Still smiling after all these years

It's been a long road to here. From that small village in Slovenia, to 20 years later. What's changed?

Well, dental plan, mortgages, kids, kids' hockey & basketball.
Crocs and pj's, kiss-n-ride. Not necessarily in that order.

But the smiles are still there, although maybe a few fillings here and there.
No more white socks and a suit. At least not on purpose.


And just like back home, Joe will toast to himself to make sure that at least one person is always drinking to oblivion. He's a conscientious drinker now that he has 3 kids to think about, he won't drink and drive. That's Rose's job. Her wine glass is on the coffee table waiting to be topped up and the car keys are ready and waiting in her pocket so she doesn't have to fumble around looking for them with wine goggles on.




Rose is explaining what the women used to do in the fields back in Slovenia.






Playdoh and a meeting of the great minds of tomorrow.
Trying to make the next great playdoh hotdog and hamburger. And thinking about who will sit on the whoopie cushion next.

Have a happy marketing created day

Ya. I'm talking about Valentines day. A day to send your self esteem down into the dumps if you are single. Because it means no one wants you.

It's a day that was set up to get folks to spend money. The demand for red roses goes up and so does the price.

When you really think about it though. Valentines should be every day. Why wait for the middle of February when it's dark at 6pm and cold and dreary. Just go and buy flowers any time you feel like it.

It makes the house look and smell nice and makes someone happy. Then you won't have to feel so bad getting ripped off at the flower shop paying for overpriced roses this week.

Every dollar you spend this week, 45 cents goes to some marketing VP's pocket that suckered you into parting with it.

I'm not bitter. It's reality.

The Chef's House

It was a long wait for this place. The Chef's house is where the GBC students put into practice what they learn in the classroom.

We'd never been to the one inside the culinary school on Adelaide, but we heard it was really good and really inexpensive.
Michael and Frida, set this up and was it ever worth the wait.
The restaurant was open and really modern.

You can choose between the 3 course or the 4 course. Or both if you're a real pig. Most of the guys thought that the portions would be small. Some even had McDonald's coupons for after dinner snack. You know those 2 can dine for 4.99.

I had the 4 course. Cuz. I was hungry.
This was my 1st appetizer. It was the calamari. My second appetizer was salmon salad.

This was a snack. We all got it before we got our appetizers. It was like a bonus.
When I saw it. I was thinking. I might take Jimmy up on those 2 can dine coupons.
It was a potato appetizer. Everything about it was a potato,
I wasn't 100% sure (cause I wolfed it down) but someone told me it was.

I was going to order wine, but it was just house wine. No name. Well the waitress couldn't tell me what it was. So I had this imported beer. I forget what it was, but it was good.

I forgot to take a picture of my second appetizer and my main - which was a sea bass. It was more like see bass and eat it.
It was good. I also saw the braised beef and wanted that too.
Once I had started eating it was difficult to stop.

This was Tresa's dessert. I don't think I tried it. I was full


This was my dessert. I didn't choose it. Tresa did. I was going to get something else, but I was glad this came instead. It was a souffle with a toffee cream side thing.

I think the menu changes every few months or semester. So we'll have to check when that happens and book again.

Click for more photos of our first night out with no kids in months

Morning skate with the Toronto Maple Leafs

Just kidding, the Leafs weren't there. It was just the fans.

The ACC was opened for a free skate. The leafs were in Montreal last night and had won the game. Lately it's been both the Raptors or the Leafs getting beat. But last night one of the Toronto teams won a game.

The playoffs are probably not going to happen this year for either team, but we were there for a skate.

Publish Post

It was pretty neat skating there. It's a regulation sized rink. The arena can seat 17,000 people or so (I think). Hard to imagine. Seems smaller than it actually is.


No that wasn't a puck..that was Elvis. Nothing was going to distract this future NHL'er from his ice time.

The rink was opened at 11am for 45 min free skate sessions, and we got there just in time for the second session. We figured there'd be a line up and a huge crowd to get on the ice.

But there was no line up and there was more room to skate around than at a regular rink. It was great. The ice was a little softer than I expected though.
When we were leaving a lot more people were showing up and you had to wait longer to get on the ice.


Afterwards we played some real rockem sockem hockey.
I think it was broken because we didn't have to put any coins and I thought initially someone had credits left, but we were playing for a long time.

Click me for more iPhone photos cuz my regular camera battery died