely empty and for sale. The museum wasn't open in the summer, either, but it was clearly still there. Grr.

We managed to get some good food at Cafe Compose, an Austrian-themed restaurant by the water. And a delicious lunch at Leo's, a cafe in Adams-Ritchie House, the oldest documented building in English Canada. Omigod, a 12-grain homemade club sandwich so thick I could barely stretch my mouth around it, with a side of mushroom barley soup. Good eats.

We drove out to Kejimkujik National Park for a stroll through the woods. Ah, nature! We even saw two deer. (Two deers? Two deer.)

The drive home took us along the "scenic route" on Highway 1, through lots of small towns and colourful leaves (leafs? leaves). One town stood out as the most bizarre; there were as many pumpkin-people -- that is, scarecrow-type constructions with pumpkins for heads -- along the side of the road as there must have been actual inhabitants. Decidedly odd, but a helluva good effort by the townsfolk.

The drive also provided my first opportunity to listen to the CBC. Seriously, I've never really listened to CBC radio before. We listened to the tail end of Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe, and it was dead-on interesting. A show called Wiretap featured an entertaining guy calling his friends on the phone. A show called Tapestry in which the host interviewed a former businesswoman who became a Zen Buddhist monk. An in-depth interview with former WWF champion Brett "Hit Man" Hart. Really good stuff. Completely unlike the radio I do, which is perfectly fine. We serve different purposes. CBC is for people who have time to sit back and take in some good, long storytelling. My station is for people who have just a few minutes to get up to date. That's fine. One or the other isn't bad or good. They're just different.

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Pictures are up on Flickr.

Vacation wrapup, way way late

Hola, amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. But life's been busy for the past month or so. Lots to blog about, so let's get at 'er, starting with this wrapup of the big Big Ass Summer Tour 2007.

Saturday, July 21, Amanda and I set out on a big drive, aiming to get to Riviere-du-Loup by sundown. First stop was Wendy's somewhere to try the new Baconator. Yes, two quarter-pound patties of fresh-never-frozen beef, six strips of bacon and two slices of cheese. The Baconator delivers. It's a little mushy, and the first half is best, 'cuz it's hot.

It was a cloudy, rainy day heading through New Brunswick. But more distracting than the rain was the accumulation of bugs on the windshield. I used the gas station squeegee to wipe off the slime each time we stopped for gas, but we could barely keep ahead of the insect carnage.

Arrived in Riviere du Loup and negotiated through the town courtesy of Mapquest's left-right-left-right-left-right-left directions, instead of going straight down one road. Ended up at Motel Boulevard Cartier. You'll note that the motel is attached to the local St. Hubert Chicken restaurant. In fact, the check-in desk is right next to the take-out counter. Check that... the check-in desk is the take-out counter. We checked in to the unremarkable but perfectly passable room. No non-smoking rooms available, unfortunately, so it felt like a real old-school experience, back to the days when all the rooms were smoking rooms. I promptly noticed a fly on the ashtray, turned around, and was delighted to find a flyswatter sitting on its own hook. Thwap! First amentiy used.

St. Hubert, in my mind, has always been the franglais equivalent of Swiss Chalet. And I luvs me some Swiss Chalet. So we ambled over to the restaurant to try out a quarter chicken and frites. This ain't no Swiss Chalet, kids. Tastes like cafeteria food. We added a bit of Nova Scotia flavour by purchasing some Keith's beer (Keith's Red, weirdly enough) to enjoy with dinner. Entered to win a Keith's guitar. Haven't won, so far that I've heard. Our friendly server Benoit told us about a fireworks show scheduled for 10pm down by the water. Cool beans! I luvs me some fireworks, too. If Swiss Chalet had fireworks, they'd be on to something, man. Fireworks show was better than the July 1 one in Halifax, I shit you not.

