Mini Med School

Today was awesome!

I spent the morning donating some items to the Goodwill close to here and then buying some dvd cases for our ENORMOUS collection of dvds...this is just half of the dvds I took out of their cases the other day:

Half of our dvd collection, the left hand side is bollywood/dramas and the right hand side is hollwood

Then instead of coming home and sorting through more dvds, I started mounting some stuff on the walls including the kitchen wall mount for paper towels and other rolls like aluminum foil...forgot to take a picture, maybe next time! Also put up some ikea mirrors in the hallway...they look awesome! And finally got our wedding centrepiece flower stems into the apartment to use in the living room...the theme colours there so far are dark purple and dark grey with some black and dark brown accents in the furniture and stuff...I want our room to feel like this room (although very different, but these are the inspiration colours)...this is NOT our living room LOL:

I love this living room SO much! Ours has a lot more black in it and a lot less grey!

I made some tamarind chick pea chaat today yummmy so delicious BUT had a little mishap with the potatoes. So I put the potatoes to boil and forgot that they were on the stove and fell asleep on the couch while watching Ellen. The potatoes had been on the stove for a really long time when I finally woke up and OMG remembered that they were there!!! So I ran into the kitchen EEEK there was no water left in the pot and the entire pot was burnt at the bottom yikes luckily did not use the new pots and pans my mom got us haha! So anyways, this reminded me of a story my friend told me of how her son left water boiling on the stove all night and when she woke up the pot was not burnt at all! That was a kitchen aid pot she spoke of. Today the one I used was Carrera. Did not pass the test! Our new pots and pans are Lagostina or something so hopefully those are good!

This is what my chaat looked like but this is not MY chaat. Mine was more delicious and presented in an actual plate haha!

So the best part of my day was after dinner when I went to my first Mini Med School lecture! My hubby signed me up and let me tell you, it was awesome! The lecturer today was Dr Arthur Brown...he has his PhD in embryology or something and he talked about a gene called Sox9. I learned so much in the lecture! And his discoveries will definitely change the world!! He talked about spinal cord injuries and how the tests they've done in mice and rats with the inhibition of the Sox9 gene might help with the healing process. Here is his website http://www.robarts.ca/arthur-brown

My course notes for mini med school...perhaps upon completion I will be...a mini doctor? Doc? Likely not but it's an awesome lecture series so far!

While waiting for A to pick me up after the lecture I noticed a poster advertising a Kevin O'Leary talk in November at the university! For those of you who don't know, Kevin is on the show "Dragons Den"and he's an entrepreneur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_O'Leary_(entrepreneur) and basically an amazing one who is now a billionaire! He's going to talk about life, money, and business! I am totally going to get a ticket to go to that...so excited!!

I am still sore after my personal training session at the gym yesterday...more sore than before ugh can't even sit without pain haha but that means it's working right? 

It's FRIDAY TOMORROW! (don't know why I'm so excited because yah every day is Friday Saturday Sunday for me) but we are visiting my family this Saturday and I have cooking class then so it will be an awesome weekend to look forward to!!!

Why doesn't anyone post any comments anymore? Ever since M went to Africa I feel I have no followers on my blog LOL you bums just post haha!!!

Over and out

Tango and cash

Every man for himself

LOOOOOL that will only make sense to my sisters bahahahah

Kitchen creations and home decor!!

Here are some pics from the past week!

We entertained some house guests including A&R, newlyweds! As well as my mommy, daddy and sister and bff R!!!! It was an awesome weekend :) Rocky was a hit...well half the guests sat and talked to him while he sat in his cage tweeting and whistling, while the other half were terrified!! Oh wait never mind, that was just me!

I got these new lamps! The top part that looks white is actually a lamp...sooo cool!

Some of my kitchen creations...samosai and pakorai mmmm were so yummy! Don't those flowers look awesome? They lasted a good 2 weeks...they are finally dying now. The pakorai did not last over 2 days...they were so delicious we ate them all haha

Our cozy kitchen spot, with the mirror mounted yay!!

