2016 SO FAR

I'm such an absentee blogger.

To ease back into it I thought I would give you a brief summary of my year so far!

What I'm reading:
The Neapolitan Novels
The Chronicles of Narnia (for the first time since I was a child)

Where I've been:
California (San Francisco, Carmel, Monterey, Yosemite National Park)
Prince Edward Island
Halifax

What I'm listening to:
The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast
Candi Staton (a really good 1960s/1970s find - some gospel, some disco)
Japanese Breakfast (a band I discovered from a podcast)

What I'm watching:
The Olympics (specifically diving and gymnastics)
Bloodline on Netflix
The Gilmore Girls (this could fall under the 'listening' category because mostly I leave it on as background noise)

What I'm doing:
Working (a lot)
Playing board games (especially Pandemic Legacy and Tikal)
Pilates (as of tonight)
Going to Dee Wilkie's launch party on Thursday

What I'm thinking about:
Setting up my office
Completing my CME credits this year
How skimpy all the Olympics gear is (male and female)
To vacation or not to vacation...always the question

I'm also going to make a big effort to keep the blog running! Fingers crossed!

WHAT WE ATE IN CALIFORNIA

Last week after my licensing exam we packed it up and left for California. It wasn't a perfect trip for many reasons (it was planned last minute after canceling a trip to Brussels, driving in San Francisco was a Russell Family Nightmare, and the weather was underwhelming). But don't get me wrong, I know how fortunate we are to be able to go on any trip at all, rain or shine, bickering or not, and we saw some amazing sights!

One of the best things about the trip was hands down the food we ate so I figured I would share it in one glorious, mouth-watering post.

Above: freshly squeezed lemonade (with basil leaf) and an appetizer of abalone (a mollusc - think clam or mussel but not quite) with parsnip puree, peas, asparagus, and potato hash.
Location: Carmel
Restaurant: Basil

Above: mussels diablo, scallops with shiitake mushroom and lobster risotto, and ling cod.
Location: Pebble Beach
Restaurant: Stillwater

Above: chocolate float from Ghirardelli Square. Interesting story about this one - about two and a half minutes after this was taken, a seagull pooped on hubby's head (in the vicinity of said chocolate float) and we had to call it a loss. The three sips I had were delicious. Didn't need the calories anyway.
Location: San Francisco - Ghirardelli Square

Above: for this meal I decided I would only eat round things. Top is arancini (crispy balls of risotto) and bottom is meatballs. Hubs got chicken parmigiana and I didn't get a clear photo. Excuse the phone quality.
Location: San Francisco - North Beach
Restaurant: Original Joe's

Above: this was the biggest (and only) "activity" we had planned during our trip - a meal at Restaurant Gary Danko. Think of it as an event like seeing a Broadway play. All the memories. A thousand times the flavour. We had one more course I forgot to photograph (him - oysters and caviar, me - lobster risotto). First photo is a poached egg with bacon brioche, parmigiano-reggiano and crispy sweetbreads. It is extremely necessary to give the details because this was the best thing I HAVE EVER TASTED. Second photo is a dungeness crab salad. Third photo is seafood coconut curry. Fourth is a stuffed, roast quail. Fifth and sixth are an assortment of creme brulees (olive oil - seriously DELISH, vanilla, and grand marnier) and grand marnier souffle with creamsicle ice cream. Nothing in this lifetime is ever going to top this meal.
Location: San Francisco - Fisherman's Wharf
Restaurant: Restaurant Gary Danko

In the middle of all that we were at a national park and ate pizza and salad, and we had Mexican food twice in there as well. The Russells ate well on vacation.

Stay tuned for more touristy pics later!

#OSCARSOWHITE

Like Will and Jada, I am boycotting the 2016 Academy Awards. And all Academy Awards from here on out if things do not change, because this year is no different than any of the years before it.

Let's take a spin through the best picture nominations since 2010, shall we? Disclosure - my source for the list of nominees is Wikipedia but it has never steered me wrong before. Or you know...not often. There have been 52 nominees for best picture since 2010. How many of these starred a person of colour or had what I would personally consider to be a diverse cast?

2010
2011
- The Help
2012
- Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Django Unchained
2013
- 12 Years a Slave
- Captain Phillips
2014
- Selma
2015

Of the FIFTY TWO nominees for best picture since 2010, SIX have starred a person of colour or had a diverse cast.

FOUR were specifically about slavery or the civil rights movement - The Help, Django Unchained, 12 Years a Slave, Selma.
ONE starred a Somali-American actor as the villain of the story - Captain Phillips.
ONE portrayed extreme poverty among mostly African Americans in the deep south of Louisiana - Beasts of the Southern Wild.

In 2016 as a black actor, the only Oscar worthy parts available to you are those where you must play a slave, a villain, or a person fighting for your civil rights?!?! Really?! Not to mention that none of these movies star Latino or Asian American actors!

