three musketeers

Guess what I’m doing right now? If you guessed lying on a beach listening to the surf, adjacent to a sangria and an assistant who’s editing all my photos, *BINGO* you just read my wishful thinking. Delete all but the last four words, is more like it. I’m on my third editing project this week and I have a wedding on Saturday, so I doubt I’ll come up for air until next week month. In the meantime, I’m going to post an album that’s 99% finished and set aside for now, with lots of photos to look at (currently 105 if you have the guest pass, 61 if you don’t).

I’ve included some of my favourite pics here, starting with the one up top, which includes Marin’s oldest friend in Toronto — a momentous occasion since it’s going back something like 20 years, from the university days.

this is what surprised looks like

you can never have too much cake!

Buying these number balloons was one of the best ideas I had for decorating the party room, along with splurging for helium. Did you know that helium prices are *pun alert* on the rise? Despite the cost, the number balloons made such great props, and they’re reusable! Can you believe my original plan to make the pinata was to papier-mache these? I had to completely give up that idea since they were just TOO BIG.

There was, however, one partygoer who wasn’t particularly impressed with the balloons:

I give it another six months and he’ll be chasing after them.

As per usual, the album is best viewed as a full-screen slideshow (the only way to see all the photos; you’ll need a guest pass if you’re not in my Flickr list), or as thumbnails, or view a selection in the smaller slideshow below:

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This was why I had to keep the pictures below hush-hush. The party was Friday night and I feel like I’m still recovering from it!

building a pinata

finished pinata

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I’m in a food coma which is competing with delirium from too many hours with my eyes open. I will let the (Instagram) photos speak for themselves so I can drift into dreamland.

The photos were taken at Ding Tai Fung in Markham. These dumplings were worth driving 71kms roundtrip for.

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my first time to see the ship Quebecois undocked

Oh so verrrrry slowly catching up on the photos and getting them edited and online. April is a GONZO month this year — it will be an absolute miracle if I can keep up the blogging over the next few weeks. I love it, though, and after nearly 10 years of switching my brain to blogging mode on a daily basis I reckon I’ve built a neural pathway through both hemispheres just for blogging.

My last day of March was devoted to photography-related business (picking up prints at the lab, scouting) mixed in with hanging out with my friend Neesa. We ate our fill of Thai food at the newly-reopened Salad King on Yonge Street before hitting up the Distillery District for my errands. Thankfully, she enjoys the photography part and indulges me in my picture ideas, including jumping. I have photos of Neesa jumping in Quebec City, in the Cheltenham Badlands, at Union Station, playing hacky-sack in the park… I don’t think I could find a more willing person for airtime than Neesa — she’s a natural.

Some photos from the Distillery District:

lots of construction happening in the West Donlands

And then I introduced Neesa to Polson Pier, one of my favourite spots in the city to shoot.

Of course, I had to make her jump:

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My friend Neesa was sworn in as a Canadian citizen recently, and decided to throw a party to celebrate her new status. Neesa’s father is from Nepal, her mother is from the Ukraine, and Neesa grew up in Moscow. Becoming Canadian just adds to her interestingness

I’ve known Neesa the majority of the time I’ve lived in Toronto. I was trying to think of the first time we met, and I believe it was a couchsurfing board games day at The Rhino, in January 2008, not that long after she moved here from Russia. Wow, there have been numerous trips, parties, and outings since then. Neesa’s appeared on this site quite often!

One of her friends arranged to give Neesa a Canadian flag signed by everyone, which we did in secret by sneaking into a bedroom to do the signings… hence the surprise on her face.

There were “rules” for this party:

1. Dress code was red and white. (Neesa loves wearing red.)
2. Food was red and white.
3. Drinks had to be Canadian.

I brought ketchup chips — which I never buy because they’re terribly unhealthy, but very Canadian! — and red velvet cupcakes (I forgot to take a picture). I also made little Canadian flags out of mailing labels and toothpicks:

It’s not difficult to come up with Canadian drinks, really, besides the obvious beer labels.

Having the party in an apartment with red and white walls added to the theme.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much red clothing outside of Canada Day:

More pics can be viewed in a full-screen slideshow, as thumbnails, or watch the smaller slideshow below in autoplay:

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fortune cookie: now is the time to try something new

We ushered in the Year of the Dragon with homemade bao and other Chinese food, mini-dragons, and setting money on fire. A typical Saturday night at Marin’s

More on Chinese New Year:
http://www.herongyang.com/chinese/festivals/chinese_new_year_spring_festival.html

Food gets the limelight as per usual at Gail At Large:

tea eggs

go bao or go home

another yummy veggie dish

rice and noodles featured prominently

yeah yeah, we know okonomiyaki isn't Chinese (it's Japanese) -- we'll still eat it!

Burning money:

the burn

one way to warm up in the winter

And the aforementioned mini-dragons:

enter the mini-dragon

fierce mini-dragon

this dragon even plays the tambourine!

The photo album is best viewed as a full-screen Flickr slideshow, or you can view all in the smaller slideshow below:

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Oh to have the level of excitement that children have! Especially a two-year old.

(Shot with the video camera on my phone.)

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park pooch

big chair, little boy

chasing a flock of Canadians

Sunday drive

The Fam

The Mod

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in the ball pit wind machine

When he gets older he’s going to protest how all his photos are with his face covered in food.

he loves his food

R and A

R

cousins

brothers

I went all out with cooking today — I made my from-scratch-but-never-the-same-twice lasagna, and this was hands down my best version ever. Uually it takes a day before the lasagna sets properly, but this time the texture was perfect right out of the pan.

my four cheese lasagna

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sunset, Day 2

H, Day 2

teething G

G

H

G loves his food

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