With all the rain from last week, the kids and I made paper sailboats but the winds were too strong so we decided to wait to sail them. Now we need another, lighter storm so I can finally sail them.
Paper sailboats
DRINKING
Got a cider flight with my niece Tianna at Spirit Tree Estate Cidery in Caledon and that place is the absolute best. Their seasonal soup is almost the main reason to go.
Cider flight in Caledon, ON
EATING
My dear friend Marla brought me plums she grew and they are heavenly. Summer produce solves all.
EXPERIENCING
Went to Activate again and I love that place, especially the hoops room. Maybe I should buy a basketball?
Activate in Mississauga, ON
LISTENING
Swim playlist!
LOVING
Heirloom tomato season IS HERE. Right now I can only find them at Whole Foods, but I’ll take it.
Heirloom tomato
SHOPPING
My jaw will forever drop at specialty butters. Fact.
Butter with maple syrup
WATCHING
I made the kids watch all of the Naked Gun movies and they were a massive hit.
Wow, this is by far the latest monthly post, sorry about that. I wish I had an excuse for my lateness, but this is a free site so I don’t owe you a damn thing!
Summer is almost at an end and I couldn’t be happier about it. This will soon be me.
Here’s what went down in August!
You can find my favourites tweets of the month over here and here.
I got coffee at Cafe Renis in Astoria and it’s perfect. Love an independent coffee place.
I’ve decided that the best canned tomatoes you can get in the U.S. come from the brand Afeltra and they’re sold at Eataly.
The Chelsea Hotel finally reopened so I stopped by for a (ridiculously overpriced) coffee and yes the renovation took forever, but damn it’s gorgeous.
The Chelsea Hotel lobby, August 2022
The Chelsea Hotel, August 2022
The Chelsea Hotel, August 2022
The Chelsea Hotel, August 2022
The Chelsea Hotel, August 2022
I bought these running shoes I found at Marshalls and I loooooove them. Who doesn’t love a shoe that feels like a heavy sock?
It’s finally the time of year when Lemax (the worldwide leader in collectable village miniatures) releases their new Halloween collection and I’m fighting every urge inside my body to buy THE GLOOM ROOM.
The Gloom Room from Lemax, 2022 Collection (not shown: the figures DANCING IN THE ROOFTOP BALLROOM)
Completely out of nowhere, but does everyone know how cool-looking the Tommy Bahama wrapping paper is? Just beautiful.
Bodies Bodies Bodies - Did I see this solely because of Lee Pace? Yes. And he wasn’t in it nearly enough. Also, it is not a good movie.
The Rehearsal - Look, I get it, it was fine. Definitely not the masterpiece that everyone claims it is. Love Nathan Fielder, though. A Canadian king.
Sister Act - Okay, I haven’t rewatched this in maybe… twenty years? It’s still amazing. And god, that soundtrack. All hits.
Violation - My friend Dusty made this movie and it’s incredible. No bias either, I promise you - he’s just wildly talented.
I also got to go to Canada for a short visit to see some friends and family, which is always great.
I finally got to visit my best friend Harmeet’s lake house in Ontario and it. was. unreal. Such a fun few days away.
Harmeet!
Is it weird that I’ve never done a tea service before? Wait, is that how I even word that? In any case, my dear friend Marla took me to my first one! I can’t believe how many things you get. We went to The Wild Tart in Elora, Ontario and it was wonderful.
Some things I’m looking forward to this month: I’m pretty excited about coming up with my autumn list of things to do this year, I need to catch up on writing some travel posts that I’ve been putting off since July, I need to make some final decisions on our Halloween costumes, and we’re getting a brand new oven that I’m pretty jacked about.
If you have any interest in what went on in July, come on over here.
Friday Night Lights - it’s still a great show, just maybe not as incredible as I remembered it from the first viewing. Best two lines of all time though? “You might be the luckiest man and not even know it.” As well as, “Success is not a goal, it’s a byproduct.”
The Way, Way Back - UGH! It was not good. Other than Sam Rockwell being his usual great self, the whole movie just falls flat. As if someone watched Adventureland and loved it so much that they wanted to make their own terrible version.
PEN15 - An insanely good show. The best episode might be the bottle one about Maya’s mother. Can’t say enough good things about this perfect show.
Stealing Beauty - forever a favourite. A young girl goes to the Italy countryside to find herself? Nothing more poetic.
How do I feel about the trailer for Hocus Pocus 2? I just wish it had more of the classic cast in it. I’m hoping there will be surprise appearances by more of the original characters, so I’ll try to get onboard. I just hate new main characters being introduced in a beloved movie.
Forever in awe of how good the limited edition Kit Kat flavours always are.
I don’t even know the song but I love the line, “You don’t need Givenchy you need Jesus” and that’s just a very cool line. I should be embarrassed to say that aloud, but here we are.
I tried the chocolate cream cold brew at Starbucks and whoa. Fully understand the big deal now.
My dear friends Katie & Greg got me a gift certificate for Paintbucket in Brooklyn, so I went for a pedicure and loved it. Choosing a colour from a swatch on the wall is such a great idea. There’s definitely something The Wing-inspired about the design motif of the place itself, but I’m still into it. They offer wine and the service was great - of course it’s overpriced for what it is, but it’s nice to have a decadent little experience every once in awhile.
Some things I’m looking forward to doing this month: I’m going to write full posts on each city I visited on my trip from last month, I’d like to see something on Broadway, I want to eat all of the summer corn and tomatoes I can get my hands on, and I really want to watch the new season of Only Murders In The Building.
Words cannot express… the emotions going on inside me right now.
