The Urban Cake: Grand Opening & Sticker Shock

I was passing by the new bakery, 'The Urban Cake' on my way to TD (it is where the t-shirt shop used to be) and I thought I should check it out. I love bakeries, and am a huge fan of Cupcakes Etc. in Vancouver, despite an unfortunate too-many-cupcakes incident in which myself, my sister and friend became violently ill...

But anyways, I am always on the lookout for bright, gorgeous confections. The Urban Cake doesn't disappoint. It is a tiny, hole in the wall with a display case of various lavishly decorated cupcakes and mini-cupcakes, and brownies. I believe they do special-order cakes as well. I was ready to purchase a cupcake, which I believed to be around $3.00, which is on par with Cupcakes Etc in Vancouver (we bought a bunch of delicious day-olds for $12, and trust me, that was too much cupcake/sugar) so a pretty good deal, as far as designer sweets go.

I was eyeballing the case and then I noticed they were referring to normal-sized cupcakes as 'mini cakes' and the miniature cupcakes as 'cupcakes'. So...a cupcake-sized regular cupcake was $7.50!!! And a mini cupcake 'cupcake' was $3.00!!! WTF

Way too expensive, in my humble opinion. I have taken cake decorating classes and I am not a half-bad baker. There is NO WAY I am paying more for a friggin' cupcake than I would at Cupcakes Etc, which have fantastic varieties as well. Outrageous!

I am all for independent businesses...But right now it seems like having an independent business=gouging. Hm.

You Wanted Good Schools and Friends with Pools

Vampire Weekend’s new album, Contra is something I’ve been listening on my way out to the stables. I bought their first album on a whim based on a good review in a newspaper, and man, this second album doesn’t disappoint! I have heard criticism that in this album, all the songs sound the same. That is patently ridiculous. I don’t even have a good ‘ear’ for music, but when there is a song that has that sound it just catches me. Contra has that sound.

Standout tracks? Well, their CBC single ‘Horchata’ is quirky and fun. It brightened up my morning, to tell you the truth! Also, jubilant and unusual ‘Run’ is something I am listening to on repeat lately. It just has that something that catches me and I can’t stop listening. I also highly recommend ‘I think ur a contra’ at the end of the CD, slower and a tad mournful, it wraps the whole album up in a blanket of bright sounds, strange lyrics and fun, assumed upper-class glory.

Friends, I have this CD if you are interested in a taste-test! I can’t say enough good things about it, if you are open-minded and into fantastical lyrics and instruments.

“I had a feeling once, you and I told each other everything, too much"

The Art of the Apology

Interestingly, I pre-empted someone's apology this week by apologizing myself (a communication mixup by a communication pro. This looks bad.) and then the person went and apologized to the person we mixed up himself! It was interesting.

It felt nice to apologize and then have the other person say, no it's my fault. I'm the one who changed things at the last minute/altered our already-agreed upon final draft, etc.

I was used to apologizing and then having the evil person in command huff and say, yes that's right, you be sorry! (Perhaps not so crudely, but pretty damn close) and treat me like the dirt and road salt you curse as you scrape off the bottom of your pants. It's nice to be treated like a human being. Imagine, you are in an office with 5 other people--in other words, small. The boss and the manager are the only ones early into the office one morning, and the boss says, 'looks like it's just you and me today' and the office manager says 'well, what about Susan and office monkey #2?' And the boss just says, oh, them. Yes, them is right. They don't count. Bastards. I never apologized without feeling like I was debasing myself for a measly wage. Oh, and cursing them vehemently behind their backs. Ha. ha. ha....

So, in my pre-empted apology, I am not the bad guy. Work is not personal, it is work. We do our jobs (well?) and we go home.

There's Nothing Like You and I

Another weekend, another jet-set to the tropical climes of...Vancouver and Victoria. But hey, this time it wasn't for work, it was pure pleasure!

Visiting my partner in my most favourite place to live stirred up some memories and thoughts. I miss Victoria like crazy. True the weather wasn't awesome, it was kind of grey and a sprinkling a tad, I was wearing flats with no socks, and a rainjacket. Daffodils were sprouting and blooming, I wasn't wearing boots and a hat and life was good. We ate out, oh man did we eat out. Dinner at Pagliacci's (fabulous) then dinner the next day at the Little Thai Place (so good!) and then breakfast the day after at John's Place, where I had the special, belgian waffles with banana, cashew and gobs of whipped cream. Divine!!

Oh, my divided heart. It's hard, when you belong somewhere else but live here. It's like falling in love with a close friend, they will always be there but still out of reach.

Easter: My Life is Now Complete

For I have discovered...drumroll please...

Chocolate-covered PEEPS!!

