Melts like butter...

I've had a love affair with steak and mashed potatoes since my pregnancy with Hannah. As Joy's man friend at the time was a chef at The Keg, her and Marie would make sure to bring me there at least once every 2 weeks to satisfy my hormonal cravings. From then, after a weekend trip to Vegas my love affair matured on to prime rib and countless "steak outings" to Biftheque (now closed in Markham :-(! ) and the other steak places, was always the choice of the menu. So this weekend, after being deprived of for many years... we finally tried Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for the first time. Since i'm such a steak fan and have tried many steak/prime rib at many places, i can honestly say that I have never had steak quite like this before. All weekend long, all I did was rave about how good the steak was. Sometimes after awhile when you're steak starts to get cold, it will tend to get a little chewy and tough. But at Ruth's Chris, the meat still melts like butter. I'm a little disappointed that knowing the cost of the restaurant, we won't be able to go there as often. (400 bucks for 4 of us!) But I'm crossing my fingers that since I have a birthday coming up someone will want to take me!

lunch time road block

So I was advised by a fellow blogger to blog about this afternoon's lunch time road block. In addition to my daily exercise routine, I've been a little bit more concious about the food I've been eating lately. I can't say it's a diet because let's face it... it's not a diet if you're having an average of 2 (ok.. maybe 3 at the most!) cheat days a week. But I have been avoiding the white rice, the fast food and been trying to stick to a healthy dinner of fish and vegetables throught out the work week. (it's always the weekends when i tend to slip!) Anyhow, today at lunch i was a little naughty and decided to indulge in a bag of ketchup chips since the chicken wrap i was eating needed a little salt. I put my $1.25 in the vending machine and pressed A6 to satisfy my craving. And yes, as you can imagine... it got stuck! I spoke to the caf lady and of course she didn't have the key to open the vending machine. It must've been a sign from the gods that I need to be sticking to my healthy diet! She was somehow able to refund my change from the front desk and since there were no bags of ketchup at the counter I got a bag of cheetos instead. Again, so much to sticking to my healthy eating plan.. but i didn't feel so bad since my lunch buddy (who just started her healthy food and daily exercise routine this weekend!) shared and finished the bag of cheetos for me. I wonder if she ever got that second bag of cheetos she wanted to munch at her desk...

No strike

Ok, so even though I have used the TTC maybe once in the past 3 three weeks, I have to say I'm glad that there's no strike. With the warm weather I've been walking from Union Station and work, morning and afternoon. As I've been making the walk my daily exercise routine, I have to say that I know how to work Yonge St! (ok, that didn't quite come out the right way but let me explain! :-P) I've managed to figure out the art of weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic along Yonge. I know that I can still cross the street if there's 7 seconds left of the flashing hand of the pedestrian lights on Yonge and Queen but not on Yonge and Front. The Halili OCD in me has a preference of which side I like to walk on between intersections (east side from Wellesley to Dundas, West side Dundas to Union) Walking north on the way to work between Gerard and College slows me down because of a slight incline. I can even make the 30 minute walk in 22 mins depending on 3 things... the shoes i'm wearing that day, pedestrian traffic and whether I catch all the green lights. So in light of the tentative agreement for the TTC, I'm quite glad that I don't have to share Yonge St with a million other pedestrians.

Quality time

This weekend we were able to spend time with people whom we don't normally get to spend enough time with. On Saturday we went to get flower girl dresses for Hannah and Seyla for Ninong Timmy and Tita Lou's wedding in September. We started the morning with a late breakfast at Milly's where Tim and Lou were able to update us on the plans for their upcoming nuptuals and catch up on our day to day life. We then picked up Seyla at her Grandma's to head over to the bridal shop. I think it was a good thing that I was able to go with them cuz Hannah and Seyla were having way too much fun trying on the different dresses. I even didn't have a chance to get a picture of them with their dresses on! Once the the bride and groom decided on their dresses we ended the afternoon with a little treat at Dairy Queen. Of course, Ninong Timmy couldn't say no to both his god daughter's asking for ice cream! And since Trae was busy with the renovations to their new place, Seyla came over for a play date. I think Trae and Fran may soon have to invest in a Nintendo DS as Seyla really enjoyed playing Benjo's Diego and Build-a-Bear game!

Today as a rare treat, we were able to spend time with Daddy! Euge works on the weekends that we don't normally get to spend time together just the four of us. So we did what we would always do when euge and I have the same day off... we went to Vaughan Mills for some shopping! We picked up some stuff that we needed for our upcoming trips in the summer and of course had lunch at our usual spot at that mall, Johnny Rockets! I don't know what it is about this place but we always eat here when we go to this mall! I think it's mostly to avoid the chaos of food court. We had alot of fun this weekend. I just hope that I have enough clothes to last me the week as the laundry remained untouched from al the fun we had this weekend!

I have to say...

I'm quite proud... of my sister... ! Yesterday I came home to find my sister in the kitchen. In fact, she's been in the kitchen a lot recently since she's been off work. If anyone knows my sister, she doesn't even know how to make rice. (I mean really, how hard is it to press the button on the rice cooker?!) For the third time this week, she's been at the kitchen tackling dinner. Yesterday she was attempting meatloaf. It was too bad I had to leave that I didn't get a chance to taste it. I don't know if it's the free time or the pregnancy hormones that's doing it to her, but it's great to see her making a home cooked meal.. not just nuking a frozen dinner or putting chicken nuggets in the oven, but a home cooked, straight from scratch meal! One day when I have time after work, I will try to show her how to turn that rice cooker on! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the meals... but next time I'll try to sneak in the camera, just so that you all can be proud of her too!!

One year...

It's hard to believe that we remember that one year ago today our dear "Big Lola" passed away. Sometimes when we go to Whiteleaf, I still expect to see Lola sitting on her chair in the living room waiting for us to come for a stay for the weekend. As both of my own Lola's were in the Philippines, she was the closet thing I had to having my own Lola around. I consider myself blessed of the stories, family secrets and gossip that she used to share with me. Of course Hannah always had a very spceial relationship with her as well. I remember Lola always used to tell me that Hannah would always sing and dance for her in her room using her cane as a microphone! And if anyone knew Hannah as a 3 yr old, you were even lucky if she would say hi to you! It makes me sad that Benjo will never know her the way that Hannah did. I think if she were still around she'd get a real kick out of him as he's so much like his dad! She'd love that he's all over the place and he would certainly entertain her just like Hannah used to. So to our "Big Lola," we still love you and miss you!