What Happens in the Car Wash…

Okay, birthday week is officially over now that all the Champagne is gone. I can’t NOT say the word “Champagne” like Bubbles from Little Britain, “Champagne for everyone!” Although I never really drink the real stuff, just bubbly wine, it could be from anywhere, I don’t care. It puts me in the best (and craziest) mood and I will not tell you what I did in the car wash at Queen and Kingston Road. If I wasn’t such a charming LOCA (lady of a certain age), I could have been arrested and no, I wasn’t driving. Anyway, there is nothing a like a super fun Champagne buzz to bring on the most profoundly existential angst-ridden hangover the next day. Will I ever learn? No, but what I have learned is to embrace my inner wretchedness. First start with Vitamin Water, it’s brilliant for replenishing depleted nutrients, the ones that went down the drain in the car wash. It is my daughter’s mission to try every flavour so the one I got yesterday tasted like a pina colada….not my favourite, I must say. After getting plumped back by the fluids, keep moving, go to the gym. The sweat will pour out even on the lamest elliptical ride. Then lay on a mat or roll on a stability ball. Think about what you’re going to eat next and YES! it can be grease!!! In fact, it must be grease, Doctor K’s orders:

Great Burger Kitchen 1056 Gerrard St. East

I went here, Great Burger Kitchen, because I saw a Harvey’s commercial at the gym. They use locally sourced, naturally raised, free range meat and! AND! They serve poutine. I ordered a Greek burger, ie. man repellent (feta, tzatsiki, and ripe raw red onion…kiss me!) I also ordered the poutine and I’m wondering if you have to be born in Quebec to get this but I guess not because I have been noticing all these “gourmet” poutine places opening up all over Toronto. I embrace this, although I am a purist and have yet to taste any as great as the poutine at Patateville on Laurier Blvd in Beloeil, Quebec. I don’t even want to know if it’s not there anymore. But the poutine at Great Burger Kitchen sure hit the spot and so did that burger. The next burger I order, which maybe as soon as the day after The Sex and the City 2 premiere next week, will be the “voodoo” burger….salsa, spicy mayo, guacamole, balsamic onion…definitely will chase all the bad spirits away!

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: Eat & Drink, Handy Hints. Tags: Great Burger Kitchen, Little Britain, Sex and the City 2, Vitamin Water. 3 Comments

May. ’10

My Guitar Heroines

The Original Runaways

CH-CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB!!!! No, I don’t have a form of literary Tourette’s Syndrome (or maybe I do) but even a month after seeing The Runaways (the movie!), I’ve got the cherry bomb ringing in my head. Well, that’s probably because on any given Friday night, you can hear my daughter and her faux-band, The Cherry Bombs, with her guitar amped up to a conservative kind-of-loud, practising their Runaways tune in her third floor bedroom. CH-CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB!!!!! I feel sorry for the neighbours…no, I don’t. Neighbour boy used to practise drums super-loud during the week nights, now it’s their turn to enjoy the music! I’d say the neighbour boy should be their drummer but they are an all-girl band. In fact the movie, The Runaways, is playing at the Fox Theatre this week, check here for show times. I totally recommend this film for young and “zoomers.” I just learned this term today, we are boomers with ooompff, (don’t worry I’m only going to entertain the term for this one post). It’s one of the best depictions of the seventies I’ve seen: hair (hideously fantastic), makeup (classic, still wearing mine that way) , clothes(tight, ridiculously sex-say), architecture (Brady Bunch). It’s a story of one of the first all-girl bands to make it big, and we’ve come a long way since then. And now you don’t have to go far to hear young and talented women playing music. Two of my favourite girl crushes are East End ladies, Melanie Peterson, and Diana Zitmanis.

Melanie Peterson teaches my daughter the guitar, everything from the Runaways, The Ramones, Smiths (the quintessential zoomer band) to the Kooks(who? that’s okay, the modern-day Smiths). She and her band play locally as well as at the Liberty Bistro every 4th Saturday of every month, see below for this month’s date. She’s got a unique acoustic sound described as 60’s Coffeehouse style. Check out her music here.

And go see her live on May 22 at the Liberty Bistro , 25 Liberty Street at 8pm and 10pm, featuring Blue Venus. Make it a field trip!

And another local super talented songstress is Diana Z. The girl I want to be (if I wasn’t such a homebody)…Miss Z travels from here to Alaska (definitely one of the most interesting Facebook friends to have!) and all over. Diana Z has a really cool song called “The Coffee Song” and it’s on her website…take a listen and take the time to vote for her for LILITH FAIR! Go to Diana’s website here, instructions for voting on the right….and VOTE!!! So cool if she wins!!

