Now for part II.

The last half of May was lots of fun as well. During the week I went with SBF to a Loblaws Hand's On Cooking Class :). It was right by my work, so I could easily go straight from work.

Of course, SBF and I were the only 2 guys there, enjoying company from women between the ages of 25-45. On this class we were taught by a musician / caterer extrordinaire, teaching these classes for a few years now. Although she was Korean, she totally reminded of my ex-girlfriend in another 10 years. When she gave a little background about her life (graduated with a BA in music) I couldn't help but smile. I bet it was Piano*!! :P She also has similar mannerisms as her as well! Heh. ANYWAY...

For this evening, we made a whole slew of hors d'oeurves. Most of the dishes were Asian inspired, so I had an idea of where she was coming from when cooking/preparing the food (i.e. GARLIC!! GINGER!! GREEN ONION!! PAN FRY BABY!!). Here's a list of a few things we made (we broke into teams to make them):

-Crab, Vege, Pork, Beef Potstickers (what a fusion-funky name for fried dumpling!)
- Cajun shrimp
- Creole Lime Crab Cakes
- Vege Quesadillias (basically Asian stir-fry veggies w/cheese in mini-tortillas)
- Smoked Salmon Wraps
- Sweet Potato-Leek Pancakes
- A variety of sauces to go with them: Jalaeno chili, soy/balsamic, mango/plum, others..

Overall the dishes were easy to make and quite good. It's always amazing w/these kinds of dinner b/c you never think you'll get full, then suddenly you're stuffed and you don't know what you ate! I really enjoyed the mango/plum sauce w/pot stickers. It was a funny combo to try, but the salty/sweet taste worked quite nicely. There was even a dash of cilantro in it, which in most cases would have equalled disaster. But this time it was bareable, however I would sub in parsely instead if i made it myself.

I liked how this was a "hands on" class, rather than sitting and watching someone else give instructions you're gonna forget. It's not like i'll remember everything we did, but at least I actually made some the dishes. I could totally pull off doing these again sometime (no, this is not an open invite for me to make you food :P).

MAY 24
One of the other big things that happned was my May 24 weekend at my cottage! It was the first time i've gone up this year, and boy I wish i had been up sooner. Unfortunately the weather (just like everywere else in Southern Ontario) was crap, but at least I got to get out of the city for a bit an breathe some fresh(er) air, and may be some stars too!

In addition to SBF, 2 other friends came in from Kingston. I haven't seen them since I went to visit just before i started my new job. Boy, that seems like EONS ago, seeing how i feel like i've been at my job for a long time now. It was a very chill weekend, and that was exactly what I needed. My job was been VERY intense, the most intenst job i've ever had. It took me a 1/2 day just to unwind, but thanks to the company I could let go and get back to my roots. I wish some of my other friends could have made it, but b/c of the short notice and lack of rides they were unable to make it. There's always other cottage runs right?

Over the weekend we had some camera fun. I brought up my digital camera and this cool tripod that I got for my bday. What else to do but take a ridiculous amount of photos of everyone and everything!? I have a few very cool panoramic pictures of my cottage - when i look at it i feel like i'm right there!

More Camera Fun
We also spend a very good chunk of the evening taking funky night pictures using a flashlight and an open shutter. I kept the shutter open for a long time and let everyone do funky things the flashlight. Here's a few for your enjoyment:





We also drew out names w/the flashlight in the air. Here's one with my friend's names ALMOST completed -guess the name :). For the other we drew out "love" backwards and I had to go into photoshop and flip it.. course, while i was already in the program I had to add in a few layers and filters :)





Cottage Indulgence
As with all cottage runs, we had a FEAST for dinner. We made mandarin spinach salad, BBQ grilled chicken breast and rice. For dessert we had hot apple crumble pie. It was fantastic. For the following breakfast we had eggs w/green onions, bacon, a fresh French bread loaf, hot oven baked coissants (plain and milk-chocolate filled), hot tea biscuits (cheese as well as a sugar coated kind), and hashbrown! For dessert we had these INCREDIBLE pecan cookies. One of my friends works at a fine French cheese / bakery shoppe and kindly brought some baked goods over!

What a weekend! Sounds like all we did was eat and play with the camera. Damn right :). Well we did watch a movie and play some scrabble, battleship and SBF even gave us a Tarot reading. My reading on the first night was freakishly bang on, knowing how my job is eat away at me.. The cards gave a different perspetive on my job, as well as flagging a few things I had forgot about. It was one of those "WHAT? Now way, those cards are wrong, hahaha... [ponder].. [internalize]..[mild panic].. [no, don't publicize the panic]..[oh shit, it's right].. [i can't belive this]..[composure]..[deep breath].. [begin talking w/outside voice:] "Well guys, on second thought, there MAY be a legitimate cause for this insight" :) :)

Musical Growth .. maybe.. :)
I also had a great gig on May 31, with a VERY good turnout. It was much bigger than I had expected. Getting back on stage was great, but also showed me that i can't keep doing this w/o putting more effort on developing myself as a musician and with this band. I don't do much we'll just plateau at this stage and I don't want to be doing the same thing for the next 5 years. So i made a few calls and i've worked out a plan for personal musical development. There's a few things i'm considering, and the first is GETTING some LESSONS! Because I don't have the time / budget to have lessons on both voice and guitar, I thought I would go for one first and take it from there. I made a call for lessons on my voice and i just need to call back to confirm the set of lessons. It will be a great first step for me to develop my voice. I've also been trying to get the band in gear to keep the gas going this summer. Since I do the same sort of thing for clients at my job, I should do the same thing here! So we're going for weekly practices and attempts at recording bed tracks (drums, bass, guitars) if the pratice is going well.

On the other front i'm looking at volunteering as a kids music workshop, playing with kids aged 5 to make instruments out of fun materials to perform this summer. It will be a way to be in music as well as helping out inner city kids. I'll also be volunteering at North By North East in afew weeks, which i'm very excited about. I'm going to another meeting this weekend to discuss the event in more detail, and i'll be meeting up with so many other musicians. I may even find my band some other leads and meet some very cool ppl. I can't wait to be part of the festival and help out when i can!

Wow, i'm writing a lot here :). I hope some of you made it! Congrats!!
Now June approaches. More updates to come, like THE CAR ACCIDENT I WAS IN!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"



*FYI: My ex-girlfriend from OAC was a truely gifted piano player.