Yes, this is truly the pinnacle of all Easter candy, perhaps eclipsing even the wonderful Cadbury Creme Egg and Mini-eggs in greatness and glory. Sadly only available in the US at the moment, I have tendrils out hoping to latch onto a package of sweet, sweet chocolate peep. (Friend going to Fairbanks. we can only hope)

And in other PEEP news, I bought a box of bunny-shaped pink peeps and a box of traditional yellow chick peeps. The bunny ones are smaller but just as delicious, but if you are a super-taster you might want to avoid them due to Red food colouring #40, it tastes bitter to those people. Friend noticed that right away, I didn't. Guess I'm a normal taster, all I could taste was marshmallowy goodness. Tragically, I forgot the box at work and they went stale over the weekend, yuck. I threw them out on Monday.

Chick peeps? As delightful as ever! Not stale here. Both packages were purchased for $1.04 at Extra Foods, and note--they are the cheapest at Wal-Mart ($1.00) second place for Extra Foods and most expensive at Shoppers Drug Mart, which surprised me at a whopping ($1.50).

Contentiousness!

Yes, that's right, feeling contentious this morning. Damn you, Globe & Mail!

I'm examining a debate that looks at providing public healthcare funds for in-vitro fertilization techniques, for women who are unable to concieve due to advanced age, infertility issues, etc.

I'm against it. That seems to be a popular and simultaneously unpopular statement. I am against it not for women-bashing reasons, although alarmingly that is a sentiment echoed in the comments section. I am against it because I do not feel that having a child is a 'right' and that having 'your own' child is a selfish, sad commentary on the state of today. What happened to adoption, if you feel the burning need to have a family? That is the most unselfish act, rather than spending thousands and thousands and facing extreme sadness and disappointment (the failure rate of in-vitro is high, there's no sugarcoating that). People are hard-pressed for 'their' and 'mine' and 'my' instead of sharing a life with someone who might appreciate it.

I do not like children and will not have my own, but I understand the desire and 'ticking time-bomb' of biological clocks. (well, vaguely). But is it really necessary to feed into the narcissistic drive of 'my own'? To reproduce yourself is not the most unselfish act you could perpetuate, it is one of the most selfish, but that's ok, because you are raising a member of society. I'm fine with productive members of society, but at what lengths do we go to ensure they are your own? Too many great lengths.

Off Susan's soap-box, with one more comment: The answer to reproductive and fertility issues isn't to go back to middle-ages type living or caveman viewpoints. It is to improve the status of women in today's society even further, so that they may *gasp* raise children and have a financially productive career and fulfilling life. Oh, commence pearl-clutching!

Paris Nights & New York Mornings

So I went to my big Olympic day and am back again at my humdrum existence. It was pretty awesome, getting a glimpse of glamour! It started with the charter flight, which was called 2010 in honour of the Olympics--and we got a fab breakfast and two drink services. About a thousand times more than I can say about shitty Air Canada, that's for sure (breakfast was yogurt, grapes, strawberries, brie, cheddar, huge fruit muffin and a petite orange?!!!! yumm)

I also got a sweet scarf that has slits in it for my poor cold hands. Yay! We landed and were herded to the new skytrain that goes directly downtown, and from there, checked out Canada's Northern House. It was really hopping, and we got VIP front of the line treatment, no waiting for 1-3 hrs for us, sweet! It was interesting, kind of like a museum of Northern artifacts. We watched various Yukon dignitaries speak, then Sasquatch Prom Date, local rockabilly band, performed. It was pretty cool. Lunch came in a bag and was surprisingly good, sandwich, bag of veggies, drink & cookie. We left to go check out some artists and hit up more interviews. My friend is working at CNH and we got to hang out for a bit, and that was nice.

We looked at the Inuit Gallery, swanky, then the Aboriginal Pavilion, which was super busy. And the weather the whole time? GORGEOUS. Hot, sunny and beautiful. I felt very nostalgic about Vancouver, and a bit sad. Why did I leave?

Then we had lunch #2, other members in my group decided they were no longer there to work and went to the bar instead. I went to see the Olympic Cauldron, and yes, it was quite magnificent, looks like massive quartz rising into the sky on fire. The crowds were insane.

Then I met up with bar-goers from the morning and had a drink and dinner, before we left for the medals ceremony at BC place. It was Yukon day, so there was a Yukon performance featuring live singers, dancers and sled dogs. It was funny, since the sled dogs were like WTF and didn't want to pull a sled across the stage. They got kind of picked up and pulled across. Silly pups!

Stereophonics came on and my feet were killing me by this point. I enjoyed them but the others in my group decided it would be more fun to stand in line for a few hours at another bar, instead of staying for the show. I was a little annoyed--we come ALL this way and all you want to do is hang out at a bar? Jeeze, wankers.

Trip home at midnight, dinner at 1am and it was as great as breakfast. Procuitto, strawberries, swiss cheese, capicolo salami, 3 olives, grapes, wine...ahhh...

And so ends my Olympic adventure. Except that I had to write 4 stories the next day, exausted as hell. Haha. Worth it!