Next day was time for the killer drive of the trip, from Quebec to Bradford. Lunch was at McDonald's ("Mc Do'"), and the difficult problem of ordering a Bic Mac, no pickles, no sauce (my choix du jour on the rare times I go to the Arches) en francais. Amanda grew up in Northern Ontario (town of Swastika -- look it up) and actually worked her previous job in french, and we negotiated frickin' Paris together, so I figured ordering a Combo #1, no pickles, no sauce would be a breeze. But me, I learned Ontario core french, in which they teach you the names of things. French immersion, sure, you sound like you know the language, but you don't always end up knowing what stuff is called. Amanda was unsure what "sauce" was in french, even when I suggested that it may be "sauce". Pickles were a whole other matter. I asserted that "cochinons" was the word. She didn't know. So, between her and the counter man, I got a Big Mac sans sauce, but avec pickles. I could pick those off. Pickles, it turns out are "cornichons". Unsure so far what "cochinons" is, if anything.

Goddamn Ontario driving. The drive from the border to Toronto is ... is ... is ... no fun. Just no fun. The 401 isn't beautiful to drive on. Worse still when there's a collision and rubberneckers and idiots thinking they can get a tiny bit further ahead by cutting through the service station, then coming out four abroad into a one-lane merge, ending up driving on the shoulder, and ... anyway, Amanda convinced me not to shout anything out the window or hop out and slug someone in a Rav-4.

We crawled into Bradford quite late and found a Pizza Pizza open late. I don't miss Pizza Pizza pizza. Panzerotto Pizza and Wings, yes, I miss that. Toppers Pizza is good, too. But Pizza Pizza isn't the kind of pizza I miss, you know what I mean? Settled in for a nice night at Amanda's folks.

Off to my old stomping grounds on Monday. Bradford is just north of Newmarket, where I was raised. We hit Upper Canada Mall, where I worked at Compucentre as a teenager. Ate in the food court (Made In Japan/A Teriyaki Experience), shopped around, bought my nephew some cool sunglasses at some baby-stuff store. Saw my old house. Jee-zus, Newmarket has grown. Huge. Very different.

That night we had steak and caesar salad. I luvs me some steak, y'all. Then Barb and Wendall took us out to the movies. We saw Hairspray starring John Travolta. Amanda turned to me in horror during the opening sequence -- "Oh my god. I forgot to tell you, this is a musical." No bother. I knew it was a musical. I spent part of the movie trying to figure out where they shot it -- Toronto, obviously, but it was neat to figure out all the locations. Good flick, despite Travolta, drag or not. The popcorn was fan-tas-tic. Fantastic.

'Manda's mom took us to Ikea on Tuesday. See, the first Ikea in North America was across the harbour in Dartmouth, but they closed it down years ago. Shame! So it was a treat to go to Ikea for the first time in more than two years. We didn't buy anything huge, but it was fun to dream. Ikea actually serves good food in its cafeteria. Meatballs and soup and little potatoes! By this point in the trip, I was getting very tired. Nearly fell asleep in the car to and from Ikea. Dinner was burgers and corn and more caesar salad. Good times.

On Wednesday, we had a surprise lined up for my parents. We'd been swerving my mom and for weeks about our vacation plans, based on my sister's suggestion of arriving unannounced. It worked. We pulled in to Stratford and visited with my sister and baby Ewan for a while, then rolled over to the 'rents abode and walked right in. My dad looked puzzled. Mom was in the basement doing laundry, so I just walked right down and surprised her. Clearly she wasn't expecting it. Oh, I forgot to mention -- a Baconator for lunch. We indulged in Dairy Queen after a dinner of BBQ chicken at Chris and Shannon's.