I made a really cool salad with spinach leaves, boiled egg, apples, salt/pepper and some olive oil mmmm so delish!!! I copied a salad I tasted at McGinnis Landing when I went there with Z

Remember this table I painted? It's in our room now with my orchid plant that my hubby bought me :) A few orchids fell off though :( But it's been alive for 2 weeks already! Longest time I've ever had a plant live WOOHOO!!

This weekend I'm thinking of roasting a full chicken, turkey/thanksgiving style! Will keep you posted!! Oh and next class in my cooking class series is this weekend YAY :)

S

Road (Parking) Rage!

It's been a while since I posted anything..but there has been LOTS to post so I'm going to try to catch everyone up!

Sooo last week I started going to the gym! I bought a deal find coupon for 10 zumba classes and 10 groove classes, plus 3 personal training sessions at the mademoiselle fitness club and spa. I was a bit skeptical about what the gym was going to be like and if the classes were going to be good...this is based on past experience with dealfinds, ie: when I gifted my friend a spa trip for a facial and massage and she described the facial as "mud goo" being put on her face LOL....or better yet, when I bought a different spa dealfind certificate for another friend and the spa went out of business before she used it HAHAH well that one worked out because we were all refunded the money, even those who actually went to the spa! Score!

Anyways, the first groove class was REALLY cool! It's basically just a big dance party :) We did all types of dance: african tribal (really felt like a tribe member during this one), hip hop, rock'n'roll (air guitars and all!) and...BHANGRA! Yes! She played 'knightrider'!!! The instructor is so awesome, she wears the coolest outfits when she teaches.

There is one part at groove class when you freeze and just do a crazy pose, like these people haha awesome!

Ok so back to that day when I went to the gym. I left home early so I would miss traffic and went to the mall first. After a quickie shopping trip, in which I bought an amazing new top for R's bridal shower!!!, I sat in my car to look up directions to the gym on my iPhone. Well. While sitting in my car, a car drove up to park in the spot beside me. No biggie. BIGGIE! The guy opened his door and SLAMMED it into my car! MY CAR!! Yes! Then he proceeded to just LOOK at me and then get out of his car. So obviously I got out of my car to walk around and see if there's a scratch of any sort. And get this. The guy starts yelling at me! at me?! I should be yelling at him!!! Basically he said something along the lines of "Yah go check your car..yah go check it see if there's a mark (in a taunting voice)...then some bad words later...yah get out of your car go see what I did"...me (in my head) what the? is this jerk actually yelling at ME when HE IS the one who hit my car? Anyhow, his bullying tactic pretty much worked because after I heard his angry words and taunts I only half-checked my car and then sat back inside and just drove off. Conclusion of story, people are rude. People in this city are rude? I don't know. But I will be parking FAR from now on...can't trust people.

My beloved car..good news though, the mean man did not leave a dent!!

Yah people in this city drive and park like it's Toronto! And there's no such thing as courtesy when driving geeeshhh!!!

This actually LOOKS like the mean person who slammed his door into my car! Grrrr!!

Congrats to my former coworkers on their successful Eid lunch! Wish I could've been there! Hope we raised a lot of money!!!

S

DIY Day!

Monday was spent doing some DIY projects that have been piling up which included:

• painting chairs for the kitchen
• painting a small side table 

So I went to Rona to pick up some spray paint and sandpaper for my projects! Mr. Rona suggested getting paint instead of spray paint since my items, ie: the chairs, had lots of slats so most of the spray paint would miss the actual surface. So I got regular paint in black and white and headed home.