My fave fun fact is Diana’s inspiration at 5 years old was watching the video of Abba’s Waterloo! I had to check it out, I don’t even know that song even though I’m a zoomer, watch it here….umm, okay, she’s so much cooler!!! CH-CH- CH-CHERRY BOMB! Keep on rocking, ladies, see you at your next show!

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: Field Trip, go girl, Neighbourhood Watch. Tags: Abba, Cherry Bomb, Diana Zitmanis, Lilith Fair, Melanie Peterson, The Fox Theatre, The Runaways. Leave a comment

May. ’10

The Aristocats of Craven Estates

Feral living on Craven Road

I wish I could swing both ways….not in the way that you think, although I admire that too. You double your chances for a date on Friday night and double your wardrobe while you’re at it. No, I mean being a Dog Person versus being a Cat Person. Where I come from, you’re either one or the other. How can you have more than one type of animal living in your house? How does the dog know not to eat the cat food or the kitty litter for that matter? Cats are waaay easier to take care of than dogs but they sneak around and skulk on your counter tops and God knows what they are thinking half the time. Dogs are simple (feed me, pet me, walk me) but they are higher maintenance. They require more emotional energy. In my Golden Years, rather than becoming a zany cat lady, I will have a cranky lap dog or two. I figure one overfed chihuahua is equal to 3 cats on the gage of crazy.

Lately, though, I have been warming up to cats. We have one that lives on our street, literally. Here she is taking a nap in the middle of the road, don’t worry, she knows when cars are coming:

Tombo of the Triangle

Everybody within 3 blocks knows Tombo the cat. She sleeps on porches, on top of cars, and she sneaks into houses. Once she appeared my living room and got into a brawl with Betty, scratched her nose then slid back outside. You have to admire the chutzpah.

Yesterday, the Toronto Star had an article about some of the tiniest houses in Toronto. They are on Craven Road, just west of Coxwell between Dundas and Gerrard. I know this stretch of the strip well, I use it to go into Little India because it’s a one way north and also I love this street. The west side is all fence and the citizens have put up artwork all along the side. That part of the street between Dundas and Gerrard is full of feral cats. People get all funny around wild cats…”oh, poor kitties!” and yet Tombo from my street has a perfectly loving home but she likes to be a street cat, it’s her modus operandi. The houses are all on the east side and they are shockingly tiny, they’re known as “Craven Estates” (real estate humour, so funny). There was a time when the block looked a little worn down but now there are a lot of renovations going on and it is a really sweet street. Everything I know about the real estate game, I learned from playing Monopoly as a wee child. Put your first hotels on Baltic and Mediterranean and build from there, the cheap properties will build your wealth. The same goes for the homes on Craven Road. Even a couple of years ago, you could easily find a house for under $200,000 and now the same ones, fixed up, are fetching close to $400,00.

The fence side with art gallery.

This home is currently listed at $384,800

To read the article in the Toronto Star, click here.

To look at some active listings on Craven, click here.

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: Hanging Around, Home Du Jour. Tags: Craven Estates, Craven Road, feral cats, Monopoly, Toronto Star. 1 Comment

May. ’10

What Mother Wants

This is why we love mamas so much….would the man-bird go out and find worms for his chickies? No, he is probably sitting on some telephone wire puffing out his chest, chirping about nothing to nobody and then he’ll fly away, squirting white poop on your windshield without even giving it a thought. Well, here’s a thought (and a reminder) tomorrow is Mother’s Day….it’s not Mother-specific as in Yo Mama, it is all Mother’s Day, and it`s not just morning either….the whole day is included, so don’t think you can just toss her a card and some toast at 9 a.m and you’re done. No, you must honour all mothers, all day long. Sometimes my birthday falls before or on Mother’s Day, which somehow cancels out this holiday in the minds of my spawn. One year, it was late afternoon, when one of them pried his eyes off the tv and said, flatly: “Oh, yeah, Happy Mother’s Day.” Really, it’s 4 pm, the day is done, it’s too late for happiness but not too early for a cocktail. This year, B-day is after M-day so I’m expecting the whole bucket of chicken, so to speak. Mothers love buckets of chicken, by the way, at least this one does….you know which kind, and I don’t want to hear anything about how this particular franchise manages to breed Frankenchickens with 4 breasts and no heads. Keep your urban myths to yourself and let mama lick her fingers.