Amanda drove off to London the next day to visit her sister Amy, while I walked around town with Shannon and my dad. Stratford's a beautiful place. It was nice to spend some time with family seeing their town again. We took my folks out for dinner at the nice hotel -- prime rib for all! And DQ to follow! A fireworks show down by the water was supposed to cap things off, but it started inexplicably early. Who starts a fireworks show at 9:15pm in early August? Just ridiculous. So we missed the whole show. Back to Shannon's to hang out with them and the baby some more. That baby is such a hoot. Hilarious. Babbling and screaming and freaking out and making faces. Tons of fun.

The tour resumed Friday as we dined on nachos at Shannon's, hung out at mom & dad's a while longer, then hit the road for Toronto! We found Sandra and Byron's new house -- eventually -- I had the wrong address. Had the wrong address for a few weeks, apparently, as I sent her birthday card to the wrong place. Their new place is delightful! A renovated place north of the Danforth with lots of room and high ceilings on the main floor. Just fabulous. We went down to the Danforth for a filling and tasty Greek dinner. Byron even ate octopus, or squid, or some tentacled beasty that was in the middle of the plate of dips. It was great to see my friends again; it was like we hadn't been apart for long.

Amanda went out early the next day to visit with a relative, and I went to breakfast with S&B. Good food, good company.

Off to Quebec City! We managed to find a Lick's Homeburgers restaurant on the way out -- one of the things we really miss about Ontario. Big, juicy, garlicky burger. Yum yum yum.

The drive to Quebec was a long, long one. We took an impulsive detour through Trois-Rivieres in an effort to take the "scenic route." We should've learned from the Banff trip that the "scenic route" is just a narrower road with more trees. As we arrived in Quebec City, it began to pour rain. Like, seriously, lots of rain. Somehow, somehow, we got to our hotel, parked, and checked in at the Hotel Auberge du Quartier.

We learned that the beautiful breakfast room was no longer the breakfast room, and no longer beautiful. The man at the desk told us that a guest had recently returned to his room thoroughly drunk and puked all over his sheets. He pulled off the sheets and put them in the shower for a rinse. He left the water running and passed out on the bed. The shower flooded the place, and thus, the breakfast room was ruined. Shame. On the up side, we'd get breakfast around the corner, gratis. We hunted down a local pub in the rain and ate a well-earned meal -- some kind of fancy panini sandwich for me, chicken caesar for Amanda.

Br....

... (Oct 3 2007) okay, this post has been "in progress" for a month and a half now. Let's just say that the Quebec vacation was wonderful. We walked a lot. A lot. Walking and walking. Saw lots of beautiful stuff, and ate some great food. Took a horse-drawn carriage ride. I'm gonna rush through the rest of this.

I wanted to mention that on the first day, I noticed that Scientology was front-page news in the paper. Apparently the "Church" is trying to improve its image in the city by expanding its storefront operation. The paper had a two-page spread. Nothing about Xenu.

We also spent a delightful weekend in Annapolis Royal, staying at the King George Inn. The place is effing gorgeous, and Faith the innkeeper is a whirling dynamo of a host. Highly recommended. I think we'll stay there again. Having never heard of Annapolis Royal before, we were blown away by the rich history and quaint feel of the small town. It was the capital of Nova Scotia before anyone dreamt of Halifax. The oldest English-marked grave in the country is there.

We also went out on the Digby Neck, along the Bay of Fundy. We went on a disappointing whale-watching trip -- only saw a few whales, it was cold, and Amanda was sea-sick. Ate scallops of several varieties. They was good.

On the last day, we went to visit the famous Balancing Rock. A whole lot of stairs -- seriously, a lot of stairs -- and a nice view. Pretty cool.

Okay, this post sat unfinished for a long, long time. And it's, IMHO, still unfinished. But now you have a small idea of what we did on our summer vacation. For pictures worth several tens of thousands of words, check the appropriate gallery on my flickr page.

Yes, the inclusion of virtually everything I ate was intentional. Two weeks of eating and travelling, two weeks of morning-show shifts with dinner right before bed, and a recent habit of eating cinnamon buns at work have pushed my weight up to "before un-weighted" levels. Crap.