I took my items out on the balcony and sanded 2 chairs and the 1 table...I sanded the first chair pretty good but then my arm got tired so the rest of the items weren't sanded well at all. I later found out I didn't sand anything properly because the surface varnish on the items was so glossy that the paint wasn't sticking and I did like 4 or 5 coats on each item! AAAHHH!!! (Note to any DIY'ers out there, sand sand sand and the painting will be much easier!)...And omg it was so windy outside that all my stuff kept flying all over the place! Luckily I did NOT get paint anywhere else besides the items to be painted (well and in my hair and on my arms but story to come hehe...)

I started with the chairs that we had inherited from beforehand...this is a before shot of what they looked like:

The kitchen chair before I painted it

And this is the AFTER:

The new kitchen chairs after a few coats of fresh paint!

Those slats were the bain of my existence! I painted from about 10am to 3pm non-stop!!! But we were very happy with the result! They look really fresh and match our kitchen which has white cabinetry.

And here is the table which I saw and knew I could refinish to make it look prettier (unfortunately the table is in two pieces at the start so it may not look so different from the finished product):

A vintage table in need of some paint

And voila...the after shot...after like 4 coats of black semi-gloss:

Super cute after painted black!

Oh and here are the new chairs in our kitchen :) I am SO excited about the way it turned out! Still need to mount the mirror but I love it:

Our cute little eat-in kitchen!

The mirror that will go above the table

The freshly painted chairs in the kitchen

Those roses in the vase are from a mehndi I went to a few weeks ago...and they are still so fresh! Talk about good quality roses!! 

Ok so now to the hilarious story of paint in my hair...I took a quick shower after the DIY projects because I was picking my friend R's little sister Z for bridal shower planning! Turns out my shampoo and conditioning did not get paint out of my hair and I later realized (that evening...after I had hung out with Z and also went to the mall) that I had a white streak in my hair! Kind of like Stacy London from What Not To Wear, but less cool and less natural haha!! How embarrassing! People probably thought it was just a white hair but yuck! Anyways I got it out now!

After my DIY projects I had a white streak in my hair, like Stacy London's! Except mine was paint and her's is natural. She looks like my sister in this picture haha!!

Another funny story - when Z came over we were working in the living room on our laptops. My hubby, A, and I have a pet bird Rocky...well Rocky was out of his cage and eating his feed and just chilling. I kept telling Z not to be scared when Rocky flies because, well, he won't fly on us, he just wants to go to A. So she was cool for the most part and we both just got startled a few times. Then it was time for her to go and I was going to drop her off back at school...she was a little scared of Rocky so she went to stand by the doorway and wait. I told her that I would protect her from Rocky. Gosh. I think Rocky heard and was offended because he flew at me in the kitchen, above my ducked over head, and then back to his perch. I was screaming and Z was standing with her laptop over her head for protection LOL. Then I went to tell A that we were heading out and Rocky flew back again and this time I screamed and sat on the ground. In this position...this is my usual position when I hear flight lol but my hands are on my head and my eyes are closed lol:

The position I take when I hear Rocky flying

So in conclusion, I should not have said I would protect her LOL or anyone for that matter...because I am still terrified myself and I think he heard me... LOL but seriously I'm not as scared as I used to be! So much better now :) Baby steps!!!

R's bridal shower planning is going really well! It's a Coco Chanel inspired theme....she has some awesome quotes like this one:

R's bridal shower theme is Coco Chanel and going to be totally awesome!!

Tomorrow I'm going to mount some mirrors and maybe paint some more projects (smaller projects!!) and MAYBE check out a zumba class at the gym! I got one of those deal find vouchers a long time ago and I should probably use it before school starts.

Let me know what you think of my DIY projects!

Au revoir!

PS: I caught a glimpse of one of those "Housewives of Beverly Hills" shows or something and all they do is go to parties...so not realistic...all I do is...go to HomeSense :) hehe

S

Just another rainy day!!

