Urban Adventure

Segways in Toronto

This weekend was the August long weekend and Marc and I had every intention of getting out of the city to a cottage or B&B.  But, as usual, we left planning to the last minute and nothing was available.  Instead, we had a special kind of weekend.  The urban adventure weekend.

I took Friday and Sunday, Marc had Saturday and Monday.  The rules were simple.  The person in charge of managing the day had to plan all activities and leave the other person unobligated to do anything.  The flip side was, the person who wasn’t planning had no input into the activities.  See, Marc has a problem with “judging” activities and frequently shoots down my ideas because he’s lazy or doesn’t want to try something new.  This was the weekend to end all judgement.  Here’s what we got up to.

Friday: Kara’s East Side Day
> Distillery segway tour
> Mill Street Brewery tour & beer tasting
> Allan Gardens
> Tea (but really drinks) at Four Seasons
> Dinner at the ROM
> Free Friday night at the ROM
> Drinks at the Park Hyatt Roof

Saturday: Marc’s “But I have friends in town” day
> Brunch at Kalendar
> The Dark Knight on IMAX
> Barbecue at our house
> Multi-player rock band all night

Sunday: Kara’s West Side day
> Bike ride to Sunnyside + ice cream
> Powerplant art gallery at the Harbourfront
> Dream in High Park

Monday: Marc’s “Oh, I got the hang of this” day
> Boating by Toronto Island
> Veggie BBQ for Kara

Best stuff as voted by Kara: Dream in High Park, Segways, Boating
Best stuff as voted by Marc: Park Hyatt Roof, Bike Ride, Boating

We will do again, no question.

New Condo!

We paid too much, but it’s exactly what we wanted.  Closing date is September 14th.  Get ready for the most epic housewarming party EVER!

The Truth About Marc

Marc has officially become a music video star.  And his first role is as “Bender (The Criminal)” from The Breakfast Club in a music video by Mugshot (no, Lindsey, not that Mugshot).

You may not know this about Marc, but this was probably the perfect role for him.  Deep down inside, Marc really wants to be the bad boy, which is why when he drinks he becomes a giant jerk.  It’s not that he’s a giant jerk, he’s actually quite nice, but he’s free to “become” the giant jerk when drinking, much the way most girls go a little slutty once the drink is flowing.

Although on set people thought his performance was ‘hammy’ I think in a spoof video it might still be funny.

Go Marc!

Uh Oh

Marc just gave me the dirtiest look ever. I don’t think he did it on purpose, he’s just mad at me and when he sat down he looked over at me (when he thought I wasn’t looking) and – there it was! It was pretty close to the evil eye. How do you ward against the evil eye when it lives with you?

Scenes from a Life

My posts have seemed a little bit pseudo-philosophical lately. I think that’s because I’ve been reading The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies. I blogged about it here, in case anyone wants to know what causes someone to sound pretentious about everything for months.

Otherwise, my general news is that I bought myself a point&click digital camera to take to NY. I’m leaving on Wednesday and going for a week, getting back the 26th at night.

And this is the mess that is left in the kitchen after I get done with it. Luckily, since I cook, Marc cleans. Part of me thinks that this isn’t a fair trade, but since he’s not complaining, neither am I. (This is also just one side of the kitchen, the stove is in a similar state.)

I also have a new strategy to smooth over tensions at home. Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of Fable which Marc uses to guilt me into doing stuff, for example he uses the guilt voice to say “Will you please help me clean up” like wasting countless hours on mindless entertainment is unique to me. (jab, jab)

Today I wanted to play 5 hours of Fable without having to defend myself about it, so when I got up I hurried into the shower, got dressed, swept all the floors and did the general tidy. Then, and only then, did I sit down to waste more hours in brain-destroying delight. When Marc woke up (all groggy and angry that I was playing games) I was guilt free.

I was so proud of myself.

And this post is why I will go back to my pseudo-philosphical posts, since my domestic life is really not that interesting.

Restating The Obvious

I am always amazed at how the simplest things get overlooked on a day to day basis.  Marc and I often find we never talk to each other, even though we spend crazy amounts of time together we *never* talk to each other.  We only talk to one another when we’re in public, usually at a restaurant or bar.  Basically when all we have to do is sit and stare at one another, then we talk.  Early in our relationship this spelled disaster.  I left more than one bar crying.  But now it’s good.  We pretty much know our limits with each other and end up really talking about very personal things – within earshot of 10 or 15 other people.

Things I learned tonight:

1. I never tell Marc “You’re right.”  Apparently my inability to ever concede extends even to Marc.  I told him I promised I would tell him he was right more, but he told me there was no need, it’s more fun to argue it out.  See?  This is why he’s great.
2. There is music that Marc has never played for me, music he thought I wouldn’t like but as it turns out, I really love.  Communication = Good.
3. Those issues I was having with stuff?  He’s noticed it too.  We don’t have a plan to fix it, but at least we admitted we know it’s there.

We also resolved to do this more often.  It makes the idea of “date night” more immediate when you know you can get at all the little issues swimming just below the surface.