Abstract Random

Arun fell while skiing Friday night and broke a bone in his left hand and hurt his foot, thereby dashing his hopes of competing in the Vancouver Olympics and landing us in the emergency room. We got to the hospital at about 10:40 on Friday night and spent the whole night waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting some more.

The ER was pretty much my definition of hell. It was cold, dirty, uncomfortable and full of sick people, weirdos and cops. There were two televisions on either side of the waiting room on two different channels, both with the volume way up. One was on A&E, which was playing a marathon some obnoxious cop drama so there was plenty of shouting and shooting. The other one was on CTV Newsnet, which was replaying the same loop every half hour.

By 6 in the morning I couldn't take it anymore. I was seriously about to lose it. Arun, being the best and most understanding husband ever, encouraged me to go home and get some rest since I'd have to go out and get groceries etc. Saturday day. I felt terrible for leaving but it really was for the best. Arun got seen soon after I left, got x-rays and a cast and got home shortly after 9.

I realize his break wasn't an emergency/life or death situation but I find it ridiculous that he was in emergency for 10 hours. We learned after the fact that the hospital only has one doctor in emergency after midnight. WTF?!

Needless to say, the rest of the weekend was extremely quiet. We caught up on some sleep and watched season 4 of Dexter. While Arun was skiing on Friday I had gone to see A Single Man, it was heartbreaking but visually stunning and well worth seeing.

Arun's still pretty sore. We'll have a better idea of how his hand is healing in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, send your bone-healing positive thoughts his way.

I was having lunch with my mum yesterday when she asked what our plans were for last night. I told her our new bed was being delivered and she asked, "What's wrong with your old bed?"

Instead of explaining that, despite the amount of money we paid for it eight years ago, it was poorly designed/constructed and had just gotten to the point where it felt like it was about to fall apart, I simply said, "It's broken."

To which my mum matter-of-factly replied, "Your father and I broke a bed once. On our honeymoon."

This was, of course, followed by an awkward silence.

Finally, I said, "So... how's your sandwich?"

Arun got Thomas Keller's new cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home, for christmas and we've been wanting to make something from it ever since. Even though it's supposed to be full of "recipes that you can make any or every day," most of them are far from what I would consider weeknight recipes.

We decided to try his recipe for short ribs, which you have to make at least a day in advance. So we spent our Saturday night making the red wine reduction sauce and cooking the short ribs. The plan was originally to grab a quick dinner at Imperial before heading to Hartman's for groceries but we ran into some neighbours on our way out and they kind of invited themselves along to dinner with us, which was fine but delayed things somewhat. We didn't get started until 10 and were up cooking till 1:30.

We spent about another hour on Sunday making celeriac with caramelized onions to go along with the short ribs. It all turned out to be well worth the wait, though. Everything was deee-licious.

We also had a nice brunch with friends on Sunday. Back in the fall we established a standing date for brunch with friends on the third Sunday of each month. We try a different place each month, this time we were at Fresco on Elgin. It's a great way to get everyone together more regularly, I really enjoy it—and not just because of the eggs benedict.

I realize eating like this isn't congruous with my plan of getting in kick ass shape for my birthday. I have, however, been working out regularly the past couple of weeks and will be upping my workout intensity this week (and every week from here on out). Long cardio sessions, negative reps and intervals, here I come.

We had a fun three-day weekend. Not surprisingly, food featured prominently. After a bit of shopping on Friday, we treated ourselves to lunch at Play. I whipped together some dough for a loaf of no knead bread Friday evening so we could have it for lunch Saturday. The deal with no knead bread is that it's super easy to make but you have to let the dough sit for 12-18 hours (the longer the better) plus another two hours for the second rise so advance planning is very necessary. But it's well worth the wait, you end up with a delicious, crusty, rustic loaf like this one:

Saturday night we went to bSide for dinner. I enjoy eating there, there's always lots of new and interesting things to try.

In non-food-related news, we saw Youth in Revolt yesterday. I had started reading the book a few months ago but couldn't get through it because it was a little too intimate a look inside a teenage boy's mind than I cared for (i.e. nonstop talk of erections and masturbation). I liked the movie, though. It's no Adventureland but still worth checking out.

Hello and happy 2010! (Do you say "two thousand and ten"/"two thousand ten" or "twenty-ten"? I'm thinking twenty-ten is the way to go.)

Anyway. After two lovely weeks of sloth it's back to the usual work routine for me this week. The hardest part has been readjusting my sleep schedule from my ideal stay-up-till-1, sleep-till-9 back to the necessary 11:30 bedtime and 7:00 wake up. I hate waking up early.

I'm not one for new year's resolutions (I usually save that sort of thing for my birthday) but in advance of my rapidly approaching 35th birthday, I have resolved to rededicate myself to the gym in an effort to feel good and be super fit for then instead of feeling old and icky. I've got 11 weeks and it's not like I'm completely out of shape so it's doable. And it's nice to have a goal to focus on instead of working out just enough so I can eat without guilt, which is my usual motivation.