Ugh today's weather was SO LAME!!! It was POURING practically all day! However, this did not stop me from running some errands in my old home town and visiting my mommy at work with some Timmies yum yum! Also caught up with some work friends on the drive back home wow it seems like I worked there SOOOO long ago but it's just been a few weeks...the best part is when I was bragging on the phone about how there are now so many hours in a day and it's ridiculous the amount of things one can get done, if they are not going to work. LOL! For real though...one day I did so much stuff that even I couldn't believe it was still daylight outside!! But it is WAY more exhausting than work!

The WiN conference was awesome as usual :) Met some really cool people and lots of interest was generated for GEMS so I hope to explore that further! Wendy Mesley was one of the speakers and she did a fantastic job!

Wendy Mesley was at the WiN conference as the keynote speaker

Most hilarious part of my day - I was telling another WiN Board Member about my new life as a housewife:

C: So how are you enjoying your time off?
Me: OMG being a housewife is way more difficult than going to work!
C: Oh?
Me: I don't even know how people do this? Like there are so many things to do and so many things to learn! And worst of all there is no paycheque! Like how did our moms do this? I have a much bigger appreciation for housewives now! Doing housework and raising kids, man even with a nanny that would be tough. I wish I could have a nanny just for me, you know, help with stuff.
C: Well what did you do with the kids before when you were working?
Me: We don't have kids.....
C: Oh stop complaining then!!!

I think C *maybe* thinks I'm a domestic diva...but I'm not! Just new at the gig!

BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAH
Oh gosh! That was jokes! But I do see mom's out shopping when I'm running errands during the day now. I have no idea how people shop with babies in their cart. Or holding their hand. Like are you supposed to be able to hold your shopping bags AND the baby? And how would you even load your car properly? Is it better to just get that thing that you strap onto your body with the baby in it so you don't actually have to hold the child? Anyways, my sisters probably have a better method but I don't need it lol

After the conference I drove straight to E&W's (my niece and nephew) swimming lesson. In my conference business suit. I didn't want to embarrass the babies so I at least took my heels off before I entered the pool area. I was over dressed. But anyways it was super cute watching them "swim" except for the part where I thought W was going to drown every time the instructor turned around. His cute little head kept going under and he was scared :( I think that was the last swim lesson I will go to.

Weekend is finally hereeeeeeeeeee
I'm going to try my new cooking skills this weekend!!
I have currently attended one of three of my cooking classes from cookingmatters.com
Chef Suki is transforming me into a South Asian cooking expert!

I made garam masala from scratch!
No biggie ;)

I also made chicken tikka, lamb kebabs, chick pea chaat, samosai, pakorai, tamarind chutney, and puri's.
ALL from scratch!!! And let me tell you...each and every item was DELISH!
Oh yah and masala chai which my hubby loves :)

I am going to attempt a few of these dishes again this weekend without the help of chef Suki and see how it goes! Here are some pics from my first class....merai moo mei paani a raha hai (my mouth is watering) LOL

Me with Chef Suki! Displaying the samosai, pakorai and delicious puri!

I am so excited to EAT :)

Eating on the deck at Suki's after a long day of cooking!

Share your recipes if you have any good ones!!

Enjoy your weekend :) I was going to say long weekend. It's because every weekend for me is long..well never-ending..it' just ONE BIG WEEKEND FROM NOW until school starts hahaaaaaa!!!


S

WiN Conference in...8 hours!!!

Tomorrow is the WiN Canada Annual Conference!
And I'm still up! Why?! I don't know!! TOO MUCH CAFFEINE I think :)

We're having a board panel discussion and I wanted to make some points to talk about when I'm asked questions - my topics are networking and continued education. I wonder if education in cooking counts ;) I'm going to talk about how networking took GEMS to a whole different level! And what I plan on doing with my MBA!

Here's my Women on WiN posting...it's out of date but it gives you a flavour of my old job...and the pic is just too HILARIOUS: http://www.wincanada.org/women-of-win/suddufwyne

Wish me luck, it's going to be a LOOOONG drive!
Will let you know how it goes :)

*S