More Schmaps!

For the third time, the folks at Schmap! have included some of my photography in one of their internet-based tourist guides. This time, they've tackled Calgary, where I ventured last year to help launch a new all-news radio station. We had lunch at a nice place in the Eau Claire Market, and I snapped a picture of our meal, plus Amanda's hand, featuring a ring she'd just acquired at one of the shops. You can see it in context on the Schmap! site. And, as always, here's a box so you can grab your own free Schmap!

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Yes, yes, I know. I promised to update the blog, and I haven't. Stuff to be covered when I get around to it include:

• the summer vacation to Ontario, Quebec and Annapolis Royal (pictures already on flickr)
• the big Cape Breton wedding of Scott Simpson and Laura Graham, including video of Big Ass Superstar performing at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre
• updates on the new album (?)
• you may have missed my birthday. It was August 12. I'm 34 now.
• and other whatnot, including why gay men love my flickr page, tales of softball heroics, and how cinammon buns can sabotage six months' worth of weight loss

More eatin' adventures

Our ongoing tour of Halifax restaurants continues. Recent weeks' noshing included:

• Milano's on Chebucto Road. The first BYOB restaurant in Halifax. We didn't BOOB, though. I had a delicious fresh-made manicotti with beef. The restaurant is built into an old home. The decor wasn't anything spectacular, but it wasn't busy, and the food was lovely and tasted authentically Italian (not that we've been to Italy, but, y'know, it tasted more authentic than East Side Mario's).
• Sweet Basil Bistro came recommended. A nice bistro in the Historic Properties district. The menu wasn't huge and involved, but the food was mighty good and portion sizes were generous. Amanda enjoyed a lobster fettucini dish, and I had a Pad Thai brimming with fresh veggies. After dinner, we took the pedway over to the casino and won $75 on the slots, to be spent later on pedicures for the both of us. Woo! Nice feet!
• The Watefront Warehouse was a spur-of-the-moment choice after a visit to the farmers' market at the old Keith's brewery. A breezy lunch on the patio near the ocean -- can't beat that, huh? I tried prime rib on a pretzel roll. Not bad. Amanda's tuna melt was nice, too.
• We continued our visit to the best Italian restaurants in Halifax at Piccolo Mondo Ristorante, downtown on Argyle Street. A beautiful interior and a tempting menu! Amanda enjoyed a chicken breast with prosciutto, and cherry tomatoes which were inexplicably tasty. My chicken manicotti with bechamel sauce was good for the first few bites, but became monotonous eating a whole plateful. Next time I'll get something with a bit more zip.
• Deco BBQ Diner is downstairs from Deco, which I've wanted to try for a while, just for the decor. (I love Art Deco/Art Moderne/Streamline architecture and decor.) The Diner is known for BBQ chicken and ribs. So, we tried the quarter-chicken. More distinguished than Swiss Chalet, but nothing outstanding.
• M&M Meats. Alright, it ain't a restaurant, but the steaks are going over well on the barbeque!

Calorie cutting without sacrifice

We've been changing our eating habits in recent weeks, with great enthusiasm and joy. Amanda's seeing results. The scale shows none for me, but my pants keep falling down, so maybe there's a rearranging of bodily materials going on.

I haven't done the explicit math on how many calories I've saved with the daily changes... so, let's see what I can come up with on the spot.