Mothers also love flowers, so go get ’em:

Beachwood Flower Shop at 1916 Queen St East, east of Woodbine Ave is the place to go. They make the bouquets upon specification and they don’t skimp on the superfluous foliage that makes a bunch of flowers go from humdrum to spectacular:

Mothers also like to stay in bed on Sunday morning to watch the back-to-back episodes of “New Adventures of Old Christine” on The W Network. Feel free to TAKE THE DOG OUT and pick up some croissants at Zane’s bakery (the ones with chocolate inside) and whilst you’re at it, order her a chocolate birthday cake for Tuesday. Everything at Zane`s (Queen Street East, just east of Brookmount) is delicious, you really can`t go wrong:

So don`t forget Mother`s Day tomorrow….be nice to all the mamas out there!

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: go girl, Handy Hints. Tags: Beachwood Flowers, New Adventures of Old Christine, W Network, Zane`s Bakery. Leave a comment

May. ’10

My Car, My Self (Fox in Box)

She parks in beauty, in the parking lot

I can find her anywhere

Because she is a box

And everybody else has a BMW

It doesn’t rhyme but who cares, poetry is poetry. Today I am inspired because I heard two funny car stories that I wish to share before I blather on with my thoughts on water consumption. First story: there was a realtor tale about a lady who knows a lady (no seriously, I know the lady and it was in the ladies locker room so it must be true)…anyway the lady-realtor took these clients out to show some houses IN HER BRAND NEW BMW and her clients were not so jazzed by what she showed them but they asked the realtor if they could make a pit stop: “Do you mind if we pick something up before you drop us off at home?” Not at all, the realtor agreed. The clients came back with a Christmas Tree! She drove them home and never heard from them again….she picked needles out one by one, but her car was pine fresh for years afterwards! She never told her husband.

Second story: I am at my third laser hair removal session this afternoon….in goggles and hacking up a storm is the technician with the laser gun, zip zip zapping away, telling me the story of her weekend (it’s Wednesday) and how she just came back from Vegas yesterday and she hadn’t slept the whole time…..zip zip zapppp (I could feel it in the base of my skull!) and she is only at my toes. She says: “At one point we were drinking in the elevator at 9 in the morning and we ran into this guy who wanted to shoot his gun in the desert so we went in his Hummer and he had $5000 of ammo so we thought we should text my brother his license plate in case he was a murderer so when we looked at his car the plate said: PSKOTIC!” Oh how she laughed, zip zapp zapping her gun up my leg ….Seriously, whatever happens in Vegas should stay there because it’s not so funny when you are stone cold sober and all you are wearing is a towel and a Marie Claire magazine. And she was chewing an OXO cube as a lozenge because it was the only thing that would soothe her throat. I guess I was in Vegas by proxy and I shouldn’t have shared that but you know me.

Back to my other Box:

So, I’ve been reading that kiddie version of “An Inconvenient Truth” from the last post…okay, I’m looking at the pictures…but water, water water! I think it’s best to conserve it. It’s Spring and you and your hose are spraying everything….try not to think of it as an extension of your penis. Do you know it’s actually more eco-friendly to visit a car wash? I like the one at Leslie and Eastern, it’s got a Subway attached! If that’s not a big phallic fantasy, I don’t know what is!

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: an inconvenient truth. Tags: An Inconvenient Truth, car wash, Scion XB, Subway. Leave a comment

May. ’10

This Post is Brought to You by the Letter “P”

I told y’all I’d keep you updated on the hula hooping…am going to call it hula Pooping, it really does wonders for the colon! I’m still at it, and I love it! I could go for hours if my feet didn’t fall asleep. I’ve also added a Pilates class to my regime which I know I’ve been dissing for many years. Like those stupid Pictures that supposedly have three-dimensional images hidden in them, I could never see because I have astigmatism, Poor me. Pilates was also out of my grasp because it engages all these tiny core muscles that I don’t have because they got ripped apart by carrying two eight Pound babies! Yes, blah, blah, blah Heidi Klum Prancing down a runway in lingerie while her Placenta was still warm. But some women actually split their abdominal muscles during Pregnancy and don’t even know it. And it’s a bitch to fuse them together, let me tell you. It’s been like 14 years and I just figured out what happened. It’s the teeny muscles that count, not the big hulking ones that you heave when you do a conventional sit up. Anyway, I knew my efforts were working when I was watching Family Guy last night. Most People would have cringed during that episode: Stewie and Brian locked in a bank vault for a weekend with nothing to eat except what was in Stewie’s diaper. Toilet humour, my favourite! I laughed so hard, I a) could feel the abdominal muscles, big AND teeny strain and b) lost Partial control of my bladder. What else is new, so what? I’ve given birth twice. Which reminds me of the very first joke that I remember that my brother told me when I was four years old:

Teacher: Johnny, could you Please come up in front of the class and recite the alphabet?