What can you even say? So I am going to watch Chris Rock's monologue and then turn off the television (I just finished watching it and have to say - fantastic that he did not briefly mention the issue but just stared it in the face the entire time. And to me, even though it was Chris Rock, the monologue wasn't funny. Because it ISN'T funny).

Heaven help us. Sheesh.

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

The 90s may have been the worst decade for fashion. Much of it I hope never comes back around. However when re-watching Full House on Netflix in preparation for Fuller House in February (all eight seasons are available on Canadian Netflix) I realized some things are timeless: good style and John Stamos.

I called this post "Diamond in the Rough" to reference both the outfits in Full House that would still be wearable today and to reference Aladdin (you likely know 'Steve' was the voice of Disney's Aladdin). Little double entendre for you.

Aunt Becky was definitely the style winner of the series (although she had some real doozies too). DJ is runner up and she would have impressed me more if she didn't wear those hideous white shoes in the last seasons.

Let's begin, shall we?

Outfit #1: Season 4 Episode 1
Aunt Becky's silk slip dress. Bravo, Full House team. I personally think this is a beautiful dress and it looks pretty fab on Rebecca. It is my series favourite.

Outfit #2: Season 6 Episode23
Aunt Becky's first Disney World outfit. Special shout out to the shoes - they are just plain great. The cut of the shorts and a plain long sleeved tee? Also timeless. Well done. Joey's outfit? Not so much.

Outfit #3: Season 8 Episode 24
DJ's prom dress. This dress deserves some extra credit because DJ's junior prom dress was not a classic. This is similar in colour and fabric to outfit number one, but a completely different cut. Maybe I'm just really into metallics right now. Regardless, this kind of dress is what Spanx were made for, ladies. Embrace the Spanx. Stephanie's outfit would be ok but what is with these terrible shoes?!

If you haven't watched Full House since you were ten years old I highly recommend it. I was not disappointed. Now I'm really looking forward to Fuller House! I'm curious if you agree with me that these outfits aren't hideously ugly by today's standards. Twenty years from now we'll be looking back at Fuller House style. :)

NOAH THE MOVIE AND A KIMONO

We don't often see a movie on opening night mainly due to the annoyance of long lines, but this weekend we ventured out for the opening night of Noah, as per hubby's request.  He was very excited to see it and read the (small) section in Genesis earlier in the week as preparation.  I re-read it a few days after seeing the movie and here are the things I took note of from the Bible and movie:

1. Nephilim. I'm sure when I originally read Genesis I had probably never heard of the nephilim and didn't bother to look it up so didn't really grasp what the Bible was talking about.  "Nephilim" are the offspring of an angel and a human.  Genesis 6:4 says "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days - and also afterward - when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown."  Huh.  The movie focused a lot on fallen angels and their role in the building of the ark.  That, however, is not in the Bible.

2. Men were bad.  Like - really bad.  After the movie I asked hubby if he thought humans now were any better than before the flood, and with that train of thought it's probably important to note Genesis 6:5. "...every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time."  Every thought was evil - all the time.

3. All the sons had wives (it seems).  As we were watching the movie which focused very heavily on the fact that only one son had a wife (and therefore the other two sons wouldn't have the chance to pro-create and become "men" - Tim Allan grunt) I was pretty sure that was different from the story...and I was right.  Genesis 6:18. "...and you will enter the ark - you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you."  So as you can see that is wives - plural.

4. The animals. They were my favourite part, I think. I had never thought about how the animals got onto the ark and the movie showing them all swarm the ark together was pretty cool!  The Bible says, "Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark..." That's pretty awesome.  And I had forgotten that there weren't just two of each (as movie Ham tells us).  There were seven of every kind of clean animal (a male and its mate), and two of the unclean animals and birds.  Who knows how they kept the animals alive and fed - the Bible doesn't go into that - but I thought the movie version of putting them into a drug induced sleep was a cool idea.

5. Hollywood, a flare for the dramatic.  As far as we're told in the Bible story, none of the daughters-in-law were pregnant and there was no stowaway on the ark.  Nice try, though.

6. Vegetarians before the ark?  It seems to me (with zero Bible college education) that they were vegetarians before and now, post-flood, they can eat meat. Genesis 9:3.  "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you.  Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." 

7. The naked scene?  Yeah, that basically happened.  It's true that Noah planted a vineyard, got drunk off the wine, and got naked.  Genesis goes into a little more detail than the movie, showing that Ham found his dad like this and told his brothers.  Shem and Japheth covered Noah without looking and then Noah cursed Ham for not covering him and telling his brothers.

Those are the few things I noticed from the story of Noah (Hollywood version vs Bible version).  And to add a couple of photos, I thought I'd share my movie going outfit.

Coat from Zara, old.  Kimono from Top Shop. Similar here. Tank top from Banana Republic outlet.  Jeans from J Brand.

Skull bracelet from Shop Bop, old (I can't remember the brand).  Rubber turnlock bracelet by Marc Jacobs , old.  Still available on the Marc Jacobs website here.

Booties from Aldo.