• Morning chocolate milk: switched from 500ml 2% to 375ml 1% with added calcium: 360 calories vs. 240 = 120 saved.
• Kaiser-bun sandwich switched to wrap (spinach, or garlic pesto, or flaxseed): dunno how many calories. Switch from big bun to thin wrap, so that's gotta be something. Switched from Kraft skim-milk processed cheese to Montarey Jack Jalapeno cheese in wrap. Romaine lettuce stedda iceberg. Added onions and red peppers. That's gotta be good for something.
• Muffin: switched from banana/chocolate chip to Liz Pearson's super-healthy banana/chocolate chip colon-blow muffin, including wheat bran, flaxseed meal, whole wheat flour, yogurt instead of butter.
• Sugar Free Red Bull instead of Full Ass-Kicking Red Bull: 10 calories vs. 110. Saving: 100 calories.
• Kellogg's William Shatner All-Bran Bar (130cal) vs. cookies (probably about 200). Saving: around 70 calories.
• Yoplait zero-fat Source yogurt (50cal) vs. Hunts Fat Free Chocolate pudding (about 100cal, I think): 50 cal savings.
• Gatorade (~150-200 cal) vs. 500ml bottled water with Crystal Light Singles (uh, three or four calories, I think): savings: let's call it a full 200.
• Switched at dinnertime from 1% chocolate milk to 0.5% "chocolate milk beverage" (which I call "malk"). Has added calcium, and possibly fewer calories.
• Dinnertime meals switched from, for example, pizza or spaghetti or lasagna, to a small steak and BBQ-roasted peppers, potatoes, onions, mushrooms and grape tomatoes. That's gotta be something.

Well, that's 500 calories cut, based only on the stuff I was able to find numbers for. Wicked. Now that the weather's nice and I'm able to walk home from work (or bike soon!), things ought to be picking up steam.

Eating in, eating out

We've been going out for dinner on Friday nights for most of the time we've lived here in Halifax, but in recent months, I've tried to make the extra effort to pick a nice restaurant for a more romantic start to the weekend. Something more fine-dining than Swiss Chalet, but not Da Maurizio every week. We've tried a few great restaurants in town:

• Il Mercato on Spring Garden Road. A busy Italian restaurant with a nice atmosphere and decor. We've tried the pork tenderloin, the steak, the lamb, and a delicious bruschetta.
• Jane's On The Common is a small place with a window on Halifax Common, a big greenspace in the centre of the city. Small and cozy. The food was artfully presented and full of flavour.
• Vivo Bistro on Windsor Street was recommended by a coworker. It's on the main floor of a big old house. The food was pretty good -- I had a chicken curry -- but the room was rather loud.

Restaurants on the local to-do list include Sweet Basil, Duffy's, and a fine-looking French place in the historic pedestrian mall around the corner... name slips my mind right now.

We went out for some great meals in Calgary, too:

• Hy's Steakhouse has been around since 1956. It's a classy, pricy joint. Makes The Keg look like Swiss Chalet, but honestly, I've enjoyed my Keg steaks more. Not that the Hy's beef wasn't good, but I shouldn't have ordered one with the trademark BBQ sauce. I'm not a sauce connoisseur, and would've been better off with a naked steak. Amanda's peppercorn steak tasted great, but was apparently very peppery.
• Bow River Barley Mill in Eau Claire Market highlighted a visit downtown. Eating on the patio on a cool day under propane heaters, I devoured a steak sandwich with a side of tortellini soup.
• Denny's next to the hotel. Generally good food. A visit to Denny's will tell you why so many Americans are fat. Generous portions of delicious but not particularly healthy food at decent prices. At least here -- the Denny's we visited in Niagara Falls had the prices jacked up.
• Earls (not Earl's or Earls'). I don't know how many Earls run the place. Punctuation aside, great eating. I ordered the Jerk Chicken Breast but ended up eating the Curry Chicken. I didn't know I got the wrong thing until we reexamined the menu to look for dessert. No matter -- the curry was damn good. The dessert we'd been coveting, however, was not available.
• Chili's. Another American chain. Nothing exception, but nothing to complain about. I think I had another steak.
• Botanica, the restaurant in the hotel, served up good food. Hotel restaurants -- boring, right? Sure, I guess. But the ingredients were fresh and flavourful and the prices reasonable. The stir-fry was crispy and bright. The steak was among the best I had on the trip. Amanda says her Monte Cristo sandwich was enlightening, and an omelette drew praise.
• I ventured over to "My Donair" behind the hotel, drawn by its nearness, my cultivated fondness for donairs, and its claim to serve the "best in the west" ... well, the west is missing out. Dry, bland, nothing to recommend these donairs. And I just noticed that two of the chain's outlets were cited as part of an e. coli outbreak a while back.