Johnny (why are all hapless children named Johnny?): Yes, Miss Johnson. A B C D E F G H I J K …(Pause for effect)..LMNO (all in one breath)……………(back to rhythm) Q R S T U V W X Y and Z!

Teacher: Why, Johnny, where’s the “P?”

Johnny: It’s running down my leg!

Oh how I laughed, back then, not knowing the joke would be on me many years later. And so I smile whenever I walk by the children’s bookstore, Ella Minnow, because it reminds me of that joke….oh, for God’s sakes, if you’re not getting it say it quick in one breath: ellaminow!

Ella Minnow Children’s Bookstore 1915 Queen Street East, books for children of all ages

This book store is amazing. It has a community board and story telling. As a bonus, it’s attached to Dufflet pastry shop but most importantly, you don’t have to be a kid to shop here. I, for myself, picked up Al Gore’s book “An Inconvenient Truth” adapted for a new generation. Believe me, I need this because my 16-year-old daughter is full of righteous indignation about all things environmental and always says when I forget to bring my bags to the grocery store: “Why haven’t you seen “An Inconvenient Truth” yet, Mother?” and I feel stupid when the only reason is that I have no respect for Al Gore because he is married to Tipper Gore…and I hate her because of that kerfuffle between her and Jello Biafra on the Oprah Show more than twenty years ago, all about censorship in music! I still love my Punk bands and so does my daughter, thank God I raised her right! And I have always loved books and I also Passed that along. The thing about books is that they expand the mind…if I could read while I hula hooped, then I would be Perfect!

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: Get out of your comfort zone. Tags: Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Ella Minnow, Heidi Klum, hula hoop, Jello Biafra, Pilates, pregnancy, things to do when you're bored, Tipper Gore. Leave a comment

May. ’10

Dog in Blog

Spring Pup Conan

AWWWWWWWWWW….puppies are out! I can’t resist a puppy and there’s so many fresh ones out in the Spring! Aside from my ultimate puppy fantasy, I’m pretty happy having an older dog, Betty, who is 6 in the summer. She is a squirming mass of misguided energy and “acts” like a puppy probably because up until 2 months ago, I thought she was part chihuahua and I forgave her for her savage behaviour, like the way Helen Keller’s parents did before they met Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker. According to the doggie DNA test she took, she is 30% Border Collie (smart) and 20% Pomeranian (not smart)….maybe the rest of the woodpile is Chihuahua but even so, it didn’t show up in the test results. She always seemed to have an old soul so who cares if she has no manners? Okay, people cross the street when they see her scuttling along on the boulevard, straining and frothing at the mouth, but fear not, we keep her inside mostly. I just read the most interesting book, The Art Of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein, which is written in the dog’s point of view about how he watches his family go through peril and wants to be reincarnated as a race car driver (oh, how I cried). I think that about Betty, she is a little, old, tired, karmically challenged being who just wants to get to heaven (she has white fluffy tufts that look like wings on her back) and they won’t let her in because she keeps on peeing in the clouds. She is the cause of acid rain! I love her so. Anyway, Spring…along with all the sticky spittles of tree spew on my car, my house is full of tumbleweeds of white fluffy Betty fur…ACHOO ACHOO ACHOO! Have you met me? I have the loudest sneeze for a lady. I made a cognitive decision several years ago to let my sneeze flag fly and man-oh-man, it’s good stuff. So, vacuum, sneeze, vacuum some more until the bag is full, what better time to take Betty to Soggie Dog at 1054 Queen St East.

Don’t feel bad for her….it’s all good at Soggie Dog! They have bath stations where you wash your own dog. The owner, Dawn, was there today to supervise. They have a choice of shampoos and conditioners, towels, brushes, and even a blowdryer that gets mores tufts away (we skipped that, too scary!). At the end, Betty shook herself off and we shopped in the store which has dog toys, treats, and dog accessories. So much better and easier than using your own bathtub, and now Betty smells like Mango Tango! Sweetness!

