Now that I’m back home, it’s time to hit up all of my favorite places and check in on many of my old friends. Like Marginni at Jack who gave me a new summer do, Hodie at Xoxolat who helped me stock up on Ecuador dark chocolate bars, and Darlene and co. at The Book Warehouse and Jill and Walter (and dog Judd) at White Dwarf Books who recommended some great reads to add to my burgeoning to-read pile. Toronto has a lot going on for it, but not much in the way of great bookstores. Oh, don’t get me started.
I now do most of my reading via iBooks, but I will pick up physical copies of titles I’ve enjoyed. I loved the hell out of Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns, so it and the ensuing two books of the trilogy are destined for my home library.
This morning, we hit one of our favorite places – Bella Gelateria – for pizza and ice cream. Well, pizza for Akemi and me, and ice cream for everyone, including the dogs thanks to owner James Coleridge’s special sugar free, dairy free, vegan doggy gelato. Peanut butter flavor!
Ladies, start your ice cream engines!
Lulu is the daintiest of eaters.
Suji’s crazy ice cream face!
Before we left, James gifted me a cache of his homemade birdseye chili seasoning. Holy! The burn is enough to give you a light buzz.
Tonight, it was dinner at Sushi Bar Maumi – next to Toronto’s Yasu, my favorite place for sushi outside of Japan.
Full day and full stomach. And the week aint even over yet!
Where is that sushi place? When I’m in Vancouver at the end of the month I’m so going there! Mouthwatering.
I guess I’ve never been much of a Sushi aficionado, because that Sushi looks like Klingon food – I think they call it Gach. The pizza looks yummy though.
Pizza for breakfast?
Suji’s crazy ice cream eating thoughts… “shovel it in, just shovel it in!!”
Yum! Looks like a delicious way to settle in back home.
‘Bella Gelateria’ should ask Lulu to be their poster girl. She’d be just perfect!
(No disrespect to Suji – but she does look like she wouldn’t stop at the spoon!)
Well, the girls certainly look happy and seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lulu wins the adorableness award this photo op round and Suji hit a home run for most. comedic. <3
How'd it go at the dentist?
Did they manage to con ya into getting a bite splint?
Did they tell ya splints & retainers have come a long way.
That, the drooling, dry mouth and breathing discomfort are practically non exist with the new models? That you wont even notice its in your mouth at night?"
C'mon now, spill the deets. Inquiring minds wanna know, eh!
By the way: I finally figured out why the beard and mustache gruff looks so much better on ya this time around. The salt and pepper grew in more evenly distributed than in previous attempts. I'm sure the ladies have been lovin it!
Hope you decide to keep it. xo
That pizza looks delicious. Nice that the pups get to enjoy some treats as well. Glad you are settling back in to a routine.
Questions for Mr. Pinkerton:
Favorite musical scores or sections of a score? It’s hard to pick just one…
Favorite composers (besides yourself)?
Early inspirations?
If you had not become a composer what would you be doing now?
I would recommend the book I’m reading but it’s gonna take all my willpower to finish this one. I’m not overly fond of romance in my novels – I like peril, suspense, mystery & intrigue. I like smart. I like shades of humor. I hate the damsel in distress that is “delicate” and needs to “be held and protected”. I like my damsels to be kick ass like Ripley. Mostly I like Sandford, Baldacci, Clancy, Isles…
So I will finish this book despite the palpitating heart, the withering glances, the absurd silliness and move on….
That pizza was worth the zoom in. I am on a cookie monster rampage; Trader Joe coconut thins, big double chocolate with white chocolate fundge cookies from the bakery; something about the warm weather is making me sleepy and cookie obsessed. Sweet potato wedges baked on parchment was a huge success, can’t wait to make more.
MaggieL80: Dump the book! Life is too short… 🙂 I have the new Sandford Book, “Golden Prey” on CD. I’ve been saving it for a long road trip. Love his books!
I’m listening to Baldacci’s “Memory Man” now. Riveting!
Have you tried any of Dana Stabnow’s books? I’m reading one of her Kate Shugak books on Kindle. Kate’s a real kick ass character!
Sounds like all of you really missed Vancouver. That’s going to make any decisions to leave just a little harder. 🙁 Can you afford a condo in each area?
oh wait … Hang on just a gosh darn cotton pickin minute here!!!
Did anyone else happen to notice Suji’s right eye in the ice cream eating photo is a different shape than in the photo just before it?
Ah… the things that make ya go hmmm? 😀 LOL!
I too have a crazy ice cream face. It frightens children.
Had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to James last year when we tried out the Yaletown BG ..sadly we weren’t able to sample the pizza as a power cut had basically blacked out half of Yaletown, including the restaurant & all it’s electrical appliances…instead we had one of their salads and watched as he worked to transport as much ice cream over to the other shop before it all melted..kept meaning to go back during our five weeks stay but got sidetracked by so many other places in Vancouver to eat..we did however stock up on delicious ice cream from the other shop down whenever we could..
Also pleased to see a lot more sugar free stuff for us Diabetics coming to the fore…we hear so much of dairy free, gluten free but so many places still keep shovelling buckets and buckets of harmful sugar into so much food..it’s very hard to find a healthy alternative if one has a naturally sweet tooth ..
Am becoming very wary of raw fish these days…after the interesting chat by the North Vancouver Sea Shepherd guys at Gatecon last year about the havoc that intensive salmon farming is doing to the wild stocks I’m afraid my seafood consumption has gone down…so hard to trust where from and how safe our food is these days..
The pizza looks delicious. How great is that that the ice cream place has ice cream for dogs, too. They seem to be loving it.