Our trip to Banff was brief, so we had to choose our eating carefully:

• Melissa's beckoned as our first stop in search of brunch. It boasts all-day breakfast and light lunches, which sounded just right. I enjoyed a little tiny steak; Amanda had a perfect soup.
• We chose the Maple Leaf Grill for our big fancy dinner. I selected a steak with herbed mash and the biggest honkin' onion ring ever -- just perfect. Amanda's Brome Lake Duck with vanilla bean risotto, bok choy and ginger rhubarb sauce was a huge hit. (Photo) The bruschetta was tricky to eat, but oh so tasty. The oil-and-balsamic mix was the best yet.
• Our way-outta-town meal was suggested by the staff at the Buffalo Mountain Lodge. Craig's Way Station was a packed diner with all-day breakfast. Nothing fancy, nothing special, and the service was downright slow. But the food was decent. Diner food that hit the spot.

After all that, we've decided to get on the healthy eating bandwagon. Cracked open the heart-and-gut-healthy cookbooks and picked some good starters. Amanda's been cooking up some great stuff. We're getting adventurous and lovin' it. Plus, with a new barbeque and patio set on the balcony, the options have opened up significantly. Fired the thing up last night -- what a joy.

Eh, that wasn't so bad

The hurricane missed us. It ended up taking a turn south of Nova Scotia. We got plenty of wind and rain, but nothing particularly dangerous. Just another poopy weather night. Gotta say, smoking on the balcony in a storm is no fun. Still haven't found the box where I packed the nicotine patches.

So far, the living room furniture is set up, the dining room is arranged, the bookshelves (a bunch of 'em) are there, the bedroom furniture is laid out, and the computer room is in progress. PandaManda has done a heroic job setting up a ton of stuff while I've been at work. Still have to set up the home theatre and get the wireless network configgered and set up email addresses with Eastlink. I have a hunch that someone is leeching off my wireless network right now -- the blinky lights that show wireless use are blinky-ing, and I've got nothing plugged in that would be making them do that. Gotta get in and set up the BigAssSupernet with a password, encryption key and all that whatnot. I really miss having the Infernet and PVR on the teevee. Watching television in real time feels like a huge step back.

No donairs to report. We did try Greco Pizza on the weekend and I found nothing in it to recommend it. Bland. Doughy. Everything that those old Pizzaville ads ("it was a rainy day...") used to mock in pizza. Won't be ordering that again.

The cats (my cat, Kitty, age four, and Manda's cat Kitty, age four) have yet to become buddies. They've become closer -- close enough for my Kitty to punch Kitty in the nose yesterday. My cat is taking the role of the older sibling, with the muppet-like smaller Kitty following her around and being a bit of an instigator. We expect the next phase will be constant running around and exchanged beatings. My kitty is still recovering from her declawing, favouring one paw. She seems to understand she doesn't have claws any more. Photos pending.

I'm becoming Jared Fogle

My clothes are getting loose. I'm getting a jaw line. I've lost some weight. Partly from all the hills and all the walking -- about a half-hour to or from work if I choose, plus lots of hills ... partly from lack of snacking and sporadic eating. My breakfast ritual used to be a chocolate chip muffin and a chocolate milk on the way to work. Now I grab a foot-long Subway Club sub from Subway, a chocolate chip muffin from the Tim's at the Esso, a 500mL chocolate milk, an energy drink (Red Bull or 100% compatible clone) and a Gatorade or equivalent sports drink. Half sub, milk, crack-in-a-can to start, drink the Gatorale through the day and gobble the second half of the sammich between newscasts mid-afternoon. Still leaves me starving at the end of the day, but overall I'm shrinkin' in all the right places. Once my clothes, furniture and girlfriend arrive, I'll be getting some actual exercise to build some muscles under my furry frame. Lookin' forward to it.

For those who've been axin', the first week on the air went pretty well. Mics were left on at awkward times, network timing was a challenge, words were flubbed now and then, but overall, it was pretty smooth and slick. 'Cept for today when a power outage knocked us off the air for two hours, but, hey, y'know, uh, it's power. Transmitters. What do I know about transmitters? We kept talking anyway.

With the arrival of more reporters and an audio editor, the job is becoming slightly less taxing. It's still pretty exhausting. I'm now chronically unable to remember the names of new people I meet, simply because my brain buffer reached capacity about a week and a half ago, and I haven't had time to defragment and partition and so on. I still have no mp3s to send out for those eager for a peek at how the new thing sounds.

The Donair Count is up to about 6. I had a Large Donair around the time I wrote the about(donairs) post, and that was Too Large. I've enjoyed a tasty chicken curry at the Economy Shoe Shop (aka the Shoe Shop), a decent tavern steak at The Maxwell's Plum (aka Maxwell's), a club sammich at The Argyle with as much chicken on it as the legendary clubs at the Senator in Toronto, a hey-it-comes-with-salad steak at The Keg, many pizza slices and donairs at Pizza Corner and several Whoppers at Burger King across the street from the station.

If all has gone according to plan, the movers came to pick up my stuff in Toronto today, then schlepped out to Whitby to pick up MandaPanda's stuff, and it's all on the way here. Manda ought to also be on her way, stopping somewhere near the Quebec-Ontario border for the night before heading on in. Fingers crossed that all goes well.

Donair or do not: there is no try

There's a corner half a block up the road from this cafe where I've been blogging where three of the four corners are donair/pizza places. What's a donair? Kinda like a gyro, I guess. But I've never had gyros.

It's thinly sliced strips of meat shaved from a big rotating lump that's kept hot in front of burners. The meat shavings are fried up and put on a heated pita that's about half the size necessary to wrap the meat shavings. Diced tomatoes and onions are added, under a mess of some kind of sauce. It's wrapped in aluminum foil and served up in a perfect state to fall onto your lap.

But it's gooood.

I was scared to try donairs because nobody would tell me what's in the hunk of meat that rotates all day. Most common answer: "kinda like what's in hot dogs -- you don't wanna know."

Okay, now I almost don't wanna know, because it might spoil the enjoyment of eating them. I had one last night and I'm still burping it today.

Just as Tim Horton's and Pizza Pizza seem to be on every block in Toronto, donair places are on about every block here. Pizza slices also abound.

Now, I'm downtown. New apartment is downtown. That's great. But I hadn't considered that it's also downtown, facing downtown, in the city that boasts the most bars and pubs per capita, anywhere in Canada. Hell, we're a block or two away from a place called the Liquor Dome. Lots of hooting and whatnot during the early hours this morning. Outside my building, that is. I was inside. On an air mattress. Without a TV. Or a phone -- Aliant was supposed to have my line working by Thursday evening. As of last check, there's still no service. In fact, I should scoot home soon so I can check for a dial tone. If there isn't one, I'm in big dookie, 'cuz my dad's supposed to be driving into town tomorrow afternoon with my TV. No phone = no intercom = no tv = dad can't find me. Crrrap. No Blackberry yet either. This is the most un-connected I've been in a looong time. I'd consider it peaceful if not for the fact that I don't even have a couch yet to veg out on.

Anyway, pictures of the new place are over in the BigAssSuperGallery... not so you can case the joint to rob it later, but mostly so my lady can get some decorating ideas before arriving.

Rock over London, rock on Chicago! Delta Airlines - we love to fly and it shows!