throwback to ecuador...

a bit of perspective...

a closeup-ish picture of us sitting on this large rock formation.

one of my favourite pictures of all time. the view from where we were sitting.

GO trains? maybe they should be renamed...

me and GO transit - not on such good terms right now. i was scheduled to depart union station at 8:43pm, arriving at oakville station at 9:20pm. i get to union at 8:30, with enough time to spare only to find out that the the train is on standby, and may we 'please wait for more info'. so i wait. the train is delayed by five minutes. okay, i think, not that bad - no need to write home about it, a five minute delay is no harm. i board the train and sets off, oakville bound. we stop at mimico, let passengers off, then are told, "all passengers will be asked to leave the train and board another train as this one is experiencing mechanical difficulties." we stop in this random railyard between mimico and long branch where we pull up alongside another empty GO train, and we hop off of our defunct train onto this fully functioning train. after a few minutes, we slowly start moving again, oakville-ho! before i could say 'i'm going home!' the train jerks to a stop. we start travelling backwards. the conductor comes through the speakers, "i am sorry for the inconvenience folks, it appears we have left behind some passengers on the other train. we are on our way back to collect them and will be on our way shortly." yeah, freakin, right. how do you manage to miss the fact that your train has stopped in the middle of nowhere, and people all around you are leaving?? so we pick up these stragglers, and take off again. and guess what - two minutes into the ride we jerk to a halt once again. this feeling is becoming all too familiar - the sinking feeling in my stomach that accompanies the realization of how late i will get home. and how late my mom has to wait out to pick me up. the conductor comes back over the speakers "passengers, a fight has broken out on the train, we have remanded the participants and are awaiting the arrival of the police. we will not be leaving until the police arrive." ...is this for real?? seriously. talk about a night going from bad to worse. especially after a long day at work. we waited, still in this railyard for approximately twenty minutes before the police arrived, did their thing, and finally let us get underway. so we pull out, again, the ruffians in police custody, we make our way toward oakville. first we stop at long branch, the next scheduled stop. we let passengers off the train and then are told that all passengers must depart the train and board the oakville bound train arriving on track 2. the train we are currently on must be on its way eastbound back to union station. by this time we are one hour behind schedule. again, i board another GO train, and pray that this one will take me to oakville without fail - lo and behold it did. i walked in the door of my house at 10:43pm, exactly two hours after my train was scheduled to depart union station. i could go on - especially about the people who ride the GO train on the weekend, just a small note to those of you out there: the GO train is not playground, we do not play soccer on the train, we do not run up and down the stairs and aisles, we do not talk loudly and yell, it is not a road or sidewalk for you to pick fights on, it is a mode of transportation to get you from one place to another, so please, please, please, next time you are on the GO train, be considerate of those who are just trying to make their way home.

domestic abby.

somehow today i managed to sleep in until noon. usually i'll be up by about 9, then just lie in bed lounging, listening to the radio or reading. anyways, so i came downstairs at about 1230 and i decided that today was going to be the day that i went to town in the kitchen. i had heard my mom say last night that we have too much broccoli in the fridge, and maybe she would make some soup. that's where my thought process started. then i saw the ground beef on the counter, and decided i was going to make hamburgers. gourmet hamburgers, of course. so, i sat at my dad's laptop and cruised around allrecipes.com for some ideas. i had settled on my menu and needed a few recipes for things i didn't know how to make already. i found really good broccoli soup, potato wedge, and rhubarb dessert recipes. with my recipe for hamburgers and cole slaw in my head i got started. i can safely say that i was in the kitchen for about three hours, prepping the ingredients, cleaning up all the while. i'm a big fan of making things from scratch, i don't really believe in boxed stuff (although i will admit that every so often it ain't all that bad) so this was a good time. this was the first time i'd made soup, and it turned out pretty well. not that difficult to make, and it tastes oh so good. oh - i guess i should lay out the menu! it consisted of:

~ broccoli soup garnished with grated cheddar cheese
~ homemade hamburgers topped with melted cheese, sauteed onions and mushrooms
~ seasoned potato wedges
~ coleslaw
~ sour cream rhubarb squares

so my parents and i had the soup at about 3:30ish, a little pre-dinner appetizer. my dad headed off to the gym and when he got back at about 6:15, the rest of the dinner was prepared. see attached photo. after dinner, i made some english breakfast tea and we had that along with the squares. annd, now i'm full. it was a fun, productive day, and now i'm gonna kick back, watch the office and enjoy the rest of my evening. stay tuned.

dessert.

here you will see the sour cream rhubarb squares we ate for dessert. dee-lish.

smells like...

our neighbourhood smells like manure. must be landscaping season.

movies.

i went to the movies today, and basically all the previews were for the third installment in a trilogy! apparently this is the summer of sequels...

