Dinners, friends and other stuff... News from Toronto!

Good eeeeeevening!

Sooo, yeah. Time to write something down…

The last few days have brought good news from the Great White North. I’ve heard from Carrie and Darryl and all seems to be going fabulously with the recording. I was VERY excited yesterday to hear a preliminary mix of one of the tracks. Kick ass! I can’t wait to hear more! Carrie will be home on the 20th and will hopefully bring with her the final mixes… Fingers crossed!

I picked Greg up at the airport on Saturday night and got the scoop on what had happened since I left. Pedal Boy was able to successfully get all of his guitar, banjo and vocal tracks done before he left – awesome! They even laid down some hootin’ and hollarin’ for the ‘Josephine’ track. And Darryl and Tracy participated – right on!! They drank more beer and did some more hanging out… All was well. However, the DVD player apparently started acting up after I left. I guess that’s a sign that we were supposed to watch Carnivale and ONLY Carnivale… And that we all had to be TOGETHER to watch TV… Funny…

Speaking of Darryl and Tracy – Not only are they talented in ways I’ve already mentioned, but they are both very talented musicians as well. Check out one of their projects at http://www.abintra.net/ Very cool stuff.

I also hear tell that Damon came up for a visit. I hope he enjoyed the area as much as we did! I really can’t imagine he didn’t – it’s just freakin’ amazing up there and Darryl and Tracy are great! Well, okay – and I guess that crazy Carrie girl was up there, too! Whhhhaaaaaatever. :)P I also hear that they took a trip to Niagara Falls. I guess Carrie was just hearing the call of Skylon… Ohhh, sweet Skylon – you haunt me so!

*NOTE: I don’t know what the HELL my upstairs neighbor is up to right now, but it’s driving me INSANE. ARGH!!!

“Joel!” She screams, fist raised towards the ceiling…

So anyway – what else is up… Oh yes, back to La Fin du Monde and Dr. Ruth… heh heh…

So, when I got back last week, I had some lovely friends over for dinner. (Names not mentioned to protect the UN-innocent… Bahahahahaha!) When I was shopping for the goods at PCC beforehand, I stopped by the beer aisle for some refreshments for the evening. I could not BELIEVE what I found.

The first thing that caught my eye as I looked up to the top shelf in the cooler was a big bottle of Chimay. HA! Somewhere Carrie could come to get that Chimay she promised me… What next caught my eye, however, sent shivers of amazement through my beer-loving form. There, lined up three in a row, right next to the Chimay were our three favorite beers from Toronto! La Fin du Monde, Maudite and Trois Pistoles – ALL IN A ROW! Okay – and not only were they all right there, but they were the BIG BOTTLE versions! WOO! It was just so weird! And what was even stranger was that they, along with the Chimay, were the only big beers on the shelf! Destiny, I tell ya! Suffice it to say that I quickly snatched up all three kinds and headed to the check-out stand! WOO!

That night, I made a pasta concoction for my lovely friends. We ate a lot of food, enjoyed the beer and a bit of wine and I got a chance to hang out with the peeps that I missed. Good stuff. I also, and I don’t even remember how or WHY this came up, divulged that I owned a ridiculous ‘Dr Ruth’ game. I had picked it up, brand new from this crazy estate sale a few years back. It’s this ridiculous game with ridiculous questions about sex, etc. I had actually thought that it was from the 60s, but it ended up being from the 80s. But was STILL very ridiculous… Anyway - We tried to make sense of the game, but after several beers and the fact that the rules were actually VERY convoluted, we just ended up asking each other the ridiculous questions. Hmmm… Learned some amusing things about my friends that night… Ohhh, but I’ll never tell… suckas… >:-)P

Alrighty – what else? Ummm… I’ve been on a spree of awesome dinners. Very good stuff… Paul made enchiladas on Friday night and they were VERY tasty. And totally filling – made for awesome leftovers the next day… And props to Paul for making such a fabulous dinner while still sick! Bravo!!

On Sunday, I was a guest at Rob and Amina’s and was able to partake in their recent chile score! Rob and Amina are part of the large contingency of New Mexico peeps that now live in Seattle. Amina’s family still lives in New Mexico and they sent her a pretty sizeable shipment of chiles from the area. They roasted them that afternoon and later that night, after they were peeled and prepped, we ate them with some VERY tasty fish sandwiches and rice. Damn. They were good. And HOT! WOO! Chiles. Fire. Good.

Last night, to continue with the New Mexican theme, we visited Paul’s friend Adam for another awesome dinner. More enchiladas – red AND green – fish tacos, rice, beans, etc. A total feast! Throw in some good beer, some GREAT tequila and it was a very nice evening… My contribution was a coconut tequila cake. I thought it turned out alright, but I was disappointed that you couldn’t really taste the tequila. That was the whole point of MAKING that particular cake. Wanted it to go with the theme… Oh well – you could sorta KINDA taste it a little… Next time – MORE TEQUILA! Always a good idea.

Ummm… Anything else? Oh yeah – went to the KEXP benefit concert on Saturday night at the Crocodile. The artist that really stuck out for me was Tom Brosseau. He was great! Kind of a mid-western Johnny Cash… Good stuff. Check him out! http://www.tombrosseau.com/

Alrighty – I’m going to ATTEMPT to go to sleep now. Should be interesting… I’m sure I’ll fall asleep on the couch, watching some random Sci-fi or Action movie… And I’ll end up having some goofy, super-spy, action dream… WOO! Hope ya’ll are doing well – Have a good one!

TRJ ™