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: Handy Hints. 2 Comments

Apr. ’10

That Seventies Style

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

They say that the biggest makeup sin that women commit is that they wear the same makeup from their heyday and that they should move with the times. I don’t know about that, I still feel pretty in my Bonne Bell lipsmacker and however women like to put their slap on is alright by me. The same must be true about decorating style. Last week, Diana at Flohaus asked me to write a piece for her blog about my decorating style. She actually came over to de-clutter so we could figure out what it was. Once she cleared away all the boxes of tea and Italian Wedding Soup (don’t ask), we figured I was a seventies child through and through. 5 years ago, when I decorated, I ordered wallcovering from Germany, googling up “seventies wallpaper” and got to choose from some really groovy prints. I chose a geometric print in sickly green colour. That’s the thing about the seventies, everything seems so purposefully hideous, the colours are either too vibrant (orange, yellow) and they are offset by a colour range that only the human body could produce: puke green and lots of brown. The wood is veneer, the leather is “Corinthian”, and the fabrics are Dacron, it’s hard to go antiquing and actually justify buying this stuff when you know that the local Legion is decorated in this inflammable style. But I love it! I don’t think I went overboard in my love of the seventies (by the way, see my blog header, designed by Indigo Dawn: she actually used Partridge Family font!), I used the wallpaper as an accent. Also a splash of orange on the kitchen counter. And a shag rug carpet inlay, that I regret, and that Betty (aka. The Urinator) thinks is grass. I am dazzled by the decor at Lady Marmalade on Queen Street, west of Logan:

It’s complete seventies in all mismatched tables and chairs. The bathroom is great too. They’ve got some retro wallpaper and some really cute woodland animal art. The best part is the food, which is breakfast and lunch cuisine with a bit of Mexican flavour. I always order a clubhouse, it’s my thing, and theirs has avocado, along with the bacon and chicken. Avocado and bacon make one of the best food combos in my opinion. Never let your bacon go grey in the fridge or your avocados to rot on the counter, mix them together and spread on toast! The quirky part of Lady Marmalade is they only accept cash but maybe that’s part seventies concept when only business men had Diner’s Club cards. Those were the days, my friend. They also don’t have a liquor license which is okay too. A lemonade at lunch is very retro.

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: Eat & Drink. Tags: Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, Flohaus, Indigo Dawn, Lady Marmalade, Partridge Family. 1 Comment

Apr. ’10

Tea for Troubles

I have a crush. No, it’s not that guy at the gym who doesn’t know I’m alive in spite of my volcano of pheromones that erupt when he’s near by. I’m over him (not really). No, this is just a celebrity which is the best kind because you can be as impractical as you want in your fantasies, I have a special little one about Robert Pattinson where I am 20 years younger and he is my tennis instructor. It’s a convoluted little reverie that’s more exhausting than it’s worth so I leave RPattz for my daughter to dream about. My current crush is Ray Lamontagne and my favourite song to play over and over again is “Trouble”. I even liked it when the mullet boy, Alex Lambert, sang it on American Idol, and I was boiling mad when he got voted off. I saw Ray Lamontagne on Elvis Costello Spectacle (love this show!) a couple of weeks ago and he has that Jesus Hermit look that I’m drawn to. And that song pretty much sums up my state of mind these days. Worries, worries, worries! What to do about worries? Last week when I was at The Brow House, I checked out the store next door called Steeped And Infused, 1258 Queen Street East.

The tea selection at Steeped and Infused

Jennifer Best, the owner, was there to help me sort through all the teas as it turns out there is more than one way to swing a cat when it comes to brewing tea. They sell tea accoutrements as well. Jennifer guided me to a tea called Honeybush Maritime Cranberry (eases worries) and I got a teapot with an infuser on the lid so I can brew loose teas and maybe even mix them myself. I like to have sun tea in the summer: put the tea in cold water in the sun, steep, and then refrigerate. There’s so much to choose from here and Jennifer is a great guide. She’s as passionate about tea as I am about Ray!

Posted by Kristin Peterson. Categories: Eat & Drink, go girl. Tags: American Idol, Elvis Costello Spectacle, Ray Lamontagne, Robert Pattinson, Steeped and Infused, tea. Leave a comment

Apr. ’10

Weekend in Cabbagetown

Uh oh, the month of May is around the corner. This is both good and bad. My birthday looms, another year older and I still haven’t written that novel. Also I have to update the sticker on my license plate and I am probably in for a rude awakening with some forgotten unpaid parking tickets. But the month of May is one of the most vibrant and hopeful months, anything may happen. Even jaded old me gets a jolt of mojo juice in May and I’m ten times more likely to participate in any given activity. On Saturday, May 1, Cabbagetown is holding an evening Art Salon where you can visit Victorian homes, drink cocktails and buy art. Sounds like my kind of night! Also on Sunday May 2 between 4-6 pm, one of my favourite local artists, Angelene Tulett is showing her work at 295 Carlton Street, east of Parliament. Her paintings are bright and playful with a surreal quality. Angelene is an OCAD grad and also teaches art to kids. Here she is and here is some of her work: