Project 365 ~ week 25

Last Saturday Justin and I went to see this lovely house for sale very near us. Fairly frequently I browse the realt estate listings (I love houses). This one caught my eye. It felt financially within reach of what we could sell ours for, looked like it might need about the same amount of upgrading but is on a much, much quieter street and has a better layout.

It was really good to see the house and to realize that ours is actually still better for us. It helped us recommit to our home and get motivated to make some changes. I hope to share that journey with you as we go!

Sunday night Justin and I went to see Kung Fu Panda. I absolutely loved it. In fact, I clapped with glee at the end of the credits. Of course, I did think we were the only ones in the theatre at the time. Ahem. Oh, well. Nothing wrong with some overflowing joy!

On Monday Shannon and I went to see my dear friend Vern reading from Leilani's Gift, his mystic, autistic memoir. Vern is a hugely gifted writer and a truly wonderful human being. It was a treat to read his witty self-exploration as he journeys across Canada. For the reading he focused on tales of Americans he met while touring Canada. Vern tells a great story.

Canada Day was spent loving up the garden. As you can see, the lawn has not recovered from Farmer Brown's adventures (aka the racoon that digs up our garden for food and fun). I was doing the weeding but then Justin followed and created this beautiful strong border and somehow managed to remove every remaining weed so that it looked so, so beautiful. I was smiling and thanking him for days. I guess this is one of the advantages of marrying a Virgo :)

On Wednesday I subbed for my wonderful friend Jenn at the new Universal Light Centre that's opened right in my 'hood. It's a lovely space that offers a wide variety of classes in a big old house. It was wonderful to share Nia in a new community.

Wow, I was really out and about this week! On Thursday Shannon and I and the lovely Sandra went to see Long Live, a dance performance choreographed by Kathleen Rea, who I've done some Expressive Arts study with. I've really enjoyed all that I've learned from Kathleen and it was a treat to come and see this really moving, beautiful performance. (Shannon and I are laughing here because we bumped our heads together when getting ready for the pic!)

On Friday night, Shannon and I were psyched to go to one of our favourite little places in the world, or at least in Chinatown, Chung King. We've been going here for over 10 years! It all started when I was working at the University of Toronto and this was a regular Friday lunch visit because of the unforgettable Szechuan shredded beef special!

Since then we've made an effort to go whenever we had a Friday day available, usually Good Friday and a Friday during the Christmas holidays. We always have the same thing, though sometimes switching between hot and sour or egg drop soup. And for that whole time we've always had 1 of 2 waiters. I remember my old boss saying that he'd been coming there for years and they were never nice to him. It didn't take long for me to notice it was because he was never nice to them! But I'll miss these 2 gentlemen in their quiet ways, especially the one who we could sometimes get to smile. And I'll miss the crispy, sweet deliciousness of Szechuan shredded beef. And I'll miss our tradition of coming here on quiet days and having a relaxed chat over a great meal in a neighbourhood I feel at home in. This is a part of our history, and I'm sad to say goodbye to it.

Luckily Shannon and I popped over to another wonderful spot, John's Italian on Baldwin Street. Baldwin is such a treasure of a street with lovely little restaurants, twinky lights and patios on a twinky-light lit street. And even though it was a sunny summer day, we couldn't resist getting the comfort food of gnocchi with gorgonzola and roasted red peppers. Scrumptious!

Well, this was definitely a more descriptive 365 but I had really hoped to write posts about houses and Chung King but as you can see, it was rather a busy week!

Project 365 is my attempt to capture a year in my life through a photograph a day. On Saturday's I'll post the week's pics. At the end of the year, I'll create a video of all these precious moments. Feel free to participate at any time. Yours can be Project 347 or Project 292. It's up to you.