WHAT TO WEAR: DINNER AND A GAME

I'm home from work today because the roads are terrible, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog about our trip to Boston from a month or so ago.  Hubby and I hadn't been on vacation together since last year on my March Break (since as a third/fourth year medical student you don't get any vacation during the summer) so we decided to go on a little trip to Freeport, Maine, and Boston, Mass!  I have driven past Boston a few times on my way to Cape Cod and NYC, but I had never actually been there so I was excited to go, even in the midst of the snows of February.  It's the home of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, donchaknow!

My favourite part of the trip was the Boston Celtics game on Friday night.  I have been to a number of professional baseball games (all Expos games), but this was my first NBA game.  We went to dinner first at Boston Beer Works which is right down the street from the TD Garden.  It was pub food but really yummy, actually, and I'm not normally a fan of pub fare.  I had the nachos (ol' faithful) and they were delish!  And I know me a good plate of nachos, people.

I wanted to wear something kind of nice for a few reasons. 1. We were going out to dinner first. 2. I don't own any green Celtics gear and did not plan on buying any. 3. We only spent two nights in the city so I wanted to make the most of it.  I decided on a sweatshirt from Garage, a skirt (old) from TJ Maxx that I have since trashed (sadly) because it was getting pretty worn out, and booties from Aldo.

The game itself was pretty great.  My dad is a HUGE Celtics fan so I grew up watching a lot of Celtics on tv.  My dad's a teacher and when I was little, his classroom was full of Larry Bird gear and newspaper clippings.  H core.  So, needless to say, that added to my excitement at my first NBA game.

Hilariously, just before halftime, a player was subbing in from the sidelines and hubby and I were both (unknowingly) staring him down.  Hubby looked at me and said, "Is that Kris Humphries?"  I said, "I was wondering the same thing!!"  It was.  The Hump.  Mr. Kardashian himself.  That was quite distracting for me, watching Kimmy K's ex.  I got quite the giggle out of that one.

The whole trip we said, "Wouldn't it be nice to live in a big city and be able to go to shows and games whenever you wanted?"  It would be nice, wouldn't it?  ...and expensive.  Next sports-related item on my bucket list?  NFL game.  Because that would be awesome.  I think hubby would say his is a PGA tour event.  Tomatoes.  Tom-AAH-toes.

SKATE CANADA 2013

I was lucky enough to be able to come home this weekend before I leave for my next elective, and hubby surprised me with tickets to Skate Canada!  What girl doesn't love figure skating, and especially what girl doesn't love figure skating a few short months before the Olympics?  We are a huge Olympics family - big fans.  The biggest.  So having the chance to see some of our Canadian athletes skate was super exciting and the fact that we saw our 2010 Vancouver ice dancing gold medalists?  Icing on the cake.  Icing.  Get it?  Kind of more of a hockey pun, I guess, but let's make it work, people.

Definitely the skaters I was most excited to see were Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, the above mentioned ice dancers who won Gold in Vancouver 2010.  They're awesome.  She's pretty much the Canadian Kate Middleton - stick thin, beautiful brown hair, etc.  And her name is Tessa Virtue which to me is so pretty and unique it sounds like a stage name.  Whose last name is Virtue?!  That's awesome.  My favourite moment of the 2010 Olympics was when they won Gold and Scott's brothers lifted him up into the stands to hug him.  They skated beautifully last night (or so I think with my totally limited knowledge of ice dancing/figure skating).  If you don't remember their Olympic performance, here's a clip to remind you.

We were sitting three rows up from the ice and I was able to get a few photos of them.  This one is definitely the best.

After the show Tessa and Scott found me and invited me for a little skate with them.  They had heard what a fab skater I am (totally kidding - I haven't been on the ice since I was literally 13 and I completely sucked then).  I can only assume this poster of them is to scale.  I am approximately 4 times larger than her in real life as well.

Long story short, this totally pumped me up for the Olympics!  Can't wait to watch them competing in Russia!

THAT TICKLES!

I'm in major study mode for my neurology/psychiatry exam in two and a half weeks so my blogging has been a little sporadic and maybe uncreative...  Taking my little study break this afternoon I looked at all the usual blogs and stumbled across an ad for this documentary that is now on my must watch list.

This documentary, called Being Elmo: a Puppeteer's Journey is a story about Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind Elmo.  It looks like an amazing story of following your childhood dream and actually achieving it!  Very feel good.  I mean, come on... It's Elmo!  Go ahead and watch the preview.  You know you want to.

SARAH'S BACK

Of all the design shows I love, Sarah's House is my favourite.  Season 4 starts tonight!  It's an exciting day in this household.  We are currently having a debate about whether we should watch Sarah's House or X Factor tonight.  That's what happens when you only have one television.  We have 13 minutes to come to a conclusion...stay tuned.

I'm currently browsing through some of my favourite rooms from past seasons.  There's just something about a daybed (season 1) and I love the pale neutrals in this bedroom (season 2).  She knows what she's doing, that lady (and I can't forget Tommy)!

Sarah's House Season 1

Sarah's House Season 2