Hey! Ba da boom ... Ba da bing!

I used to think that italian food was just pasta and red or cream sauce. And that East Side Mario's or Olive Garden was authentic Italian cuisine.

Which was why Italian restaurants were never on my short list, or any list.
I usually felt bloated and uncomfortable after a meal. Taste was a different story. i.e. They suck. I'd rather get a happy meal at McD's.

So on our 1 night/year out. Tresa an I went to La Bruschetta. We had booked a table just to be on the safe side. Good thing we did too, because there were no empty tables.

We ended up waiting about 45 mins - 1hr for our table. And so they set us up at the bar.
Lucky us. Really. We sat near Benito the original owner of the restaurant (his daughter Sylvia owns and runs it now, but he's always there anyways) .

We got a complimentary glass of wine, bruschetta and we got to chit chat with everyone. And we also got to see dessert ahead of time.

This place wasn't anything special. In the front vestibule there's plates everywhere.
Read them.
' signed Bette Midler'
' signed Steve Sheilds #31'
' signed Margaret Atwood'
' signed can't make out the name'


If you want really good EYE-talian food. This is the place to go.
If you just want to pay high prices and look impressive, or be a snob for the evening, and eat a piece of art on a huge white plate, then go to chinatown cuz you're still hungry. Then this isn't it, go somewhere else Benito will tell you. And he will.

So this is Benito. No relation to my dad. He's long gone.
Benito doesn't smile for photos, but he's actually a chatter box and nothing like the photo.
They don't need a band, Benito's the entertainment. He'll tell you plenty of stories. Sometimes I couldn't understand what he was saying, but I laughed my best imitation 'pharma-rep laugh when a doctor said a joke laugh'.

But mine was sincere. This gino made you feel like you walked into his home for dinner.

I had wanted to order veal carpaccio, but there was no more veal. My next choice was mussels. But they were done too. So I got some salad. When he came around to see how we were he looked at me and asked why I was eating salad. I told him and he seemed genuinely upset. The next thing I knew. Sylvia said she was getting me some octopus carpaccio to try. He also brought out some bread that he'd made that day. I was getting stuffed.

I couldn't believe it. They were treating us like we were celebs. And plenty of celebs seek out Benito's restaurant - just stand by the front door.
Only difference between us and a celeb was that we were deeply grateful for the exceptional hospitality and willing to reward generosity with generosity.
And the food was amazing and the portions are just right.
Definitely a place to re-visit.
More restaurants should strive to be like Benito's.

Bar Makeover

Natasa is now the proud owner/manager of 'On the Rocks' bar on Brock St. in Whitby.

We recently attended a Grand Opening of her restaurant bar this past weekend.






Now I don't have to bring my fake ID any more.

Madison, cousin Liam and I get the VIP treatment. We get our own booth. And my sippee cup gets filled with juice as soon as I walk in the door.






Gotta tell ya that the food was a big Thumbs Up!
Order the nachos and dip. All of them.
They're all yummy in da tummy.

It's Suka Mamma day

It was mother's day.

Well actually it was the day after mother's day. And all the flowers are back down to their regular prices

Apparently Valentines and Mothers Day are also 'rip-off' people day.
The same flowers are more than 2x the price.

But the guys who go there to buy flowers only go on those days of the year so they don't know that they are getting kim-chee juiced.



After picking up Kieran in the bike trailer from Daycare, we headed to the bloor west and checked out what was left at the Korean owned flower stores.

Ya, they don't just own dry cleaners and variety stores you know. They like to dabble in all sorts of business ventures.

They are akin to Venture Capitalists of the convenience store world.

So Kieran picked some flowers and I picked some flowers to bring back home to mamma.

Happy Mothers day-after.

No nuts here

No eggs, milk either.
Because this is what happens when one of these kids even comes close to eggs, milk, nuts and I dunno what else.

The only way to do it for sure was to bring in your own food.
Tita Puri even brought some bacon sandwiches.
All she was missing was the electric frying pan and the rice cooker.

Chuck E. Cheese won't mind. Just keep the grease splatter to a minimum.

It was a get together of all the allergic kids in the family.
Can't you see the resemblance?

Look for the excema.






Portrait of a bubble family.






Happy Sukaboy Day Mason.

That's a hypo allergenic Diego cake.
Raspberry-Apple.
Really tasty. Better than the cheese free pizza.

Another Monday Morning

Monday mornings are tough for everyone, even little people.
But nothing a good digestive cookie couldn't fix.
Oh ya, and don't forget the juice.

Hello...I've got a computer problem

Interview with Sleepless baby repairing papa's keyboard

Part 1


Part 2

Pop, pop, pop..... OWCH!

I was playing Raptors inspired basketball and then did a Jose Calderone and turned my ankle.

I heard 3 pops, and Mel heard one pop. Good thing I didn't hear Snap or Crackle.

I thought I had broken my ankle. I was in agony, but more freaked out and scared from what I had heard when I came down on my left foot awkwardly going for a rebound.

I went to see a physiotherapist the next day and it's already feeling better. One thing I've learned from all my years of sports injuries is that the physiotherapist is your best friend. They can do wonders with the ultrasound and inference machines.


The sooner you can see a physiotherapist after an injury the quicker you'll recover and reduce the risk of having a chronic injury. This lesson I learned after a shoulder injury while mountain biking. I didn't get it looked at for 9 months, it then took about about 12-18 months for the shoulder to be back to the way it was before. This was because there was so much scar tissue in my left shoulder from constantly re-injuring it. Not by mountain biking again but by not getting rid of the scar tissue after the initial injury. Since the scar tissue is the weak link. It was constantly being torn and more scarring on top of the old. Every time I worked out and felt a pain in my left shoulder, I had re-injured it. More scarring.

So the moral of the story for you folks that studied Psych and Sports Med is to go see your physiotherapist right away after an injury.

The next steps for me was Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevate the hand with the beer.
And book a few more appointments and it should be better.