AUTUMN IS A FEW SHORT WEEKS AWAY. This is absolutely the start of the best time of the year because it’s basically autumn eve. That’s how I treat all of early September. Last year I went a little nuts in celebrating every single day of autumn and… I want to go even harder this year. I sort of winged it last year, but this year I’ve already started planning ways to celebrate the best time of the year. I have a problem. I know. But I’ve come to terms with that, so you should too. So let me tell you what went down last month so that we can fully move into the GREATEST, PUREST TIME OF YEAR.
I watched Why Do Fools Fall In Love on Netflix and jesus christ, the dog-being-thrown-out-the-window part? WHY DID NO ONE WARN ME. Will not watch again.
I love a good summer shark/alligator/dumb movie, so we obviously saw Crawl and it was very fun. The dog was the best part. (Are you seeing a pattern here? I’M NOT HARD TO PLEASE, HOLLYWOOD.)
I forced Maya to come to a sunflower farm with me and it was lovely. Why would a person with a bee allergy want to go to such a place? I’m not well.
I rewatched my favourite John Ritter movie Stay Tuned because it’s just something everyone should do once in awhile. Such a weird, perfect movie.
I attempted to read Samantha Irby’s book We Are Never Meeting In Real Life and I just couldn’t get into it, so I stopped. It’s weird ‘cause I really enjoyed Meaty, so I don’t know what happened here. Maybe ‘cause it’s summer and I think I hate reading in the summer? Haven’t picked up a book in months that I wanted to read.
I do not need to be the one who tells you how good hazelnut Kit Kats are, but I guess that’s what I’m doing at the moment - SO GOOD.
I watched part of the new 90210 reboot and ughhhh. It’s awful. In every way. Also, Luke Perry JUST died. They couldn’t have postponed or cancelled this trash?
I watched the first season of Tuca & Bertie and it’s so, so crazy good. Absolutely love it. Thank you to Harmeet for making me watch! I was so skeptical at first, but it’s incredible. So many similarities to Broad City in its goodness.
I went to the CNE with my Mom for the first time is yeeeears and it was so nice.
She did my braids, I can’t do nice braids on myself
Since Restaurant Week is always a big part of my life, I went to Park Avenue Summer for lunch earlier in the month and got the corn bread, corn gnocchi and corn creme brulee. YES, YOU’RE READING THAT RIGHT. Love a fucking cob. It was all very tasty, if not a little too corny (but that’s my fault, let’s be real). I also got the chicken and it was incredible. I’d love to be able to crisp a chicken skin as perfectly as they did.
I made this hot honey salmon and if salmon weren’t such a disgusting fish, this would be a killer recipe. (And if you actually enjoy salmon, this really is great.)
I finally watched the rest of the new Black Mirror episodes and I stand by my thoughts that the Striking Vipers one was the best one of the season. Smithereens was okay and all, I’ll always love a Topher Grace. The main actor (Andrew Scott) did a great job, too. And the Miley Cyrus one was just okay? I don’t understand why that’s the common favourite of the season. It’s average, at best.
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it before, but I love reading the (monthly?) Grub Street Diet columns from New York Magazine. They profile different (semi-known, sometimes-famous) people and what they eat in the span of a few days. I mostly love it for recommendations of good things to eat around New York, but also I love hearing about what people do for snacks and routine meals.
I watched all of On My Block on Netflix and it’s so, so good (thank you, Marla!). I’m an idiot for not watching it sooner. My favourite character is definitely Jamal, I love the florist with the gnomes, and the musical choices are phenomenal. Such a great show. If you haven’t seen it, I’d describe it as a modern day coming of age story set in South Central LA inspired by The Goonies. SO GOOD.
Did you know that eating tomatoes helps prevent colon cancer? Did not know. I’m forcing Nathan to eat them now, enough of this “I don’t like tomatoes” shit. Not standing for it anymore!
I went to two weddings this month, which were both beautiful. LOVE a wedding.
I tried the seasonal tomato gelato at Il Laboratorio Del Gelato and it was rough. I did taste the corn gelato and that one was actually pretty good, I should’ve gotten that one. This was my first time here and my main thought: it has a horrifying interior. Like if Patrick Bateman ran an ice cream shop.
Lately I’ve started shopping more at small businesses and less at chains. Partially because these places will disappear if I keep doing what I’m doing and I hate that idea. So no more writing/drinking at Starbucks. No more books from Amazon. No more crazy cheap dish soap at Dollar General. No more plants from Home Depot. Enough of this shit!
This sounds like a broken record, but I did Nathan’s podcast again! We talked about our relationship and why we think it works, etc. etc. Very self-indulgent stuff here, guys.
So you know how I tried and loved that chocolate dessert hummus a few months ago? TRADER JOE’S IS RIPPING IT OFF & has made their own version. For two dollars. Now look, I know companies get ripped off all the time by bigger corporations who steal the idea and make their own… but fuck. This fucking sucks. I first heard and tried dessert hummus because of seeing it on Shark Tank (the company is Delighted By Hummus) and I want to say that they invented the idea, but I can’t say for sure. I hate this.
Some things that I’m looking forward to this month: I’m SO excited to see It: Chapter Two, possibly planning out details for a trip to Salem, finishing up the last of the summer things to do list, I’ve gotta find something new and good to read, there are so many photos that I love from visiting my family/friends this summer so I might do a photo post solely of my favourite ones, finalizing my AUTUMN THINGS TO DO list, and I’d really love to pack away all of my summer clothes at some point this month to make room for the gazillion sweaters I’m waiting to wear.
If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, go on over here!