* spiderman 3
* ocean's thirteen
* shrek 3
* rush hour 3
* pirates of the caribbean 3
* bourne ultimatum
* fantastic 4: rise of the silver surfer

yo trabajo.

work has begun. training started on thursday, and my day started with a jolt - to say the least. wednesday night i set my alarm clock for 6am, and i turned up the volume to a setting that would be sure to rouse me out of my slumber. i went to bed early, and decided a good nights rest before the first day of work was a fantastic idea. thursday morning arrives, i faintly hear a knock on my door through the haze that is sleep, and i hear my mom ask, 'abby - are you still going?' 'where??' i mumble back. the wheels in my head slowly start turning as i try to figure out what my mom's talking about, and then it hits me like a ton of bricks - it's my first day of work. and it's 7:10am. and my train is at 7:28am. and i am still in my bed. {panic sets in} i flew out of my bed, into the bathroom, back into my room, down the stairs, and was out the door in ten minutes. my partial saving grace was the 7:38am out of bronte to union station. i got on the train, pulled into union station at 8:08 - i am supposed to be at training at 8:30. at yonge and college. and i'm at bay and front with no change for the ttc. so i boot it. by the time i hit queen my calves and shins are killing me, but i can't stop! i make it up to college park at 8:35 - perfect, i think, only five minutes late, it could have been way worse. i call up to the office...no one answers...then the executive director of the bia walks in, 'we're meeting at atrium on bay this morning!' i smile and nod, 'of course we are..!' i turn around and at a nice clip, weave my way through early morning pedestrian traffic along yonge back down to dundas and to find 40 dundas street west. i finally make it to training at 8:45am, sweating and out of breath, i walk in and sit down. they haven't even begun as yet. that was thursday morning.

thursday continued with various presentations, a walking tour and lunch at a great restaurant on elm st (the name escapes me...) friday morning we went on the shop, dine tour around downtown, and had a few afternoon presentations by an assortment of employees of the tourism sector after which we got our uniforms and called it a day. i won't bore you with more details, cuz it's not all that exciting but...i am working every weekend starting today, so if you're in the yonge/dundas area, please come by and say hi! walking tours start on june 13th, so if you'd like one of those, come by sometime after june 13th and enjoy a free tour around the yonge street area. see you soon ;)

cupcakes.

within the recent past, i have begun to devote some of my spare time to baking. so far, i've made peanut butter cocolate chip cookies, brownies, and chocolate cupcakes. today was the cupcake day (see picture on the left). the problem is that there are only three people who live at my house, which usually means that there's no way we can eat all of these treats. and if we did, well, by the end of the summer we'd probably be housebound cuz we wouldn't be able to fit through our doorways. so i bake, but just know that i'm always looking for opportunities to share these treats. if you're in the neighbourhood, feel free to drop by - or, maybe the next time we meet up, you'll be surprised with goodies. who knows ;)

well, there's not a whole lot on the agenda tonight besides curling up on the couch with a cupcake, some tea, and an episode of veronica mars. i'm kind of excited about it. after that, the world is my oyster! actually...not really...{read previous post}...but sometimes it's nice to dream.

my rant about the suburbs.

it's quiet here. so quiet that if i whispered right now, the people who live three streets over would hear me and answer back. our neighbourhood is terrible. terribly suburban. all people do here is walk their dogs and babies - around the block. there is nowhere else to go but in circles, up one street, down another, each validated by row upon row of houses that lack creativity and indivuality. the sidewalks are wide and wonderful, but only used by those dog and baby walkers - wide enough, i suppose to accomodate bmw sized strollers and dogs with purses. what's the sense in even investing the money in these pedestrian laneways when our main and only mode of transportation is the car? why not take the money used for underutilized sidewalks and put it into improving local transit? now, there's an idea. our street is tucked away among a maze of others, the nearest main road a fifteen minute walk away. once at the main road, your options are limited to starbucks, an orthodontist and a bank whose services i don't even use. the nearest go train station is a ten minute drive away. walking there simply is not an option! unless you, for some reason, think it would be fun to be hit by cars travelling 80km/hr on a 60km/hr road. yes, today, i am hating on the suburbs. hard. perhaps this is just a reflection of my changing urban values. you have my schooling to thank for that.

tribute to veronica mars.

easily my favourite show. it's the only show where i don't flip channels during the commercials - for fear of missing a single minute of the action. the closest i'll come is surfing through the channel guide to see if there is anything on that would even come close to this, and warrant a split second change of station. there usually isn't. i attribute my deep affinity to this show to my love for mystery books. starting out with encyclopedia brown and moving through the famous five, nancy drew (of course), the hardy boys, [the BEST was the novels where they 'happened' to meet up in some random place], agatha christie...i still take agatha christie novels out of the library in the summertime for some fun reading. there is absolutely nothing like a good mystery - nothing!! so, to be able to enjoy one hour (fifty minutes) of suspenseful, fun, drama ridden goodness during the week is like a little piece of abby-paradise. i have to acknowledge and thank my good friend shanghe for pointing me in the direction of v.mars - i'm forever indebted. and to those of you who have never watched an episode, i suggest you start with season one, episode one. thank me later.